How not to start a business

Let's talk about how 'not' to start a business. There's a lot of 'advice' out there, after all. A lot of it comes from people who are loudly in the business of going broke, all the while complaining that they cannot get customers or get paid, yet are still the 'best copywriters on the planet' or whatever. Riiiiight.

This isn't going to be some unsubstantiated avalanche of bullshit. I'm going to talk about the facts of what I did to launch my last business, and I'll bring the numbers.

Some context is useful.

I had had enough of working for other people. I was sick and tired of working for people who cared more about the money than the work ('bandits'), and who failed to realise that there is a connection between the two. They were subservient to their suppliers rather than caring about the experience of their paying customers. Quality standards were slipping, driven by executive failures, and it was the people on the front line who were struggling to deliver a service they could be proud of. A pretty standard situation, these days. Trendy IT bullshit was implemented without talking to the people who were expected to use it - another clear indication of out-of-touch management. The exec team had taken to calling themselves 'the Gazelles' but they were a bunch of clueless misfits. I was a fucking lion. It would never have worked out between us.🤣

Now, consider this. I have had a few businesses, both with and without partners. After one failed (a story for another time), I ended up going personally bankrupt in 2009. This was about the time of the UK recession, although I still take full responsibility for what happened to me. This failure left me with serious doubts about my own competence, and fearful of getting back on the horse and trying another business. I had realised that I was unemployable at this point, and this shows you how afraid I was that I would even consider being an employee again.

After a particularly hostile meeting with one of the business owners, I resigned. It was time. However bad my previous failures had been, they were better than dealing with these pricks. If we'd been in the same room, I'd probably still be in prison. God bless Zoom. If there is one thing guaranteed to squash fear, it's anger.

And boy, was I pissed off.

I was pissed off with being employed by bandits, and doing my bit to make them all richer.

I was pissed off with what the industry we were serving was getting served with.

So I had more than a business idea. I had a cause.

I knew what I wanted to achieve, and I knew who I wanted to achieve it for. I knew how I wanted to do it. And I wasn't going to make any compromises. There was quite enough of that going on already. This was going to be my way or no way.

When I started the business, I had 6.5k connections on LinkedIn.

Most were a total fucking waste of time. Passive, entitled, stupid or broke. Or bots. Or dead. Not my desired audience, anyway.

I launched the business in November, and in December, I culled my network down from 6.5k to under 200 people. This flies in the face of 'conventional wisdom' about 'building a network'.

I refused to provide free content. I'm not some desperate weakling who would devalue my insight for applause. Applause doesn't pay the bills, and nor does 'engagement'. People who work for free 'for exposure' are only exposing how clueless they are.

I actively sought to repel the exact kinds of people I did not want to deal with. Rather get them to block me than have to spend time triaging them out of my sales process.

I made no alliances. I considered that the established bodies in the industry were all bandits, and they not only represented what I despised but were part of the problem. In taking this uncompromising approach to an industry populated by bandits, charlatans and wastrels, I became an industry hate figure.

I have no problem being hated by weak, corrupt, dishonest people that I would feed into a wood chipper.

Like the man sang, I did it my way.

Let's take a look at some numbers.

• Year 1 income: £175,239.29

• Year 2 income: £194,200.67

• Year 3 income: £185,114.46

• Year 4 income: £98,2001.32 (The year I got kicked off LinkedIn and did zero marketing, and still made nearly 100k.)

I should point out that while these numbers aren't that impressive, they mean:

• In year 1, I was able to settle my 5-figure mortgage and be mortgage-free by 51.

• I was able to allow my wife to give up working for other people and work in the business, setting her own hours and directing her own work.

• Most of this is profit.

  Here are some more numbers to play with:

• X thousand - the number of critics I had, some of whom would email me to tell me 'where you are going wrong', and then send me actual hate mail because I ignored them.

• 1 - the number of major government departments that I developed a new practical model for risk management for, who then told me a few years later that 'your work got us through COVID.'

• £0 - the amount I ever spent on advertising. Not a penny. Ever.

• 0 - the number of times I used Facebook, TikTok or anything other than LinkedIn. (Although I did attempt a YouTube channel twice - a waste of time on both occasions.)

• 0 - the number of customers I resented working for.

• 0 - the amount of work I did for free.

• 0 - the number of times I allowed a customer to screw me over regarding payment.

• 5 - the number of clients I fired for being douchebags who had slipped through my triage process.

• £100,000 - the amount of a deal that I refused because the CEO wasn't serious about the work we were going to do.

• 0 - the number of asses I kissed.

• 0 - the number of times I allowed a prospect or client to tell me how to do my job, or jumped through hoops to do it.

Several times, I even refused quite large client contracts because they would require me to bend over for their bullshit finance processes or sign some unreasonable 'supplier contract' that all meant they were in control of the relationship. Nope.

My business. My expertise. My terms. My contract.

Assholes with money and problems are everywhere. People with world-class insight are a lot rarer. If they wanted my help, I was going to have to be in charge. If they were suitable to be in charge, they wouldn't need me, would they?

I'm fine being a servant, but I'll never be servile.

Did I always know what I was doing? Not at all. I'm an autistic psychopath with ADHD, and most of the time, I am a dog chasing cars.🤣

Did I always know why I was doing it? Absolutely.

I'm not telling you to do what I did. I'm telling you to get clear on what you are doing and why, then make no compromises and go for it.

If you want real business advice without the bullshit, get on the waiting list for Successful Sage. It's coming in 2026.