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Welcome to one of our themed episodes of ScaleUp Radio, one of our monthly ones where we focus on a particular theme. The theme this time around is credibility. And there's some great content.  Before you switch off and say, ‘I know all about credibility, and of course it's really, really important - It's all about Google reviews and testimonials’, give me a moment. Yes, that's a part of it, but there's a lot of deeper thinking within this session.  So some really great things and if you're not familiar with something called the reputation chasm, or the credibility chasm or gap, then you should be as it could be explaining some of the difficulties that you may be having. It's a really interesting way of looking at it and we've got three great guest presentations today looking at different aspects of credibility.  Really listen out for what they've got to say: We've got Hannah Haffield from Make More Noise PR. We've got Gary MaWhinney from Platform 81. And we've got Peter Roper from the Family Business Practice. Great people great credibility of their own, and some great advice that they're giving.  Let's go across and listen to the presentations and the panel discussion at the end with some great business owners. You might like to take our checklist around Execution Habits https://executionhabits.scoreapp.com   Participants   Hannah Haffield: linkedin.com/in/hannahhaffield Gary MaWhinney: linkedin.com/in/gary-mawhinney-74569524 Peter Roper: linkedin.com/in/peteraroper   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 be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: kevin@biz-smart.co.uk   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores 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/

Hello I’m Granger Forson www.bizsmart-gloucestershire.co.uk or on LinkedIn. This time on ScaleUp Radio I speak with Bethan Unsworth, one of the owners of Reforest Group.   Reforest Group are two businesses, one does Web site design and build, the other Host your sites, all ensuring you that green energy and tree planting are used to reduce your carbon footprint to zero.   They started a few years ago and they have already grown to 6 members of the team.   Bethan and her business partner are also digital nomads and work around the world throughout the year. During this interview they are in Spain. They ensure that their carbon footprint is zero with everything they do. But what I did not realise until I stop recording, so I am saying it now, is that the two new members of their team also fit their values of this and are in Spain with them, so they are becoming a digital nomad business.    As always, we cover a lot of ground, including:    - Selecting you team based on your vales and theirs, is easy to do and is very rewarding  - Asking your prospective Customer a simple question is the best marketing you can do.  - focusing on your mission will attract customer and staff to you. - There is more to tree planting that just offsetting your carbon emissions.   What is so inspiring about this conversation with Bethan is how much her passion to make an impact to reduce the cardon emission of the internet to zero drives the business.   Note: Bethan also said post recredits, that no matter where they are in the world, they can be contacted on LinkedIn.   I know that you’ll get something out of this episode.   Bethan can be found here: linkedin.com/in/bethan-unsworth-ⓥ🌱-094666173 https://www.reforesttheweb.com/ hello@reforesttheweb.com   Resources   Good Vibes, Good Life by Vex King - https://www.waterstones.com/book/good-vibes-good-life/vex-king/9781788171823   Zerocarbonista podcast - https://zerocarbonista.com/   Beautiful Misfits with Mary Portas - https://open.spotify.com/show/6oi38zll5B7lrCVQDKPaZl   Instagram - www.instagram.com   Drink More Water - https://en.waterdrop.com/pages/app   Affirmations - https://affirmationsdaily.app/   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 be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: kevin@biz-smart.co.uk   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores 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/

This is such a great discussion, we cover all sorts of aspects of building and leading a business. Today I speak with Nigel G Honey who is the lead trainer and the founder of something called Ability Academy and that's all about post production editing training. Nigel has spent 25 years in the industry and he's working with STV BBC RDF Channel Four Channel Five, Sky and has worked on all of the key soaps. Nigel set up Ability as a social enterprise to help people with invisible disabilities to get into the world of film editing, but not just to be included, but also then to be paid equally. So a really strong, purpose driven business and we hear some great advice. One of the things Nigel shares was around setting up the social enterprise in the first place, and Nigel shares one of the big mistakes that he made at the beginning and that he that he would have done differently.  So lots of really good things whether you're interested in the film industry or not, this is a fantastic episode to listen to. So I suggest we go across and listen to the full story. May be link this one to the strategy checklist https://strategicthinking.scoreapp.com   Nigel can be found here: linkedin.com/in/nigelghoney https://abilityacademy.co.uk/ enquiries@abilityacademy.co.uk   Resources Xero - www.xero.com   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 be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: kevin@biz-smart.co.uk   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores 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/

