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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...

Picture the scene. You leave your job of 5 years to take your fledging small business full time. You are excited, you want to be successful, you want the world to know who you are and how hard you have worked to get to this point. There is even a small (secret part of you) that wants your old French teacher to see your name in lights and to show them how wrong they were about you this whole time (isn’t that right Mr West – Swanmore School 1999?) 

So, you name the business after yourself. After all, it's yours, you own it, and what’s in a name anyway? Not much, surely. Wrong. In my opinion this is one of the biggest early mistakes you can make. To find out why and what to do instead see below, in today’s One Idea to Win in Business. 

If you ever needed proof that playing it safe as riskier than taking a “risk” then I have 5 stories you will want to read in today’s One Idea to Win in Life.

One Idea to Win in Business

Why Founder-Names Companies Could Struggle to Scale (& Exit) and What To Do Instead

I've seen so many businesses over the years named after their founder. And whilst this may work with some product-based companies with huge budgets, like “Dyson”, in the start-up and early stage scale up world...and especially in service-based companies Ive seen it backfire way more than it ever worked and here’s why.  

Lack of ownership from team: As you grow the business you will need to hire people. Small businesses provide jobs, proper businesses provide careers. People only excel when they feel ownership over their part of the business. Employees may feel like they’re just working for you, not building something bigger they can be part of. 

Tough to scale: Customers and clients will expect to deal with you, after all that’s who they are paying the money to, isn't it? If everyone expects you personally that traps growth and makes delegation awkward. 

Searchability issues: If you have a common name, then your business will be tough to find online, and the URL? Forget it.  

CEO or EGO: Let’s face it, it takes a special kind of someone to name something after themselves that is supposed to be focussed on your customers. Some prospects see founder-named companies as vanity projects rather than serious businesses. 

Harder to exit: The big one and the most obvious. Any potential buyer of the business in years to come will not like (at all) it’s named after its founder. They will see you as integral to the business (even if you're not). Do they buy it and go through an expensive rebrand? Do they keep the name and hope you aren't involved in a big personal scandal soon after? Or do they buy the company down the road with the more generic / marketable name. I know which I would prefer.  

What to do instead: Trust me the 2030 you will thank the 2025 you for calling it something else when you started or rebranding an existing business now before it gets too big (and expensive). The “glory” you forgo now in having your name above the door will be offset by having so much more time in the future as the team pick up and run with things. As the owner of the business your job is to slowly make yourself redundant from every job you have within the company. This allows the experts to come in and run with it. Your presence should be seen as a “power up” rather than a total necessity and this whole journey starts with not naming the thing after yourself!  

Swallow the ego and call it something else. I like names that aren't linked to any one person or anyone product. That way you can add products, move markets and every team member can feel a sense of ownership as it doesn't “belong” to someone else.  

One Idea to Win in Life

Not Gambling! Calculated Risk. 5 Stories Every Entrepreneur Should Learn From

Last week I wrote about the need to take risks. As I mentioned, this isn’t about putting your savings on red on the roulette wheel. Actually, the word risk is sometimes the wrong word. It’s about taking a leap into the unknown having tried to find out as much as you can about that unknown. Here are five good examples of very successful businesspeople who started off as unknowns but took a leap into the unknown to win:  

Developing something new. Bringing something new to world is a risk. What if nobody wants it? That was the dilemma facing Sara Blakely. She’s featured in Winformation before, but it’s worth repeating that she decided to put her life savings into developing Spanx. It was a risk for her, but it was a smart one. Although it was a leap into the unknown, she had been diligent in carrying out thorough market research and she used that as a tool to drive her belief. It paid off in a massive way through what is now a globally recognised brand. 

Leveraging what you have to go somewhere new. Richard Branson’s creation of the Virgin Group is a great example. He started the business as a record label. Since then, he’s branched out to markets as diverse as airlines and soft drinks. Those moves were always a potential risk. But he was prepared to leverage Virgin’s reputation to find new opportunities. The result has seen the creation of a diverse, resilient empire.   

Entering new markets. You have your opinions on Jeff Bezos, but he was once a bloke selling books out of his garage. Now he’s one of the most successful business people in the world. But that success initially was through books. He developed that into an online platform that didn’t just sell other things. It sold everything and it transformed the retail industry. 

Innovation. Remember when Netflix started out by mailing out DVDs? In fact, are you even old enough to know what a DVD is? Probably not. But yes, that was Netflix and it worked quite well. The idea of streaming was totally alien and new. Would people like the idea? No one knew for sure. It wasn’t certain the technology would even work. It wasn’t a blind move though. It was heavily supported by market analysis on the growing trend of online content.

Google it. Back in 2004, Google decided to launch a free email service gmail. At the time were no shortage of competitors. As a result, some felt it was a strange move, but there was a strategy. The launch of gmail was an effort from Google to further integrate themselves into peoples’ digital lives beyond their search engine. It would become a vital source of data which helped Google improve its advertising and search products. 

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!