Hiring friends and family sounds like a great idea. You already trust them, you know them well and you want to see them succeed. But what happens when business starts affecting the relationship?

In this episode of Built It. Broke It. Fixed It., Chris, Vlad and Ant share their experiences of working with siblings, partners and close friends, including the times it worked and the times it became complicated.

They discuss setting boundaries from day one, agreeing responsibilities properly and why trust alone is never enough when money, pressure and difficult decisions are involved.

Can working with friends and family really work, or is it a risk best avoided?

We hope we did a good job.

Growth is often seen as the ultimate goal, but what does it really cost?

In this episode, Chris, Vlad and Ant talk about their staff, the people who have helped them build the business and how important it is to recognise the work that goes on behind the scenes.

They discuss building trust, supporting people properly and creating a workplace where staff feel valued rather than treated as just another number.

We hope we did a good job.

In this episode, Chris, Vlad and Ant answer a question from one of our listeners, one we're pretty sure every single one of you has run into at some point: when is it time to let a client go?

Because every founder has that one client. The one who drains your team, disrespects your time, haggles every invoice, and somehow still expects miracles. You built the relationship; it broke somewhere along the way, and now you're wondering whether it's fixable or if it's time to walk away.

So we get into the unwelcome truth: keeping the wrong client costs you more than losing them. We cover the warning signs it's gone past repair, how to tell a rough patch from a real red flag, and how to actually let a client go without torching your reputation.

Hope we did a good job.

You see plenty of headlines about businesses being built and sold for millions, but that’s not the reality for most people.

In this episode, Chris, Ant and Vlad talk honestly about what it actually takes to build a successful business. They cover sales, finding the right mentors, ignoring the social media hype, and the lessons they’ve picked up along the way.

No gimmicks or overnight success stories. Just three business owners having a real conversation about building and growing a company.

Hope we did a good job.

Everyone’s talking about AI. How it’s going to change business, replace jobs, save us time, make us millions… or possibly take over the world.

 So, of course, we decided to bang on about it too.

 But without pretending we’re AI experts. These are simply the views of three business owners, talking about how we’re actually using AI, where we think it’s genuinely useful, and whether some of the fears around it are really valid.

 Ant talks about “creating his Donna,” Chris shares how he’s using AI to create his own mentor, and Vlad explains how he’s using AI as far more than just a search engine.

 And to any AI experts listening, these are our views only. We’re not claiming to have all the answers, and there’s absolutely no guarantee we’ll even agree with each other.

 Join Ant, Vlad and Chris for real experiences, different opinions, probably a few arguments, and an honest conversation about AI from three business owners actually using it.

 Hope we did a good job

Chris Withers is an education entrepreneur who built a children’s educational board game and interactive mobile app. In this episode, he gets brutally honest about what it actually takes to keep a business alive.

We talk about finding the right team, trusting the wrong people, and what happens when the technical development you paid for doesn’t deliver. Chris opens up about the real fallout, the mental health struggles, the drinking, borrowing money from family, and just trying to survive long enough to come out the other side.

If you have ever built something and felt like it was all falling apart, this episode may be of value to you.

I hope we did a good job.

Your clients disappear overnight. Your pipeline dries up without warning. Now what?

In this episode of Built It. Broke It. Fixed It., Ant, Vlad and Chris have an honest conversation about what it's really like building a business through difficult times.

Running a business can be one of the most rewarding things you'll ever do, but it can also be stressful, lonely and relentless. The reality is that most business owners face the same problems, just on different scales.

This episode is about those moments when things don't go to plan, what happens next, and what it takes to keep going.

By sharing our experiences, both good and bad, we hope this helps you in building your business.

Built It. Broke It. Fixed It.

Because business isn't built on perfection. It's built on problems solved. 

Every business owner talks about winning clients, but what happens when keeping one starts costing more than they’re worth?

In this episode of Built It. Broke It. Fixed It., Ant, Chris and Vlad talk honestly about bad-fit clients, scope creep, unrealistic expectations, toxic working relationships and the warning signs they ignored for too long.

They discuss when patience turns into damage control, how difficult clients can drain time, energy and whole teams, and how to know when it’s time to walk away.

It’s the side of business people rarely talk about publicly, but almost every business owner deals with at some point, so we thought we’d try and tackle it head on. Hope we did a good job.

Freelancers. For some business owners, they're a lifeline. For others, a headache. And for most of us? A bit of both.

In our very first episode, Chris, Anthony and Vlad sit down for an honest, unfiltered conversation about their real experiences with freelancers, the wins, the disasters, the lessons learned the hard way and the moments they'd do differently. Three people, three perspectives, and plenty of opinions that don't always agree.

Whether you've had brilliant results or been burned badly, this one will feel familiar.