Eight secrets
to a £billion business
I am obsessed with how to build a better business and I want to pass on what I’ve learned to other entrepreneurs. I’ve boiled down my experience into eight secrets – the eight things I wish I’d known when I started out. Armed with this advice, I’m certain I could have avoided mistakes, made better decisions and built HomeServe much faster.
I’d recommend thinking about these eight secrets in order. You will find that one leads to the next and each will take you closer to achieving your full potential.
0. Your Character
The starting point is to make sure that you, the entrepreneur have the personal characteristics to be successful in setting up and scaling a business. The characteristics that I look for in the amazing entrepreneurs I back are resilience, persistence, curiosity, non-conformity, low ego, courage and integrity.
2. Find an investor
An injection of capital is what you need not just to fund growth, but to provide you with personal inspiration and discipline. The key is to make sure your financial partner is the right fit, shares your vision of success and how to get there and provides advice you value along the way. With the right financial support, entrepreneurs can futureproof their lives and focus on what matters most.
1. Copy and pivot
Everyone is always in a rush to be first. But when you’re inventing something new, sometimes it helps to be second. Watch what’s happening, learn from the successes and failures of the first movers, copy and pivot to create something different, unique and yours. Often, this approach means that you can scale your idea much more quickly.
4. Bricks and clicks and paper
A robust omnichannel strategy is essential to building a successful business. At Checkatrade, a business HomeServe bought in 2017, an impactful digital presence and strategy is complemented by door-to-door leafleting. Share of doormat is much easier to achieve now that so many businesses have gone exclusively online, and it works!
3. Get some CoachMent
However successful you are, there is always scope to learn from others. A mentor can bring business experience, while a coach can help broaden your business thinking.
I have taken formal training to make me a better business coach. I enjoy working with fellow entrepreneurs: listening carefully to what they have to say, asking open questions, encouraging them to share their concerns and to see their business through a different lens.
6. Go global with locals
While a great business model can become a global phenomenon, it takes local talent to implement strategy to its full potential.
HomeServe took its business model to America, with a successful Brit at the helm. It scaled and grew even faster once we moved our headquarters from Miami to the East Coast and recruited a top class local team led by Tom Rusin. HomeServe USA is now our biggest business.
5. Hire your replacement
Successful entrepreneurs have incredibly high levels of self-belief. But they must also have humility. Success often comes from having the self-awareness to realise that the best way to make your business grow is sometimes to get out of the way and let a better manager do the job.
Jonathan King took my place running HomeServe’s UK business, eight years after it was set up, so that I could focus on international expansion. Ben Francis at Gymshark hired his replacement after only three years, and grew even faster than HomeServe did. Being a great leader is also about being a great talent-spotter.
8. Follow a NOT to do list
“No” is one of the most important words in the lexicon for an entrepreneur. Our every instinct is to say “Yes”. But discipline and focus are paramount.
One of my favourite examples of this is B&M, where Simon Arora stuck relentlessly to his core proposition, and succeeded in opening 1,100 discount homeware stores across Britain.
And remember, “No” may in fact really be “Not Now”. There’s always time to revisit ideas, when the moment and the opportunity are right.
7. Evolution not revolution
In a world of relentless change, businesses have to evolve. But straying too far away from your core proposition is a recipe for disaster.
At HomeServe, we stayed close to our core proposition of making home repairs and improvements easy, but significantly expanded the number of trades we could introduce homeowners to when we bought Checkatrade.