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Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for. If you would like to apply to be a guest, just click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply Kevin's New Book Is Now Available! Drawing on BizSmart's own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brent explores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up. More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/

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November 11, 202655 min

Episode #661: How Niching Down Transformed a Freelance Business into a Scalable, High-Value Offer - with Max Partain

What if the biggest opportunity to grow your business wasn't finding more customers, working longer hours or offering more services, but getting much more specific about who you help? In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, I talk to Max Partain about his journey from competing in the crowded world of freelance video editing to building a more focused, higher-value and increasingly scalable business. It's a fascinating example of how choosing the right niche can transform your pricing, simplify your operations and create a business that's less dependent on the founder. Max's journey hasn't been straightforward. He's experienced the frustration of price competition, the excitement of finding a profitable niche and the painful consequences of relying too heavily on a small number of large clients. But each stage has helped him refine his business model. From competing on price to creating real value Max started out in freelance videography and video editing, where competition was fierce and buyers had plenty of alternatives. When customers see lots of providers offering apparently similar services, price becomes an obvious way of comparing them. Initially, Max narrowed his offering to wedding video editing. That gave him greater focus, but he was still typically earning around $500 per project, generating approximately $30,000 to $40,000 annually. His next move was into short-form documentary editing, particularly for non-profit organisations. The underlying technical skills weren't radically different, but the value placed on the work was. Project fees increased to around $2,000, and annual revenue rose to approximately $150,000 to $200,000. That's a powerful lesson for any SME owner-manager: the market you choose can have as much impact on your earning potential as the quality of the work you deliver. Why a profitable niche isn't necessarily a scalable one The documentary business brought higher-value work, but it also created another challenge. Max became heavily dependent on a small number of major clients. When one important client ran into difficulties, his income fell by approximately 60 to 70%. It was a stark reminder that high revenue doesn't automatically mean a resilient business. A business built around a handful of large customers can appear successful while remaining extremely vulnerable to events outside the founder's control. Max realised he needed a model that combined good project values with a broader, more diversified customer base. Finding the right niche: speaker reels His next opportunity was creating promotional speaker reels for keynote speakers. The distinction was important. Rather than competing with vast numbers of general video editors, Max could offer a specialist service to a clearly defined audience with a strong commercial reason to invest. Professional speakers need convincing promotional material to secure bookings. When a speaking engagement can be worth thousands of dollars, a compelling reel becomes a commercial asset rather than simply another video. Max estimates that the specialist market includes around 50 providers worldwide, serving a potential audience of approximately 100,000 keynote speakers. By understanding that market and positioning his offering appropriately, he moved from relatively modest video editing fees to projects commanding as much as $12,000. The lesson isn't simply to increase your prices. It's to identify customers for whom your work solves a sufficiently important problem that they recognise and are prepared to pay for its value. Productising the solution, not just the service One of the most interesting developments was the creation of Max's Speaker Reel Day . He noticed a recurring objection from prospective clients: they wanted a speaker reel but didn't have suitable footage. Rather than treating that as a reason for a sale to fall through, he redesigned the offer. Speaker Reel Day provides an integrated experience, including a stage, videography and coaching, creating the material clients need for their promotional reels. With a package priced around $5,500, Max has created a clearer, more tangible offer that addresses the customer's problem directly. This is a useful example of productisation. Rather than asking customers to navigate a collection of services, the business offers a defined solution with a clear outcome. That helps customers understand what they're buying and gives the business a more repeatable delivery process. Why focus makes delegation easier There's an important people and leadership lesson in Max's story too. When a business offers lots of different services to lots of different customers, almost every project can become unique. That makes training, delegation and quality control more difficult. By focusing on a narrower offering, Max can standardise processes, clarify responsibilities and make it easier for others to deliver consistently. That's how specialisation moves beyond pricing strategy and becomes part of the foundation for scaling. A business that can repeat its core processes is far less dependent on the founder being involved in every detail. A smarter approach to finding customers Max has also changed how he approaches business development. Instead of pursuing individual keynote speakers one by one, he's increasingly focusing on relationships with coaches, communities and other people who already serve those speakers. These partners can introduce multiple potential customers who already have some level of trust in the referral. It's a useful reminder that a good growth strategy isn't only about what you sell. It's also about finding a more effective route to the right customers. What SME owners can learn from Max There are several practical lessons here for business owners thinking about their next stage of growth: Strategic focus: Trying to serve everyone can make it harder to stand out and charge appropriately. Pricing and value: Customers pay for the importance of the outcome, not simply the hours or technical effort involved. Resilience: A small number of large customers may deliver strong revenue but can expose the business to significant risk. Team development: A repeatable, well-defined service is easier to systemise, delegate and scale. Productisation: The best offers remove the barriers that stop customers buying. Business development: Strategic referral partnerships can be more effective than constantly chasing individual prospects. The one key thing You don't have to become better at everything to grow your business. You need to become more valuable to the right customers. Max's experience shows that choosing what not to do can be just as important as deciding where to invest your time, effort and resources. And that applies to almost every growing business, whatever the industry. From the frustration of more to the discipline of less There's a strong connection between Max's experience and something I've noticed across more than 500 conversations on ScaleUp Radio. Most founders are busy. There's plenty happening, but they're often frustrated that the business isn't moving forward as quickly as they'd like. As businesses succeed, they create more opportunities, more choices and more competing demands. The founders who scale learn to choose less and deliver all of it. That's what the G90 Summit from Smart90 is designed to help with. It's a structured, virtual half-day where we cut through the competing priorities, agree the three to five things that must happen over the next 90 days and establish the rhythm to make sure they get done. From the frustration and chaos of more, through the discipline of less, to the rhythm of done. Quarterly, virtual, £97 plus VAT per seat. Find out more at https://smart90.co.uk/summit Max can be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxpartain/ Resources: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill - https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/think-grow-rich-napoleon-hill/34a45ae6641f392e?ean=9798880923250

November 9, 20261 hr 0 min

Episode #660: Emotional intelligence, psychological safety and becoming a better leader - with Claire Boulby

