Michelle Rothwell has a list. Inspired by one of her most valued advisers, she refers to it before she makes any major decisions about the future of her business. It is a list of all the reasons she is likely to fail.
“The most negative people give the best advice,” says the 30-year-old founder of Manchester-based regeneration company Watch This Space.
“Anyone who says: ‘Oh, well done. You are doing so well’ won’t actually benefit me. When I was first thinking of setting up on my own about two years ago I must have spoken to at least 20 people about it and the best thing anyone said was: ‘You are never going to make it. It is a crazy idea.’
“I said: ‘OK, tell me all the reasons why this isn’t going to work and why I am going to fail,’ and I wrote them all down. Before I launched the business I looked at those reasons to make sure I had really thought through everything and every possible pitfall.
“I refer back to the list even now whenever I have any big decisions to make. Listening to the negatives is hard, but it helps you pick up where you are going wrong much sooner.”
So far, the list has stood the former CBRE office agent and EG’s Rising Star award-winner in good stead, having launched Watch This Space – which transforms rundown sites and old buildings into modern spaces – almost three years ago without a single client or project.
“Most people wouldn’t have done it that way to be fair,” laughs Rothwell. “I decided to just go for it. But I did arrive at the office on the first day with absolutely nothing planned, sat at my desk and thought: ‘What am I going to do now?’”
So what did she do? “Well, at that particular moment, I mainly panicked.” However, it didn’t take long for her to find her feet, and the firm now has a 30,000 sq ft portfolio over nine sites with a further 30,000 sq ft in the pipeline.
But Rothwell’s business plan goes beyond breathing new life into unloved and abandoned spaces. She wants to create unique stock in Manchester – Watch This Space is about to start on a project to develop nine townhouses in the city core, the first scheme of its kind in this location – and promote a different approach to the way tenants occupy space.
Challenging the status quo
“We definitely want to challenge the way people occupy spaces,” she says. “We have regenerated an old pub into a commercial office space where tenants will be able to buy their own office space.
“You can rent lots of spaces across the UK but as businesses are getting more cash-rich, our thought is, why do people need to rent space from a landlord? Why can’t they buy their spaces outright? You can buy an apartment in a large tower block so why not an office in a block? So that’s what we have launched.”
As to whether that is what people really want, Rothwell says her research suggests the answer is yes.
“Before I introduce any new idea I always take it to the market we are targeting and ask. I have asked a lot of occupiers whether they would be interested and the reaction has been that, for many businesses, it makes a lot of sense.
“Whatever you are paying in rent, you pay off on your mortgage anyway. I think it is just that it hasn’t ever been done before. We brought the scheme in question to the market two weeks ago and so far, so good.”
For Rothwell, taking a risk and trying something new is what her business, and entire career, has been based on.
The most negative people give the best advice. Anyone who says: ‘Oh, well done. You are doing so well’ won’t actually benefit me
When she joined CBRE’s Manchester office in 2007 she quickly came to realise there was a “lack of creativity” within the property sector in terms of what younger generations wanted from spaces. So after a brief stint at Capital & Centric, she decided branching out on her own was the only way to fill the gap in the market.
“I saw the opportunity to create inspiring, different spaces and I went for it,” she says.
“I wanted to provide spaces for the next generation. From a property perspective, a lot of people have been in this industry for many years and the types of space being created is a bit repetitive. It was a huge risk to start my own company but there is never a good time to leave a job like that.”
In March 2015 she launched Watch This Space and promptly “wore down about 20 pairs of trainers” pounding the streets of Manchester to find off-market sites.
“I found two big sites, including a Grade II listed building fronted on to Manchester Town Hall, and that was where it all started,” she says.
“Funding can often be hard, but I work with a number of high-net-worth individuals and once you have found a good off-market site, you have a good idea and you can put some documents together and prove what you think the end value will be, it isn’t always as much of a hurdle as people might think. As long as you buy enough space so you are not under too much pressure.”
Nine sites in, and with the backing of a cash-rich tech company, Watch This Space has made a name for itself as one of the city’s most niche developers.
Its portfolio includes a refurbished pub called Billy’s Space and the UK’s only property-only co-working hub in the heart of Manchester. The latter has been particularly successful, with companies from SMEs right through to major global firms such as the Far East Consortium taking space.
“We have those small businesses coming in, but what has been amazing is seeing the big international or London companies taking space,” she says. “It makes sense. Around 80% of the companies in the space are new to Manchester and they are looking for a small footprint to ease themselves into the market. It has been so popular that we have a waiting list now.”
Never one to stick at the same thing for too long, Rothwell has her sight on the residential market next.
Last month Watch This Space was granted planning permission to redevelop a site in the heart of Manchester and deliver nine new townhouses.
“It was a very controversial planning application,” says Rothwell. “It is a rundown site, strewn with needles. But it is in the vicinity of some gorgeous Grade II listed buildings and that plot, if the whole site is developed, would go from being awful to something that could transform the whole area.
“Flats are going up all over Manchester and UK. And, don’t get me wrong, they are much-needed, but they are all the same. I just wanted to do something different.”
Making your own luck
The winner of this year’s EG Rising Star award, Rothwell says when it comes to young people innovating, disrupting and enabling the property sector, it is all about going out and making your own luck – something she has been doing from the start of her career.
When she joined CBRE in 2007, times were tough and not only were there were 1,500 applicants going for a handful of roles, there was only one in the North.
“I hounded the managing director in Manchester, John Ogden, to get that spot,” she says. “I must have checked in every day and I really fought for that place.”
“My advice to anyone – not just young people starting out – would be to always push yourself and always challenge yourself. And if you feel comfortable or feel like things are getting easy, do something about it. And that doesn’t mean you have to go and set up your own business, it just means actively doing something. So push yourself to go for a promotion or ask for a pay rise or move to another part of the business.”
Easy to say. And in Rothwell’s case if it has not been easy to do, she hasn’t let that stop her. But what would she say to those who might find it difficult to haul themselves out of their comfort zone and career head-first into something new every time they feel like they have finally got the hang of the task in hand?
“True, feeling comfortable can be nice sometimes,” she concedes, albeit briefly. “Maybe it comes down to personality. My friends are always teasing me about how I can’t resist a challenge.
“I am massively into sport and had a knee operation a few years ago and couldn’t run. Someone said I should learn to swim instead and so I said: ‘I will. And I’ll swim the Channel.’ And I did, 10 months later. I am very personally driven but it all comes down to self-belief.
“The thing with staying comfortable and doing everything the same is that suddenly you will find that 20 years of your life have passed you by. Ultimately I just think with most things, why wait? Just crack on. Life is too short.”
The Rothwell records
Rothwell has not one, but two world records. She was part of the team that completed the longest freshwater swim – 126 miles – in a 12-way relay at Lake Windermere, Cumbria.
The other is for being the fastest woman to complete the Arch to Arc challenge – an 87-mile run from London to Dover followed by a 24-mile swim across the English Channel and a 181-mile cycle from Calais to Paris.
When she completed the challenge in 2012 in just under 92 hours, she was only the ninth person in the world to have finished the race.
“My favourite part of that was that when I got to the finish line, the organisers said: ‘We have an ambulance ready for you. What you have put your body through is crazy. You need to go to hospital.’
I said: ‘You don’t know me very well’ and instead of getting in the ambulance I went out partying on the Champs Elysées until 4am.”
To send feedback, e-mail emily.wright@egi.co.uk or tweet @EmilyW_9 or @estatesgazette
