178 – A framework for building sustainable businesses to establish investment

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Champ Consultants is an award winning independent firm of highly experienced,
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qualified accountants and tax advisors based in cater providing a
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fully comprehensive range of accountancy.
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And tax services.
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If you would like simple but creative answers to your
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tax problems, called Champ Consultants your business partner on one
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double eight three three four nine three hundred.
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Good morning and welcome to your business hour with me Chantale,
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and I'm joined with Andy. Good morning, Andy, Good morning. So.
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Andy is an investor, an entrepreneur, and an international speaker
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passionate about helping e commerce brands and SMEs SCALEGOBALI. Through
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g Capital, he acquired and invested in e commerce service
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providers and B to B businesses, creating an ecosystem that
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enables brands to expand worldwide with confidence. He's also developed
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frameworks like STEMS, OATS and GEP, but we'll talk about
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those later, which provide practical, proven models for building sustainable
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businesses that attract investment, scale effectively, and give founders freedom.
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I think that's every business owner's dream, isn't it. As
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CEO of Expandedly Expandly, he has led the mission to
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remove the barriers founders face when growing internationally, from compliance
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and infrastructure to fragmented service providers. Through his Global Expansion Pathway,
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for over ten years, he's been a motivational speaker, empowering
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audiences with strategies that inspire action and drive results. His
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approach blends real world business experience with personal development, helping
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people and teams achieve their full potential. At the heart
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of everything he does is a passion for supporting ambitious
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entrepreneurs and SMEs, giving them the tools, strategies and infrastructure
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they need to break ceilings, enter new markets and achieve
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global domination. So we fortuate to have Andy with us
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today and are we going to go right back to
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basics now? And please can you share it with us
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how you got into this world and what made you
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decide to go into this world.
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Yeah, it's strange, isn't it. I never got into business.
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I never thought i'd be a business owner. I never
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thought that was something that was available as an option
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or an opportunity for me. But in two thousand and
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eight nine, in the financial crash, I had a wonderful
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job that I loved. I was working for British Sailing
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or the National governing body. Basically if you think of
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the FOOTBA Association for sailing, and my job was talking
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about people about sailing and windsurfing all day, which I
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would rather be doing anywhere in the world at any point.
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I'd rather be on the water sailing or windsurfing or
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spending time doing adventurous type stuff. But when you've got
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a young family at home and you've got five grand
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in debt on your credit card and you go to
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the your employer and say, hey, I got a bid
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debt that you I need to pay it off. I
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need to pay rise, and they look in and say
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make We're in a recession, like, no one's getting a
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pay rise. I realized at that point I needed to
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make sure that someone else wasn't in control of what
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I earned going forwards, and that that was the pivotabal
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moment that I thought, okay, I need to adapt here. Now.
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That doesn't mean that I started businesses straight away, but
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I started side hustles, and I did a ton of
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side hustles before I let the employment go to enable
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me to be able to see a business. So so
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it's from that initial pain of the financial crash to
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then setting up lots of side hustles, and every time
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I set up a side hustle they got slightly bigger.
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And then it got to a point where you know,
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I was able to fly the next I guess from
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employment and have my own businesses and stand on my
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own two feet, I guess.
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And I think that's very much the situation where we
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are now in today's economic climate, aren't we today? Nowadays
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people can't. People don't just rely on their salaries. They
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normally have something else on the site. And even if
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that is just selling your secondhand clothes on eBay or vinted,
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it's that extra side hustle, isn't it. So from your
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point of view, how did you know what side hustles
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to go into or what side hustles did you do?
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Because everyone's like, oh, yeah, I'd love to earn a
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bit of extra, but what do I do?
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I'd love to say that There was a real sort
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of oh you sit down, what should I do? It
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was like, I've got no money, I've got a hustle.
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I've got to find a solution. So the first thing
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we did was we looked after dogs when people went
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on holiday downside totatus and we were talking a moment ago.
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We've got a puppy yesterday in the hottest day of
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the year. But the downside to looking after dogs when
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people went on holiday, it was my white youth. Instead
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of earning money from dogs. My wife decided that we
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should get it, so that paid to that one.
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They spent all of that money on another dog exactly that.
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Then we basically you started doing car boot sales or
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garage sales for people overseas. You're where we I just
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basically find things at home that I could take to
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go and sell. But then when I was at these
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car boot sales, I could identify things that could be
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sold for much more online, and you talked about eBay there.
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I'd then basically go around the car boots all buying things,
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tidying them up, cleaning them up, selling them on eBay
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for significantly more money. And that was where the e
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com journey started. And then you and then I was like, well,
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I'm selling this stuff on e commerce. What if I
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bought some stuff from China and sold it online. So
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I bought these silicon watches, and I bought these silicon
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watches for about forty pens and I was sell them
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for eight pounds, uh, you know, and each side hustle
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sort of got bigger. And then my cousin, my dad
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was photographing my cousin's wedding, so I said, why don't
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you come and help me because I just got We
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just had our youngest child at that time, so I
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just I just bought a camera, like a good camera,
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but not a professional camera. So I went and helped him.
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And then a friend of ours said, oh, you did
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those photos, would you mind doing our wedding. I was like, guys,
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I can't take a photo. Oh yeah, you know the
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ones you took were fine, okay, And then that's spawned
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into wedding photography, and then wedding photography spawned into three
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D printing. Because I was watching the TV at six am,
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and for anyone that's I've got children, you're obviously you're
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going to be up early some mornings. And it was
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a Sunday morning, cold winter's day where you're sort of
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cuddled up on the sofa, and the news came on
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and this three D printing thing came on and they
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were talking about how you could three D scan somebody,
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and I was like, what if I could three D
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scan someone at their wedding and give them a basically
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a instead of a photograph, or as well as a photograph,
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a statue of them. So all of these things like
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they bled from one to the other. It wasn't like
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there was a concerted decision to say, oh, let's sit
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down and think what I could do. It was I've
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got to make something happen. Let's start making things happen.
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And the wedding photography was probably the pivotal moment where
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I had to ask work to earn extra cash and
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I sort of said I'd do no more than twenty
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four weddings a thousand pounds apiece roughly. But during that process,
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when you're educating yourself, you've got two options. You can
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either go and do a course and learn how to
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do it and pay someone, or the other options you
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can go on YouTube and learn how to do it.
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And when I was doing the wedding photography, I was
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going on to YouTube a lot of how to do stuff,
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and then ads started finding me of mainly get rich
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quick schemes, which I wasn't really into. I wasn't looking
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to get rich quick. I knew it was a tailor process.
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So the answer is I didn't sit down and think,
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oh what could I do? I just work. I just
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did little things, you know, the dogs. We earned a
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one hundred pounds from the car boot sales. We earned
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maybe one hundred pounds a week or one hundred pound
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a month to start with. Then you know the selling
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stuff on Amazon, maybe it was like two hundred pounds
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a month, then two hundred pounds a week, then the
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wedding photography was one thousand pounds a month. Every single
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one slowly got better. And that's over a five year period.
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Don't think you've got to be earning a million pounds tomorrow.
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And so what did you do with them all then?
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Because obviously you've gone from one to the other, to
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the other, to the other to the other. Obviously I'm
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a studenting you didn't continue each side? Oh did you
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sort of sort of leave one and then go on
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to the other one because that one makes me more
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money and my time's better off spent there than there,
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Or how did you decide what to do?
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Yeah, so that that was a natural progression. That was
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some of them we left behind. You're doing the car
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boot sales by going to a car boot sale, finding
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stuff there wasn't enough money in it although or enough
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profit in it to make that work sustainably. But when
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I left employment you twelve years ago, I was probably
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doing it. I was doing six or seven things because
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I needed six or seven things to earn one hundred
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K a year to earn money. But obviously that's not sustainable.
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So naturally you're then looking for, Okay, what's the thing
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that's going to enable me to be able to scowl
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and grow? And these are the words I used now,
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but I weren't using those words then. It was how
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do I actually adapt what I'm currently doing to make
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sure that I've got a sustainable business that doesn't rely
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on me? And you know, those things just naturally emerged
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as I went on. And yeah, again, I'd like to
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say that there was a thought and a plan and
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a process behind some of those things, but they were
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just natural evolution, and it was about not forcing things.
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It was things that I wasn't in a rush. I
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wasn't in a hurry. Patience is your friend. It's you.