In this episode of ScaleUp Radio , Kevin Brent is joined by Claire Boulby, founder of Intelligence Works , to explore something that can easily be dismissed as a "soft skill", but which has very real consequences for leadership, teams and business performance: emotional intelligence. Claire's route into this work is personal. After experiencing severe burnout during her career in the oil and gas sector, she began to recognise the cost of ignoring emotional signals and the importance of developing the skills to understand and manage our responses. One of the most encouraging messages from our conversation is that emotional intelligence, or EQ, is not something you either have or you don't. It can be developed. For business owners and leaders, that matters. As businesses grow, leadership increasingly becomes less about having the answers yourself and more about creating an environment in which other people can contribute, challenge, make decisions and perform at their best. And that starts with self-awareness. The standout message One point from Claire particularly stood out: If the most important conversation happens between people after the meeting rather than during it, you may have a psychological safety problem. It is a simple but powerful test. A team that feels psychologically safe does not necessarily agree with one another. In fact, Claire makes an important distinction between a meeting being "nice" and it being "safe". A safe team can disagree. People can question an idea, challenge the leader, admit that they do not understand something or raise a concern without worrying about embarrassment or repercussions. That constructive disagreement can be vital to innovation and better decision making. If people nod through the meeting and only say what they really think afterwards, the business is potentially losing some of its most valuable information. What is emotional intelligence? Claire describes EQ as our ability to understand and manage our own emotions while also recognising and responding effectively to the emotions of other people. The foundations include: • Self-awareness , recognising what is happening within ourselves • Self-regulation , managing our response rather than simply reacting • Communication , expressing ourselves effectively • Empathy , understanding what may be happening for somebody else Crucially, these are skills that can be practised and improved. That makes EQ particularly relevant for founders and SME leaders. As the business becomes more complex, technical expertise alone is rarely enough. How we react under pressure, listen to challenge, communicate difficult decisions and create trust increasingly affects the performance of the wider organisation. High IQ does not automatically make a great leader Claire talks about leaders who may be extremely capable technically but have never developed the corresponding emotional intelligence. One consequence can be a gap between what leaders say they want and how they actually behave. A leader might tell the team that they welcome challenge and want people to contribute ideas. But if their response when somebody challenges them is defensive, dismissive or angry, the team quickly learns a different lesson. People pay attention to behaviour, not just words. Over time, that disconnect can damage trust and discourage people from speaking openly. Psychological safety does not mean everybody being nice This is an important distinction from the conversation. Psychological safety is not about avoiding difficult conversations. It is about making those conversations possible. When people feel safe enough to disagree constructively, ask questions, admit mistakes and put forward ideas, businesses have access to far more of the knowledge and experience already sitting within their teams. That becomes increasingly important as a company scales and leadership needs to become more distributed. The founder cannot be involved in every decision forever. A practical tool: Stop, Breathe, Notice, Reflect, Respond Claire shares a useful framework for those moments when something triggers an immediate emotional reaction. SBNRR: Stop, Breathe, Notice, Reflect, Respond. Stop: interrupt the automatic reaction. Breathe: deliberately slow things down. Claire discusses how techniques such as extending the exhale can help calm the body. Notice: pay attention to what is happening physically. Perhaps your heart is racing, your chest feels tight or your body has become tense. Reflect: ask yourself what is causing the response. What exactly has triggered you, and why? Respond: choose what you actually want to do next rather than allowing the initial reaction to make the decision for you. It sounds simple, but the important point is practice. Claire suggests that even one or two minutes of regular practice can help build the capability so that it is available when we really need it. EQ in an AI-driven workplace We also explore why emotional intelligence could become more important rather than less important as technology and AI develop. As AI increasingly handles technical and repeatable tasks, human capabilities such as empathy, judgement, communication and critical thinking become increasingly valuable. At the same time, leaders are managing increasingly diverse and multi-generational workforces. Claire has seen younger generations respond positively to practical tools that help them manage attention and emotions in a technology-saturated environment, while some older audiences can initially be more sceptical about "soft skills". For those audiences, the science and practical evidence behind EQ can be particularly useful. From burnout to Intelligence Works Claire's own experience of burnout helped shape the work she does today through Intelligence Works. Her ambition is to continue working with technical audiences, where her own background gives her particular insight, while also taking these skills to younger people through schools. There is an interesting idea behind that ambition: what difference could it make if people learnt these skills before reaching a leadership role, rather than discovering them only after something has gone wrong? The one key thing The one key thing to take away from this conversation is that better leadership starts with managing yourself. You cannot create genuine psychological safety simply by telling people to speak up. Your team watches what happens when somebody actually does. Developing the ability to pause, understand your own reaction and respond deliberately can change the quality of the conversation and, ultimately, the quality of the decisions your business makes. Before you go Most founders I speak to feel busy but frustrated. There is plenty happening, but they are frustrated that they are not moving forward at the rate they want to. Often, success has created more options, pulling the founder and their team in different directions. Here is what more than 500 interviews on ScaleUp Radio have taught me: the founders who scale choose less, and deliver all of it. That is what the G90 Summit is for. It is a structured half-day where we cut through everything competing for your attention, agree the three to five things that must happen in the next 90 days, and build the rhythm to make sure they do. From the frustration and chaos of more, through the discipline of less, to the rhythm of done. Quarterly. Virtual. £97 a seat. Find out more at Smart90.co.uk/summit . Make sure you do not miss future episodes by subscribing to ScaleUp Radio wherever you listen to your podcasts. And if you know a business owner with an interesting ScaleUp story, you can nominate them as a future guest on ScaleUp Radio. Claire can be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-boulby-ei/ claire@intelligenceworks.co.uk Resources: Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman - https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/emotional-intelligence-25th-anniversary-edition-daniel-goleman/856a054183641985?ean=9781526633620 10% Happier by Dan Harris - https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/10-happier-10th-anniversary-how-i-tamed-the-voice-in-my-head-reduced-stress-without-losing-my-edge-and-found-self-help-that-actually-works-a-true/3b6658f76255898f?ean=9781444799057

