Jarmila Yu
Founder, MD & Consulting Chief Marketing Officer, YUnique Marketing
Jarmila has spent 25 years in senior marketing roles, with businesses ranging from small start-ups to some of the world's largest brands including IBM and Kaspersky. She is globally ranked a Top100 CMO, and a Chartered Marketer. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Data and Marketing and the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
She is the MD and Consulting Chief Marketing Officer of YUnique Marketing Ltd, award-winning strategic marketing consultancy she founded in 2016. Its mission is to bring strategic marketing excellence within reach of ambitious entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs, not just large corporations. The team provides the full spectrum of marketing services, ranging from basic brand and website work to a complete outsourced marketing function, crucially all led from a CMO’s perspective to ensure maximum impact. Their services are provided on a bespoke on-demand basis, hence ensuring both time and cost-effectiveness.
Over her career she has won numerous awards and has judged awards too. She's a registered mentor, coaching marketing and entrepreneur talent and is often featured in marketing and business publications. She is frequently invited to speak at events sharing her marketing expertise, business insights and experiences.
She is sought after for her expertise in Brand Management, Go-to-Market Strategy and Integrated Marketing Campaigns.
Her role as a Consulting Chief Marketing Officer is to ensure her clients’ marketing strategy and function are fit-for-purpose, enabling them to deliver on their business objectives.
Why do you support the work of The Entrepreneurs Network?
The Entrepreneurs Network is a premium resource for entrepreneurs needing inspiration, insight and latest thinking. It offers not only access to information but connection to like-minded businesspeople and those working to support new business creation. The work that Philip Salter and the team do is vital as they support the most critical part of the British economy: the entrepreneurs who run the small and medium sized businesses that comprise the backbone of UK PLC.
The Entrepreneurs Network is a great place to potentially meet collaborators, partners, investors, suppliers or maybe even secure that all-important mentor. I worked in business for 20+ years before setting up my business venture. I hugely appreciated the support I got from various institutions along the path of my business start-up journey, so I’m now delighted to be able to support others setting out on their own business journeys.
What research should more people read?
Entrepreneurship can be lonely, stressful, and overwhelming - but it needn't be. There's more support available than ever and there’s also a massive community of like-minded entrepreneurs and business cheerleaders keen to provide encouragement and inspiration out there.
Aside from The Entrepreneurs Network, I’d suggest you think local too and broaden out from there. That’s a great way to get to know what’s happening where you are establishing your business and who’s who in the area that could support you.
In your own local community there will be organisations worth getting to know such as the Economic Development teams in your council and the growth hubs at your Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).
There are always plenty of local business networking groups, and local branches of business organisations such as the Institute of Directors, The Chambers of Commerce and the Federation of Small Business, all keen to support and connect local entrepreneurs.
Nationally there are also well established organisations offering a wide range of information and support such as Enterprise Nation, Small Business Britain and Made in Britain.
No matter what stage or size your business is at, there’s no shortage of valuable resources out there, find the ones that best work for you.
Why is the UK an attractive place to grow a business?
The UK has always been a disruptive centre for innovation and influence. There’s a range of positive reasons why the UK is an attractive place to start and grow a business including: Tax, Startup Costs, Language, Timezone, Education Variety, Hiring Schemes incl. Apprenticeship, Talent Choice, Work Flexibility, Ease of Doing Business, Regulations, Flexibility, Support.