Scale Up With Nick Bradley

One of the main areas in Nick’s ‘Customer creation Playbook’ is the importance of leveraging social media, and how it can not only help you to develop your brand and message, but get it out there through the main social channels. It’s free marketing after all. But how can you make social media work to its full potential? 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 brand is a promise of consistency. When planning your social media strategy, the most important thing is to be consistent and prolific. Companies used to spend a fortune on reaching their audiences. Now they can spend a fraction of the amount, and reach their ideal demographics with just a few clicks. The three main objections that Get Savvy come up against when it comes to businesses and social media strategies are: They don’t know what to do They don’t have the time to invest in finding out how to do it People are scared of it - Being judged or getting it wrong Flip yourperception- People wrongly imagine that everything, to the smallest degree, needs to be shared on social media. But it’s all about refining that output. Hone your message and build your content around that. A well-crafted headline is imperative, especially on channels such as LinkedIn. Make sure that people can tell what you do and who you are at a simple glance. Pick one platform and create your content around it, then you can re-purpose your content for other platforms. Make sure you have brand consistency, and that your content can be easily recognised across platforms. You don’t always need to be the expert. Make sure you’re contributing to a conversation, and people will notice you, and follow you. This is the Halo Effect. Routines and habits are very important for your consistency. If you tie your social media activity to a daily activity, it’ll embed the routine into your day. Warm up the algorithm - Remember that the platform wants you to be constantly interacting. You’ll be rewarded for a higher level of engagement. Post a few comments and likes, then post your own content. The platform will reward you for having been a regular user. Like your own posts - People hardly ever notice who is specifically liking posts, and bumping up your numbers at the outset will help to warm up the algorithm. Find the bravery to make your posts personal- Facebook Lives, voice recordings, and even selfies can add a new element of engagement to your content. People engage more with real people, so try to place yourself in the content when you can. Scars not scabs -It’s fine to share an experience in the hopes of helping someone who may be going through the same thing. Social media should never be used for pity, or validation after a bad experience. A huge mistake is to try and sell something through pity. BEST MOMENTS ‘You’ve got to create your message, and then get it out there’ ‘A brand is a promise of consistency’ ‘You’ll never see a McDonald’s advert that lists every ingredient on their menu’ ‘Don’t wait to be the expert at something - just contribute’ ‘Who doesn’t eat biscuits?’ ’The Holy Grail of marketing is a testimonial’ ‘Get yourself out there and get out of your own head' VALUABLE RESOURCES Get Savvy LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/get-savvy-club/ Anita Baldwin LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anita-baldwin/?originalSubdomain=uk Anna Geary LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/getsavvyclub/?originalSubdomain=uk Get Savvy Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/getsavvyclub/ 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/

A short episode but a powerful one focused on the 4 questions that can change your life. I learned these points from Jim Rohn who has been a huge inspiration to me from the start of my career. If you’re struggling in your business right now, I challenge you to spend some time seriously reflecting on these 4 questions… 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   Scaling up your business is also about scaling up your life. You need to improve your life in order to improve your business, it’s as much about mind-set as it business. WHY? – Everyone’s why will be different. This is one of the most powerful questions you can ask someone because it gives them a purpose as to why they’re doing something. WHY NOT? – Ask yourself this too as it will tell you what’s holding you back, what problems you’re facing and how you can overcome them. WHY NOT YOU? – If you think about anyone successful why couldn’t that be you? The only thing stopping you is your thought process. Surround yourself by people who are going to be positive and help you, not people who make excuses as to why that couldn’t be them. WHY NOT NOW? – If there’s something that’s important to you then why not do it now? Focus on a small amount of things at once because he or she who chases 2 rabbit’s catches none. Most people don’t do stuff because they focus on too many things at once, the ‘busy bee’s’. We’ve all got the same amount of time as each-other to get things done so ask yourself whether the thing you’re wanting to do is important enough.   BEST MOMENTS  ‘You need a purpose for doing something’ ‘Every person who’s achieved something great has asked themselves “why not me?”’. ‘Focus is a superpower’   VALUABLE RESOURCES https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km2nv9Rg3_U Jim Rohn's website link: https://www.jimrohn.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/