November 4, 202650 min

Episode #659: Scaling Sustainability Through Practical Implementation - with Rodica Murphy

In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Rodica Murphy, founder of RM Sustainability , to explore how she is helping fashion and textile SMEs tackle the growing complexity of sustainability compliance. Rodica works primarily with businesses employing 20+ people and turning over £2m+, acting as an outsourced implementation partner rather than simply providing high-level advice. We explore the challenge of turning regulation into practical action, including the growing demands created by EU sustainability legislation and pressure from larger corporate customers. Rodica also shares some of the more innovative projects she has been involved in, from repurposing counterfeit clothing with Central Saint Martins to creating "Sewing Circles" that develop practical skills and employment opportunities for women from disadvantaged backgrounds. The conversation also moves into the challenge of scaling a specialist consultancy. Rodica's current retainer model creates strong recurring revenues and deep client relationships, but inevitably creates a capacity ceiling when revenue remains closely linked to the founder's time. Attempts to move towards outcome-based pricing have highlighted an interesting issue: clients may happily pay the same overall amount monthly while resisting a larger upfront project fee. One possible route beyond that constraint is the Impact Ledger , a developing service that converts raw sustainability and waste data into a single audit-ready report. Over time, Rodica sees potential for this to evolve from a service into a scalable software product. We also discuss why Rodica is deliberately choosing measured growth rather than rapid expansion, prioritising expertise, reputation and deep client relationships while deciding whether the future business should become a mini-agency, a network of specialists or something increasingly product-led. In this episode we discuss: • Why sustainability compliance is becoming increasingly difficult for SMEs • The difference between sustainability advice and practical implementation • Turning waste and compliance challenges into creative opportunities • The strengths and limitations of a time-based consultancy model • Why outcome-based pricing can be harder to sell than expected • The challenge of separating revenue from founder time • Productising expertise through the Impact Ledger • Choosing deliberate growth rather than chasing headcount • Why simple business fundamentals such as SLAs, payment terms and direct debit matter The one key thing The expertise that creates a successful consultancy can eventually become the thing that limits its growth unless that knowledge is turned into a repeatable process, product or system. Standout message The mathematically better pricing model isn't necessarily the commercially easier model for your customer to buy. Smart90 and the G90 Summit Most founders I speak to feel busy but frustrated. Plenty is happening, but they are not moving forward at the rate they want to. Success creates more options, pulling founders and their teams in different directions. More than 500 ScaleUp Radio interviews have reinforced one lesson: the founders who scale choose less, and deliver all of it. That's what the G90 Summit is designed to help with. A structured half-day where you cut through everything competing for your attention, agree the three to five things that must happen in the next 90 days, and build the rhythm to make sure they do. From the frustration and chaos of more, through the discipline of less, to the rhythm of done. Quarterly. Virtual. £97 per seat. smart90.co.uk/summit Rodica can be found here: https://www.rodicamurphy.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodicamurphy/ Resources: Back Row podcast - https://open.spotify.com/show/0wpDOgcuWKjpH9WxklNqI4?si=a7e09b64ade54b7d A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas - https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/a-court-of-thorns-and-roses-sarah-j-maas/7dff7a44f1c0144d?ean=9781526694065 Greenly - https://greenly.earth/ Motion - https://www.usemotion.com/ Todoist - https://www.todoist.com/

