Scale Up With Nick Bradley

This week, Nick looks at Verne Harnish’s book, ’Mastering The Rockefeller Habits’, a guide to increasing the value of your business by following steps that have proved successful for some of the world’s largest companies over the past hundred years. Find out now if you’re building a high-value, exitable business (even if you have no immediate plans to sell it). You’ll get an instant PDF report with powerful insights specifically tailored to your business in just 4 minutes. https://highvalueexit.scoreapp.com/ KEY TAKEAWAYS  Goals are essential, but without action they are insubstantial. A clear vision and the discipline to put routines into action, are the pathways to success. We need to have alignment at the highest levels in our business. Frequent meetings, active participation and constructive debate are the keystones to aligned management. Accountability is crucial. A Function Accountability Chart can help you to assign tasks, and to ensure that the right people are taking care of them at the right time.  Treat your reporting of customer data as importantly as you do your financial data. Frequent accurate analysis will give you greater insight into your direction.   BEST MOMENTS ’The core principles of success don’t really change’ ‘Goals without routines are wishes, and routines without goals are aimless’ ‘You can never communicate enough!’ ‘Core values need to become behaviours'   VALUABLE RESOURCES Mastering The Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish   ABOUT THE HOST Nick Bradley is a renowned entrepreneur, investor, speaker, and business growth expert. His background is growing and scaling Venture Capital and Private Equity backed businesses globally. Over the last decade, he has completed 117 acquisitions and 25 business exits with a combined valuation of over $5bn dollars. His mission is to help business founders build valuable businesses and create life-changing exits so they can realise freedom, wealth, and impact.  CONTACT METHOD Nick’s Facebook page: https://scaleup.vip/FB  Nick’s LinkedIn: https://scaleup.vip/LI  Nick's Instagram: https://scaleup.vip/IG  Scale Up Your Business, coaching/consulting: https://suyb.globalSupport the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

Lisa Cumes is a freelance copywriter and StoryBrand Certified Guide, dedicated to helping business owners develop their own unique brand story, one of the most powerful tools in developing a narrative around the work you do. Find out now if you’re building a high-value, exitable business (even if you have no immediate plans to sell it). You’ll get an instant PDF report with powerful insights specifically tailored to your business in just 4 minutes. https://highvalueexit.scoreapp.com/ KEY TAKEAWAYS One of the smartest things we can do as business owners right now is to invest in marketing and product development. Those who have done so, have seen remarkable gains, even through the COVID lockdown. A growth mindset allows us to see the opportunities that may be in front of us at all times. A closed mindset is almost like turning our back on them. People often don’t follow the financial aspirations behind something. They follow the narrative. They follow the heart and soul of a project. They want to be part of the story. StoryBrand removes the noise, the confusion, and the overwhelm of copywriting, in terms of presenting a business to a customer. It is about concentrating the point and assuring your customer that you can solve their problem. The best idea isn’t always the clearest choice. The idea that can communicate itself in the simplest, most resonant way, will often be the winner. BEST MOMENTS ‘He got out of his head. He invested. And he’s got the result!’ ‘If one person voices it, then others are out there who need it!’ ‘Any component of success, going forward, requires a team’ ‘People need to be sold on the fact that you understand the problem that they are facing' VALUABLE RESOURCES Lisa Cumes LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisacumes/ Simple Story Solutions - https://simplestorysolutions.com Lisa Cumes Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/lisacumes/   ABOUT THE HOST Nick Bradley is a renowned entrepreneur, investor, speaker, and business growth expert. His background is growing and scaling Venture Capital and Private Equity backed businesses globally. Over the last decade, he has completed 117 acquisitions and 25 business exits with a combined valuation of over $5bn dollars. His mission is to help business founders build valuable businesses and create life-changing exits so they can realise freedom, wealth, and impact.  CONTACT METHOD Nick’s Facebook page: https://scaleup.vip/FB  Nick’s LinkedIn: https://scaleup.vip/LI  Nick's Instagram: https://scaleup.vip/IG  Scale Up Your Business, coaching/consulting: https://suyb.globalSupport the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