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You can do two things at once and then just
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do the thing that's earning you more money and lose
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the thing that's not earning you money, So it's natural
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progression each time, rather than okay, now it would be like, okay, well,
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how could I sell that business? It wasn't like that.
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I mean I didn't even know selling a business or
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buying a business as a thing. Then, like, it's just
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give one of those things you learn along the journey.
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Very true. So you've had lots of side hustles and
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lots of businesses and things like that, and you've had
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lots of experiences and lots of learning. And we talked
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off their earlier about failure and how some people are
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scared to say that they're failed in a business or
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whatever else. My interpretation of the word failed just means
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first attempt in learning anyway, So it's not a failure.
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It's a learning step to the get to the next stage,
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shall we say. And so from that point of view,
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is there anything that stands out to you that you
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wish you knew that when you started a business?
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Yeah, I mean I think we should embrace failure. I
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think that some parts of the world are much more
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open to failing than certainly here in the UK. In
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the UK it feels like it's a dirty word. You know,
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people were ashamed and we shouldn't feel ashamed. We should
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be proud that we've failed because we've taken the learnings
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exactly as you've just said from those And I think
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that probably the thing that I would is patience and
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fail faster. And obviously those two things completely conflict.
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Well, it's going to say, what do you mean by
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fail faster?
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So the ability to try something and it not work
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and realize it's not working and then move on. But
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what we tend to do as a as a you know,
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as humans, is that or that's not working, let's move
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to something else. And the reality is is that it's
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not actually about knee jerk reactions. One of the things
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I've learned most recently is what are the small tweaks
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you can do that would actually use the data to
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understand what is working and what's not working, and how
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can we tweak that? Rather than that's not working, sodit
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and move on to something else. It's much more a
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case of okay, how could I adapt that to make
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it successful? And I think that people should look at
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the data that they're looking at that they've got, and
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I think the problem we have at the moment is
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that there's typically so much data, we don't know where
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to start, so just keep it as simple as possible.
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So I think the biggest thing there is is patience.
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You need to be patient. You don't need to be
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a millionaire tomorrow. In fact, you may never be a millionaire.
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That's okay, it doesn't matter that the that's not what
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success is. Successes having the ability and freedom to do
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what you want when you want and living the life
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full of abundance that's right for you and your family.
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And that's so important because I see businesses and obviously
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as an accountant, I've got a whole array of clients,
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and I've got some clients who there ultimate goal is
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that I need to hit a million pounds turnover, and
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I've got other clients whose ultimate goal is I don't
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want to be that registered, so I don't want to
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hit my turnover of more than fifty grand. And if
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I'm earning fifty grand a year, do you know what,
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that's a lot of money for me and my family.
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And that's enough. I think everyone's goals are very different,
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and we need to have our own personal goal as
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ours and not almost like compare ourselves to the Joneses.
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That's really important.
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I totally see that. I see that all the time,
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where people are comparing themselves to somebody else. But when
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you do that, they've started at a different point to view.
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They've got different experiences. You haven't seen here the late nights.
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You haven't And it'd be very easy to see her
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and listen to what I'm talking about my last two
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years and think that I'm an overnight success and you
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and I don't even think consider myself as successful, but
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many people would, I guess. But people then think, oh, well,
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you know, look what he's got. You know, he's got
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all of this stuff. He's not about stuff you haven't seen,
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the eighteen hour days for ten years. Like it just
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you've got to go through the pain and and interesting.
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I was on the phone to a very well known
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person the other day and they talk very much about
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people's dreams, and we were talking about pain and gain,
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and people don't realize, unfortunately, you can't have the happiness,
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the fun without some pain along the journey. And business
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is exactly like that. You can't think everything's going to
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be rosy. You know, the businesses you talked about, you
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some people want to just do fifty grand and someone
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want to do a million. The problem with all of
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those is that you've only got to have a slow
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change in the direction of the market, the economy, the government,
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and you lose all of your business totally. So it's
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about how you make that sustainable and the ability for
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it to meet your needs for the long term, not
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the short term, because that's where the stress then comes.
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Because you take a million pound business. I mean, it's
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a great turnover sized business, but it relies solely on
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the founder. Yeah, and when it solely relies on the founder,
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the founder has only got to have an accident and
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be out for a month break their leg, you know,
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touch what that happens to no one, but the business
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falls apart. And it's about actually what you're try and
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achieve with your business and where do you want to
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get it to.
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And also from a point of view of your business,
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it's very important to look at it from your personal
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point of view as well, not just from the outside world.
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You need to look what's sustainable for you, not what's
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sustainable for everybody else. They are two different things, aren't
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they really.
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Yeah. I have a triangle of sort of thought on business,
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and that's if you imagine on each corner of that.
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You've got the business on one corner, which is providing
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you income, wealth, whatever you want, you freedom, hopefully, And
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in the other two corners you've got you, the business
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owner and your family unit. And if those three things
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aren't aligned and supporting each other, it all comes crumbling down.
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You know, you, you the business owner, need to be
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motivated and happy for the business to succeed. You need
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your partner and family unit aligned with what the business
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is doing and where you're trying to go. To make
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sure that if you've got to go to the States
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for a week, that that's okay and it's not a
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problem like or you've got to travel. You've got to
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be away from home. So your family unit, you, yourself,
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and the business all have to be aligned. And if
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one of those goes through a difficult time, so the
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business is going through a difficult time because the economy
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has changed, the markets change, you lot your customer bad debt,
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then that's okay because you're strong and the family unit
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is strong. If you have some issues at home and
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the business is strong and your mindset is strong, then
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actually the family unit, whilst you might be having some
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issues at home can stay strong, but if two things crack,
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it all falls down. So it's about how you structure
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your life around those three corners of the triangle.
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Interesting. So when I first introduced you, I said that
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you had developed frameworks like STEMS, OATS and GP, GEP.
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I don't know how you say it. Yeah, I'm assuming
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GP stands for Global Expansion Pathway.
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Perfect, what let's.
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Talk about them then? So I've said GP stands for
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Global Expansion Pathway. What is global? I mean, I'm assuming
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it says what it says on the tin, but explain
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it a bit more so.
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One of our we've got a group of twelve companies
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that globally expand ECON brands in one corner of what
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we do, and we've helped about five thousand brands expand
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from outside of Europe into Europe. And what I see
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is that there's some things that people do that make
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them successful, and there's things that people do that mean
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that they don't successfully expand into the new region. So
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GP Global Expansion Pathway is a framework of how someone
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can successfully expand their brand or their business. It could
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be used in a business environment overseas. Now, we originally
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tailored that for businesses expanding into Europe, because that's what
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we did. But then as we scout and grew our business,
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we've now worked out that actually that framework, with a
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slight tweak we made along that journey, was about actually
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you could expand your business to anywhere in the world.
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That the terminology we use in the framework is exactly
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the same whether you're going from the UK to the US,
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or Canada to Germany, or Australia to India. The framework
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actually is exactly the same. It's the tactics inside and
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the terminology that changes. And you know, in the UK
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we might talk about VAT value added tax, but in
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the US we might talk about sales tax. Probably it's
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the same thing right in the US. In the US
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they talk about nexus. It's different in every state. V
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E T is different in twenty eight countries in Europe,
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Like it's the same thing. But when you when you
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overview it, it's tax. But when you break it down,
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the tactic is the words are slightly different. So GP
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is Global Expansion Pathway. And what I found running businesses
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is that and this is this is you anyone listening
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right now, is you need to understand where your customer
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is today and where they want to get to and
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those if you think about it as a bridge, what
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the steps across the bridge they need to get to
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success the other side. And what I've been done very
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well at is building frameworks to give people the guide
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to get there. So Global Expansion Pathway is a guide
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of how to global expand your brand, and we've written
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the book on it that comes out in two months time.
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You know, there's so much information in it, but it's
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about identifying what enables success and in what doesn't because
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then in the path where you can identify what they is.
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So when you talk about global expansion, I mean obviously
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I've talked about talked with other guests and about going
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outside the UK and talk to out the people about
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being in outside the UK. People's business cone and the
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way people work in other countries is very different as well,
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isn't it. So that must be a really difficult factor
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when you're talking about expanding into another country because I
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don't know, but in some countries, obviously, animals example, could
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be sacred, let's say, and you might have or they
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might be really looked down upon. I don't really know,
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but you might have a logo with say I don't
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know a cow on it or an elephant on it whatever,
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And in some countries that might be really sacred and
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in some other countries that might be really offensive. So
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that must be really hard when you want to globally
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expand because you have to look at absolutely everything about
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your business and those individual countries as well.