So how do you link fronting a band playing to an audience of over 5,000 people with Singapore National Service, social housing in the UK and founding a tech company for social good?  Well, today I talk with Ranjit Ghoshal, who is the CEO and founder of Million Steps and if you listen to the interview, he'll cover all of those links and explain what I'm talking about.  He's clearly very passionate about what he does. And he lives by a phrase that his grandfather said to him when Ranjit was around about seven years old, and he's remembered that phrase all of these years and still lives by it.  And I certainly want you to listen out for some of the mistakes that Ranjit admits he made at the start when setting up a tech company, for example, with a tech team and some of the things that he would do differently. Many of the things that Ranjit points to are around the execution side of the business and you might like to benchmark your execution habits against our scorecard and the link for that is in the in the show notes. So let's go across and listen to Ranjit story. https://executionhabits.scoreapp.com   Ranjit can be found here: linkedin.com/in/ranjitghoshal https://millionsteps.com/ info@millionsteps.com   Resources The Tragedy of Pudd nhead Wilson by Mark Twain - https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-tragedy-of-pudd-nhead-wilson/mark-twain/9781438530123   The Lean Startup by Eric Ries - https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-lean-startup/eric-ries/9780670921607   The Leviathan by Philip Hoare - https://www.waterstones.com/book/leviathan/philip-hoare/9780007230143   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 be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: kevin@biz-smart.co.uk   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores 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/

Hello I’m Granger Forson WWW.Bizsmart-Gloucesterhsire.co.uk or on LinkedIn. This time on ScaleUp Radio I speak with Paul James, the owner of CAP business Clubs   CAP is a Networking business that are based in around Colford, but is nationwide. Paul started CAP in 2011, when doing some marketing far a new venue, and had the idea that the fantastic room was ideal for a networking meeting. He has grown it to 5 groups now even through the Pandemic moving onto zoom.   What I love about Paul’s story is about how he  built Businesses before CAP, and learnt from them to bring new strengths to develop CAP even when years ago he did not like the idea of networking at all.   As always, we cover a lot of ground, including:    - Networking brings new skills to you as a business owner.  - Collaboration with your competition can bring great benefits.  - Thinking you know it all is a sure way to lose a business you have built.   What is so interesting about this conversation with Paul is how he plans to keep building CAP for the benefit of its members so they can become successful.   I know that you’ll get something out of this episode.   Paul can be found here: linkedin.com/in/capbusinessclubs https://www.capbusinessclubs.co.uk/ capbusinessclubs3@gmail.com   Resources   Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield - https://www.waterstones.com/book/chicken-soup-for-the-soul-20th-anniversary-edition/jack-canfield/mark-victor-hansen/9781611599138   Yes To Life by Dr Viktor Frankl - https://www.waterstones.com/book/yes-to-life-in-spite-of-everything/viktor-e-frankl/joelle-young/9781846047251   Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill - https://www.waterstones.com/book/think-and-grow-rich/napoleon-hill/9781785042416     Google Keep - https://www.google.com/keep/     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 be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: kevin@biz-smart.co.uk   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores 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/  