Paul Akers is an expert in the concept of Kaizen - the art of continuous improvement - and has since authored several works on the benefits of Lean Living, building a multi-million dollar business along the way. Paul joins Nick today to talk about how continuous improvement can strengthen and improve your life and business, how to nurture and develop culture, productivity, efficiency and much more! Find out now if you’re building a high-value, exitable business (even if you have no immediate plans to sell it). You’ll get an instant PDF report with powerful insights specifically tailored to your business in just 4 minutes. https://highvalueexit.scoreapp.com/ KEY TAKEAWAYS  Paul describes himself as a carpenter, as the concept of taking something raw and unrecognisable, and then transforming it into to something useful and beautiful, is one that can be applied to any pursuit; personal or business. Success isn’t always about money or growth. Sometimes it’s about achieving the thing you set out to do in the first place, and then honing that success into a purer form of quality. The formula for increasing efficiency is to recognise the many ways in which we can reduce waste and making incremental changes, using the teams at hand, so as to tighten and make lean, our systems and processes. Life as we live it each day, is really just a series of processes. All that Lean seeks to do is, is to look at any given process and refining away the waste. Consistent refining leads to a Lean life.   BEST MOMENTS ‘I’m just a curious carpenter - how do I fix this and how do I make it better?’ ‘I want a quality life. I want a quality company. And I want quality people’ ‘I figured out the formula, and then I started experiencing the benefit' ‘Lean believes that the greatest asset is people'   VALUABLE RESOURCES To learn about Paul’s incredible ‘2 Second Lean Play’ app go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxB-oAsNpFI&feature=youtu.be2 Second Lean Play iOS - https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/2-second-lean-play/id15036949932 Second Lean Play Android - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.leanplayPaul Akers LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulakers/Paul Akers - https://paulakers.netPaul Akers YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA694NgEo6Oh09gnNrZ02eg   ABOUT THE GUEST  Paul Akers is the founder and president of FastCap, a product development company specializing in woodworking tools and hardware for the professional builder. Paul’s intense curiosity on how things could be improved paved the way for him to become a prolific innovator and today he holds many US and International patents. FastCap launches approximately 20-30 innovative products per year and has won business of the year in 1999 and 2010. ABOUT THE HOST Nick Bradley is a renowned entrepreneur, investor, speaker, and business growth expert. His background is growing and scaling Venture Capital and Private Equity backed businesses globally. Over the last decade, he has completed 117 acquisitions and 25 business exits with a combined valuation of over $5bn dollars. His mission is to help business founders build valuable businesses and create life-changing exits so they can realise freedom, wealth, and impact.  CONTACT METHOD Nick’s Facebook page: https://scaleup.vip/FB  Nick’s LinkedIn: https://scaleup.vip/LI  Nick's Instagram: https://scaleup.vip/IG  Scale Up Your Business, coaching/consulting: https://suyb.global  Support the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

In order to make sure your marketing strategies are effective, you need to focus on who your ideal customer is.  Many entrepreneurs form their businesses around a product or idea, and then try to find the customer to fit. But as Nick explains in this week’s '15 Minutes To Action', it might be time to flip that thinking...   Find out now if you’re building a high-value, exitable business (even if you have no immediate plans to sell it). You’ll get an instant PDF report with powerful insights specifically tailored to your business in just 4 minutes. https://highvalueexit.scoreapp.com/ KEY TAKEAWAYS A business founded upon a product-centric approach instantly fails to take into account the most important stakeholder: the customer. What are their needs?  If a brand an understand the archetypes of its ideal customer, and can align with their values, it can engender a sense of trust, whether consciously or unconsciously. Aim for an 80/20 split when it comes to marketing. 80% of your revenue should be coming from your core audience or archetype. The other 20% should come from another. We should appeal to our customer’s sense of risk, and attempt to solve problems that are high-stake. Identify the need that’s keeping your customer up at night.   BEST MOMENTS ‘We tend to align with things that align with us’ ‘Archetypes are the heartbeat of a brand’ ‘You need to understand that person or persona intimately, so that you understand their problems’ ’The more generalist you are, the more you don’t stand out'      VALUABLE RESOURCES Brand Archetypes at Medium - https://medium.com/ebaqdesign/brand-archetypes-the-ultimate-guide-with-48-examples-44b39eb41c8f   ABOUT THE HOST  Nick Bradley is a renowned entrepreneur, investor, speaker, and business growth expert. His background is growing and scaling Venture Capital and Private Equity backed businesses globally. Over the last decade, he has completed 117 acquisitions and 25 business exits with a combined valuation of over $5bn dollars. His mission is to help business founders build valuable businesses and create life-changing exits so they can realise freedom, wealth, and impact.  CONTACT METHOD Nick’s Facebook page: https://scaleup.vip/FB  Nick’s LinkedIn: https://scaleup.vip/LI  Nick's Instagram: https://scaleup.vip/IG  Scale Up Your Business, coaching/consulting: https://suyb.globalSupport the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