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Yeah, So what we do is we have like a
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first step process which is about finding the new frontiers,
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like exploring where those opportunities are. Because you're completely right,
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you culture is different in every part of the world.
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So what we do is we match the brand and
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explore the different markets and take it as market research
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if you will, as you where is the right opportunity
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for the brand. You if you take a fur coat,
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for example, you know in the States some parts of
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the world perfectly reasonable, but when you get to Europe,
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France is the only place you can sell them. In
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the US, you ammunition guns, things like that are quite common,
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but across Europe is a bit of a taboo subject.
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There are certain things that work, but there's other parts
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of the world Australia where that had work quite quite
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quite well. So there is a culture fit. But during
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that sort of process of identifying what's going to work
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you're what you're looking for is where are quick easy wins?
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So where can you expand your brand that's going to
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have the biggest impact and the most sense to start with,
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There might be a way of identifying theries that you're
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never going to be able to expand to no problem,
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or you're not going to be able to do it
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without changing what you do. And when you first expand
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to a new region, what you don't want to do
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is change everything you do to fit into a new region.
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What you want to do is to go to the
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most the one that makes the most logical sense, both culturally, internationalization,
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language if you like, and ease, and what I mean
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by ease is geopolitical issues. Right. How easy is it
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to sell in that region? Is it a case of
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let's take you want to sell something from the UK,
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you want to go overseas for the first time. Well,
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the US is a good idea because they speak English
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and it's a big market, but it's not very easy
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to do that first off. Sometimes it might be easier
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to send it to Germany, but you've got to then
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translate things. It might actually be easy to sell it
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in Netherlands. Netherlands is a large English speaking country as
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a second language, like, they're all as native as English
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as they are Dutch. Like, so there are some wins
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depending on the brand, would depend on what they do.
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And you think that the US is the natural choice,
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and in some cases it might be so m Canada.
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So it's about identifying what they are, where they are,
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and which one is the right at the right time,
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and then finding the sequence and almost the architecture to
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make that work in a structured, systemized way.
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So to say, I was like, Okay, I've got this product,
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I want to I've got whatever I've got, and I
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want to globally take it globally to the next level
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to another country. What's my time scale? How long will
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it take me to do all that? Reason? Because obviously
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I'm not going to go right tomorrow I'm going to
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sell to America. That's not going to be possible, is it?
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So what sort of time scale should I have in
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my mind that like, yes, I want to globally expand
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to say Germany or whatever else Netherlands, Like you've said,
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how long should I be looking at?
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So the first thing is depend on what you sell, yeah,
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or depend on whether you can expand tomorrow. So first
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of all, you've probably got the ability to put internationalization
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on your shop front or your website, so you could
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exports products today maybe tomorrow overseas. What that does is
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it starts to give you the ability to see where
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demand is. But then if we take it back to
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the actual question, if you wanted to expand to Germany,
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let's say it could take you three to nine months,
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depending on where you are in the world. If you're
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in the UK, been near three months. If you're in
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US it could be six months because there's a lot
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of additional requirements when you're outside of Europe. And even
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though we're in the UK and we're outside of the
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European Union, we're still in Europe, which does help.
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That was one of my other questions. Is the UK
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still considered in Europe from a that sort of business
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expansion point of view.
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Yes, we're not in the European Union, but we're in Europe. Yeah,
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so yeah, But then if you take the States for example,
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actually going to the States is relatively straightforward. There's nowhere
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near as much red tape expanding into the States as
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there is into Europe because here in Europe we we
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think that by legislating everything is a good thing. And
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I'm not going to get into a political debate on
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that side of the argument. Yeah, but in the States
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it's a bit more. Hey, welcome guys. And I think
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that the current government has slowed some of that because
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they want UK sorry US brand selling in the US,
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but there's still massive opportunity. It's very easy to sell
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in the US, so some countries are easier. But typically
478
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we work with you for our expanding software. Typically a
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successful expansion could take three years. You know. That's really
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what we talk to our clients about is you should
481
00:27:00.720 --> 00:27:04.319
be gauging on three years as a and at that
482
00:27:04.359 --> 00:27:07.680
point you won't be global. You will have expanded into
483
00:27:08.039 --> 00:27:12.160
other global markets, but you might not be a global brand.
484
00:27:12.599 --> 00:27:15.599
And you know, if they've got investors on board, whether
485
00:27:15.640 --> 00:27:20.359
it be venture capital VC or private XDPE, then sometimes
486
00:27:20.359 --> 00:27:22.920
that can be done faster, but they're going to lose
487
00:27:22.960 --> 00:27:25.720
more money doing it, and we typically work with brands
488
00:27:25.720 --> 00:27:28.880
that want to do that in a profitable way rather
489
00:27:28.920 --> 00:27:30.880
than in a way that they can just throw cash
490
00:27:30.920 --> 00:27:31.319
at it.
491
00:27:31.759 --> 00:27:33.640
Which can be very dangerous as well, can't it.
492
00:27:36.240 --> 00:27:40.440
Champ Consultants is an award winning independent firm of highly experienced,
493
00:27:40.519 --> 00:27:44.480
qualified accountants and tax advisors based in Cage, providing a
494
00:27:44.480 --> 00:27:47.759
fully comprehensive range of accountancy and tax services. If you
495
00:27:47.759 --> 00:27:50.759
would like simple but creative answers to your tax problems,
496
00:27:50.839 --> 00:27:54.599
called Champ Consultants. Your business partner on one double eighty
497
00:27:54.599 --> 00:27:56.799
three three four ninety three hundred.
498
00:27:56.799 --> 00:27:59.359
And welcome back to your business now with me Chanteau.
499
00:27:59.519 --> 00:28:05.920
And we've talked about get global expansion pathway. Let's talk
500
00:28:05.960 --> 00:28:10.960
about OATS. OATS. What's that then?
501
00:28:11.279 --> 00:28:14.720
Yes, so, o's is a process we use post acquisition.
502
00:28:14.799 --> 00:28:18.279
So we've acquired twelve businesses. And when you start going
503
00:28:18.279 --> 00:28:21.119
through this process of acquiring businesses, one thing I learned
504
00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:25.720
that I felt out several times was the integration of
505
00:28:25.759 --> 00:28:28.440
those businesses. And it's not until you've been through that
506
00:28:28.559 --> 00:28:32.400
process that you start thinking about it more deeply. And
507
00:28:32.440 --> 00:28:34.359
we started thinking about, Okay, if we're going to start
508
00:28:34.599 --> 00:28:38.400
acquiring more businesses, how do we do that in a
509
00:28:38.480 --> 00:28:41.400
much better way? So we came up with and this
510
00:28:41.480 --> 00:28:44.640
is some of this is stolen from Google. We research
511
00:28:45.079 --> 00:28:48.000
and we come up this oas process, observe, assess, track,
512
00:28:48.119 --> 00:28:51.839
and shift. Really simple that from a business perspective, when
513
00:28:51.880 --> 00:28:56.559
you take over a business is you just observe what's
514
00:28:56.680 --> 00:28:59.240
going on. They think you're going to come in. When
515
00:28:59.240 --> 00:29:02.079
you've taken over, the team, the employees, everything, they think
516
00:29:02.079 --> 00:29:04.480
you're going to come in, they change everything, they're going
517
00:29:04.519 --> 00:29:06.400
to put your stamp on it, tell them they're rubbish,
518
00:29:06.680 --> 00:29:09.720
and you've got to then move them all into your
519
00:29:09.759 --> 00:29:12.839
business and follow your processes, your systems and everything else.
520
00:29:13.720 --> 00:29:15.799
So the first thing is to completely do the opposite.
