One idea to Build your Business, one idea to Scale your life. Every Wednesday.

Welcome to Winformation Weekly. My 13 years’ experience of growing a business from £0-£100m, and the life that goes with it. All wrapped up, in one winning weekly email.

^{No AI, ever. Written for humans, by humans}

Business

Scaling Too Quickly? 5 Red Flags & How to Avoid

We all want to scale our businesses “quick time” don’t we? It makes the family Christmas dinner that bit easier to bear each year when Uncle Paul asks how your “little start-up” is going. It’s always nice to see him choke on his turkey with the reply “we doubled again this year.”

But once a huge scale starts to compound year on year, your dreams can very quickly turn into a nightmare. You see, unless you are a Silicon Valley startup with 9 figure investors handling such growth is very challenging, and it can be a company ender. Below are 5 signs you are scaling too quickly, and how to avoid it.

1. Customer experience dips – Growing too big, too fast could mean the referrals into business from people that have had a great experience start to dry up. The online conversation about your company starts to turn slightly sour.

2. You are hiring the wrong people – Hiring “to plug a gap” is the worst thing you can do. It will cost you way more in the long run to have “good enough for now” people in your business, than running with a vacancy ever will.

3. Your funds start to run thin – If you’re new to this, this is the last thing you might expect, but growing too quickly will mean you have less financial buffer, not more. Materials, people, systems all start to drain the money far quicker as larger market segments and projects are taken on.

4. The culture starts to erode – The family feel of the start-up, the initial “crew” that you hired all start to notice that they are outnumbered by the “new people”. You always need new hires to be far outweighed by the longer-term employee base, so the majority can show them “the way things are done”.  

5.  You and your key people stop learning – If serving more and more orders or clients means there is no longer the time to keep learning and growing as people, then you are on a timer to self-destruction.

In the first 3 or 4 years it can be common for a well set up, aggressive startup to hit 100% growth year on year, as we did. But, there will soon come a sweet spot, we are 13 years in and ours is 20-30% growth. Any more, and we would really struggle, especially when it comes to maintaining our greatest asset, our culture. Culture, to us is everything and I would sacrifice Hollywood growth numbers and everything that comes with that to maintain it.

Having a strong vision, a strong plan for the next 12-36 months and sticking to that plan will mean that “shiny object syndrome” is avoided, and strong sustainable growth can be maintained.

Life

5 Billionaires and Multi-Millionaires Share Their Time Management Secrets

In his incredibly underrated book “15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management” Kevin Kruse interviews a “who’s who” list of the world’s most successful individuals. Mark Cuban, Elon Musk, Warren Buffett and Steve Jobs made the cut. He quizzed them all on how they best manage their time. To save you “time”…here are my 5 key takeaways, which one can you implement today?

1. The power of saying no – Steve Jobs famously success comes from saying “no” to 1,000 things. He believed that focus comes from rejecting distractions and opportunities that do not align with core goals. This disciplined approach allowed him to channel his energy into transformative projects.

2. Identify the most important task & do it first – Successful people focus on their top priority and work until that is done. Even 10 year long term goals can be broken down into 4 hour tasks. Step by step execution on the highest priority is key.

3. Bin the “To Do” list – 41% of a to do list is never completed. Someone could work for 12 hours straight, have been highly productive and can still return home feeling anxious and guilt ridden about the things that didn’t get done. Always work from a calendar of scheduled tasks. Move through the day hitting each task, and go home safe in the knowledge you’ve had a great “needle moving” day.

4. Embrace the imperfect – Perfection is the enemy of progress. Once you accept things won’t be perfect, the stress will ease and the tasks will flow.   

5.  Schedule down time – The most effective people don’t work 16 hours a day. The human mind and body need rest. Productivity is about energy and focus not time. Billionaire Mohammed Dewi swears by his midday workout. Shannon Miller, 7 times Olympic Medallist has a midday nap. Whatever the “break” from constant focus is, it’s needed if you are human.

…Plus More!

About Me | Q&A Time

I love a Q&A! Please reply to this email and ask me anything. I respond to every email I am sent. As you may know, I Cofounded Carrington West, a business myself and James Fernandes started in a garage with no heating in Portsmouth. We had 2 slow laptops and 2 mobile phones. Our business today is a £100m organisation. When I say, I started at the very bottom, I really mean it. So, please, ask me anything, I will always reply! 

Really good questions could be the basis for an answer I share on this newsletter, don’t worry…anyone asking will always be kept fully anonymous! 

Until next week! 

Let’s win, together!