On this episode of ScaleUp Radio, we go all the way across to the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia via Glasgow and we talked to Maia Gigiberia who is the founder of Lebarde luxury, health and beauty.  This is a story all around creating a premium multi award winning health and beauty brand with those roots in the Caucasus Mountains and the Georgian honeybee.  And it's all about the challenges faced by Maia, in a young business trying to find its way in a really crowded marketplace.  Maya is clearly very passionate about the business and her products and she's created beautiful luxury product. Maia has done all of the design and the packaging herself right from formulation through design and packaging.  We talk about those struggles as to how to breakthrough into making this a scalable product. Clearly getting your positioning right and finding out what your source of competitive advantage is or how you're going to really make sustainable long term profits is really key for Maia but also for all of us. And if you'd like to level up your strategic thinking, you might like to take our strategic thinking checklist here. https://strategicthinking.scoreapp.com/   Maia can be found here: linkedin.com/in/maia-gigiberia-1a498622 https://www.lebarde.co.uk/ lebardeskincare@gmail.com @lebarde7 on Instagram   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 be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: kevin@biz-smart.co.uk   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores 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/  

You're definitely going to want to listen to this episode of ScaleUp Radio. It's the classic story rags to riches with going bankrupt and in the middle of it, and all sorts of fantastic lessons that have been learned along the way going right up to building a £70 million a year turnover business.  This time I interviewed Jeff Dewing who is the co-founder and Group CEO, or in fact CIO Chief Inspiration Officer as he refers to himself, of Cloud FM and it's not a radio station. It's to do with facilities management.  This is packed full of really great lessons. So I'm not going to spoil any of the story any further. I suggest you go across and listen to him. What I will do is put a link in the show notes to a scorecard that you may want to do that is around people because a lot of what Jeff is talking about comes down to people so there we go.  Jeff also refers to the power of peer groups. If you’d like to know more about joining a peer group, you can contact us at admin@biz-smart.co.uk Let's go across to Jeff   https://levelupteam.scoreapp.com   Jeff can be found here: linkedin.com/in/jeffdewing https://www.cloudfmgroup.com/ info@cloudfmgroup.com jeffdewing.co.uk https://www.youtube.com/@jeffdewing4457   Resources Doing The Opposite by Jeff Dewing - https://www.waterstones.com/book/doing-the-opposite/james-wills/jeff-dewing/9798599185406 Turn the Ship Around by L. David Marquet - https://www.waterstones.com/book/turn-the-ship-around/l-david-marquet/stephen-r-covey/9780241250945 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-7-habits-of-highly-effective-people-revised-and-updated/stephen-r-covey/9781471195204   Doing The Opposite: The Podcast - https://podcast.cloudfmgroup.com/podcast/ ProdCast - https://www.theprodcast.net/ Clowning Around - https://emstroud.com/podcast/   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 be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: kevin@biz-smart.co.uk   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores 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/    

Adapt and overcome was probably the theme of this discussion on ScaleUp Radio. Today I interviewed Antony Thompson, who is the co founder of Loopin. They have a great mission, which is to provide a million managers by 2030, the ability to reduce burnout and attrition in their teams with the help of AI.  So, no surprise Loopin itself is a tool based on AI that helps managers to manage all sorts of aspects of resilience, burnout, but essentially around high performance teams.  This is a fascinating discussion. Both Anthony and his co-founder, Ben are ex Marines although they didn't actually serve together.  There's lots of reference to how they have taken some of those values of really looking after each other in the Marines – for example look after the person to the right and to the left of you and keeping each other accountable, but also looking after yourself. You'll hear how they've taken some this into Loopin around managing those high performance teams.  Lots of great parts of the story including how they came within 9 days of running out of money and were down to their last £240 when investment money came in.  So quite a roller coaster of a journey, which I think take us back to that adapt and overcome and that resilience.  Plenty of discussion around people so you might like to take our checklist on levelling up your team. It may give you some ideas, some of the things that Antony talked about and some other things as well. You can check how you're doing against what we consider to be great aspects of building your team habits.   Antony can be found here: linkedin.com/in/ant-thompson-loopin https://www.letsloopin.com/ support@letsloopin.com     Resources The Five Dysfunctions Of A Team by Patrick Lencioni - https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-five-dysfunctions-of-a-team/patrick-m-lencioni/9781118016701 The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy - https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-compound-effect/darren-hardy-llc/9781399805780 The One Thing by Gary Keller - https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-one-thing/gary-keller/jay-papasan/9781848549258 Meddic by Andy Whyte - https://www.waterstones.com/book/meddicc/andy-whyte/dick-dunkel/9781838239701   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 be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: kevin@biz-smart.co.uk   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores 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/ Things on Mac - https://culturedcode.com/things/ HubSpot - https://www.hubspot.com/ Duolingo - https://www.duolingo.com/    

