The interview at A W Bain's was with Jim Fair, the Motor Insurance Manager of Bain's which was at that time the biggest Leeds Broker by a long way, and he was an odd looking and very demanding boss, but very thorough and in those days, when Bains said jump, the Insurance Companies asked how high! One of the clients at the time were Derby County Football Club, whose manager at the time was Brian Clough, as well as many other major Yorkshire based businesses and celebrities.

The Motor Department was split into 3 sections - 2 commercial and one private, and the two commercial sections were headed by Keith Duxbury and Geoff Hodgson. Other employees included Connie Pound, Peter McPharlane, Peter Hitchin (in claims), John Grimbleby (Marine) Ann Ford was in personnel, Ben Ford was an Account Executive and the Managing Director was Andrew Binning.

Initially based on Infirmary Street in Leeds opposite the main Post Office, the move was made to South Parade which coincided with a national merger to become Bain Dawes Group. The training given at Bains was first class, and there were excellent social activities which included an annual trip to Haywards Heath in Sussex to take on the Head Office at cricket and drinking! One of the typing pool was Heather Morse, who John dated and went onto marry.

John was an ambitious young man, and the pace of progress at Bain's was painfully slow, and when an opportunity arose he applied for and got a job in the Motor Department at Stewart Wrightson, whose offices were on Blenheim Terrace, opposite Leeds University. Manager of the Motor Department was Jim Windle, with other colleagues including Billy Benson, and Assistant Manager Phil Hodgson. Og, as he was affectionately known, was a supporter of local Rugby League team Hunslet, whilst Billy (who later left with his family to live in South Africa) was a Bradford Northern supporter and as a non follower of the 13 man code, Monday morning was a particularly boring time! Og was also a big fan of Jethro Tull, and he was not afraid to suddenly burst into song with their "Living in the past" or "Sweet Dream"

Harry Purchase was the charismatic Managing Director, Helen Prideaux his Personal Assistant, Mike Ingle was a Director, and later went onto become MD, with other Directors / Account Executives including Raymond Horner, Trevor Dickinson (whose family Broking business Wrightons had taken over) Bob Beswick and David Connor. Eric Medd was in the Accident Department, David Childs was in the Life Department, and Colin Thomas was taken on from ECGD ( a Government Credit Guarantee company) to work in the Export Services Department, which John later went onto manage.

It was during his time at Stewart Wrightson that John married Heather (June 1975), and their first daughter Danielle was born (May 1977).

Working in the Export Services Department gave John a very useful, and almost unique expertise in Marine Insurance, Goods in Transit, and ECGD cover, yet with Raymond being a fairly young Director, and Colin Thomas being out on the road quite often, John opportunities to get out and see clients were limited (and thereby get the prized "Company Car", and when he saw an advert for an Account Executive at the newly formed Archbold Insurance Brokers in Morley, he applied for, and got the job.

This was a very different style of Insurance Broking to that which John had been trained in, since with Manager Peter Millington mainly looking after the Insurance interests if the parent company (Archbold Freightage Ltd) it was John's job to go out and bring in new clients, which often meant not only doing the client visits and gaining the ever important "Letter of Authority", but also putting together a submission to the Insurers, collating the quotations, putting together a report for the client, and then selling it to the client.

It was a successful time for John, and more importantly brought him face to face with all sorts of businesses ranging from one - man Haulage contractors to large manufacturing concerns. During the period that John was at Archbolds (October 1977 - January 1980) the business more than doubled in size, and although at one time John and Peter offered to buy the business out, in the end Peter got cold feet, and John left to set up his own business.

For the next few months the Wakefield and Leeds branches supported the flagging South Yorkshire branch and the Insurance Broking Industry was changing with the invention of Electronic Mail and Computerised Quotation Systems. The Yorkshire Bank however less than helpful with financing a new Computer System, and in order to finance modern technology, John & Bob were looking at other fundraising options. About this time an advert appeared in the local paper seeking Insurance businesses. On replying, it appeared to be Paul Meehan, previously with Phipps Charnley, who had recently been bought out by 3 Life Assurance Salesmen (they gave themselves fancy titles, but that's what they were), the main one being Paul Buffery. A meeting was arranged with a view to offloading the Leeds and Maltby Offices.