Mike “C-Roc” Ciorrocco’s mission is to find out what you’re made of. It’s a mission he’s working towards each day by using the art of "people building", and by establishing himself as one of the great business leaders out there.  Find out now if you’re building a high-value, exitable business (even if you have no immediate plans to sell it). You’ll get an instant PDF report with powerful insights specifically tailored to your business in just 4 minutes. https://highvalueexit.scoreapp.com/   KEY TAKEAWAYS The challenges we face in our formative years can give us the armour we need to battle through adversity in business, and in life. All obstacles are lessons. Conceptualise challenge as rocket fuel, a driving burst of energy to drive you upwards and forwards, instead of a detrimental occurrence. Change your perception and you change for the better. Sales are a form of leadership. We are using methodologies of leadership in order to “lead” our customers towards decisions.  Be as consistent as you can be. Even if you feel as though something isn’t working immediately, trust the process and see it through. It requires discipline and belief. Build your team out with people who you can help and develop, so that they can become the best version of themselves. Sometimes enthusiasm and willingness are far more important than experience.   BEST MOMENTS  ’People need to be built' ‘When you start being aware of that concept, it changes everything!’ ‘It’s your duty to be successful. Not just to pay your bills, but to help other people’ ‘I will help you grow - you just have to be willing’ ‘You’ve got to get out of obscurity'     VALUABLE RESOURCESMike “C-Roc” Ciorrocco YouTubeMike “C-Roc” Ciorrocco InstagramMike “C-Roc” Ciorrocco LinkedInMike “C-Roc” Ciorrocco ABOUT THE HOST Nick Bradley is a renowned entrepreneur, investor, speaker, and business growth expert. His background is growing and scaling Venture Capital and Private Equity backed businesses globally. Over the last decade, he has completed 117 acquisitions and 25 business exits with a combined valuation of over $5bn dollars. His mission is to help business founders build valuable businesses and create life-changing exits so they can realise freedom, wealth, and impact.  CONTACT METHOD Nick’s Facebook page: https://scaleup.vip/FB  Nick’s LinkedIn: https://scaleup.vip/LI  Nick's Instagram: https://scaleup.vip/IG  Scale Up Your Business, coaching/consulting: https://suyb.globalSupport the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

In this week’s ‘15 Minutes To Action’ episode, Nick talks you through the best ways to find that initial burst of funding for your business that can set you off on the road to success.  Find out now if you’re building a high-value, exitable business (even if you have no immediate plans to sell it). You’ll get an instant PDF report with powerful insights specifically tailored to your business in just 4 minutes. https://highvalueexit.scoreapp.com/ KEY TAKEAWAYS Remember not to be afraid to use your own cash at the beginning instead of investor capital. By spending your own cash, the fate of your business remains in your own hands. If your idea is high-risk, and you’ve chosen to seek investment from friends or family, you need to consider how the fallout will look in the event that they lose their money. Taking on debt is not a bad thing, so long as you view it in the right way. Banks and traditional lenders should always be considered, as costs may be lower, and the guarantees may be greater. Grants are an invaluable way of boosting your cash reserves, so long as you are solving the problem that the grant has been designed for. Essentially, they provide free money that doesn’t need repaying.   BEST MOMENTS ‘One of the scarcest resources you’ve got is time’ ‘You get what you pitch for, and you’re always pitching’ ‘Entrepreneurship is not for the faint-hearted. It’s a roller-coaster journey’ ‘Money alone can’t always get a business running. Sometimes you need help’ ABOUT THE HOST Nick Bradley is a renowned entrepreneur, investor, speaker, and business growth expert. His background is growing and scaling Venture Capital and Private Equity backed businesses globally. Over the last decade, he has completed 117 acquisitions and 25 business exits with a combined valuation of over $5bn dollars. His mission is to help business founders build valuable businesses and create life-changing exits so they can realise freedom, wealth, and impact.  CONTACT METHOD Nick’s Facebook page: https://scaleup.vip/FB  Nick’s LinkedIn: https://scaleup.vip/LI  Nick's Instagram: https://scaleup.vip/IG  Scale Up Your Business, coaching/consulting: https://suyb.globalSupport the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

