How to Start, Scale & Sell your Small Business

Last month I wrote a short article for EMC Business Network Magazine on my top tips for growing a values-based business. In the article below, I’ll take you through the thinking and experience behind these tips - sharing my insights on starting, scaling and growing a business you can be proud of. Go grab a cuppa - this is a slightly longer-than-usual type article! I might even make a podcast of it one day!

It all started over a decade ago…

Entrepreneurialism isn’t for everyone, and for a long time it wasn’t for me. But all that changed back in 2008 when circumstances, opportunity, and a moment of bravery (or madness?!) converged in the Ball household.

I spent most of my early career working for big global businesses - growing teams, creating new propositions, and earning them big revenues. It was rewarding in that it was a learning curve and I got to meet some brilliant people.

However, by 2008 after seven years at Oracle, I was feeling pretty disillusioned. The culture was autocratic, the bureaucracy was stifling, and any new ideas were knocked back as ‘not the Oracle way”.

Starting up – when dreams become reality

I’d dreamt about starting my own business over the years, not just going freelance but building a values-based company that I would want to work for.

The main thing that held me back was the security of the monthly pay cheque. With children to raise and a mortgage to pay, rocking the boat felt too risky. And yet, the desire to create my own business didn’t subside. So, I talked with a couple of trusted colleagues about my ideas and turned those ideas into plans.

When the nudge I needed came, in the form of a healthy redundancy package, it felt like too much of a coincidence. It felt like the right time to turn the dreams and the plans into reality. The redundancy gave me a 6-month buffer to get Peak Indicators off the ground.

Insight: Be ready for when opportunity knocks. I’d built a plan and taken advice so that when the time was right, I was ready to go.

Setting up a new business is daunting. There are so many competing demands for time.

Insight: One thing I learned over the last few years is to “keep the main thing the main thing” i.e. keep focused on the activity you know is going to be most impactful. 

There are also many things to do where you have little experience to draw upon like accounting, business operations, branding and marketing.

Insight: One of the smartest decisions I made early on was to outsource bookkeeping and reporting so I could focus on growing the business and delivering projects. As well as supporting growth of the business, it also meant I got some down time at the weekends. It allowed me to pace myself and avoid the dreaded entrepreneurial burnout.

By the end of 2009 I took on our first permanent member of staff. A big milestone – I was now responsible for another person’s livelihood – but a chance to celebrate the progress made.

Insight: Celebrating the big (and small) wins is important. It’s a chance to check you are on track – a validation of your business plan - and great motivation for yourself and your growing team.

Scaling up – growing at a sustainable pace

The early days of building a team can be nerve-wracking – every hire counts.

Insight: It’s crucial to bring in the right people, who’s values align and who can not only help the business grow (i.e. generate and deliver revenue) but who also help build the company culture and brand.

The next big milestone was starting the graduate programme in 2013. We needed a way to grow cost-effectively and reduce risks – but also to live our values i.e.  create opportunity for local young talent and support social mobility.

Insight: It’s important to be creative about how you grow. Understand your appetite for risk and balance this with the pace you want to grow. For Peak, the graduate approach meant slower growth but growth that was more sustainable – to date over 50 grads have come through and grown with the business.

Winning new clients is essential for growing businesses. For Peak, winning a large analytics project at the John Lewis Partnership was hugely significant. It was a significant step-up in the size of client (our first client to spend over £500k on our services). This gave us the confidence to go for and win bigger projects.

Insight: Explore new ways to grow. Partnering with complimentary businesses, like we did to win John Lewis, can help access new markets, bigger projects and clients and de-risk acquisition costs. Partnerships and networking are ‘longer-term plays’ but can yield sustainable growth over many years.

Building a values-based business

For me, building my business was always more than just about making money. My mantra has always been “profit is important, but what you do with it is more important”. So, there was always the need to ensure that our core values were maintained as the company grew.

To do this we used a simple framework called “V2MOM” (borrowed from a big business called Salesforce) to help us succinctly define our Vision, Values, Methods, (potential) Obstacles and Measures – enabling our growing team to all pull in the same direction at the same time.

Insight:  When you get to a certain size and scale (usually between 20-30 between) you’ll need a little more structure and strategy to keep growing at a desired pace and maintain your company values and culture.

Stepping back – strengthening your leadership to continue growth.

As a founder, there may come a time when you need to step back and working ‘on the business’ versus ‘in the business’. This allows you to look for the broader opportunities to continue growing your business. To do this, you need a solid team to run the business day-to-day. It’s time to strengthen your leadership team.

Having successfully grown my business over a few years, I began to have conversations with people within my network wanted to take the plunge and start their own businesses. But they didn’t know where to begin and sought out my help. I needed to free up my time to take on this new role as advisor – something I was keen to do (and felt that the time was right for) as it meant I could further positively impact these companies and communities.

Insight: Strengthening your leadership team is a smart move that allows you to step back from the day-today and look for broader opportunities to grow and strengthen your business. This can lead to wonderful new opportunities.

Hiring an experienced Managing Director that I could hand over to allowed me to support these other entrepreneurs and their businesses, and set-up my second business Great2 (another huge milestone!).

Selling up – an unexpected part of the growth journey

When you start your entrepreneurial journey, selling up isn’t always part of the plan. In fact, it can be a fantasy like winning the lottery. However, as you grow, scale, and become well-known, you may begin to consider this option.

I’d been approached many times regarding the sale of Peak Indicators, but none of the calls progressed as the cultural alignment was never there. As a values-based business, maintaining our culture was paramount. ‘Selling out’ was never an option - I had 50-plus people’s livelihoods to consider.

Last year when we were approached by TPXimpact it was quickly apparent that our values and cultures aligned well and that together we could do a whole lot more. The deal took several months and countless conversations to get over the line, but most importantly, all Peak roles and people have moved over. Exciting times ahead for the team and a chance for me to now fully focus on scaling Great2.

Insight: Even if you are not looking to sell your business you may still get approached. How do you decide which conversations to entertain? My advice is to find out who the company is (most approaches come via 3rd parties) and research their culture, values and how they operate. See if there is potential alignment. If not, move one.

The process of selling your business is almost as challenging as growing it. There are many things to think about and only a few people you can talk to about it. I have many learnings from the experience (a whole other article perhaps!) but I would say the most important things are to pick your trusted advisors well, know what your endgame is and what your non-negotiables are.

I’ve taken these (and many more) learnings from starting, scaling and selling my business and combined them with my Great2 co-founders’ experiences of brand building, growth marketing, and managing business performance. Together we’re already helping more up-and-coming local businesses and are excited about the possibilities of helping more companies grow. Drop me a line for an informal chat.

Andy