November 2, 20261 hr 2 min

Episode #658: AI Is An Opportunity Not A Threat - with Ken Scales

In this episode of ScaleUp Radio , Kevin Brent talks to Ken Scales, founder of Scalesology , about the challenges of growing a technology consultancy, removing the founder as the operational bottleneck and creating more predictable, recurring revenue. Ken's journey is an interesting example of what happens when a successful service business reaches the point where simply winning more projects is no longer enough. Scalesology has spent years helping businesses connect technology, data and systems. But project work inevitably creates peaks and troughs. That led Ken and the team to look at how they could turn knowledge developed through individual client projects into something much more scalable. The result is Syncology , a SaaS platform designed to connect disparate data sources, including CRM and ERP systems, through a common data model. It represents a significant shift in the business: taking intellectual property developed through years of client work and turning it into recurring revenue. And that transition is just one of several scaling challenges we explore. From founder dependency to operational discipline One of Ken's biggest changes has been handing responsibility for day-to-day operations to a COO. Rather than trying to stay involved in everything, the business now uses a modified version of EOS and Traction, supported by weekly pulse meetings, scorecards and clear individual accountability. One phrase from Ken particularly stood out: "Everyone should have a number." The principle is simple. People need to understand what they are individually responsible for and how that measure contributes to the wider objectives of the business. That structure has enabled Ken to spend more time on strategy, sales and the future of the company without losing visibility of what is happening operationally. Solving the founder-led sales problem Sales has been another major scaling challenge. Like many technically experienced founders, Ken found that he naturally acted as the translator between the commercial problem a customer was describing and the technical solution Scalesology could provide. The difficulty was trying to recruit somebody who could replicate all of that experience. Eventually, the team stopped trying to find a clone of the founder. Instead, they developed what Ken describes as a "peak and pass" approach. Salespeople identify the opportunity and understand the problem before bringing in the right technical expertise to help develop and close the solution. It allows the sales process to become more repeatable without pretending that every salesperson needs years of technical experience. Escaping the consulting treadmill Project businesses often suffer from the same challenge: revenue arrives in waves. A major project finishes and suddenly the business needs to replace that income. Ken describes two ways Scalesology has addressed this. The first is through retainers that provide clients with ongoing access to the people who understand their systems. The second is more fundamental: turning repeatable solutions developed for individual customers into products. That thinking led directly to Syncology. Rather than continually building individual point-to-point integrations, Syncology provides a platform through which different systems and data sources can connect. The ambition is to create a more scalable business with recurring revenue alongside the existing consultancy operation. AI as an opportunity rather than simply a threat Ken also talks about the rapid development of AI and the impact it is having on software and technology businesses. Rather than viewing AI purely as something that will replace existing services, he sees it as an opportunity to change how those services are delivered and create new products. One example is Syncology's AI Control Center . The concept is to redact sensitive information before data is passed into an AI model, helping organisations in regulated industries explore AI while protecting personally identifiable or sensitive information. It is another example of Scalesology looking at a client problem and asking whether the solution can ultimately become something repeatable and scalable. Culture before process Ken's approach to scaling has also been heavily influenced by culture. Scalesology established four core values with its first two employees: Commit to the Cause Treat Others Like You Want to Be Treated Focus on the Leading Edge Celebrate the Journey Those principles have remained part of the business as it has developed. Alongside culture has come increasing operational discipline, including weekly scorecards, individual measures and 30, 60 and 90-day plans when bringing new people into the business. Networking: give before you get Towards the end of the conversation, Ken shares a very practical approach to networking. Rather than immediately asking what somebody can do for him, he starts with two questions: How can I help you? and Who would you like to meet? Helping first builds trust and, in Ken's experience, naturally creates reciprocity. It is a simple approach that founders relying on networks, referrals and relationships can put into practice immediately. The one key thing… If your growth still depends on the founder personally delivering, selling or solving every problem, scaling means finding the repeatable system behind what you already do well. For Scalesology, that has meant clearer operational accountability, changing the sales process and turning years of bespoke integration work into a scalable product. In this episode We cover: Moving from project revenue towards recurring income Productising expertise developed through client work Delegating operational responsibility to a COO Using scorecards and weekly rhythms to create accountability Why "everyone should have a number" Moving beyond founder-led sales Scalesology's "peak and pass" sales model Using 30, 60 and 90-day plans when hiring The development of Syncology Creating safer routes to AI adoption for regulated businesses Building culture around clear company values Why Ken approaches networking by giving before asking Smart90 and the G90 Summit Before we get into it, most founders I speak to feel busy but frustrated. There is plenty happening, but they are frustrated that they are not moving forward at the rate they want to. Success creates more options, pulling founders and their teams in different directions. Here is what more than 500 interviews on ScaleUp Radio have taught me: The founders who scale choose less, and deliver all of it. That is what the G90 Summit is for. It is a structured half-day where we cut through everything competing for your attention, agree the three to five things that must happen in the next 90 days, and build the rhythm to make sure they do. From the frustration and chaos of more, through the discipline of less, to the rhythm of done. Quarterly. Virtual. £97 a seat. Visit Smart90.co.uk/summit . Ken can be found here: ken@scalesology.com Resources: Built To Sell by John Warrillow - https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/built-to-sell-creating-a-business-that-can-thrive-without-you-john-warrillow/d0d51f969be59f14?ean=9798256105150 Manus - https://manus.im/

October 28, 20261 hr 2 min

Episode #657: How do you scale a business without the founder becoming the bottleneck? - with Dave Christie

In this episode of ScaleUp Radio , Kevin Brent is joined by Dave Christie of Flourish Foundry for a conversation about one of the biggest challenges facing owner-managed businesses: how do you build a business that can grow beyond you? Flourish Foundry works with founders to help them regain control of their businesses, focus their time where it creates the greatest value and learn to delegate effectively. In fact, Dave describes the ultimate goal as helping founders make themselves increasingly redundant from the day-to-day running of their businesses. It is a conversation that gets into the practical realities of scaling rather than simply chasing growth. Dave talks about why founders need to understand their numbers before making hiring and investment decisions, why systems and SOPs matter if you want to delegate, and why your first hires should often have strengths that complement rather than replicate your own. We also explore the role of fractional specialists as a business grows. Rather than immediately building a large permanent team, founders can potentially access several different areas of expertise without carrying the cost of several full-time senior people. There is also a fascinating discussion about positioning. Trying to appeal to everybody can feel like the safest route to growth, but Dave argues that narrowing your audience can actually help create a much stronger community. Speaking clearly to the people you really want to work with inevitably means some people will decide you are not for them. That can be a strength rather than a weakness. Dave also shares a useful example of what happens when founders ask the wrong questions. After asking an audience whether they would be interested in a new community, Flourish Foundry invested in a dedicated online platform. The problem was that the audience already had tools such as WhatsApp and did not want another system to log into. The lesson was not simply that the idea failed. It was that they had validated the concept without properly validating the behaviour required to make it work. That leads to one of the standout questions from the whole conversation: "What is this for?" Before committing time, money or energy to another initiative, founders can ask what the activity is actually designed to achieve and whether it contributes meaningfully to the goals of the business. In this episode, we discuss: • Why scaling requires founders to progressively let go • Knowing your numbers before hiring or investing • Building systems and SOPs that make delegation possible • Hiring people with complementary strengths • Using fractional specialists as an alternative to immediately building a large team • Why trying to sell to everyone can weaken your positioning • The commercial realities behind winning a major retail order • Why founders sometimes believe the normal rules of business don't apply to their brand • The difference between validating an idea and validating customer behaviour • Why imperfect delegation can be better than founder dependency • Treating failure as useful information rather than simply a setback • The power of asking, "What is this for?" The standout message The founder shouldn't remain the person everything depends upon. Scaling means creating the numbers, systems, people and trust that allow the business to operate without everything coming back to you. And sometimes that means accepting that somebody else will do something differently from you, rather than insisting they do it exactly as you would. The one key thing If you want to scale, start identifying what the business needs to stop depending on you for. Look at the activities consuming your time, particularly the ones you dislike or where someone else has stronger skills. Systemise them, delegate them and gradually move your own attention towards the work where you create the greatest value. Before you get into the episode Most founders I speak to feel busy but frustrated. Plenty is happening, but they're frustrated that they aren't moving forward at the rate they want to. Success creates more options, pulling founders and their teams in different directions. Here's what more than 500 interviews on ScaleUp Radio have taught me: the founders who scale choose less, and deliver all of it. That's what the G90 Summit is for. It's a structured half-day where we cut through everything competing for your attention, agree the three to five things that must happen in the next 90 days, and build the rhythm to make sure they do. From the frustration and chaos of more, through the discipline of less, to the rhythm of done. Quarterly. Virtual. £97 a seat. Smart90.co.uk/summit Dave can be found here: https://www.flourishfoundry.co.uk/ dave@flourishfoundry.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/flourishfoundry/ Resources: Founder First by Dave Christie - https://amzn.eu/d/0ioGvEfg The Built To Sell Podcast - https://builttosell.com/podcast/ Turn The Ship Around! By L David Marquet - https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/turn-the-ship-around-a-true-story-of-turning-followers-into-leaders-l-david-marquet/0f7fc84166e13719?ean=9780241250945 Go for No! By Andrea Waltz and Richard Fenton - https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/go-for-no-yes-is-the-destination-no-is-how-you-get-there-andrea-waltz/85e01400f1264c85?ean=9781467652698