Hello I’m Granger Forson WWW.Bizsmart-Gloucesterhsire.co.uk or on LinkedIn. This time on ScaleUp Radio I speak with Andy Platts, the owner of Jireh Solutions ltd.   Jireh Solutions is a IT managed solutions business  that are based in Tetbury. They started in 2006 as a business with the goal to bring excellence in the IT managed solutions market by moving away for Break Fix.   It was so interesting hearing Andy’s story about how he has developed the business growth, include the investment in it, all from referrals & networking.    As always we cover a lot of ground, including:    - take the leap of faith when an investor approaches you for help.  - Aim for excellence in what you do – Who do you know only calls their IT company with an issue once every 2 years!  - Finding the right people to employ and then train them, brings huge long term stability to your business.   What is so inspiring about this conversation with Andy is how he has the long term plan in developing the business and leadership team for so it can become an employee owned trust.   I know that you’ll get something out of this episode.   Andy can be found here: linkedin.com/in/andy-platts-9b40a32 https://jirehsolutions.co.uk/     Resources Traction by Gino Wickman - https://www.waterstones.com/book/traction/gino-wickman/9781936661831 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/   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 be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: kevin@biz-smart.co.uk   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores 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/  

This is another episode of ScaleUp Radio that you're just going to love. Today I talk with Charlie Winton, who's the founder of OK Positive and they're in the field of mental health.  Charlie and his team have developed a mental health app with a difference.  It is a fairly crowded marketplace with all sorts of different things going on, but there's quite a significant difference with this app.  Charlie is quite open with the fact that he came up with the idea because he was suffering from panic attacks in the workplace. He was looking for ways to help him out and since he has been following the systems that he's developed within this app, he's not suffered a single panic attack for those five years. We all know the knock on effect to businesses and to the whole economy is incredible when you think about the impact of mental wellness or the lack of it. OK Positive is now only three years old, but they're already cash positive. They're looking to raise investment, but Charlie bootstrapped the business right from the very start using his own bonus money and all of his savings to get started. There are some good stories around getting started and some lessons about who he looked for in his first hire and some of his other key hires.  There are some great lessons about how he manages to treat and look after his employees and also how they make sure that they're keeping on track. He mentions what he calls the toothbrush conundrum and you'll have to listen to the episode for what he means by that,. So plenty of discussion about getting a technology app off the ground, talking about the minimum viable product, and he uses another great phrase to describe how he would view his minimal viable product.  Some fantastic things in this episode. So I suggested we go over and listen to it. If you want to think about some of the habits around execution, which Charlie talks about, you might like to take our scorecard on levelling up your execution habits.  https://kevin-ytncqq95.scoreapp.com   Charlie can be found here: linkedin.com/in/charlie-winton-53a01290 https://www.okpositive.org/ info@okpositive.co.uk charlie@okpositive.co.uk   Resources The Lean Startup by Eric Ries - https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-lean-startup/eric-ries/9780670921607 The Lord Of The Rings by JRR Tolkien - https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-lord-of-the-rings/j-r-r-tolkien/9780008471286   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 be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: kevin@biz-smart.co.uk   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores 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/ WhatsApp - https://web.whatsapp.com/ Teams - https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-teams