David Cote is the business mastermind who took industrial giant Honeywell from a valuation of $20 billion to $120 billion during his tenure as CEO! David joins Nick today for a very special discussion about his incredible new book, the power of mind-set, how to maximise short term performance while still planning for the long term, and the challenges of managing complexity and stress. Find out now if you’re building a high-value, exitable business (even if you have no immediate plans to sell it). You’ll get an instant PDF report with powerful insights specifically tailored to your business in just 4 minutes. https://highvalueexit.scoreapp.com/ KEY TAKEAWAYS To advance in any business you need two things: performance and visibility. You have to do a great job, and you need to make sure it’s being recognised. Many believe that short-term or long-term are mutually exclusive. This thinking is fundamentally flawed, and can be subverted if we realign our perspective. The most important part of taking control of long-term and short-term goals simultaneously, is to capture the correct mind-set. Planning and promises are all part of strategy, but we should never promise something we can’t deliver. We inspire and motivate by showing up and keeping our word. We need to nurture a culture in our organisation that will encourage people to execute strategic decisions, but this begins with recognising the behaviours we wish to engender.   BEST MOMENTS ‘You have no idea how much good you did yourself by how you handled this thing’ ’Sometimes you have to take a risk in business and life’ ’Success is about accomplishing two seemingly conflicting things at the same time’ ’No matter what it is you’re trying to get done, mind-set is the fundamental thing that has to change’ ‘Value is one thing. Behaviour is how you do it'   VALUABLE RESOURCES WINNING NOW, WINNING LATER: How Companies Can Win in the Short Term While Investing in the Long Term (Amazon): https://amzn.to/3fGqTEm   ABOUT THE GUESTDavid Cote is Executive Chairman of Vertiv Holdings Co, a global data center products and services provider. Previously, as CEO of the industrial giant Honeywell, he grew the company's market capitalization from around $20 billion to nearly $120 billion, delivering returns of 800 percent and beating the S&P by nearly two and a half times. He is the author of, WINNING NOW, WINNING LATER: How Companies Can Win in the Short Term While Investing in the Long Term (HarperCollins Leadership, June 2020). https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmcote/ ABOUT THE HOST  Nick Bradley is a renowned entrepreneur, investor, speaker, and business growth expert. His background is growing and scaling Venture Capital and Private Equity backed businesses globally. Over the last decade, he has completed 117 acquisitions and 25 business exits with a combined valuation of over $5bn dollars. His mission is to help business founders build valuable businesses and create life-changing exits so they can realise freedom, wealth, and impact.  CONTACT METHOD Nick’s Facebook page: https://scaleup.vip/FB  Nick’s LinkedIn: https://scaleup.vip/LI  Nick's Instagram: https://scaleup.vip/IG  Scale Up Your Business, coaching/consulting: https://suyb.globalSupport the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

Many start-ups are keen to begin scaling up, but what’s the best way to make sure you business is ready to do so? In this week’s ’15 Minutes To Action’ episode, Nick talks you through the areas you need to look at in order to make sure your business is fit and ready for growth. Find out now if you’re building a high-value, exitable business (even if you have no immediate plans to sell it). You’ll get an instant PDF report with powerful insights specifically tailored to your business in just 4 minutes. https://highvalueexit.scoreapp.com/ KEY TAKEAWAYS The fundamental elements to making sure your start-up is in a good position to scale, are systems and processes that can grow with you. Ensure you have as much automation in place as possible. These areas can include marketing, training, performance metrics, payroll and invoicing. Marketing cannot be overstated. No one can invest in your brand if they’re not aware of it. Outsource if needs be, but make sure you’re marketing effectively and perpetually. Bring in the right people and only the right people. Take the time to put the interests of the business first, and put aside personal feelings. Hire the people that you know will make your business better.   BEST MOMENTS ‘You can’t spend enough time making sure that you have the automation things in play’ ‘Word-of-mouth is not a scaleable solution’ ‘You want to be able to use this as a tool to sell your story’ ‘A business is only scaleable when it has the right people on board' ABOUT THE HOST Nick Bradley is a renowned entrepreneur, investor, speaker, and business growth expert. His background is growing and scaling Venture Capital and Private Equity backed businesses globally. Over the last decade, he has completed 117 acquisitions and 25 business exits with a combined valuation of over $5bn dollars. His mission is to help business founders build valuable businesses and create life-changing exits so they can realise freedom, wealth, and impact.  CONTACT METHOD Nick’s Facebook page: https://scaleup.vip/FB  Nick’s LinkedIn: https://scaleup.vip/LI  Nick's Instagram: https://scaleup.vip/IG  Scale Up Your Business, coaching/consulting: https://suyb.globalSupport the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