October 22, 20261 hr 2 min

Episode #656: Scaling Technology Without Scaling the Chaos - with Tim Ng

How do you make sure technology is actually helping you scale your business rather than simply giving you more things to spend money on? In this episode of ScaleUp Radio , Kevin Brent is joined by Tim Ng , an experienced technology leader and fractional CTO with more than 20 years' experience across startups, larger organisations and sectors including FinTech, Digital Health and MarTech. The conversation explores what a fractional CTO actually does, why growing businesses need to think about technology as a strategic investment rather than simply a cost, and how the rapid adoption of AI is making good technology governance more important than ever. Tim makes an important distinction between somebody responsible for developing technology and the role of a CTO. A CTO should be thinking beyond the code: understanding where the business is heading, deciding which technology investments will support those objectives, identifying risks and helping the leadership team make better decisions. And AI has raised the stakes. The opportunities are enormous, but so are the risks of adopting tools simply because they are available. Tim talks about rising AI costs, data security, shadow IT and the danger of replacing people with automation before the technology has actually proved capable of doing the job. His approach is much more pragmatic: start with the business objectives, understand where technology can genuinely help and keep a human in the loop. We also explore Tim's own founder journey and one lesson that will resonate with many growing business owners: delegate earlier . Like many founders, Tim initially believed he needed to remain closely involved to maintain the quality of the work. Over time, he realised that this very instinct could become one of the biggest constraints on growth. Tim also explains the thinking behind CTO in your Pocket , designed to make strategic technology expertise accessible to startups and SMEs that may not yet be ready for a full fractional CTO engagement. It combines AI-powered guidance with access to a human CTO and tools including code auditing and contract IP scanning. In this episode, we explore: • What a fractional CTO actually does and how that differs from managing software development • Why technology spend should be connected directly to business objectives • How AI can inadvertently scale problems as quickly as it scales productivity • The growing risks around AI costs, data security and shadow IT • Why businesses need a human in the loop when adopting AI • Why regulatory considerations need to come before building technology • The danger of replacing people with AI before proving the technology works • Why founders can become their own constraint on growth • Tim's lesson about delegating and expanding the team earlier • How CTO in your Pocket is attempting to bring strategic technology support to smaller businesses The standout message Technology should follow the business strategy, not become the strategy. AI makes it easier than ever to build, automate and experiment. But more capability also creates more options. Without clear priorities and governance, businesses risk spending faster, creating more complexity and scaling the wrong things. The one key thing... Don't use AI simply because you can. Start with what the business needs to achieve, then decide where technology can genuinely help you get there. That means having clear objectives, appropriate guardrails and human oversight rather than allowing the availability of new tools to dictate your priorities. From more, to less, to done Before we get into it, most founders I speak to feel busy but frustrated. Plenty is happening, but they're frustrated that they aren't moving forward at the rate they want to. That's because their success leads to more options, pulling them and their teams in different directions. Here's what more than 500 interviews on this show have taught me: the founders who scale choose less, and deliver all of it. That's what the G90 Summit is for. It's a structured half-day where we cut through everything competing for your attention, agree the three to five things that must happen in the next 90 days, and build the rhythm to make sure they do. From the frustration and chaos of more, through the discipline of less, to the rhythm of done. Quarterly. Virtual. £97 a seat. Find out more at Smart90.co.uk/summit . Tim can be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tkcng/ Technology Check on CTO In Your Pocket - https://www.ctoinyourpocket.com/scaleup Resources: Turn The Ship Around! By L David Marquet - https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/turn-the-ship-around-a-true-story-of-turning-followers-into-leaders-l-david-marquet/0f7fc84166e13719?ean=9780241250945 Find Your Why by Simon Sinek - https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/find-your-why-a-practical-guide-for-discovering-purpose-for-you-and-your-team-david-mead/6ac82c1a0e64188e?ean=9780241279267 The Chimp Paradox by Prof Steve Peters - https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-chimp-paradox-the-mind-management-programme-to-help-you-achieve-success-confidence-and-happiness-the-million-copy-bestseller-prof-steve-peter/ee209c7d88f99365?ean=9781785042447 Claude - https://claude.ai/new ChatGPT - https://chatgpt.com/ Notion - https://www.notion.com/ Obsidian - https://obsidian.md/