One of the things I love about doing ScaleUp Radio is the variety of guests that we have on, the variety of interests and the variety of the businesses that they look after. And this is absolutely no exception.  Today, I talk with Alan who is the founder of LABRATS International which is all about raising awareness around nuclear testing and the effects on families and communities as a result of historical nuclear testing programmes. Alan set LABRATS up as a community interest company, so it's around the business aspects of it. But it's a great example of how the power of a story and telling that story in the right way can get us to where we want to get to and I think that's a lesson that we can take across our businesses, whatever it is, that we're trying to do is that is that power of the story.  You'll hear about campaign that made a big difference, and how he's managed to leverage contacts to get ito talk to the right people that he wants to talk to and his strategies and tactics around that.  It is an absolutely fascinating story and one that I know that you're going to want to listen to. Oh, and I nearly forgot to mention that Alan suffered a major health scare only last year, and we talk about how that's changed his perspective on life as well. A lot of Alan’s success comes from being strategic – really understanding what you are about and developing supporting approaches. You might like to check out your Strategic Thinking using our FREE checker  https://kevin-ylfmnqor.scoreapp.com   Alan can be found here: linkedin.com/in/alan-owen-mba-fbcs-citp-flpi-20776385 https://www.labrats.international/ https://www.labratsacademy.online/   Resources www.nuclearvoices.org Audible - https://www.audible.co.uk/   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 be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: kevin@biz-smart.co.uk   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores 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/

This episode of ScaleUp Radio I talk with Mark Williams, who is the co founder of Limb Art. During our discussion, Mark says something that you may find a little bit strange. Mark lost his leg when he was 10 and he describes that as the best day of his life, which may seem a little bit strange to many of us. He's got a great backstory and this is a really good example in fact of how powerful a story behind the business can be.  Mark set up the business initially almost by accident. He had made a cover for his artificial leg, people commented on it and one thing led to another and he's now selling in multiple countries and 1000s of people are wearing his covers. It is a superb example of focus really, a niche within a niche but one that is a multi billion potential market.  There's some great lessons on mindset in here and you can also hear how a chance encounter for Mark lead to what is now his largest single customer.  We also get into exporting and setting up exclusive partnerships abroad.  It really is a fascinating interview and you can't help but admire what Mark has achieved. I think this episode will be an inspiration to all of us looking to develop our own businesses and you might want to think about some of the things he says about the execution side of the business, how he makes things happen.  If you'd like to level up on your execution, you might like to take our checklist which might give you some hints on sort of things you need to think about to really level up your execution habits. https://kevin-ytncqq95.scoreapp.com   Mark can be found here: linkedin.com/in/mark-limb-art https://limb-art.com/ @limbartcover   Resources The Great British Entrepreneur Book - https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-great-british-entrepreneurs-handbook-2016/simon-burton/9780857195135 The Great British Entrepreneur Awards - https://www.greatbritishentrepreneurawards.com/ T Cards Online - https://www.tcardsonline.co.uk/   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 be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: kevin@biz-smart.co.uk   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores 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/

Curiosity is definitely the buzz word for this interview on ScaleUp Radio.  I interviewed Manda Graham who is the director of Equal Vision, which is a social enterprise, a Community Interest Company.  Manda is also the founder of something called the Curiosity Museum – which is an immersive careers advisory service for students.  And this is where it gets really interesting, because they had just got to the point of launching a live version into schools literally in March of 2020 as COVID hit so they've had to do that overused word - pivot.  There's a lot of interesting stuff around how Amanda has been able to do that and the support that she's had.  All sorts of great stuff you'll hear about how one of the constraints early days was things had to fit in the back of her Volkswagen Polo. So that's a constraint that I've not heard before, certainly on ScaleUp Radio.  So really interesting, different ways of looking at things, a lot about the schools and the education market. Also some thinking around sprint methodology. Some really, really interesting things from Manda on this discussion.   Manda can be found here: linkedin.com/in/mandagraham https://www.equalvisioncic.co.uk/curiosity-museum/     Resources   Sprint by Jake Knapp - https://www.waterstones.com/book/sprint/jake-knapp/john-zeratsky/9780593076118   Asana - https://asana.com/   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 be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: kevin@biz-smart.co.uk   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores 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/  