In today’s episode, Nick talks to Murf Murphy, the author of ’The Aloha Money Machine’, and a scale-up expert who’s been so successful, that he’s now achieved financial freedom. The Aloha Money Machine is a hugely empowering study in how to create a business that can be sold even if you have no intention of selling it when you’re starting out; a nine-step formula for creating a business money-making machine. 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 Business is the equaliser. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, or where you come from Business evens the playing field for everyone. The two things that kill a business are not having a solution to a real problem, and poor management of cash, and not having a good cash mentality. During his entrepreneurial journey, Murf learned three invaluable lessons: You need systems and processes in your business Time must be used in the best way possible Stabilising your income is imperative People don’t tend to see building a business as building an asset. They see it as a replacement job that will provide an income, and which will see them in an elevated position.  If you want to survive in business, you have to fight and keep fighting. Your business is your legacy, and your family’s legacy. You must fight for that legacy. In the start-up phase, your sole intention should be to make money. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have an exit in sight. One day you will be exiting the business, but how? You need to know your exit from the start. Murf’s Nine Step formula for creating a business money-making machine is: Make money - focus on making your money make money Find your customers Craft your story Build the system Hire right - Fill your team with the right people Network Manage the system Highest and best use of time Financial freedom   BEST MOMENTS ‘If you’re the biggest person in the room, then you’re in the wrong room’ ‘You can learn a lot from failures’ ‘If he could do it with the same blood, then I could do it’ ’The customers are the people who write the cheques’ ‘If you want to survive, then you have to fight that shark’ ‘Money gives you choices’ ‘Gold can be found in your database’   VALUABLE RESOURCES/ Aloha Money Machine - https://www.alohamoneymachine.com The Aloha Money Machine on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Aloha-Money-Machine-Creating-Money-Making/dp/194748088X   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 episode, Nick interviews a true superstar in the world of marketing. Neil Patel has been called a “genius” and the “mad scientist of marketing”. He’s a New York Times best-selling author, and one of the Wall Street Journal’s “top influencers on the web”, and one of of Forbes’ “Top Ten Marketeers Of Our Time”. 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 When you’re starting out, you don’t always have the budgets to place paid ads, or even to attend conferences that you’re assured will help you along. But you can assert your brand for free. You can work to build your presence at every opportunity. As long as your purpose is true, and that your end goal is something you can work towards without expectation, then your brand will grow in the tailwind. Channels these days are crowded, and they know their worth. It costs money to build your brand through conventional channels. But the upside is that we have so many to choose from, and so many different ways in which to build. The brand is your biggest advantage. People will always follow the brands they know and trust. Therefore when you build your brand, it should be with the longterm in mind. It also needs to be the visible one that springs to mind when people think of your sector. Brand building begins and grows with: Creating content constantly - utilise video on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Repurpose when you can Go live, once a week, on all channels Create at least three blog posts per week that are educational Include data, stats, and cite your sources. Not only does this make you look like an expert, it begins new connections Push notifications - Use services like Subscribers.com to leverage push notifications in a professional way Collect emails - when people come to you, they can subscribe to every thing you do The rule of seven is where a customer sees or engages with you seven times or more. This interaction leaves a lasting impact on their relationship with you. More people are set to spend more money on branding than they ever have before. Some may have written off ads in the past, but Neil predicts that their reach, and subsequent revenues will only grow.   BEST MOMENTS ‘Marketing is one of the most crucial things to get right in your scale-up journey’ ‘You’ve never ever had so much access and so many ways of getting your message out there’ ‘Be patient - you always want to scale faster than you ever will’ ‘Marketing has turned into an omni-directional approach’ ‘People still buy Nike shoes because they’re Nike’ ‘Branding is what sets you apart’ ’The friction has been removed'   VALUABLE RESOURCES Neil Patel Digital - https://npdigital.com Neil Patel Twitter - https://twitter.com/neilpatel Subscribers.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/