October 21, 20261 hr 2 min

Episode #655: From Acquisition to Focus: Scaling NBR - with Michaela Cusack

In this episode of ScaleUp Radio , host Kevin Brent is joined by Michaela Cusack , solicitor and co-owner of NBR , to explore what really happens when you acquire an established business and then set about changing its direction. Michaela and her business partner Matt acquired NBR in 2020. They were stepping into an unfamiliar intellectual property sector, taking responsibility for a long-established team and, almost immediately, dealing with the impact of Covid. Their rationale for the acquisition was compelling. Through Matt's work in mergers and acquisitions, they had seen how businesses with well-protected intellectual property could be more attractive to buyers and potentially achieve higher valuations. They saw an opportunity to build a business helping owners recognise, protect and develop those assets. But acquiring the business was only the beginning. One of the most interesting lessons from Michaela's story is what happened when they initially tried to change too much at once. Multiple projects competed for attention and progress stalled. The answer was greater focus: concentrating on core intellectual property services, moving away from non-core activities such as company formations and becoming much more disciplined about deciding which initiatives deserved resources. Today, new projects are given clear three and six-month review points, with KPIs used to determine whether they should continue. It is a lesson that will resonate with many growing businesses: doing more does not necessarily mean progressing faster. Focus can be a growth strategy in its own right. Buying a business without seeing everything Michaela also talks candidly about the acquisition process and what she would do differently today. The acquisition was funded through personal savings and business loans, with most of the purchase price paid upfront and the remainder staged through the first year. Financial due diligence was important, but Michaela discovered that accounts and reports cannot tell you everything about how a business actually operates. With hindsight, she would have spent more time physically observing the business and talking to the people who understood its day-to-day workings. That experience has also changed the way NBR approaches suppliers and partners. Recommendations alone are no longer enough. References are checked and greater due diligence is carried out before important relationships are established. Bringing an established team with you Another potential risk was the team. Some employees had worked together for more than 30 years, yet there were no contractual arrangements tying them into the business following the acquisition. Rather than attempting to manage that uncertainty through control, Michaela and Matt concentrated on transparency. They shared their plans, talked openly about business performance and worked to build trust with the existing team. It is a useful reminder that acquiring a company means acquiring far more than its customers, accounts and systems. You are also taking responsibility for its accumulated knowledge, relationships and culture. Making intellectual property accessible NBR now operates two distinct service models. Its Business Zone Protection service provides smaller businesses with an affordable entry point into protecting their trading identity, while its consultative work covers areas including trade mark and design searches, UK and international registrations, monitoring, IP audits, licensing and commercial agreements. The broader ambition is to make intellectual property easier for SME owners to understand. That feeds directly into NBR's growth strategy. Rather than simply selling professional services, the business is building authority through education, including webinars, guides and IP audits delivered with trade associations and organisations such as the Department for Business and Trade. The principle is straightforward: help potential clients understand the problem before asking them to buy the solution. Knowing when to say no Growth has also meant becoming clearer about the clients, suppliers and opportunities that are right for the business. Michaela discusses the importance of being prepared to decline work when the fit is wrong and of avoiding referral arrangements driven by financial incentives rather than what is best for the client. That clarity of boundaries is another form of focus. AI still needs a capable human Michaela's thoughts on AI provide another standout moment in the conversation. NBR is exploring AI carefully, with particular attention to data security and human oversight. But Michaela makes an important distinction: putting a human in the loop is only useful if that person has sufficient knowledge to recognise when the AI is wrong and challenge its output. Human oversight is not simply checking what AI produces. The human needs the expertise to question it. That is particularly relevant in professional services, where an output that looks convincing can still be inaccurate. What you'll hear in this episode Kevin and Michaela discuss: • Why Michaela and Matt decided to acquire NBR • What M&A taught them about the value of intellectual property • Funding and structuring an acquisition • What traditional due diligence failed to uncover • Taking over a team with decades of shared history • Why trying to tackle too many projects slowed progress • The decision to focus NBR entirely around IP • Using KPIs and deadlines to stop weak projects consuming resources • Building trust through education rather than simply selling • Why NBR carries out more due diligence on suppliers and partners today • Learning to say no to clients who are not the right fit • Growing capacity without losing expertise • The opportunities and risks presented by AI • Why genuine human oversight requires expertise The one key thing Focus is not about having fewer ambitions. It is about making sure the things that matter actually get done. Michaela's experience of acquiring and reshaping NBR demonstrates the cost of trying to pursue too many initiatives simultaneously. Their progress accelerated when they became clearer about the core business, set measurable deadlines and became willing to stop activities that were not delivering. For ScaleUp leaders, that may be the biggest takeaway from this conversation: choose fewer priorities, give them proper attention and be disciplined enough to stop what is not working. From more, to less, to done Before we get into the episode, most founders I speak to feel busy but frustrated. There is plenty happening, but they are not moving forward at the rate they want to. Often, success itself creates the problem. More success creates more options, pulling founders and their teams in different directions. Here's what more than 500 interviews on ScaleUp Radio have taught me: the founders who scale choose less, and deliver all of it. That's what the G90 Summit is for. It is a structured half-day where we cut through everything competing for your attention, agree the three to five things that must happen in the next 90 days, and build the rhythm to make sure they do. From the frustration and chaos of more, through the discipline of less, to the rhythm of done. Quarterly. Virtual. £97 a seat. Find out more at Smart90.co.uk/summit . Make sure you don't miss future episodes by subscribing to ScaleUp Radio wherever you like to listen to your podcasts and giving us a follow. And if you know someone with an interesting ScaleUp story, you can nominate them as a future ScaleUp Radio guest. Michaela can be found here: https://nationalbusinessregister.co.uk/ michaela@nbr.co.uk Resources: Profit First by Mike Michalowicz - https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/profit-first-transform-your-business-from-a-cash-eating-monster-to-a-money-making-machine-mike-michalowicz/e25b263b79b27e07?ean=9781399643061 High Level - https://www.gohighlevel.com/

October 19, 202655 min

Episode #654: ScaleUp Club: Brand Promises. Say It, Mean It, Live It - with Jake Young