I had the pleasure today to talk with Charlotte Amelia on ScaleUp Radio. Charlotte is the co founder of Dazzle and fIzz and they are an entertainment event organiser but with a big difference and you'll really hear that as you listen to Charlotte.  She reached her first million within about five years and she's now got 17 full time employees and 25 part time. Her first international event was for the Dubai royal family with ice sculptures in the desert. And she's managed to secure two rounds of investment from VC and from angels and will be looking for more. Charlotte has also managed to challenge and overcome some of the perceptions around two women founders, in an industry that is sometimes perceived as a little bit of a cottage industry. She clearly had to stand out and really make her case for funding and she gives a lot of great advice on how you might go about doing that.  Carlotte is also very clear on why she is building the business. So listen out for her reasons around that. And also some neat thinking around intellectual property around licencing, also thoughts around becoming a preferred supplier with your target groups in Charlotte's case  five star hotels.  So lots of really good things here. All sorts of areas covered. In the beginning we talk a bit about the cash side of things and if you'd like to level up your thinking on your cash habits, then why not take our ScoreApp - the link is here - https://kevin-qrtokieu.scoreapp.com - and will only take you a few minutes and might give you some really useful ideas.  So let's go over to Charlotte for her story.   Charlotte can be found here: linkedin.com/in/charlotte-melia-4553a296 https://dazzleandfizz.co.uk/ info@dazzleandfizz.co.uk   Resources Traction by Gino Wickman - https://www.waterstones.com/book/traction/gino-wickman/9781936661831 Dwen - https://dwen.com/en-us/ Xero - https://dwen.com/en-us/ Capsule CRM - https://capsulecrm.com Connecteam - https://connecteam.com G:Drivev - https://drive.google.com Eric - https://www.meet-eric.com/   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 be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: kevin@biz-smart.co.uk   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores 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/  

Have you ever had a great idea for a business and then being put off by maybe not having the coding skills or the technical skills to be able to build whatever you need to do, or finding someone that can do it for you and being confident that it's not going to cost you thousands of pounds? Well, Simon Jenner is the co founder of million labs, and that's the challenge that they help startup founders overcome and I talk with him on ScaleUp Radio. Million Labs use the No Code platform to help founders to get to their minimum viable product or MVP as quickly as possible as cheaply as possible. And they'll even potentially provide a little bit of seed investment to help the founder on their way.  Sounds like the dream product and service for a budding tech entrepreneur, doesn't it?  So I had a fascinating discussion with Simon about his business. He only started four years ago, and the story of how they started it was another one of these where they started out doing something else that didn't quite work. And they're now supporting something like 70 or 80 founders every month in getting them off the ground to that MVP.  And in the course of doing that, they're really starting to get beneath the skin and understand which founders are likely to succeed, and perhaps which ones aren't.  And there's some great tips from Simon if you're considering a new product or new service. There's lots of advice here about how you can make sure that you don't end up going down a path that is just never going to give you any return.  So a really interesting interview, I know you're going to love it. So let's go across to Simon for the rest of that story. If you want to test your strategic thinking then why not take our score app around levelling up your strategic thinking?  It will only take a few minutes and the link is in the show notes. https://kevin-ylfmnqor.scoreapp.com   Simon can be found here: linkedin.com/in/sijenner https://millionlabs.co.uk/   Resources Pivot - https://podcasts.voxmedia.com/show/pivot This Week In Startups - https://rephonic.com/podcasts/this-week-in-startups-audio The Lean Startup by Eric Ries - https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-lean-startup/eric-ries/9780670921607 Calendly - https://calendly.com/ Slack - https://slack.com/ Zoom - https://zoom.us/ GMail - https://mail.google.com  Mailerlite - https://www.mailerlite.com/ Bubble - https://bubble.io/   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 be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: kevin@biz-smart.co.uk   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores 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/  