It’s a year since Scale Up Your Business began (can you believe it?), and to celebrate this very special anniversary, the microphone is being handed to a special host, Rob Williams, one of Nick’s closest colleagues, who will be interviewing Nick for a change. 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 Nick’s main reason for starting the Scale Up Your Business podcast was to give something back to the world, to help people. After 12 months, the feedback only gets more inspiring. LinkedIn and Facebook are the main channels that people use to get in touch with Nick. If you’re adding value to people then they will seek you out. When it comes to the “secret sauce” of podcasting, Nick gives three reasons for his success: The name of the podcast is incredibly important. Make it punchy. Call it what it is. Nick talks about mind-set, intention, and being clear about what you want to achieve. He then tells you how. Be authentic, but don’t be vulnerable. Achieving your vision can be helped along by finding the people you wish emulate, and associating with those people. As soon as Nick became curious, the answers began to present themselves. Call it serendipity or coincidence, but the laws of attraction do work. It’s as if your vibe becomes magnetic to the force you’re hoping to attract. Achieving and maintaining energy levels is about focussing on your “why”. Having a strong enough mission behind your actions is purpose enough to push yourself to do anything. Physiologically, Nick recommends intermittent fasting, regular exercise, healthy amounts of sleep and ensuring that the things you put into your body are balanced.   BEST MOMENTS ‘It’s really about trying to build a community’ ’The tables have been turned on you, bro’ ‘If you help enough people to get what they want in life, then you’ll get the things you need’ ’Scale Up is about perseverance and endurance’ ’The only thing they’re really stuck in is their head’ ’The purpose behind what I’m doing is greater than how I feel’ ‘Being grateful for what you have is the antidote to fear'   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/

By setting her goals in stone, and by being consistent in her decision-making, Amira Alvarez turned tripled the income for her business, ’The Unstoppable Woman’, and by doing so created a high six-figure annual income for herself.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Amira’s initial goal was simply to make money doing something she loved. But as her journey progressed, her purpose took on extra focus, and became clearer and clearer. Amira's purpose is not set in stone. It is an ever-evolving element of her future. It is an iterative thing, and requires constant re-evaluation. Fear defines so many of society’s outcomes and expectations. We constantly look for the worst case scenario in any decision and use that to steer us towards a positive outcome.  What do you want? Where are you going? How do you get there? Which obstacle must you overcome along the way? We can’t achieve success in an instant, but we can often make the journey there a little speedier. You mustn’t let yourself off the hook. Hold yourself to the highest standards, and look for ways to climb. That’s how you get to the next level. "Magical thinking" doesn’t work. You can use your thought to visualise the thing you want, but you’ll never obtain it unless you do the work. After coming to the realisation that she was working too hard and not seeing the returns she wanted, Amira decided to try a different strategy. She obtained significant help, invested in mentorship, and turned her journey completely around. A stretch goal is a crazy goal that should be impossible. But by reaching for it, and by throwing everything she had at it, Amira aimed for a million-dollar turnover and achieved 700k.   BEST MOMENTS ’The way that you do one thing is the way you do everything’ ‘It can be an extraordinarily, delightful, amazing life’ ‘I wanted it all. I wanted to do what I wanted and make a living at it’ ‘Our directive in life is to grow’ ‘A goal is not something you strive towards, but something you come from’ ‘It always starts with opinion you have of yourself'  ‘Take your ego out of it. Getting help is so extraordinary’   VALUABLE RESOURCES Amira Alvarez - https://amiraalvarez.com Amira Alvarez LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amiraalvarez/ 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/

If you are in a business trying to grow and scale, some of the key principles in turnaround are applicable to you! When a business is in turnaround everyone is galvanised and focused and that same principle is a superpower for a business, in scale-up. The 2 critical components of a turnaround are cash and time management, listen in to hear how to get them into your business and the vital importance of being present and focused. 