What does your business really promise its customers – and would your team, your suppliers and your customers all give the same answer? This special edition of ScaleUp Radio was recorded live at our latest ScaleUp Club, where we explored the theme "Brand Promise: Say it, mean it, live it." Rather than our usual one-to-one conversation, this episode brings together three parts of the ScaleUp Club session: an AI Pulse update from Paul Rhodes of Green Gorilla Software, some thoughts from Kevin Brent on why brand promise is a strategic issue rather than simply a marketing one, and a practical Q&A with returning ScaleUp Radio guest Jake Young, founder and CEO of The Food Guys International. First up: Paul Rhodes and the AI Pulse Paul opens the session by tackling something that is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore: AI slop . As AI makes it easier to produce more content, Paul argues that businesses risk producing communications that all sound the same – and, more importantly, losing the human voice that made them distinctive in the first place. His standout message is simple: "AI does the filing. But it should never do the voice." Paul shares three practical ways businesses can use AI without surrendering their authenticity. Build an insight library from customer conversations, capturing the language customers actually use to describe their problems, frustrations and objections. Build a story bank from the real experiences that already exist inside the business, rather than asking AI to invent generic content. And build a messaging bank that brings those customer insights and authentic stories together into consistent communications. There is a useful challenge here for any founder: take a recent customer conversation and find three phrases your customer used that you would never have written yourself. Those phrases could be far more powerful than the polished marketing language you are currently using. Brand Promise: Say it, mean it, live it That leads naturally into this ScaleUp Club's main theme. Every business already makes a promise, whether it has formally written one down or not. Your brand isn't simply your logo, visual identity or strapline. It's what people conclude about the business from what actually happens when they deal with you. We explore a simple three-part test: Say it. Can you clearly articulate the promise you are making – and is it distinctive enough that a competitor couldn't simply say exactly the same thing? Mean it. Are you genuinely prepared to make decisions based upon that promise, even when doing so costs you something? Live it. Is that promise consistently delivered through your people, processes, suppliers and customer experience – particularly when the founder isn't there? That final point is where brand promise becomes a ScaleUp issue. A powerful promise that only the founder can deliver isn't yet a scalable asset. Q&A with Jake Young Returning ScaleUp Radio guest Jake Young joins us to take that discussion into the realities of scaling. Jake is founder and CEO of The Food Guys International, working with founder-led restaurant, food and beverage and hotel groups to move from founder-dependent businesses towards systems-led organisations that are better equipped to scale, attract investment or ultimately be sold. And his central point is that brand runs much deeper than marketing. If you make a promise around quality, service, sustainability or anything else, it has to flow through the operating model, people, supply chain and economics of the business. As Jake puts it, you first need to understand what it means to win within your four walls . Only once you can consistently deliver that experience internally does it become something you can successfully replicate elsewhere. The discussion explores the common founder belief that "nobody can do what I do". Jake doesn't necessarily dispute that initially. Instead, he asks the more important question: how do you make what you do trainable and transferable? That's the difference between replacing one bottleneck with another person and actually building a system. The Q&A also covers: • Why documenting a founder's knowledge is essential to removing founder dependency • How to identify whether a bottleneck is caused by technical expertise, control or process • Why transferring responsibility to another individual isn't the same as creating a system • How service businesses can turn expertise into defined, trainable offers • The role of an "executive sponsor" when clients are reluctant to let go of the founder • How to assess suppliers as genuine scaling partners rather than simply looking for the cheapest price • Why consistency, responsiveness and quality can justify paying a supplier a premium • How the appropriate unit of scale changes according to the business model • Why scaling sometimes requires changing the revenue model rather than simply selling more of the same thing • The importance of deciding what you ultimately want the business to become before deciding how far or fast it should scale The one key thing... A brand promise only becomes a scalable asset when the business can deliver it consistently without depending upon the founder. Saying it is marketing. Meaning it influences the decisions you make. Living it means building the people, processes, suppliers and systems that make the promise true every time. And that is what makes it transferable and scalable. Before you go Most founders I speak to feel busy but frustrated. Plenty is happening, but they're frustrated that they aren't moving forward at the rate they want to. Success creates more options, pulling founders and their teams in different directions. Here's what more than 500 interviews on ScaleUp Radio have taught me: the founders who scale choose less, and deliver all of it. That's what the G90 Summit is for. It's a structured half-day where we cut through everything competing for your attention, agree the three to five things that must happen in the next 90 days, and build the rhythm to make sure they do. From the frustration and chaos of more, through the discipline of less, to the rhythm of done. Quarterly. Virtual. £97 a seat. Smart90.co.uk/summit Make sure you don't miss future episodes by subscribing to ScaleUp Radio wherever you like to listen to your podcasts – and give us a follow. You can also nominate a guest for ScaleUp Radio if you know someone with an interesting ScaleUp story. Jake can be found here: jake@thefoodguys.co https://thefoodguys.co/ https://symari.com/

October 14, 202646 min

Episode #653: From Kitchen Table to Entrepreneurship - with Carole Duck

What happens when you spot a problem in your own life, create a solution at home, and gradually discover there could be a much bigger business hiding inside it? In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent talks to Carole Duck, founder of Duxanall Dogbedz, about building a product-led business from the kitchen table, bootstrapping its growth and finding opportunities to move from a handmade product towards a more scalable and potentially higher-margin business. Carole's original product came from a very practical problem: a puppy that kept chewing expensive dog beds. Her solution was a raised, slot-together wooden bed with a machine-washable hammock-style fabric base. It can be flat-packed for travelling or storage and comes with what Carole calls her "fur-ever" guarantee, including replacement parts for chew damage. Seven years in, she says nobody has yet needed to claim against that guarantee. But this conversation goes well beyond dog beds. Carole talks openly about starting small, receiving a £500 grant that helped her increase production, moving from her kitchen into a dedicated garden workshop and experimenting with different routes to market, from markets and social media to online sales and retail. One particularly interesting part of the discussion is pricing. Carole's approach has been deliberately simple: material cost multiplied by two, plus £20 for her own wage. The logic behind the multiplier was to generate enough money from one sale to fund materials for two more beds. As the business develops, however, there is an interesting strategic question around where the greatest value lies. That can be seen in the development of the Barlow Bed for very large breeds. The idea emerged after a standard bed bowed under the weight of a St Bernard. Rather than simply seeing a product failure, Carole spotted a different customer need. The resulting design uses much heavier 4x4 timber, steel crossbars and specialist wicking fabric designed to improve airflow. Carole says owners of breeds such as St Bernards can spend between £400 and £800 on suitable orthopaedic beds. That creates the potential for a very different premium niche from the original product. Perhaps the most striking part of Carole's story, though, is what she ultimately wants the business to achieve. Her ambition is to create a factory in Little Hulton, Salford, providing flexible employment for women returning to work who may otherwise struggle because of childcare, health or other barriers. Her vision includes a flexible "timeshare" approach to working hours and even an on-site crèche. It is a useful reminder that scaling a business does not necessarily have to be about size for its own sake. A clearer purpose can help determine what you want the business to become and therefore what needs to change to get there. In the conversation We explore how Carole turned a personal frustration into a commercial product, why demonstrating the product face-to-face has been so valuable, what a £500 grant meant at an early stage, the realities of pricing a handmade product, using useful content rather than constant selling to build engagement, identifying a premium niche, and the challenges of moving from founder-led production towards a genuinely scalable operation. We also discuss Carole's much bigger ambition to use the business to create flexible employment opportunities in her local community. The standout message A problem can become an opportunity when you stop treating it simply as something that went wrong. The Barlow Bed is a great example. A standard product struggling under the weight of a St Bernard exposed an underserved customer with a very different need and potentially a much higher willingness to pay. The one key thing The one key thing to take away from this episode is to look closely at where your customers are stretching the limits of what you currently offer. That may be where your next, and potentially more valuable, market is hiding. Before you get into the episode Most founders I speak to feel busy but frustrated. Plenty is happening, but they are frustrated that they are not moving forward at the rate they want to. Success creates more options, pulling founders and their teams in different directions. Here's what more than 500 interviews on ScaleUp Radio have taught me: the founders who scale choose less, and deliver all of it. That's what the G90 Summit is for. It is a structured half-day where we cut through everything competing for your attention, agree the three to five things that must happen in the next 90 days, and build the rhythm to make sure they do. From the frustration and chaos of more, through the discipline of less, to the rhythm of done. Quarterly, virtual, £97 a seat. Smart90.co.uk/summit Carole can be found here: https://duxenalldogbedz.co.uk/