Okay, you're going to want to have a pen and paper to hand when you listen to this interview and you're going to need to write quickly.  You might even want to press pause, rewind and listen to lots of it again, because some of the advice from Sebastian Bates who is the CEO and founder of something called the Warrior Academy, is gold.  Lots of really great information. And if you ever wondered what the link is between Martial Arts and Business, and how you can go from setting up your first training session with 20 people in a small village in Somerset, to running a business now that is across three continents with 4000 students, then you're going to want to listen to this. He started in 2010 and has built the business over the last 13 years, but a lot of the rise was came over out of lockdown when like many, they pivoted their business. And Sebastian has developed a unique model in terms of developing their own instructors, but also in sponsoring and looking after people that can't necessarily afford to pay for their service. They offer scholarships and have a unique approach to it.  Lots of really, really interesting things, including, again the power of culture and really getting that right.  So you're going to want to listen to this.  There’s a lot of good advice around thinking strategically in this discussion - if you’d like to check your strategic thinking then you might like to try our ‘Level Up Your Strategic Thinking’ Scorecard https://kevin-ylfmnqor.scoreapp.com   Sebastian can be found here: va@sebastianbates.com linkedin.com/in/sebastian-bates-4b70412b https://www.warrioracademy.co.uk/ contact@warrioracademy.co.uk   Resources   Monday - https://monday.com/   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 be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: kevin@biz-smart.co.uk   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores 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/  

Another great guest on ScaleUp Radio. This time I speak with Jenna Wilson, who is the founder of Little Dreams Consulting, and they help parents with young children to get sleep under control and get their life back. Probably all of us as entrepreneurs are familiar with what happens when we don't get enough sleep every now and then. And maybe some of us have had young children as well that haven't slept very well, so we can well understand the kind of benefits that Jenna and her team bring.  Jenna was a solicitor beforehand for 12 years and then started Little Dreams when she was pregnant with her third child. We also talk about franchising, because Jen has moved into franchising her business. We uncover a lot of lessons around why you might want to franchise and some of the things you need to think about.  But it's not all about franchising. To be taken seriously within sleep you need to build up that credibility just like we do with any other business, and we discuss how Jenna establishes that credibility. We also talk about building the culture and how to make sure that culture is maintained and as more people become involved.  A really great interview and I encourage you to listen carefully to everything that Jen has got to say. There’s a lot of good advice around the people side of business  in this discussion - if you’d like to check your thinking around your team then you might like to try our ‘Level Up Your Team’ Scorecard https://kevin-f1ibmpkp.scoreapp.com   Jenna can be found here: linkedin.com/in/jenna-wilson-7295a3159 https://www.littledreamsconsulting.com/ jenna@littledreamsconsulting.com   Resources Diary of a CEO with Steve Bartlett - https://stevenbartlett.com/the-diary-of-a-ceo-podcast/ BFA - https://www.thebfa.org/ EWIF - https://www.ewif.org/ Franchise 360 - https://www.franchise360.co.uk/ Google Sheets - https://www.google.com/sheets/about/   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 be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: kevin@biz-smart.co.uk   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores 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/

Another fantastic episode of ScaleUp Radio – a fascinating discussion with Alia Rohafza, who's the CEO of Altered Carbon. This is amazing technology that they're looking at here so it’s a bit about high tech and he's on a ScaleUp Journey where they've already raised two rounds of investment and working with companies to help to prove their concept.  Imagine being able to create on a bit of graphene on a chip, something that's the equivalent of a nose, or a smell centre. So a dog or eventually, ideally, human nose.  And if you think about all the potential applications of that from whether food is going off to the escape of dangerous gases, all sorts of applications, in fact, that's one of their biggest challenges is how do they rein it in and decide exactly where they should focus. We'll learn a lot about the way that Ali approached the idea of raising funding both for that first and for the second rounds. It's also interesting that his biggest challenge is not necessarily around the technology but as always, or as is very often the case it's around people.  So it doesn't really matter whether you're in a high tech manufacturing business, whether you're in a service business, whatever kind of business you're in, there's some really great learnings from Ali. And he's very open and honest and prepared to share everything that that he could, so I know you'll get a lot of value out of it. So let's go over and listen to Ali and his story so far.   Ali can be found here: linkedin.com/in/ali-rohafza-altered-carbon-ltd https://altered-carbon.com/ general@altered-carbon.com   Resources Hannover Messe - https://www.hannovermesse.de/en/hannover-messe-2023/ IOT For All Podcast - https://www.iotforall.com/podcasts Asana - https://asana.com/ Trello - https://trello.com/ Otter - https://otter.ai/ Grammarly - https://www.grammarly.com/   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 be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: kevin@biz-smart.co.uk   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores 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/

