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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...

This week the company I co-founded with my friend and colleague James was crowned the UK’s Best Company Culture by the Investors in People. Not bad for a company that started life in a garage with just 2 slow laptops and our personal mobile phones! I’m not in the photos below, as I opted to stay home and watch cartoons on the sofa with my two boys...”middle age...hiya!” The day before the awards event, Tuesday this week, I gave a talk to University of Portsmouth. One of the most common questions at these talks is always around culture. How have we created such a nationally recognised one. The answer is, it’s never one thing. It’s 200 things done to obsessive levels. But as we don’t have all day to read a newsletter (or write one), I’ve distilled the answer into 10 main points. So below, in today’s One Idea to Win in Business I bring you the The Culture Playbook Every Startup (and Scale-Up) Should Steal 

We all have days when we just want to quit or runaway and not come back. But usually, time at home or an afternoon off and we are back in the room the next day. Sometimes however one day can turn into 2, can turn into a month. The “rut” enters the chat. It happens. In today’s One Idea to Win in Life we talk about spotting it and getting out of it before it swallows you whole.  

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One Idea to Win in Business

Something to Get Right as Early as You Can

The Culture Playbook Every Startup (and Scale-Up) Should Steal

Start-ups, scale-ups, big ones, little ones...size doesn’t matter. 
Whether you already run a business or you’re planning to build one someday, every company has a culture. It takes just as much effort to build a great culture as it does to constantly deal with the fallout of a terrible one. So here is my Culture Playbook Every Start Up (and Scale-Up) Should Steal.  

Communicate like you mean it. There isn’t such a thing as overcommunicating. I read somewhere once that the CEO should change their name to CRO - “Chief Repetitive Officer”. Say it, send it, write it on the wall, WhatsApp, reminders. Some people listen, some people read. You need to hit all the senses of the team so they feel updated, in the loop and clear on what’s needed.  

Listen to the team, really listen. LinkedIn post favourite from founders and business operators is that “they listen to their team”. Do you? Really? Some do, I’m sure, but by and large companies say they do and ignore the feedback they don't like...or worse reprimand people for suggesting changes that aren't popular with the management. We ask one question of every team member every day. We do this on an anonymous feedback app. That’s 30,000 questions a year. We act on the feedback and work tirelessly to improve their experience.  

Create a clear playbook. Call it a day 1 manual, call it a playbook, induction booklet or our Head of HR’s recent great work was a “Culture Code”. How to act, how to win, and how to police the culture from within is all included. I’m not giving away inside secrets here, it was posted on socials. Such an important feature of what we do.  

Give people autonomy (within a framework). Delegate outcomes, not tasks. Trust people to deliver, but be clear on what “good” looks like so they’re not guessing. Supporting all the way without telling “how” (after an initial training period) is the perfect balance. 

A simple well done. Recognition doesn't need to be a huge fancy event or a massive bonus every time. Us humans respond really well to a simple “thank you” or “great work” as well. It should be immediate (in the moment), specific (link it to an event) and casual. This boosts the habits and behaviours you want to see more of.  

Make wellbeing boringly consistent. We have some people that stay late and even a handful that work Saturdays. Whilst this is their choice, it should be discouraged long term. Make lunch breaks mandatory, encourage healthy boundaries. The only thing being taken home should be pride in their work and the business, and not the work itself. 

Protect it at all costs. I've said it before, and I’ll say it again. If there is one person that constantly and continuously attacks your culture from within, they have to go. We have exited team members, that at the time occupied spots in our top 3 salespeople because their behaviour was (for the medium term or longer) way off what we expect of our team. No figure they bring in is worth the issues they create.  

One Idea to Win in Life

Something to Escape The “Rut”

The 3-Part Reset Formula Every Ambitious Person Should Know

Ruts, we all have them. If people say they don’t then I call BS. Here’s to deal with it when it inevitably rears its ugly head.   

Every ambitious person hits the same wall eventually: one week you’re sharp, disciplined, and borderline unstoppable… and the next, you’re staring at your morning routine like it personally offended you. 

Welcome to the rut. 

The trick isn’t to avoid ruts altogether (good luck with that), but to know how to climb out quickly and cleanly, with your confidence intact. Here’s a simple, practical, Winformation method to reset yourself when your momentum suddenly evaporates. 

Stop making it worse. When you’re stuck, your instinct is often to push harder. That usually backfires. First, drop the negative self-talk. Beating yourself up won’t produce discipline, only guilt and procrastination. Notice it, pause it, move on. 

Second, rest properly. And no, rest doesn’t mean collapsing on the sofa scrolling your phone. Think of rest as recovery: mental, physical, emotional, environmental. Take a walk. Switch off early. Have a slow morning. Look for the type of rest you’re genuinely missing, not the one you default to. 

Stopping the downward spiral is half the battle. 

Change what you’re aiming at. Once you’ve stopped digging the hole deeper, you need to turn your body and your habits towards a different direction. 

Check two things: 

Internal: 
Ask yourself, “How have I contributed to this?” Not as a blame exercise, but as a pattern-spotter. Maybe you’ve overloaded your schedule. Maybe you haven’t protected your energy. Maybe you've slipped into habits that quietly drain you. 

External: 
Look at your environment. Who or what is pulling you off track? Sometimes the quickest win is simply removing or reducing one thing that overwhelms you: noise, clutter, commitments, or people who drain you. 

Small directional changes create big emotional relief. 

Write a list. A rut usually appears for me when I have lost focus. Too much to do, and not enough clarity on the priorities. List everything in your head. Just get it all out. Put a D next to anything with a deadline, put a P next to anything that’s not specifically due soon but is a priority. Refocus, get to work. Usually focusing on one task at once, builds the momentum you are craving.  

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Until next week! 

Let’s win, together!