SPIRIT: Life is an adventure
“I still want to grow and develop things. There’s still that fight in me and I will do whatever it takes.”
Interview: Sue Wilcock | Martine Silkstone
Pictures: Warren Page
Emma Dinmore talks to Suffolk Director
To be a successful entrepreneur, you need to have an adventurous spirit. Because building a business is an uncertain journey, requiring risk-taking, resilience and the ability to navigate unknown challenges; you need to treat obstacles as explorations, and see failures as valuable learning opportunities.
For Emma Dinmore, that kind of boldness and courage was evident from a young age, whether that was driving old cars across farm fields, leading sports teams or travelling to the other side of the world to support her sister. She has served Mr Bean, waitressed for Madonna and even narrowly escaped what sounds like some kind of Australian book cult (more on that later)!
And all of this before she even turned 21.
Put that audacious nature together with her natural ability to connect with people and build relationships, and you have all the ingredients for the accomplished company director she is today.
The business she co-founded with Pete Jenkins in 2003 has since grown from a graphic design studio, into Ascender Creative, a full-service agency offering comprehensive brand and digital solutions. Working with a range of sectors including food and retail, property, tech, health and agriculture, the agency blends creativity with strategic thinking, focusing on building long-term partnerships and delivering measurable results.
Meanwhile, the fitness studio she owns with her husband is expanding across Suffolk.
Both significant achievements by any measure. So, what’s the secret?
“You know, running a business is not rocket science,” she says with the kind of directness she is known for. “There are really only a few fundamental things you need to know: what’s coming in, what’s going out and are you making a profit? If not, you just need to have the guts to go out and win the work that keeps your business moving forward.”
And gutsy she most certainly is.
Where it all began
Born in Ipswich in May 1974, Emma’s first home was a council house in Butley, where she lived with her father, mother and older sister, Lorna (who she says was initially somewhat unimpressed by the arrival of a new sibling).
Later, her parents bought a house in Hollesley and it was here that Emma began to develop her adventurous nature. Surrounded by fields and “old bangers”, they would drive around the nearby tracks. In fact, Emma says all those days “ragging around” in an old Datsun helped her pass her driving test two weeks after turning 17. Time well spent then.
Attending The Convent of Jesus and Mary in Ipswich, she was very sporty and captain of many of the school’s teams including hockey and netball. She even won the Victrix Ludorum – “the female winner of the games” – award for athletics five years in a row.
But while she was thriving in the sports arena, academically she “absolutely hated school”. Leaving with just two GCSEs above a grade C – English and Home Economics – she enrolled at Suffolk College to complete a qualification in sport and leisure with a view to becoming a PE teacher. The careers advisor said she would never make it – encouraging as always – so, at 18 she was back to square one with no idea what she wanted to do.
Still, she always had a strong work ethic and while studying she had been employed part-time at The Riverside in Woodbridge and as a chambermaid at a relative’s hotel. She enjoyed the variety and talking to people, so with no real plan, she went to work as a waitress for her uncle who had an outside catering company serving Teddington Studios and other filming locations.
“He used to pick me up at four o’clock in the morning and drive to London where we worked on this boat on the Thames,” she recalls. “All the stars used to come on board, like Rowan Atkinson when he was doing Mr Bean. And he was always in character! We also did the P.D. James mysteries that were filmed at Bawdsey Manor.
“It was hard work but we used to have so much fun.”
Fun, yes, but this job was also giving her an insight into being an entrepreneur, while providing experience in talking to people of all backgrounds and personalities. She says that ability to talk to anyone has always been her strength.
“I think that’s something I got from school too,” she adds. “Because it was an all-girls school and you were taught how to be a lady, you were taught right from wrong, you were taught how to conduct yourself. Then village life taught me the rest.”
Down under and back
After waitressing, Emma enjoyed a brief stint working for an estate agency in Wickham Market, before a phone call from her sister triggered an impromptu journey to Australia.
Lorna had moved there with a boyfriend, but when the relationship ended she wanted to come home. Emma decided to go to her instead.
“That was really unusual for me, because I’m a real homebird,” she says. “But I got my visa and my friend Mark said he’d come with me. Even so, it was really hard on the day we left. Dad took me to the airport. I cried. He cried. It was awful, but off we went.”
Now 19, they met up with Lorna in Perth and stayed for a while before moving on to Sydney where they all worked for a prestigious catering company. Contracts included a private party for Madonna who was there on her Girlie Show tour, and a star-studded event celebrating Sydney being chosen to host the 2000 Olympics.
They then went on to work in restaurants across the city, but it was the decision to join a team selling children’s encyclopedias that would ultimately bring an end to their adventure.
Having taken this new job, they would all meet up at the owner’s big mansion in Sydney before being taken to different parts of the outer suburbs to sell the books door-to-door, with the boss driving around to check where they were. They didn’t have mobile phones and there was no way of keeping in touch. Things started to feel a bit…weird.
“We’d been doing it for a while and one of the guys said: ‘Something’s not right about this – I’m leaving. If you don’t hear from me again, something’s happened to me.’ I never heard from him again.
“Then one day the boss was being particularly strange. So, after Lorna and I got dropped off at our selling points, we ran back across the railway lines, being careful not to be seen, and got a lift to the train station. Mark turned up a day later because he’d obviously had the same bad feeling.”