This is quite a different discussion from the usual ones that we have on ScaleUp Radio.  I interview Dawn Dines who is the CEO and founder of Stamp Out Spiking (SOS) and you only need to listen to the first few seconds to hear how passionate Dawn is about the issue of drinks spiking.  This is a discussion with Dawn all around championing a cause and is a great example of building an organisation around a mission that you really want to achieve.  It's less about the monetary side of things than most of the interviews that we've had in the past. Dawn has been doing this for about 20 years and it's really getting traction now. Dawn is trying to really change mindsets and to be able to build a mission led business delivering on that cause that will be able to fund the awareness training that she wants to be able to do.  It is a really interesting discussion and as I say, very different. We go through all sorts of aspects, including a visit to Dragon's Den. I think Dawn would admit perhaps before she was really ready to think about it from a business perspective, but all sorts of interesting things, particularly if you're building a mission led business where you're trying to champion a cause and how do you go about really raising awareness and educate people.   Dawn can be found here: linkedin.com/in/dawn-dines-b47a421b https://stampoutspiking.org/ info@stampoutspiking.org   Resources Free Happiness by Dr Vikki Barnes - https://amzn.eu/d/iSmXOCf Straight From The Horses Mouth (a Stamp Out Spiking podcast) - https://stampoutspiking.org/podcast/     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 be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: kevin@biz-smart.co.uk   Kevin's New Book Is Now Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores 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/

Hello I’m Granger Forson WWW.Bizsmart-Gloucesterhsire.co.uk or on LinkedIn. This time on ScaleUp Radio I speak with Naomi Summers, the owner of Go Get Organized.   Go Get Organized is a VA one stop shop business  that are based in Bristol bath area. It started 10 years ago as Naomi wanted to use her co-ordination skills developed working in the BBC (listen out for this) but wanted to work for home. She has grown it into a strong 30 people network of experienced people aiding Go get organized customers.   It is so interesting hearing Naomi’s story especially about how she has kept the focus on values & people fit for Go Get Organized network and they work just together like any business of employed people.    As always, we cover a lot of ground, including:    - Using the right technology is key and taking the leap of faith some time is required to make it happen.  - Using the team around you to bounce idea off, even when they are not direct employees work so well  - networking is a keyway to grow your customer base, so experiment with different formats.   What is so fascinating about this conversation with Naomi is how she’s demonstrates that excellent leadership can bring people together to  generate value even when they not direct employees.     I know that you’ll get a lot out of this episode.   Naomi can be found here: linkedin.com/in/naomisummersgogetorganised https://www.gogetorganised.co.uk/ hello@gogetorganised.co.uk     Resources   Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry - https://www.waterstones.com/book/friends-lovers-and-the-big-terrible-thing/matthew-perry/9781472295934   Whitney Wolfe Herd on Diary of a CEO - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/e195-bumble-founder-worlds-youngest-female-self-made/id1291423644?i=1000586065873   Slack - https://slack.com/intl/en-gb/   Zoom - www.zoom.us   MirrorBoard - https://mirrorboard.com/   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 be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: kevin@biz-smart.co.uk   Kevin's New Book Is Now Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores 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/