521
00:29:16.680 --> 00:29:18.559
Introduce yourself and all that sort of stuff, right, but
522
00:29:19.200 --> 00:29:22.359
just observe what's going on now. Depending on the state
523
00:29:22.400 --> 00:29:25.119
of the business depends on how long this pit phase
524
00:29:25.200 --> 00:29:28.359
goes on for. So if it's a distressed business and
525
00:29:28.400 --> 00:29:30.680
it's losing money, you might want to do this bit
526
00:29:30.960 --> 00:29:35.680
really quickly. But if it's a good business that's working
527
00:29:35.720 --> 00:29:38.279
and you've bought it because it's a profitable business, you
528
00:29:38.359 --> 00:29:41.359
might take three months to do this. And the longer
529
00:29:41.400 --> 00:29:44.160
you do this bit the better. So the first thing
530
00:29:44.240 --> 00:29:46.599
is just observed what's going on. The second thing is
531
00:29:46.640 --> 00:29:50.640
to start assessing what that looks like, What does success
532
00:29:50.680 --> 00:29:54.119
look like, What are they actually doing that's making a difference.
533
00:29:54.440 --> 00:29:57.519
What are they actually you doing what they say they're doing.
534
00:29:57.720 --> 00:30:01.839
You are the systems and processes that you've you've acquired
535
00:30:02.759 --> 00:30:05.799
actually being followed. And then the next bit t is
536
00:30:05.839 --> 00:30:09.920
to track them every single acquisition we've ever done, and
537
00:30:09.960 --> 00:30:12.640
every business I ever speak to, especially business owners, are
538
00:30:12.680 --> 00:30:15.880
very guilty at this. When you speak to them, they
539
00:30:15.880 --> 00:30:17.440
say they get one hundred leads a month in their
540
00:30:17.480 --> 00:30:21.440
conversions fifty percent. When you actually look under the numbers,
541
00:30:21.519 --> 00:30:24.759
they're getting ten leads and they're conversions ten percent. Like
542
00:30:25.400 --> 00:30:28.880
because we always put a most business owners entrepreneurs don
543
00:30:29.039 --> 00:30:31.799
put a rosy tint on things, especially thus that are
544
00:30:31.799 --> 00:30:35.200
slightly more on the ADHD side, Like you end up
545
00:30:36.319 --> 00:30:38.920
finding out that by tracking the numbers, the numbers are
546
00:30:38.960 --> 00:30:41.680
not what people think they are, one because they're not
547
00:30:41.720 --> 00:30:44.519
tracking them correctly, and two they never were tracking them
548
00:30:44.559 --> 00:30:48.160
in the first place. So you observe, assess, track. Then
549
00:30:48.200 --> 00:30:51.839
what you then do is then shift. What you're then
550
00:30:51.880 --> 00:30:54.519
doing at this point is you're creating a new plan
551
00:30:54.599 --> 00:30:57.559
for the business. Is the current plan good? Keep it?
552
00:30:57.960 --> 00:31:01.319
Are you shifting into it or are you shifting them
553
00:31:01.359 --> 00:31:04.039
away from it? And again depends on the business. It's
554
00:31:04.039 --> 00:31:06.599
going to depend on what you do. But you know,
555
00:31:06.680 --> 00:31:09.680
I've talked about that from what we do post acquisition,
556
00:31:10.119 --> 00:31:11.880
But this is a really good thing that you can
557
00:31:11.880 --> 00:31:14.839
do in your business today. Just go and observe what's
558
00:31:14.880 --> 00:31:18.119
going on, Assess how good you think that is? Track
559
00:31:18.160 --> 00:31:21.799
it with actual numbers? Should you be shifting away from it?
560
00:31:21.839 --> 00:31:26.440
Like take a process inside the business you if you
561
00:31:26.480 --> 00:31:28.400
don't want to work inside your business, you need to
562
00:31:28.440 --> 00:31:30.880
create a repeatable business operation. One of those ways is
563
00:31:30.960 --> 00:31:33.640
by putting a system and process in place. But because
564
00:31:33.640 --> 00:31:35.839
you put a system process in three years ago doesn't
565
00:31:35.880 --> 00:31:38.079
mean to say that process is the right process anymore.
566
00:31:38.440 --> 00:31:40.839
So what you could do is you observe how good
567
00:31:40.839 --> 00:31:43.720
that process is. Now, assess it. Is it good? Is
568
00:31:43.720 --> 00:31:46.200
it bad? Is it still working? Track it? Are they
569
00:31:46.200 --> 00:31:48.319
following it? Are they're not following? What's the KPI, what's
570
00:31:48.359 --> 00:31:52.039
the ROI? And then lastly, should you be shifting away
571
00:31:52.039 --> 00:31:54.920
from it? Whilst I've talked about it from a business
572
00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:57.799
acquisition perspective, actually it's a really good thing that you
573
00:31:57.839 --> 00:32:00.920
could do in any part of your business as a
574
00:32:01.279 --> 00:32:04.759
framework of Okay, how do I solve that? Okay, let's
575
00:32:04.799 --> 00:32:08.759
just observe what's going on? Because we all go too
576
00:32:08.839 --> 00:32:13.359
quickly into especially business owners, thinking we know best inside
577
00:32:13.359 --> 00:32:15.440
our business because we've been running the business. We might
578
00:32:15.440 --> 00:32:18.799
have started it, and we've done every process inside the business,
579
00:32:18.880 --> 00:32:22.400
so therefore we think we know best. We don't. And
580
00:32:23.559 --> 00:32:25.160
to be fair, depending on where you own the business
581
00:32:25.240 --> 00:32:30.480
journey right. But the ability to take a moment pause
582
00:32:30.759 --> 00:32:32.960
and on the podcast I listened to you with Richard
583
00:32:33.119 --> 00:32:36.839
was about taking a bit of time to think about
584
00:32:36.880 --> 00:32:41.400
things before that calmness. It's exactly the same observe and
585
00:32:41.440 --> 00:32:44.599
I've just framed it slightly different, but from a business perspective,
586
00:32:44.599 --> 00:32:47.440
I observe what's going on, I assess it, track shift
587
00:32:47.680 --> 00:32:52.039
every single time, and that's how we use post acquisition information.
588
00:32:52.680 --> 00:32:55.240
The question comes what you tracking, what you're shifting from
589
00:32:55.240 --> 00:32:56.519
and too, but we'll come to that later.
590
00:32:57.160 --> 00:33:00.319
And that's very important. Like you say, doesn't have to
591
00:33:00.359 --> 00:33:05.079
be a business that you're acquiring or about to acquire
592
00:33:05.359 --> 00:33:07.160
or looking at. It can be a whole range of things.
593
00:33:07.200 --> 00:33:09.759
It could be a business that you're looking investing in.
594
00:33:10.119 --> 00:33:12.920
It could be your own business as well. And like
595
00:33:13.000 --> 00:33:15.880
you say, just because you did it three years ago
596
00:33:16.079 --> 00:33:19.119
or even twelve months ago, doesn't mean it's the right
597
00:33:19.160 --> 00:33:24.240
thing to be doing now and technology changes.
598
00:33:24.200 --> 00:33:26.720
It definitely is right now, and that's.
599
00:33:26.440 --> 00:33:30.680
Something that as a business owner, it's to me. Technology
600
00:33:30.720 --> 00:33:32.599
is one of those things as a business owner you
601
00:33:32.720 --> 00:33:35.400
have to be aware of twenty four to seven. And
602
00:33:35.440 --> 00:33:38.319
it doesn't matter how old or how young your business is,
603
00:33:39.200 --> 00:33:41.000
you have to be aware of it. I mean, I've
604
00:33:41.079 --> 00:33:42.960
run my business for twenty five years and there's no
605
00:33:43.119 --> 00:33:44.880
way what I was doing twenty years ago is what
606
00:33:44.920 --> 00:33:48.839
I'm doing now. It's impossible to be like that. And
607
00:33:48.880 --> 00:33:51.680
if you are like that, then I think you're not
608
00:33:51.680 --> 00:33:53.799
gonna have a business in the next five years because
609
00:33:54.680 --> 00:33:57.599
too your two style mate, shall we say. And with
610
00:33:57.720 --> 00:34:02.440
technology changing so much, it allows you to introduce procedures
611
00:34:02.440 --> 00:34:06.200
and protocols into your business that, again, in a distress
612
00:34:06.240 --> 00:34:08.000
business might make it more profitable.
613
00:34:09.239 --> 00:34:12.320
I think if you think about this couple of things
614
00:34:12.360 --> 00:34:15.719
there you take out of COVID. During COVID, everyone could
615
00:34:15.760 --> 00:34:18.199
work from home. So everyone's come back to the office now.