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 Business development Key customers – visit all your customers and reinforce your relationships. Bundle up sales to make them attractive and sell more. Lapsed (past) customers - Most small businesses are only serving around 10-20% of the customers they have acquired over the years they have been in business Going back to past customers and re-engaging can be a good way to quickly get business because there is already a relationship in place JV and affiliate partners -  You have value in your customer base and if you can partner with someone who has a product your customers will choose then you can quickly get money coming in. Promotion - You should use free or low-cost media vehicles to promote you, your personal brand and your business. social media is a quick way of getting your message out there. The more leads you have, the more conversations you can have that may lead to a sale. Costs The opportunities to outsource are huge and there are many ways to use the expertise and experience of freelancers with specialist skills to work towards the result you want. Delete all the costs that are not critical to the business and re-negotiate all contracts. Rent is a big cost in any context – Asking for a ‘rent holiday’ could save your business. Review your credit terms – the length of time you take to pay your suppliers, 30 days should be a minimum – it’s about time and cash. Cash strategies You may have excess inventory that could be sold or you can liquidate some debtors through offering a discount for paying in a very short time frame – it’s not about losing money it’s about getting cash into the business. grant funding – potentially free money because you fit the criteria of what a government wants to support,  but it takes some time to apply and secure this type of funding. Cash can be sourced from angel investors, family, friends and crowdfunding. Often HMRC will agree to deferment – because ultimately they want their money but you must agree on an repayment schedule. The cashflow forecast You need to be looking at this at least weekly. You have to understand exactly where your cash is going on a finite and intricate level and you need to know in advance if you have to take massive action to get yourself above the red line.   BEST MOMENTS ‘They are key customers because you have been able to solve a problem for them’ ‘Every business I go into I build some sort of referral program’ ‘The reason I feel confident and congruent in scaling up any business is because I’ve been through the pain of turnaround’   VALUABLE RESOURCES 90 Day Business Growth Accelerator website Nick Bradley LinkedIn   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 episode, Nick reprises his Entrepreneur In Focus series to talk to Jonathan Rivera, the man who has turned podcasting into an art-form by encouraging those with a message to hone their brand and get their message out there using his business, The Podcast Factory. Sharing stories using the mew technologies available helps us not just to grow own brands, but to help others, and to develop our businesses. 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 It took Jonathan a long time to find his vocation. After trying several different careers, and several different ways of living, he finally conquered his failures, defied the advice he was receiving, and found his place in the world. The only true failure is if you don’t learn from it. Lessons come in all shapes and sizes. Look for the way to grow from any opportunity. In Jonathan’s opinion, the 99% of the least wealthy in the world are slowly conditioned to believe that they should not try to succeed as they will fail. Even in an educational environment, we are told to act in a certain way and develop in a certain way. The disruptors are the ones who break the programming and succeed despite the advice. Vigilance is the only way to guard against bad advice. Study the referrals and listen to what they say and look for congruency. Have they achieved success? Are they qualified to coach or mentor anyone? Everyone with a message needs a Personal Media Platform (PMP) so that they can “PMP” their message. There are many available including podcasting, video, writing. Find your way to magnify your message and plant your flag. Decide what scaling means for you. Does it mean growing the business? Does it mean increasing your revenue? Does it mean being able to lessen your personal workload? Doing your best is not enough. You need to show people that you do the best work. You need to market yourself, You owe it to yourself to get that message out there.  In order to grow, you need to shake things up once in a while. You need structure, routine and consistency, but make sure you temper all that with experimentation and step out of your comfort zone. That’s how you grow   BEST MOMENTS ’I think that it’s because of all my failures that I am here’ ’None of the programming worked’ ‘You only fail if you stop’ ‘A failure is feedback’ ‘People really need to PMP their message’ ‘I’m mounting a campaign and I need you on board!’   VALUABLE RESOURCES Jonathan Rivera LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/producerjonathan/ The Podcast Factory - https://thepodcastfactory.com Daddy’s Working Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daddys-working-podcast/id1445708191   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/

Learn from Daniel Priestley about the shift from traditional corporate roles to entrepreneurship, the impact of technology on disseminating business messages, and the importance of mindset in achieving business success. Explore the evolution of larger companies becoming entrepreneurial and the significance of creating a high-performance environment for growth.