The number one question that Nick finds himself asked each day, is “How can I raise money?”, and “How can I increase the value of my business through investment?”.  Today’s guest is Tim Koller, a partner at McKinsey & Company and an expert on value creation and corporate strategy, who’s joined the show to discuss the all-important topic of valuation, and how you can put investment finance to the very best use, in order to see your business’s value soar.   Find out now if you’re building a high-value, exitable business (even if you have no immediate plans to sell it). You’ll get an instant PDF report with powerful insights specifically tailored to your business in just 4 minutes. https://highvalueexit.scoreapp.com/ KEY TAKEAWAYS Scale-up is certainly about leveraging finance and investment in order to be able to address more needs, to grow and to develop. But it’s also prudent to use your money wisely, and to make sure it’s being utilised effectively. What ultimately drives the cash-flow of a company is the combination of how fast it can grow its revenues, and what kind of return-on-capital it earns. The market is generally very smart about distinguishing companies based upon their performance. Those with faster growth prospects and higher returns on capital, will typically end up with higher multiples. In the current climate, businesses should be focussing upon ensuring that customers and suppliers are being well taken care of.  A good investor will always bet on the business, and not you as an individual. Selling yourself is useless if you don’t have the correct economics behind your idea.   BEST MOMENTS ‘What ultimately matters is how big it can get and how profitable it can be’ ’Do you bet on the jockey, or do you bet on the horse?’ ‘It’s the strength of the brand that drives the cashflow’ ‘An economy like this accelerates the decline of weaker businesses'   VALUABLE RESOURCES Tim Koller at McKinsey - https://www.mckinsey.com/our-people/tim-koller# Tim Koller LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/timkoller/ Valuation - by Tim Koller (Amazon) tim_koller@mckinsey.com   ABOUT THE HOST Nick Bradley is a renowned entrepreneur, investor, speaker, and business growth expert. His background is growing and scaling Venture Capital and Private Equity backed businesses globally. Over the last decade, he has completed 117 acquisitions and 25 business exits with a combined valuation of over $5bn dollars. His mission is to help business founders build valuable businesses and create life-changing exits so they can realise freedom, wealth, and impact.  CONTACT METHOD Nick’s Facebook page: https://scaleup.vip/FB  Nick’s LinkedIn: https://scaleup.vip/LI  Nick's Instagram: https://scaleup.vip/IG  Scale Up Your Business, coaching/consulting: https://suyb.globalSupport the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

There are few scarier words in business than “plateau” which is generally associated with a lack of momentum and slow stagnation of progress. In this week’s 15 Minutes To Action, Nick provides a short, sharp shock of advice that can make sure that line keeps moving upwards!   Find out now if you’re building a high-value, exitable business (even if you have no immediate plans to sell it). You’ll get an instant PDF report with powerful insights specifically tailored to your business in just 4 minutes. https://highvalueexit.scoreapp.com/ KEY TAKEAWAYS Stagnation and plateauing are not signals that your business is in trouble. They’re completely normal. They generally mean that you need to reinvigorate, which is always a good idea. Take another look at the people you’re bringing in to your business. Make sure your hires are technically and emotionally Focus on what your strengths have been, and how they’ve gotten you to where you are now. Look at what gave you your ignition in the first place, and see if that proposition needs tuning. Look for adjacent markets. Your plateau may have been caused by the fact that you’ve solved your customers’ needs so well, that the problem no longer exists in that specific market. Begin to investigate other markets that may have issues you can address.   BEST MOMENTS  ‘I like things to be working like clockwork - like a precision instrument’ ‘Pit-stopping allows race cars to recalibrate' ’To get to where you’ve got to, your company has strength’ ’This is the best way to start pushing boundaries and getting things working'   ABOUT THE HOST Nick Bradley is a renowned entrepreneur, investor, speaker, and business growth expert. His background is growing and scaling Venture Capital and Private Equity backed businesses globally. Over the last decade, he has completed 117 acquisitions and 25 business exits with a combined valuation of over $5bn dollars. His mission is to help business founders build valuable businesses and create life-changing exits so they can realise freedom, wealth, and impact.  CONTACT METHOD Nick’s Facebook page: https://scaleup.vip/FB  Nick’s LinkedIn: https://scaleup.vip/LI  Nick's Instagram: https://scaleup.vip/IG  Scale Up Your Business, coaching/consulting: https://suyb.globalSupport the show: https://highvalueexit.com/