616
00:34:18.239 --> 00:34:20.559
Whether you agree with everyone should be in the office
617
00:34:20.599 --> 00:34:22.840
or everyone should be at home or at hybrid isn't
618
00:34:22.880 --> 00:34:25.079
really the point here. The point here is is that
619
00:34:25.360 --> 00:34:28.280
if someone can work from home full time and do
620
00:34:28.360 --> 00:34:31.800
the job from home, So can somebody in another part
621
00:34:31.840 --> 00:34:34.719
of the world a third or a quarter of the price.
622
00:34:35.719 --> 00:34:40.280
And we've got a business in South Africa and we
623
00:34:40.280 --> 00:34:44.719
we looked at those people that could do roles in
624
00:34:44.760 --> 00:34:47.239
South Africa at a quarter of the price of what
625
00:34:47.280 --> 00:34:49.400
we pay someone in the UK that was doing it
626
00:34:49.440 --> 00:34:52.519
from home. So there's this delicate balance of well, if
627
00:34:52.519 --> 00:34:54.800
you can do it from home full time, someone could
628
00:34:54.800 --> 00:34:57.360
do it in another part of the world. Because it
629
00:34:57.440 --> 00:35:05.559
isn't sustainable to continue employing people in the UK at
630
00:35:05.559 --> 00:35:10.840
the UK rates with in UK employment and the fun
631
00:35:10.960 --> 00:35:15.039
and games that comes with it to keep your costs
632
00:35:15.079 --> 00:35:17.599
down while cost of rising and going up. So those
633
00:35:17.639 --> 00:35:19.960
that want to work full time at home go for it.
634
00:35:20.280 --> 00:35:23.840
But I caution that as to what value are you
635
00:35:23.880 --> 00:35:26.960
bringing to the business, because if the same value can
636
00:35:26.960 --> 00:35:29.440
be brought from another part of the world, why wouldn't
637
00:35:29.440 --> 00:35:32.159
the business owner do that? And actually, you know, we've
638
00:35:32.239 --> 00:35:34.760
now got I know, almost fifty people in South Africa,
639
00:35:35.119 --> 00:35:38.760
all really in administration and customer service. We don't have
640
00:35:38.840 --> 00:35:44.000
strategic led decisions people based overseas at the moment. I'm
641
00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:47.280
not saying that we won't, but we've made a strategic decision.
642
00:35:47.320 --> 00:35:52.760
We want, you know, we want strategic planning epic people
643
00:35:52.800 --> 00:35:57.239
in the UK and for the more basic work that
644
00:35:57.320 --> 00:36:01.639
can be repeatable processed overseas. And if you can have
645
00:36:01.719 --> 00:36:03.679
four people for the price of one or three people
646
00:36:03.679 --> 00:36:06.280
for the price of one, that makes a big difference
647
00:36:06.320 --> 00:36:10.119
to your business margin. So you think of it, we're
648
00:36:10.119 --> 00:36:12.599
talking about Oh, it's looking you're looking at your business
649
00:36:12.679 --> 00:36:15.400
and thinking differently. You know, how could we do this differently?
650
00:36:15.760 --> 00:36:18.960
You know, just because we did it one way, we
651
00:36:18.960 --> 00:36:20.880
don't have to do it the same way again, exactly
652
00:36:20.960 --> 00:36:21.400
as you say.
653
00:36:22.239 --> 00:36:24.760
And I mean we're not going to go into politics.
654
00:36:24.880 --> 00:36:29.320
But obviously as a business owner with employees, the cost
655
00:36:29.320 --> 00:36:33.639
of employees is very expensive. And as a growing business,
656
00:36:33.639 --> 00:36:35.800
if that's something you want to go into, is like
657
00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:40.599
to increase your administrative or your club or your employee base,
658
00:36:40.719 --> 00:36:44.960
shall we say, looking at alternative options, shall we say?
659
00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:48.519
Nowadays it has to happen almost like, doesn't it really exactly?
660
00:36:48.559 --> 00:36:50.119
I mean, we haven't even touched there on AI. I
661
00:36:50.119 --> 00:36:53.760
mean the ability to utilize AI within your business. I
662
00:36:53.800 --> 00:36:58.199
don't see AI replacing swathes of people. What I see
663
00:36:58.239 --> 00:37:01.079
is bringing in a players that areunderstand how to use
664
00:37:01.119 --> 00:37:04.559
AI within their role to make their role even more powerful.
665
00:37:04.840 --> 00:37:08.239
So if you think from an accounting perspective, you know,
666
00:37:08.920 --> 00:37:12.320
if you're employing someone for twenty five grand, I personally
667
00:37:12.360 --> 00:37:14.440
want to see I'd love to see a ten X
668
00:37:14.480 --> 00:37:16.679
on that. So that role should bring in two hundred
669
00:37:16.679 --> 00:37:19.239
and fifty grand, But in reality you're nearer to one
670
00:37:19.320 --> 00:37:22.519
hundred grand mark right, But with AI, could you make
671
00:37:22.519 --> 00:37:25.599
that two hundred and fifty grand? Yeah, Like that's what
672
00:37:25.639 --> 00:37:28.639
you're looking for, is you you might not recruit as
673
00:37:28.639 --> 00:37:30.639
many people. What you might do is you might be
674
00:37:30.679 --> 00:37:32.360
able to work with more clients. You might be able
675
00:37:32.400 --> 00:37:35.559
to work more valuable clients. So it's not about necessarily
676
00:37:35.559 --> 00:37:39.360
replacing employees. It's about having more epic work being able
677
00:37:39.360 --> 00:37:39.800
to be done.
678
00:37:39.880 --> 00:37:41.119
Yeah, it's efficiency, isn't it.
679
00:37:41.159 --> 00:37:41.320
Really?
680
00:37:42.079 --> 00:37:48.119
It becomes efficiency. So that's our oats, which obviously we
681
00:37:48.199 --> 00:37:52.840
can look at from a as we've said, from an acquisition,
682
00:37:52.880 --> 00:37:56.320
an investment, or our own business itself stems.
683
00:37:57.960 --> 00:38:00.599
Yeah, so this is this is probably the most imposant
684
00:38:00.679 --> 00:38:01.960
one for a business owner.
685
00:38:02.119 --> 00:38:02.880
Best to last.
686
00:38:05.760 --> 00:38:08.920
What I found as a business stand for let's scout
687
00:38:08.920 --> 00:38:12.840
to extract management system. Okay, think of it as an
688
00:38:12.920 --> 00:38:16.559
operating management system inside your business. So it gives the
689
00:38:16.599 --> 00:38:20.199
founder back the freedom that they got into the business for.
690
00:38:20.880 --> 00:38:23.800
Because we all get into business because we think we're
691
00:38:23.800 --> 00:38:27.599
going to have a war chest of cash and freedom
692
00:38:27.639 --> 00:38:30.039
to do what we want when we want. The reality
693
00:38:30.199 --> 00:38:33.440
is for most business owners, they have no money in
694
00:38:33.440 --> 00:38:36.280
the bank. Virtually all of the time. They're working sixteen
695
00:38:36.320 --> 00:38:38.079
hours a day, six days a week, and it's more
696
00:38:38.119 --> 00:38:40.880
stressful to go on holiday than it is to stay
697
00:38:40.880 --> 00:38:44.880
at work. So what I found after doing a couple
698
00:38:44.880 --> 00:38:48.519
of acquisitions was that I was too embedded in one business.
699
00:38:49.000 --> 00:38:51.559
And because I was embedded in one business, I've done
700
00:38:51.599 --> 00:38:54.199
these acquisitions. But these acquisitions were failing. One I hadn't
701
00:38:54.199 --> 00:38:56.719
done the OATS process. But secondly, I can work in
702
00:38:56.760 --> 00:38:59.719
them to change them, adapt them, build them, integrate them.
703
00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:03.280
Because I was too involved in another business. So I
704
00:39:03.320 --> 00:39:06.000
started thinking about how you can extract yourself. Well, when
705
00:39:06.000 --> 00:39:09.199
you start looking online, how do you extract yourself from
706
00:39:09.239 --> 00:39:12.719
the business. And we're not talking about selling the business here,
707
00:39:12.760 --> 00:39:15.760
We're just extracting you from the daily operation. All the
708
00:39:15.760 --> 00:39:20.559
gurus talk about sales, marketing, revenue. No one talks about
709
00:39:20.599 --> 00:39:25.440
the unboring or the boring stuff that's the operation, or
710
00:39:26.320 --> 00:39:29.159
extracting yourself from the business because it's just not that sexy.
