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My 14 years’ experience of growing a business from £0-£100m as well as the life that goes with it.

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Simon Says

Winformation this week...

From the 5.5m private businesses in the UK, only 4% will ever hit the £1m mark. So, that tells me, 96% of business that don’t hit this milestone fall into 2 camps. Those that are happy to stay smaller (and that’s cool), and then those that strive to get to 7 figures and for whatever reason can’t. It’s a similar story in the US (and I know we have many US readers of Winformation), so if you want to scale to 1m and beyond no matter if that’s pounds or dollars...I got you. This week’s Winformation is for you. The below guidelines in today’s One Idea to Win in Business will get you way beyond the 1m mark if applied correctly and given time to compound.

Everyone bangs on about self-awareness is a superpower. I’m self-aware enough to know that sometimes, I lack a bit of self-awareness! If you lead others in any capacity, and I think we all do to some extend, then today’s One Idea to Win in Life is for you.

One Idea to Win in Business

The 6 Rules That Took My Business Past £1M

Right then, 1m scaling guidelines from someone that’s done it? Here we go... 

Nail Your Hiring - Depending on the nature of your business, you can get to 6 figures on your own with a few outsourced partners. To get to 7 and beyond, you will need the assistance of other people. As a recruiter, I am biased, but hiring is always my number 1 priority to get right. Decide on the personal attributes you are looking for, hire on those. Everything else can be taught. Experience and qualification (outside of the medical field and things like architecture) are vastly overrated. 

You will make mistakes. We have recruited almost 10,000+ people for our clients, and then 200+ people internally, and I still get it wrong. You just need to have a robust probation period in place, I would always recommend 6 months. Use that process as a proper assessment of whether the individual is capable, coachable and possess the personal attributes and core values you are looking for from a team member. 

Culture: Use of Language - Once you have hired the right people, the next task is to retain them. Our team retention rate is 92% annually. We have people walk into our business and ask how we have created such a culture. In short, there’s no silver bullet. One of the most important blocks of culture is the use of language. 

I never refer to our people as “staff”, they are team members. Staff gives me connotations of Victorian times. Those from a lower class that lived and worked in the basement of large family houses, serving the more affluent family members. It gives totally the wrong vibe for a collaborative working environment. Our people are team members, we work together towards a common goal, a single mission. We have different roles, but none more important than the other. 

No one “works for me”, our people work for the company, they work for their families and ultimately, we “work together”. How you describe someone, and their role has an impact on their identity and how they feel they can contribute to ideas and solutions, rather than simply serving the founder. You need to lead the action, be the first, and live the values you wish to see in others. 

Sticking With Your Strategy - A lot of people try and overcomplicate business. In its rawest form, it can be a very simple process. You can scale to £1m and beyond with a simple model. You need to understand it takes time to gain traction even in a market where you are an expert. If you have changed course every 6 months and have a 5-year-old business. Have you been in business for 5 years, or do you have history of 10 companies that effectively died on month 6? 

Back yourself, your original strategy probably isn’t too far from the path you need to be on. Always look to improve, always look to tweak and systemise the bottle necks, completely changing course will mean starting again and will result in staying small for longer. I would outsource absolutely everything that isn’t your core skill or function on the way to 7 figures, as you approach 8, for us it made sense to start to bring these functions back in house, once a solid base has been built. 

Crystal Clear Vision & Compelling Mission - You need to formulate a big “why”. Why does the business exist, what is it going to achieve, by when, and how will it be done. Every 6 months, our leadership team meets to review our company vision and ensure the objectives we set from this vision for the next 2 quarters are aligned with our long-term goals. 

The CEO should change their title to CRO, Chief Repetition Officer. This vision needs to be repeated in every way as often as it can be. It needs to be communicated and received using the different senses of the team multiple times a week. On email and the wall for those that read, talked about in meetings and even in the lift for those where audible communication resonates more. As a Founder you need to evangelise where you are going as a team, specifics are key. This really helps with retention and to help people see their role as a career, a long-term shared project, rather than just a job. You also need to be aware of the personal goals of your team. 

Expecting your team to know the objectives and mission of the business when you don’t know the basic life ambition of your team isn’t going to get the long term, two way buy in you are looking for. I know who in my team wants to buy a house, who wants to get married, and who wants to go on holiday and where. I ensure in return for their hard work towards the business mission, the business does all it can to help them on the way to their personal goals too. 

Process, Process, Process - Revenue of £1m is a result of creating a machine that operates independently of the founder. The founder’s input daily, although not required, is there to give the machine a huge boost, a supercharged “power up”. To achieve this, you need to systemise and process everything. The earlier you can do this, the better. The sooner you can process, the quicker it gets engrained into the culture of the business. What’s harder than brining in a process for credit control when the company is only 2 people? Bringing in a process for credit control at 30, or 40 or 100. Changing to a new way of doing something is always harder than implementing it early. With each way you do something or every piece of software you are considering, you need to ask yourself, “will this get us to £1m?”  

Hope this helps! Let me know which one you are keen to implement. 

One Idea to Win in Life

Self-Awareness: Want to Lead Better? Start by Looking in the Mirror

Strong leadership doesn’t mean being the loudest in the room. It usually means knowing when to shut up, when to listen, and when to admit you’re just a bit out of your depth. Self-awareness is a super-power we all need to master, if not for ourselves then for the people we lead.  

Stronger Leadership. Leaders who are self-aware appreciate how they behave affects others. You don’t have to be a leader to realise and work on this. We can all get stressed and frustrated, but do we know what our triggers are to get that way? If you don’t, find out. Managing your emotions is vital for strong leadership. When you understand your triggers, you can make better decisions. 

Adaptability. Self-aware entrepreneurs are more open to feedback and change. They react faster and more effectively when needed. If you don’t already, ask mentors, peers, or even team members for constructive feedback. Although maybe not every single day. You want people to think you’re needy. But all joking aside, asking for feedback can be very useful. 

Crystal clear clarity. As I always say, having goals and taking action towards achieving them is the life of an entrepreneur. As part of that, it helps to know what success means to you beyond money alone. It’s important to define what success means to you emotionally, socially, and ethically. If you don’t know, take the time to find out. Understanding your values and your long-term goals keeps you aligned and motivated, even if and when things get tough.  

Gaining strength. Life can throw up setbacks, even if you are spending your life trying to build something you are passionate about. Being self-aware means you can see when you are becoming stressed or off the right path. This is about taking action to understand what you have learned from the situation and what set of circumstances led to it. 

Daily improvement. Spend a good 10–15 minutes every day reviewing what has happened, from your thoughts, actions, and decisions. What went well? What could you have improved? How do others lead and respond to challenges? Think about what you like and what you don’t to better inform how you behave in future. 

Win or Wonder?

Ask Me a Question…

No matter where you are on this mad journey. Starting out, scaling up, or somewhere in the messy middle feel free to ask me anything.

Business, life or mindset, I read and reply to every question. The best ones will get featured in future editions of Winformation, with your permission of course!

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Until next week! 

Let’s win, together!