How does your business rank on the performance scorecard? In this special episode of The Scale Up Your Business Podcast, your host Nick Bradley shares with you the circle of seven business components circle of to help you start-up, scale-up and grow in 2020. If you’re looking to achieve success in 2020, this episode is for you. 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 What is the difference between start-up and scale-up? It’s the ability to lead, lead yourself, lead other people, it's the ability to build a team. It's easy starting a business in a garage with you (and maybe another business partner) but when you start to get success and you start to get customers coming in; you're starting to get some validation of what your product and your business is about. Then it's about working with people scale that. The seven components circle of business or the circle of scale-up. Knowing where you are in your business, having that effective business map and when the world is changing so rapidly, you've got to have a vision. Have the vision, know where you're going and then when you work back from the vision; You're going to have the gap. If you haven't got a plan, you can't navigate any of the challenges that are coming ahead. You've got to have a map that you can adapt to a changing landscape. The next one is marketing. Are you constantly serving and adding value to your customers in a way that psychology is that it's without any expectations? This is because you want to sell your product and service; you want to provide a solution. The more that you show up and you serve, the more you help, the more that you build your brand around that, the more you're never going to have to worry about spending a heap of time and money on marketing because it'll all compound back. Bottom line, sales mastery through systems. Are you experiencing significant growth in your bottom line through the use of systems? If marketing is about making people want to do business with you, you get paid for sales. So you've got to create multiple channels to capture, convert and close sales. If your activity levels are strong, in other words, you're engaging, you're having conversations, you're managing people through a clear pipeline, the sales are going to fall through. You should have metrics around leads, appointments, proposals, and sales. Are you constantly and strategically innovating in the key areas of your business, so it's time to move now into a sort of proposition and product? So this is not necessarily just about technology, but it can be, it can be about your offers, it can be about your operations, it can be about the strategy. You could be throwing money out the window if you're not innovating and improving all the areas and the components of your business. Do you have raving fan customers and culture around this? It doesn't matter again, how big you are. It's an ideology, it's a philosophy, but the biggest mistake that companies make is that they fall in love with their business and all their products, and not with their clients or their customers. You need to know more about your ideal customer than anybody else, what they desire, fear, hope, aspire to be. The number one reason that start-ups fail is due to a lack of a need for their product or their service in the marketplace and the failure to meet the needs of potential clients. Are you tapping into the power of growth through optimization and maximization? Sometimes the biggest growth opportunities don't come from new initiatives, but rather from taking the existing core business that you have, the processes and executing them much more effectively than you are now. The way to think about this is a small incremental improvement made in just a few key areas of your business that can result in literally geometric growth to the business as a whole. One of the easiest ways to get leverage in this area is through technology, through automation, as much as it is also outsourcing the things that you don't critically need in the business. You’re looking at, how can I do this better? How can I do this easier? How can I do this more effectively? How can I do this more efficiently? Financial and legal analysis. As an entrepreneur, it's the thing that people get wrong the most. It all stems here particularly on the governance layer of your business. Do you know where your company is spending its money? It's easy to lose sight of the key measurements that can predict progress or demise. Being able to measure where your business is, where it's going, being able to see the blind spots that could get you into heaps of trouble are the factors that are paramount for any business. It's about understanding how the business is designed to generate cash for you to invest, ultimately, for you to be able to create value at some point, depending on what you want to do with your business. That's either going to line your pockets, it's going to take you closer to freedom, to wealth, living life on your terms, or it's going to allow you to exit the business and get investors or sell the business to investors. BEST MOMENTS ‘Do not build a five-year plan because the world's changing so much, when you're getting into planning, you can go up to three years because it kind of gives you something to work with' ‘It’s all about what your customers would say about you to other people’ ‘If you've got a great reputation, then you're going to have many, many more inbound inquiries’ ‘If you want a business that's scaling and one that's going to be sustainable in the future, you've got to improve its marketing strategies’ ‘Sales are the systems that are put in place that allow you to allow the conversion to happen, it's an expected outcome’ 'Strategy is the greatest determining factor in the success of any sort of Innovation Initiative' ‘Problems come first solutions come second’ ‘The second highest cause of business failure is due to cash flow’ ‘If you start to have some basic frameworks and basic foundations in place, then you're going to be able to be significantly more successful in what you're trying to achieve’ `It's always good just to have a few frameworks, something to be able to at least, measure where you are today so you know where you want to go’ ‘Be grateful, be brave, have faith and show up’ VALUABLE RESOURCES Nick’s Twitter Scale Up Your Business Podcast 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/