711
00:39:29.880 --> 00:39:33.800
So what I was looking for was playbooks of how
712
00:39:33.840 --> 00:39:36.199
to run the business so that I didn't have to
713
00:39:36.239 --> 00:39:39.800
be there. So what we ended up creating was, over
714
00:39:39.840 --> 00:39:43.639
the last ten years, we've created this STEMS process that
715
00:39:43.719 --> 00:39:46.320
means that every single one of our businesses runs exactly
716
00:39:46.360 --> 00:39:49.880
the same. Now, whether they're we've got compliance businesses, we've
717
00:39:49.880 --> 00:39:53.920
got logistics businesses, we've got software businesses, and in each
718
00:39:53.960 --> 00:39:56.639
one of those businesses, they all run the same framework,
719
00:39:57.119 --> 00:39:59.599
they run the same term, they call it the same terminology.
720
00:40:00.239 --> 00:40:03.079
The tactics inside some of those may be slightly different
721
00:40:03.440 --> 00:40:07.679
because software customer acquisition is different to logistics customer acquisition.
722
00:40:08.119 --> 00:40:11.599
So whilst some of the tactics are different, every single
723
00:40:11.719 --> 00:40:14.719
of twelve businesses they can all talk the same language.
724
00:40:15.039 --> 00:40:17.199
And what that means is is that when we acquire
725
00:40:17.239 --> 00:40:21.800
and grow more businesses, everyone talks the same language. And
726
00:40:22.480 --> 00:40:26.360
this came from pure pain. I wanted to extract myself
727
00:40:26.360 --> 00:40:29.119
from the business, but I wasn't giving the team the
728
00:40:29.239 --> 00:40:32.840
tools to make that work. And every business owner, as
729
00:40:32.880 --> 00:40:37.280
you extract yourself needs three things, visibility, trust and confidence.
730
00:40:37.679 --> 00:40:41.360
And those three things is visibility on the numbers, so
731
00:40:41.480 --> 00:40:44.480
you don't have to start digging around and having no trust,
732
00:40:44.679 --> 00:40:49.000
you no confidence. So you've got visibility on the numbers.
733
00:40:49.239 --> 00:40:52.360
Trust in the team because you got visibility on the numbers.
734
00:40:52.840 --> 00:40:55.360
And therefore, if you've got trust in your visibility on
735
00:40:55.400 --> 00:40:57.639
the numbers and trust in the team, you can then
736
00:40:57.679 --> 00:41:02.000
have confidence in the plan because once those three things work,
737
00:41:02.880 --> 00:41:05.480
it means that the business can flourish without you, and
738
00:41:05.559 --> 00:41:08.960
it means questions can be answered and decisions can be
739
00:41:09.000 --> 00:41:12.280
made without you being there. And to start off with,
740
00:41:12.480 --> 00:41:14.800
it means you can take a day off. Then it
741
00:41:14.800 --> 00:41:16.800
means you can take a week off. Then it means
742
00:41:16.800 --> 00:41:18.960
you can take a month off, and obviously if you
743
00:41:19.000 --> 00:41:22.039
scale that out. Just to be clear, I'm still active
744
00:41:22.079 --> 00:41:24.480
in all of those businesses. It's not that I don't
745
00:41:24.519 --> 00:41:28.079
have involvement in those businesses. It's just that I've learned
746
00:41:28.079 --> 00:41:30.400
how to manage them in a way that means I
747
00:41:30.440 --> 00:41:32.519
don't have to be there and I can do great
748
00:41:32.519 --> 00:41:35.760
things like this with you today, meaning that I don't
749
00:41:35.760 --> 00:41:39.440
have to be in any business. And you know the
750
00:41:39.480 --> 00:41:42.519
pain that most business owners have, especially in that one
751
00:41:42.599 --> 00:41:46.360
to three million phases that they get. They get to
752
00:41:46.400 --> 00:41:48.199
one million and they're like, oh, I always wanted to
753
00:41:48.239 --> 00:41:51.519
have a million turnover. And then they plateau because they
754
00:41:51.920 --> 00:41:54.679
always wanted a one million pound business, or they pushed
755
00:41:54.719 --> 00:41:58.360
through get to three million, realize how tough it is
756
00:41:58.440 --> 00:42:00.920
because it's still just them doing all the work. And
757
00:42:00.920 --> 00:42:03.119
then they come back down to a million, and they
758
00:42:03.119 --> 00:42:05.679
don't do that on purpose, but they self sabotage that,
759
00:42:06.159 --> 00:42:09.159
not purposefully, and then they're like, oh, yeah, we had
760
00:42:09.199 --> 00:42:10.760
a three million pound business, but we to do a
761
00:42:10.800 --> 00:42:14.800
million now. And when you dig into that, basically it's
762
00:42:14.840 --> 00:42:17.519
because they couldn't do what they were doing at one
763
00:42:17.559 --> 00:42:20.719
million at three million, and they didn't have the skills
764
00:42:21.480 --> 00:42:25.559
or the education to work out how to do that.
765
00:42:26.639 --> 00:42:29.039
And some people then just like, actually, it's easy to
766
00:42:29.039 --> 00:42:31.559
start at one million. I can manage the team. I've
767
00:42:31.599 --> 00:42:35.639
got tens to fifteen people. It's straightforward, it's easy. I
768
00:42:35.679 --> 00:42:37.440
don't have to worry about it. I've got ten to
769
00:42:37.480 --> 00:42:42.159
fifteen people. I can call my team and they do it.
770
00:42:42.519 --> 00:42:44.360
But as soon as you start going to three million,
771
00:42:44.559 --> 00:42:47.639
and you start getting to twenty thirty, forty to fifty people.
772
00:42:48.039 --> 00:42:51.360
You lose complete control unless you've got a framework to
773
00:42:51.480 --> 00:42:52.360
run your business.
774
00:42:53.079 --> 00:42:57.760
And sometimes that's scary for business owners in that scalability part,
775
00:42:57.920 --> 00:43:01.960
because they they jump and they run and they run,
776
00:43:02.039 --> 00:43:04.280
and they reach that point of view and then they
777
00:43:04.960 --> 00:43:08.519
almost like scared, aren't they They're scared that I've lost control.
778
00:43:08.639 --> 00:43:11.119
I don't understand. I don't know what this one's doing.
779
00:43:11.119 --> 00:43:13.360
I don't know what that one's doing. I've lost the control.
780
00:43:13.760 --> 00:43:17.480
And then they are scared to expand because they still
781
00:43:17.519 --> 00:43:20.360
need that control, don't they Yep, And it's letting go.
782
00:43:20.960 --> 00:43:23.599
And that's why it comes to that visibility, trust and confidence.
783
00:43:24.039 --> 00:43:26.719
If you can find a way through stems, you know,
784
00:43:26.800 --> 00:43:29.159
this is how we do it. And I don't sell
785
00:43:29.159 --> 00:43:31.280
courses on stems. That's not you know, it's not what
786
00:43:31.320 --> 00:43:34.280
we do. I'm not an educator. If you like a
787
00:43:34.320 --> 00:43:40.119
training business, we use stems inside our businesses. It is
788
00:43:40.280 --> 00:43:44.800
literally about having visibility, trust and confidence as you scale,
789
00:43:45.119 --> 00:43:47.960
and what worked at one million won't work at three
790
00:43:48.280 --> 00:43:50.679
and what works at three won't work at five, ten
791
00:43:50.880 --> 00:43:54.079
or twenty. So it is about adapting as you go
792
00:43:54.159 --> 00:43:57.280
through that journey and understanding how you need to tweak
793
00:43:57.400 --> 00:44:00.679
and adapt and making sure that you've got the right
794
00:44:00.719 --> 00:44:04.639
structure inside your business, you've got the right systems, and
795
00:44:04.679 --> 00:44:07.599
your stability in the finance, because if you've got those
796
00:44:07.639 --> 00:44:11.840
three things, you're able to soar above the business. There's
797
00:44:11.880 --> 00:44:13.920
the famous saying of you don't want to work in
798
00:44:13.920 --> 00:44:15.519
your business, you want to work on the business. But
799
00:44:15.559 --> 00:44:19.079
that's completely wrong because it's the word work, so you're
800
00:44:19.119 --> 00:44:21.440
working in it. You're still working on it. What you
801
00:44:21.440 --> 00:44:23.320
want to do is sow above it. And the idea
802
00:44:23.320 --> 00:44:25.519
of swing above it is you can think much more
803
00:44:25.559 --> 00:44:30.079
strategically about the business, whether it's acquiring a business, whether
804
00:44:30.119 --> 00:44:33.760
it's taking your business into Germany or the US, whether
805
00:44:33.880 --> 00:44:36.840
it's just being able to take time off. Because when
806
00:44:36.880 --> 00:44:40.119
you don't work inside the business, it creates a valuable
807
00:44:40.159 --> 00:44:43.400
business asset. And when you've got a valuable business asset,
808
00:44:43.760 --> 00:44:45.800
one you can sell it for more money should you
809
00:44:45.880 --> 00:44:49.920
want to. But also it's valuable because you don't have
810
00:44:49.960 --> 00:44:54.880
to be there, So you need that structure, systems, and
811
00:44:54.920 --> 00:44:57.400
stability in the finances, which you know all too well.
