Bulletproof Entrepreneur

Send us a textThis episode is about courage.From the outside looking in, the life of an entrepreneur seems exciting and fun.Starting a business and growing it towards a successful exit appears to be fairly straightforward. However the statistics confirm that very few ever manage to do that.Nigel Shanahan is an extraordinary entrepreneur. Through tremendous ups and downs, he grew his tech startup to a £50m exit.Coming from a fairly traditional corporate role, he had the seed of an idea and wanted to ride the wave of the then-new mobile phone technology.So despite being married with two young children he took the entrepreneurial leap into starting his own business. The went on a 20-year journey that involved him getting private equity backing, a fairly brutal experience and then buying the business back from them and pivoting with a refreshed strategy.Nigel shares his thoughts on business mentors, on the importance of creating a future vision and looking after and taking your team with you. He also candidly shares some of the regrets he’s had and things he'd do differently if he had his time again.Nigel is quite understated but some aspects of his journey confirm that he is a man of great courage.This is a masterclass in what it takes to be an entrepreneur and take an idea to a successful conclusion despite all the inevitable challenges.Show Notes:https://makegoodgrow.com/https://1millstreet.com/homehttps://www.socialsupermarket.org/Nigel's LinkedInhttps://www.gpbullhound.com/https://www.eosworldwide.com/Traction: Get a Grip on Your BusinessStart Here: Doing Hard Things Right Where You AreThe Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In BusinessThe 4 Disciplines of Execution: Revised and Updated: Achieving Your Wildly Important GoalsProduced by George Barbov of GR Media Podcast supported by Capital Asset Management www.capital.co.ukNew episodes are out every second Thursday - totally free and with no advertisements.This podcast is produced by GR Media Sponsored by Capital Asset Management

Send us a textMark Mills was- as he refers to it himself ‘one of those annoying kids at school, who started businesses buying and selling stuff  - and he’s been building them ever since.But there were several failures along the way.Listen to him talk about the opportunity he had back in 1999 to open the first franchise for Starbucks in Europe - and why he turned it down! He admitted that wasn't his best decision  - but he's done OK since then.He eventually started a business and grew it to over £100m in annual revenue and £20m in profits -  before selling out for a life-changing sum.Mark shares his thoughts on the importance of understanding and applying your business model - and his 5-point model to maximise your success and business value.He also reveals his 40-point checklist to prepare for business exit and ensure you significantly increase the value of your business.Mark now advises other business owners on how to scale towards a successful business sale and drops golden nuggets of knowledge throughout this inspired conversation.I hope you enjoy episode number one.Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Mr Mark Mills. Mark has kindly agreed to send a signed copy to the first 10 listeners of the podcast to go to Apple podcasts and leave us a 5-start review. (see the book HERE)If you want to secure yours, write the review, take a screenshot and email it to me at alan@entrepreneurtransition.com and give me your postal address and we will have your personal copy mailed to you.Show notes:https://mark.co.uk/Mark's LinkedIn pageMark's book on Amazon - Making Your Mark: How I built a fortune from £1.50 and you can tooGood to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don'tAnyone Can Do It: Building Coffee Republic from Our Kitchen Table - 57 Real Life Laws on EntrepreneurshipProduced by George Barbov of GR Media Supported by Capital Asset Management www.capital.co.ukThis podcast is produced by GR Media Sponsored by Capital Asset Management