They quickly moved on and travelled a little more, spending Emma’s 21st birthday in Fiji and visiting Los Angeles, before finally deciding it was time to head home to England.
Making her way
After the excitement of her travels, the first year back in the UK was hard, but Emma landed a job as receptionist at Ambrose Went Curtis, an advertising agency based in Claydon, and soon moved up to become a junior account manager.
This was the start of her true career. And in 1997, when a few people left to set up a new agency, Emma joined them to develop new business.
She stayed for five years, during which she also bought her first house in Ipswich. When she ultimately sold that property a few years later, the proceeds from the sale funded the launch of her own business, Catapult Design, which she founded in partnership with one of the directors who worked at the agency, Pete Jenkins. The year was 2003.
They established an office in Ipswich and Pete led the creative side of the business while Emma focused on growth, client relationships and new opportunities. Through her network of contacts, they quickly gained some big clients and within the first month of trading, they were making a profit. Within four months they had both been paid back their initial investment amounts.
“I’ve worked hard to build relationships over the years and that paid off,” she smiles.
Just over a year later they took on their first employees and moved to new offices on the waterfront where they continued to grow over the next few years.
Then Pete introduced Emma to our very own Editor, Sue Wilcock, who was running her own PR agency at the time. at the time. Over dinner in 2009, they agreed to bring their businesses together, combining their creative and PR capabilities while continuing to operate as separate entities, unifying under the Trebuchet brand to reflect their broader services, greater reach and bigger impact.
“Trebuchet really represented what we were doing, not only for ourselves but for the clients we were working with,” she explains.
Over the next eight years, under the Trebuchet Creative brand, they continued to grow and work with big clients, including Gressingham Duck and Kettle Foods, not to mention the EU referendum campaign.
And while her professional life thrived, Emma was also about to reconnect with her first love.
Lost and found
Emma and Lee Dinmore had been teenage sweethearts, but life moved on for both of them and they ultimately went their separate ways.
Then, just as Emma was focusing on her career, Lee messaged her through Facebook to suggest they meet up for a drink and chat – and that was it. The spark had been well and truly reignited.
They soon moved in together and not long after bought a house in Claydon. In October 2011 they welcomed their daughter, Lucy, and in 2013, they were married.
They bought a plot of land outside Woodbridge and went on to build their dream house – the family home where they still live today.
All change
In 2017, Sue Wilcock left the business to start this very magazine, while Emma and Pete carried on at Trebuchet, moving in 2019 to establish new offices in Baylham.
Meanwhile, Emma’s husband Lee had sold his tech business and was looking for a new project. Emma suggested they open a Reformer Pilates studio.
“It really helped me after I was injured in a road accident,” she explains. “I was in the back seat when a car hit us from behind, and I didn’t think anything of it until a year later when I went to get up one day and couldn’t walk. Apparently, it was a tiny piece of bone causing the problem, but they couldn’t operate because it was too risky. Once I was moving again, I started doing Reformer Pilates and it really kept me strong and mobile.
“Still,” she laughs, “why did I suggest we start another business? Why did I put myself under that kind of pressure? But hey, it worked out great and it ended up being a decision which strengthened everything we have been building over the years.”
The idea may have been sound, but it was not an easy ride. Their chosen premises were still under construction when the builders went bust, meaning the studio was delayed by two years. And when they were finally about to open in 2020, they were immediately shut down by the global pandemic.
StudioFlex eventually launched that summer but it was tough going.
Subsequent lockdowns meant staffing was an ongoing issue and Lee was sometimes working seven days a week to keep it going, while Emma was trying hard to educate people about the benefits of Reformer Pilates. They knew they needed help to move forward.
“It came to a point where we needed a clearer direction with it all,” Emma explains. “So, we decided to get help through the Business Growth Coach Network. That’s when Scott Russell came on board to coach us. He completely transformed how we think as business leaders.”
That transformation has seen StudioFlex not only succeed but expand to include another studio in Woodbridge and a concession in Stowmarket.
Growth and plans
With an eye on the digital changes happening within marketing, Emma was looking for its next steps when an opportunity to merge with Propeller Design in Ipswich presented itself, and both Emma and Pete knew that by coming together, they could fast-track their ambitions.
And so, in 2023, Ascender Creative was born – a new, full-service agency combining the expertise of those two long-established companies, with Emma as a co-director alongside Pete and Simon Milldown.
Now based back in Ipswich, it offers a wide range of services including brand development, strategic marketing and bespoke website design, using a research-driven approach and tailored solutions to enhance communications, elevate brand presence and help businesses achieve their marketing goals.
So, what’s next?
“Life is always really busy! Lucy’s at school six days a week and is now going into GCSEs, and Lee is still working most weekends. We do love our holidays though and always go away for Christmas, so I’m looking forward to Thailand this year.
“But to be honest, my priority for the next few years is growing Ascender,” says Emma. “The future of marketing is more digital, more strategic and more accountable. There is a huge opportunity for businesses willing to move with it. And bringing in the expertise of a business coach again to help realise our growth plan could be a possibility.
“Because I still want to grow and develop things. There’s still that fight in me and I will do whatever it takes.”
Sounds a lot like spirit, right?