812
00:44:57.760 --> 00:45:01.920
That stability in the finances. I call it motorbike right.
813
00:45:02.079 --> 00:45:04.039
Everyone sees ten grand on the P and L and
814
00:45:04.039 --> 00:45:07.280
goes and buys a motorbike. They forget about the balance
815
00:45:07.280 --> 00:45:11.239
sheet because they don't understand how the money moves from
816
00:45:11.280 --> 00:45:14.159
the profit and loss to the balance sheet, or whether
817
00:45:14.199 --> 00:45:15.920
it's never on the profit and loss in the first place.
818
00:45:16.639 --> 00:45:19.000
People just don't understand that thing. They say they've got
819
00:45:19.000 --> 00:45:20.679
ten grand in the profit and loss account for the
820
00:45:20.719 --> 00:45:24.159
month they go buy a motorbike. But it's about understanding
821
00:45:24.159 --> 00:45:27.000
stability in the finances to be able to put those
822
00:45:27.000 --> 00:45:29.719
things together. And then if you've got structure, systems and
823
00:45:29.760 --> 00:45:33.719
stability and sow, the best thing you can do then
824
00:45:33.880 --> 00:45:36.920
is to shift, which is shifting the business owner, because
825
00:45:36.960 --> 00:45:40.800
if the business owner doesn't have anything to do, they
826
00:45:40.840 --> 00:45:43.400
go back and meddle in the business. So it's about
827
00:45:43.440 --> 00:45:46.119
shifting the business owner from where they are to where
828
00:45:46.119 --> 00:45:48.679
they want to get to, but not by meddling in
829
00:45:48.679 --> 00:45:49.800
the side the business.
830
00:45:51.880 --> 00:45:53.639
Not causing any more problems with.
831
00:45:53.679 --> 00:45:55.800
Saying exactly that, because they go and stick their nose
832
00:45:55.840 --> 00:45:58.920
in where it's not wanted. They create these systems and processes,
833
00:45:59.719 --> 00:46:03.760
then go micro manage these systems and processes because they've
834
00:46:03.760 --> 00:46:06.920
got nothing else to do. So where the shift for
835
00:46:06.960 --> 00:46:09.599
the business owner comes to, how do we take their
836
00:46:09.639 --> 00:46:13.480
attention from their current business. They've spent sixteen hours a day,
837
00:46:13.519 --> 00:46:15.559
seven days a week doing for the last ten years.
838
00:46:15.840 --> 00:46:18.280
To only work in one day a week, they're going
839
00:46:18.360 --> 00:46:22.440
to be bored like it doesn't work, and you you
840
00:46:22.480 --> 00:46:24.920
have to bring that down gently. It's like the army
841
00:46:24.960 --> 00:46:28.320
called it decompression training. So once you've been out at war,
842
00:46:28.840 --> 00:46:31.159
what you do is you go through a decompression process.
843
00:46:31.679 --> 00:46:35.400
Running a business and moving into this piece and extracting
844
00:46:35.400 --> 00:46:39.159
yourself is exactly the same. It's about decompressing from where
845
00:46:39.159 --> 00:46:42.320
you are and where you want to get to, and
846
00:46:42.360 --> 00:46:45.599
you're shifting yourself to that phase. And that's why going
847
00:46:45.599 --> 00:46:47.800
and doing an acquisition, for example, is a great idea
848
00:46:47.840 --> 00:46:49.960
because you then go and focus all your time on
849
00:46:50.119 --> 00:46:53.000
acquiring a business and focusing on that and you're not
850
00:46:53.039 --> 00:46:55.119
looking at the old business. So that's a great one.
851
00:46:55.280 --> 00:46:58.039
Going overseas is another one. Yeah, it might be buying
852
00:46:58.079 --> 00:47:00.559
a yacht and trying to run your business from the
853
00:47:00.639 --> 00:47:01.400
South of France.
854
00:47:02.119 --> 00:47:05.840
So many things, and that's very true, like the people
855
00:47:05.880 --> 00:47:09.039
who sell a business as well, and people who maybe
856
00:47:09.039 --> 00:47:11.760
work their entire life and then suddenly stop and retire.
857
00:47:12.599 --> 00:47:15.679
It's always that problems then occur, don't they really? And
858
00:47:15.719 --> 00:47:18.599
it's the same for people who have run their business
859
00:47:18.639 --> 00:47:21.679
and like you say, maybe work in ten fifteen hour
860
00:47:21.800 --> 00:47:24.519
days whatever, seven days a week, and then suddenly sell
861
00:47:24.559 --> 00:47:27.360
their business and they're like, oh, what do I do now? Yes,
862
00:47:27.480 --> 00:47:31.760
they need to do something because otherwise it's well mentally,
863
00:47:31.760 --> 00:47:33.480
it's better for you anyway, isn't it. Really.
864
00:47:33.639 --> 00:47:35.639
One of the things we ask when we're going to
865
00:47:35.679 --> 00:47:37.679
acquire a business, we ask the owner what they're going
866
00:47:37.719 --> 00:47:39.840
to go and do. If they don't know what they're
867
00:47:39.880 --> 00:47:44.159
going to do, I normally walk away because what happens
868
00:47:44.199 --> 00:47:45.480
is is they don't know what they're going to go
869
00:47:45.519 --> 00:47:48.320
and do, so they get halfway down the acquisition or
870
00:47:48.360 --> 00:47:50.079
virtually all the way down the acquisition. We've had this
871
00:47:50.119 --> 00:47:53.480
happen twice. Get we agreed deal, we go and do
872
00:47:53.519 --> 00:47:56.440
the financial due diligence, we do due diligence inside the business,
873
00:47:56.960 --> 00:48:00.760
and we're signing the paperwork in the next month, and
874
00:48:00.800 --> 00:48:03.679
they pull out because they get scared. They don't know
875
00:48:03.719 --> 00:48:05.960
what they're going to go and do. They've got this idea,
876
00:48:05.960 --> 00:48:08.000
they've got this part of a million or two million quid,
877
00:48:08.840 --> 00:48:11.280
maybe three, maybe four, but they don't know what they're
878
00:48:11.320 --> 00:48:13.599
going to do with it, and actually it's not. Actually
879
00:48:13.840 --> 00:48:15.159
it sounds a lot of money, and it is a
880
00:48:15.199 --> 00:48:18.119
lot of money, but when you take tax into consideration,
881
00:48:18.639 --> 00:48:22.920
when you take fees, brokers, lawyers, lists of everything else,
882
00:48:23.119 --> 00:48:25.760
it's nowhere there as much as you would think for
883
00:48:25.800 --> 00:48:29.639
twenty years work. So if you are thinking of X,
884
00:48:29.719 --> 00:48:31.840
thing is what are you going to go and do?
885
00:48:32.559 --> 00:48:34.239
How are you going to go and do it? Are
886
00:48:34.280 --> 00:48:36.000
you going to go and you're going to start another business?
887
00:48:36.199 --> 00:48:38.559
Are you do? You want to just retire and to
888
00:48:38.840 --> 00:48:42.119
just retire isn't a thing? What are you going to
889
00:48:42.159 --> 00:48:44.159
do in retirement? I want to go and do that.
890
00:48:44.400 --> 00:48:45.840
I want to start in a lotman. I want to
891
00:48:45.840 --> 00:48:49.079
start a radio station. I want to support three local charities.
892
00:48:49.119 --> 00:48:52.239
I want to start teaching sailing. It doesn't matter. But
893
00:48:52.320 --> 00:48:53.360
what are you going to go and do?
894
00:48:53.480 --> 00:48:55.079
Yeah, because you're not going to sit at home. Let's
895
00:48:55.079 --> 00:48:56.800
be serious. If you run a business for twenty years
896
00:48:56.840 --> 00:48:59.000
and it's taken up your entire life, you're not going
897
00:48:59.079 --> 00:49:00.639
to be I'm just going to to sit home and
898
00:49:00.679 --> 00:49:01.760
watch TV all day long.
899
00:49:01.760 --> 00:49:03.519
Because you're not going to do it, you'll be depressed.
900
00:49:04.480 --> 00:49:07.440
Youse you can do it because for a.
901
00:49:07.440 --> 00:49:11.039
Lot of business owners, we need significance, and that significance
902
00:49:11.079 --> 00:49:13.639
comes from the team always needing you and wanting you.
903
00:49:13.920 --> 00:49:17.400
And then you've had this identity of being a business
904
00:49:17.519 --> 00:49:20.360
all your life and you are the person who's got
905
00:49:20.400 --> 00:49:25.559
this business. Once you sell it, you're no one. No
906
00:49:25.599 --> 00:49:27.719
one is looking up to you. I mean people will
907
00:49:27.760 --> 00:49:29.239
look up to you because you've sold your business, and
908
00:49:29.639 --> 00:49:34.679
that's it's a different process. No one needs you anymore.
909
00:49:35.199 --> 00:49:38.519
Your kids have probably left home. Hopefully you're still married,
910
00:49:38.559 --> 00:49:41.880
because there is a ten percent increase in risk of
911
00:49:42.000 --> 00:49:46.239
failure of marriages in business owners. But hopefully that's all fine.
912
00:49:46.400 --> 00:49:48.400
But your kids have left home. They don't need you.
913
00:49:48.800 --> 00:49:52.119
The business has been sold. That doesn't need you. You
914
00:49:52.280 --> 00:49:55.400
need to find that significance somewhere else. And that could
915
00:49:55.440 --> 00:49:58.000
be just teaching at the local sport club. It could
916
00:49:58.000 --> 00:49:59.719
be sailing around the world.
917
00:50:00.079 --> 00:50:02.320
Whatever you wanted to do, isn't it. But it's a purpose,
918
00:50:02.400 --> 00:50:03.719
isn't It becomes that purpose?
919
00:50:03.760 --> 00:50:05.960
You need purpose? And that there was a great thing
920
00:50:06.000 --> 00:50:09.440
on Netflix about and this isn't there are other channels available.
921
00:50:10.199 --> 00:50:12.559
Is that there was something about blue dots. The people
922
00:50:12.639 --> 00:50:15.559
that succeed. The people that live the longest, and the
923
00:50:15.559 --> 00:50:17.519
people that live the longest the ones who got purpose.
924
00:50:18.199 --> 00:50:22.000
You mentioned it just there is what's your purpose after
925
00:50:22.079 --> 00:50:25.840
the exit? Right?
926
00:50:25.920 --> 00:50:28.079
So before I come to the end of my show,
927
00:50:28.119 --> 00:50:31.559
which were nearly there, my final question to you is
928
00:50:32.119 --> 00:50:34.199
what would be your one piece of advice that you
929
00:50:34.239 --> 00:50:37.800
would give to somebody who's running a business or somebody
930
00:50:37.840 --> 00:50:42.519
who's thinking of starting to run their business in the future.
931
00:50:43.440 --> 00:50:46.199
Patience, that's it.
932
00:50:47.159 --> 00:50:49.480
Patience is a big virtue.
933
00:50:50.760 --> 00:50:54.719
And that's in several ways. One, so we don't have
934
00:50:54.760 --> 00:51:00.719
to double or quadruple our business every year you and
935
00:51:00.760 --> 00:51:02.880
it's great if it does. And we've had times in
936
00:51:02.880 --> 00:51:04.599
our businesses where we have, and we've had times in
937
00:51:04.599 --> 00:51:07.480
our businesses where we haven't. But you just need to
938
00:51:07.519 --> 00:51:10.360
be patient. You need to do the same thing consistently
939
00:51:10.639 --> 00:51:14.599
in a structured way to get consistent results. And it's
940
00:51:14.639 --> 00:51:20.679
about doing the boring things well consistently. And patience is boring.
941
00:51:21.320 --> 00:51:26.000
And the reason that we're most ADHD type entrepreneur founders
942
00:51:26.360 --> 00:51:31.440
aren't patient, is yea or they're not it's not patient, right,
943
00:51:31.760 --> 00:51:34.440
So patience is the first thing. Then if you're starting out,
944
00:51:35.119 --> 00:51:38.679
it's exactly the same. It isn't about thinking you've got
945
00:51:38.679 --> 00:51:41.960
to be doing ten thousand, one hundred thousand, a million
946
00:51:42.000 --> 00:51:44.719
pounds a week, a month, a year, whatever. It's just
947
00:51:44.800 --> 00:51:48.360
about identifying who you're trying to target and do a
948
00:51:48.400 --> 00:51:51.239
bloody good job for them, and by doing that, having
949
00:51:51.239 --> 00:51:55.599
the patience to consistently do the boring thing day in
950
00:51:55.800 --> 00:51:58.679
day out, that's going to make the difference to that person.
951
00:51:59.280 --> 00:52:02.480
So that's why our patience is the biggest thing. And
952
00:52:02.840 --> 00:52:05.960
that also comes to your business owner, your staff being
953
00:52:06.039 --> 00:52:10.039
patient with them, Like you've been doing this for twenty years,
954
00:52:10.760 --> 00:52:13.239
so you know it inside out. For the person that's
955
00:52:13.280 --> 00:52:15.239
only been in the business for a year hasn't had
956
00:52:15.280 --> 00:52:19.119
those experiences, so they're missing nineteen years of experience. Yeah,
957
00:52:19.119 --> 00:52:21.400
you think you're they're an idiot, and I know that
958
00:52:21.760 --> 00:52:24.480
because I do exactly the same. Still I still think that,
959
00:52:25.559 --> 00:52:27.039
but you then have to take that patience to go
960
00:52:27.119 --> 00:52:28.679
how they're going to learn if I do it. Yeah,
961
00:52:29.280 --> 00:52:30.800
So patience every time.
962
00:52:31.239 --> 00:52:34.159
Brilliant and we just have to keep at it. Maybe
963
00:52:34.199 --> 00:52:39.840
git better for us. Fantastic, Thank you very much. Andy.
964
00:52:40.039 --> 00:52:42.639
We have actually come to the end now, So just
965
00:52:42.679 --> 00:52:45.960
in case you want to connect with Andy in any
966
00:52:46.000 --> 00:52:49.719
way you can definitely do so. It's Andy g Hooper,
967
00:52:49.840 --> 00:52:53.360
that's G for golf Hooper. Hwpe er Andy A and
968
00:52:53.440 --> 00:52:57.039
d why on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, And if you
969
00:52:57.079 --> 00:53:00.960
want to find him on the Internet, it's Andy Ghoop
970
00:53:01.280 --> 00:53:03.719
dot com and you can find him there. You can
971
00:53:03.719 --> 00:53:05.800
find out more about what he does and how you
972
00:53:05.880 --> 00:53:07.400
might be able to connect with him, and do connect
973
00:53:07.440 --> 00:53:10.360
with him as well. That's definitely brilliant. Thank you very much.
974
00:53:10.679 --> 00:53:12.519
Thank you.
975
00:53:12.519 --> 00:53:15.599
You can follow us at your Business Hour on Instagram
976
00:53:15.639 --> 00:53:19.559
and on Facebook, and you can catch all our podcasts,
977
00:53:19.639 --> 00:53:23.239
this one and all our other ones, the previous podcasts
978
00:53:23.400 --> 00:53:26.920
on your Business Hour wherever you get your podcasts from,
979
00:53:27.119 --> 00:53:31.079
So please do listen in. Thank you very much and
980
00:53:31.519 --> 00:53:36.119
wishing you an amazing future. Wherever you're listening to me,
981
00:53:36.639 --> 00:53:38.320
thank you very much and I will catch up with
982
00:53:38.360 --> 00:53:39.719
you soon, thanks for listening.
983
00:53:40.239 --> 00:53:43.760
Champ Consultants is an award winning independent firm of highly
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