October 12, 202658 min

Episode #652: Is Command and Control Holding Your Business Back? - with Peter Laughter

In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Peter Laughter for a fascinating discussion about distributed leadership, why traditional command and control management is increasingly becoming a constraint on growing businesses, and what leaders can do instead. Peter knows the command and control model from experience. He grew a staffing business from around $500,000 to $12 million in revenue in five years. But that success eventually exposed a problem familiar to many growing businesses: when too many decisions and too much responsibility sit with the person at the top, the leader can become the bottleneck. For Peter, one of the turning points came when his business suffered a dramatic fall in candidate reviews. His instinct was to devise the solution himself. But an employee called Becky challenged his approach and suggested something much simpler: manage candidate expectations better from the outset. It worked. And it helped Peter recognise something important. The answers to a business's problems often already exist somewhere within the organisation. The leader's job isn't necessarily to provide those answers, but to create an environment in which they can emerge. That idea sits at the heart of distributed leadership . Peter argues that this becomes even more important in what he describes as an "age of acceleration". AI and other rapidly developing technologies are creating challenges and opportunities at a speed and complexity that make it increasingly unrealistic for one person, or even one senior leadership team, to have all the answers. Instead, businesses need structures that allow decisions to be made closer to where the knowledge sits. Importantly, this doesn't mean abandoning structure. Peter compares distributed leadership to jazz. It may sound spontaneous, but great improvisation happens within a strong framework. In the same way, distributed leadership is about creating enough structure for people to exercise judgement, contribute ideas and take responsibility without descending into chaos. We explore examples including Haier, Morning Star and W. L. Gore & Associates, and how organisations have created systems that allow leadership, innovation and decision making to emerge throughout the business. Peter also introduces his 3D framework: Discover, Define and Do . Discover Start with a meaningful question and gather perspectives from the people closest to the issue rather than assuming the leadership team already knows the answer. Define Understand the skills, interests and assets that exist across the team, and bring together the people who can contribute to solving the problem. Do Choose a meaningful but achievable result, work towards it in short sprints, and then review what worked, what was learnt and what new capabilities were created. It provides a practical way for leaders to experiment with distributed leadership without attempting to redesign their entire organisation overnight. There is also a provocative discussion about AI. Peter believes many large organisations risk making a fundamental mistake by treating AI primarily as a mechanism for reducing headcount. In doing so, they may remove people who possess critical organisational knowledge while simultaneously creating a pool of experienced, AI-enabled talent capable of joining or creating smaller disruptive competitors. For SME leaders, that potentially creates an enormous opportunity. One standout message Devolve decisions to where the information sits. If the person closest to the customer, problem or opportunity has better information than the person at the top, forcing every decision upwards doesn't create control. It creates delay. In this episode we discuss • Why command and control leadership increasingly makes the leader the bottleneck • Peter's journey from growing a staffing business rapidly to questioning his own leadership model • How one employee's simple solution changed Peter's thinking about leadership • What distributed leadership actually means in practice • Why distributed leadership requires structure rather than an absence of structure • What jazz can teach us about autonomy and collaboration • How Haier, Morning Star and W. L. Gore have approached distributed decision making • Peter's Discover, Define, Do framework • How to experiment with distributed leadership without creating organisational chaos • Why leaders need to discover the capabilities already sitting within their teams • The danger of using AI purely as a cost cutting exercise • Why disruption of large organisations could create significant opportunities for SMEs The one key thing... The one key thing is that scaling doesn't require the founder to become better at having all the answers. It requires them to build an organisation capable of finding answers without everything having to come through them. For any owner manager who feels that too many decisions still land on their desk, Peter's challenge is worth considering: is maintaining control actually protecting the business, or has it started restricting its ability to grow? From more, to less, to done Before we get into the episode, most founders I speak to feel busy but frustrated. Plenty is happening, but they're frustrated that they aren't moving forward at the rate they want to. Success creates more options, pulling founders and their teams in different directions. Here's what more than 500 interviews on ScaleUp Radio have taught me: the founders who scale choose less, and deliver all of it. That's what the G90 Summit is for. It's a structured half day where we cut through everything competing for your attention, agree the three to five things that must happen in the next 90 days, and build the rhythm to make sure they do. From the frustration and chaos of more, through the discipline of less, to the rhythm of done. Quarterly. Virtual. £97 a seat. Find out more at Smart90.co.uk/summit. Peter can be found here: peter@peterlaughter.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterlaughter/