Curiosity is definitely the buzz word for this interview on ScaleUp Radio. 

I interviewed Manda Graham who is the director of Equal Vision, which is a social enterprise, a Community Interest Company. 

Manda is also the founder of something called the Curiosity Museum – which is an immersive careers advisory service for students. 

And this is where it gets really interesting, because they had just got to the point of launching a live version into schools literally in March of 2020 as COVID hit so they've had to do that overused word - pivot. 

There's a lot of interesting stuff around how Amanda has been able to do that and the support that she's had.  All sorts of great stuff you'll hear about how one of the constraints early days was things had to fit in the back of her Volkswagen Polo. So that's a constraint that I've not heard before, certainly on ScaleUp Radio. 

So really interesting, different ways of looking at things, a lot about the schools and the education market. Also some thinking around sprint methodology. Some really, really interesting things from Manda on this discussion.

 

Manda can be found here:

linkedin.com/in/mandagraham

https://www.equalvisioncic.co.uk/curiosity-museum/

 

 

Resources

 

Sprint by Jake Knapp - https://www.waterstones.com/book/sprint/jake-knapp/john-zeratsky/9780593076118

 

Asana - https://asana.com/

 

Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for.   If you would like to be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: [email protected]   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up.    More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/

I had the pleasure today to talk with Charlotte Melia on ScaleUp Radio. Charlotte is the co founder of Dazzle and fIzz and they are an entertainment event organiser but with a big difference and you'll really hear that as you listen to Charlotte. 

She reached her first million within about five years and she's now got 17 full time employees and 25 part time. Her first international event was for the Dubai royal family with ice sculptures in the desert. And she's managed to secure two rounds of investment from VC and from angels and will be looking for more.

Charlotte has also managed to challenge and overcome some of the perceptions around two women founders, in an industry that is sometimes perceived as a little bit of a cottage industry. She clearly had to stand out and really make her case for funding and she gives a lot of great advice on how you might go about doing that. 

Carlotte is also very clear on why she is building the business. So listen out for her reasons around that. And also some neat thinking around intellectual property around licencing, also thoughts around becoming a preferred supplier with your target groups in Charlotte's case  five star hotels. 

So lots of really good things here. All sorts of areas covered. In the beginning we talk a bit about the cash side of things and if you'd like to level up your thinking on your cash habits, then why not take our ScoreApp - the link is here - https://kevin-qrtokieu.scoreapp.com - and will only take you a few minutes and might give you some really useful ideas. 

So let's go over to Charlotte for her story.

 

Charlotte can be found here:

linkedin.com/in/charlotte-melia-4553a296

https://dazzleandfizz.co.uk/

[email protected]

 

Resources

Traction by Gino Wickman - https://www.waterstones.com/book/traction/gino-wickman/9781936661831

Dwen - https://dwen.com/en-us/

Xero - https://dwen.com/en-us/

Capsule CRM - https://capsulecrm.com

Connecteam - https://connecteam.com

G:Drivev - https://drive.google.com

Eric - https://www.meet-eric.com/

 

Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for.   If you would like to be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: [email protected]   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up.    More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/

Have you ever had a great idea for a business and then being put off by maybe not having the coding skills or the technical skills to be able to build whatever you need to do, or finding someone that can do it for you and being confident that it's not going to cost you thousands of pounds? Well, Simon Jenner is the co founder of million labs, and that's the challenge that they help startup founders overcome and I talk with him on ScaleUp Radio.

Million Labs use the No Code platform to help founders to get to their minimum viable product or MVP as quickly as possible as cheaply as possible. And they'll even potentially provide a little bit of seed investment to help the founder on their way.  Sounds like the dream product and service for a budding tech entrepreneur, doesn't it? 

So I had a fascinating discussion with Simon about his business. He only started four years ago, and the story of how they started it was another one of these where they started out doing something else that didn't quite work. And they're now supporting something like 70 or 80 founders every month in getting them off the ground to that MVP. 

And in the course of doing that, they're really starting to get beneath the skin and understand which founders are likely to succeed, and perhaps which ones aren't. 

And there's some great tips from Simon if you're considering a new product or new service. There's lots of advice here about how you can make sure that you don't end up going down a path that is just never going to give you any return. 

So a really interesting interview, I know you're going to love it. So let's go across to Simon for the rest of that story. If you want to test your strategic thinking then why not take our score app around levelling up your strategic thinking?  It will only take a few minutes and the link is in the show notes.

https://kevin-ylfmnqor.scoreapp.com

 

Simon can be found here:

linkedin.com/in/sijenner

https://millionlabs.co.uk/

 

Resources

Pivot - https://podcasts.voxmedia.com/show/pivot

This Week In Startups - https://rephonic.com/podcasts/this-week-in-startups-audio

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries - https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-lean-startup/eric-ries/9780670921607

Calendly - https://calendly.com/

Slack - https://slack.com/

Zoom - https://zoom.us/

GMail - https://mail.google.com 

Mailerlite - https://www.mailerlite.com/

Bubble - https://bubble.io/

 

Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for.   If you would like to be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: [email protected]   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up.    More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/

Okay, you're going to want to have a pen and paper to hand when you listen to this interview and you're going to need to write quickly. 

You might even want to press pause, rewind and listen to lots of it again, because some of the advice from Sebastian Bates who is the CEO and founder of something called the Warrior Academy, is gold. 

Lots of really great information. And if you ever wondered what the link is between Martial Arts and Business, and how you can go from setting up your first training session with 20 people in a small village in Somerset, to running a business now that is across three continents with 4000 students, then you're going to want to listen to this.

He started in 2010 and has built the business over the last 13 years, but a lot of the rise was came over out of lockdown when like many, they pivoted their business.

And Sebastian has developed a unique model in terms of developing their own instructors, but also in sponsoring and looking after people that can't necessarily afford to pay for their service. They offer scholarships and have a unique approach to it. 

Lots of really, really interesting things, including, again the power of culture and really getting that right. 

So you're going to want to listen to this. 

There’s a lot of good advice around thinking strategically in this discussion - if you’d like to check your strategic thinking then you might like to try our ‘Level Up Your Strategic Thinking’ Scorecard https://kevin-ylfmnqor.scoreapp.com

 

Sebastian can be found here:

[email protected]

linkedin.com/in/sebastian-bates-4b70412b

https://www.warrioracademy.co.uk/

[email protected]

 

Resources

 

Monday - https://monday.com/

 

Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for.   If you would like to be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: [email protected]   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up.    More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/

Another great guest on ScaleUp Radio. This time I speak with Jenna Wilson, who is the founder of Little Dreams Consulting, and they help parents with young children to get sleep under control and get their life back.

Probably all of us as entrepreneurs are familiar with what happens when we don't get enough sleep every now and then. And maybe some of us have had young children as well that haven't slept very well, so we can well understand the kind of benefits that Jenna and her team bring. 

Jenna was a solicitor beforehand for 12 years and then started Little Dreams when she was pregnant with her third child. We also talk about franchising, because Jen has moved into franchising her business. We uncover a lot of lessons around why you might want to franchise and some of the things you need to think about. 

But it's not all about franchising. To be taken seriously within sleep you need to build up that credibility just like we do with any other business, and we discuss how Jenna establishes that credibility.

We also talk about building the culture and how to make sure that culture is maintained and as more people become involved. 

A really great interview and I encourage you to listen carefully to everything that Jen has got to say.

There’s a lot of good advice around the people side of business  in this discussion - if you’d like to check your thinking around your team then you might like to try our ‘Level Up Your Team’ Scorecard https://kevin-f1ibmpkp.scoreapp.com

 

Jenna can be found here:

linkedin.com/in/jenna-wilson-7295a3159

https://www.littledreamsconsulting.com/

[email protected]

 

Resources

Diary of a CEO with Steve Bartlett - https://stevenbartlett.com/the-diary-of-a-ceo-podcast/

BFA - https://www.thebfa.org/

EWIF - https://www.ewif.org/

Franchise 360 - https://www.franchise360.co.uk/

Google Sheets - https://www.google.com/sheets/about/

 

Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for.   If you would like to be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: [email protected]   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up.    More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/

Another fantastic episode of ScaleUp Radio – a fascinating discussion with Alia Rohafza, who's the CEO of Altered Carbon.

This is amazing technology that they're looking at here so it’s a bit about high tech and he's on a ScaleUp Journey where they've already raised two rounds of investment and working with companies to help to prove their concept. 

Imagine being able to create on a bit of graphene on a chip, something that's the equivalent of a nose, or a smell centre. So a dog or eventually, ideally, human nose. 

And if you think about all the potential applications of that from whether food is going off to the escape of dangerous gases, all sorts of applications, in fact, that's one of their biggest challenges is how do they rein it in and decide exactly where they should focus.

We'll learn a lot about the way that Ali approached the idea of raising funding both for that first and for the second rounds. It's also interesting that his biggest challenge is not necessarily around the technology but as always, or as is very often the case it's around people. 

So it doesn't really matter whether you're in a high tech manufacturing business, whether you're in a service business, whatever kind of business you're in, there's some really great learnings from Ali.

And he's very open and honest and prepared to share everything that that he could, so I know you'll get a lot of value out of it. So let's go over and listen to Ali and his story so far.

 

Ali can be found here:

linkedin.com/in/ali-rohafza-altered-carbon-ltd

https://altered-carbon.com/

[email protected]

 

Resources

Hannover Messe - https://www.hannovermesse.de/en/hannover-messe-2023/

IOT For All Podcast - https://www.iotforall.com/podcasts

Asana - https://asana.com/

Trello - https://trello.com/

Otter - https://otter.ai/

Grammarly - https://www.grammarly.com/

 

Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for.   If you would like to be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: [email protected]   Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up.    More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/

This is quite a different discussion from the usual ones that we have on ScaleUp Radio. 

I interview Dawn Dines who is the CEO and founder of Stamp Out Spiking (SOS) and you only need to listen to the first few seconds to hear how passionate Dawn is about the issue of drinks spiking. 

This is a discussion with Dawn all around championing a cause and is a great example of building an organisation around a mission that you really want to achieve. 

It's less about the monetary side of things than most of the interviews that we've had in the past. Dawn has been doing this for about 20 years and it's really getting traction now. Dawn is trying to really change mindsets and to be able to build a mission led business delivering on that cause that will be able to fund the awareness training that she wants to be able to do. 

It is a really interesting discussion and as I say, very different. We go through all sorts of aspects, including a visit to Dragon's Den. I think Dawn would admit perhaps before she was really ready to think about it from a business perspective, but all sorts of interesting things, particularly if you're building a mission led business where you're trying to champion a cause and how do you go about really raising awareness and educate people.

 

Dawn can be found here:

linkedin.com/in/dawn-dines-b47a421b

https://stampoutspiking.org/

[email protected]

 

Resources

Free Happiness by Dr Vikki Barnes - https://amzn.eu/d/iSmXOCf

Straight From The Horses Mouth (a Stamp Out Spiking podcast) - https://stampoutspiking.org/podcast/

    Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for.   If you would like to be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: [email protected]   Kevin's New Book Is Now Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up.    More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/

Hello I’m Granger Forson

WWW.Bizsmart-Gloucesterhsire.co.uk or on LinkedIn.

This time on ScaleUp Radio I speak with Naomi Summers, the owner of Go Get Organized.

 

Go Get Organized is a VA one stop shop business  that are based in Bristol bath area. It started 10 years ago as Naomi wanted to use her co-ordination skills developed working in the BBC (listen out for this) but wanted to work for home. She has grown it into a strong 30 people network of experienced people aiding Go get organized customers.

 

It is so interesting hearing Naomi’s story especially about how she has kept the focus on values & people fit for Go Get Organized network and they work just together like any business of employed people. 

 

As always, we cover a lot of ground, including:

 

 - Using the right technology is key and taking the leap of faith some time is required to make it happen.

 - Using the team around you to bounce idea off, even when they are not direct employees work so well

 - networking is a keyway to grow your customer base, so experiment with different formats.

 

What is so fascinating about this conversation with Naomi is how she’s demonstrates that excellent leadership can bring people together to  generate value even when they not direct employees.  

 

I know that you’ll get a lot out of this episode.

 

Naomi can be found here:

linkedin.com/in/naomisummersgogetorganised

https://www.gogetorganised.co.uk/

[email protected]

 

 

Resources

 

Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry - https://www.waterstones.com/book/friends-lovers-and-the-big-terrible-thing/matthew-perry/9781472295934

 

Whitney Wolfe Herd on Diary of a CEO - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/e195-bumble-founder-worlds-youngest-female-self-made/id1291423644?i=1000586065873

 

Slack - https://slack.com/intl/en-gb/

 

Zoom - www.zoom.us

 

MirrorBoard - https://mirrorboard.com/

 

Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for.   If you would like to be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: [email protected]   Kevin's New Book Is Now Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up.    More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/

Hello I’m Granger Forson

WWW.Bizsmart-Gloucesterhsire.co.uk or on LinkedIn.

This time on ScaleUp Radio I speak with Ian Morgan, the owner of MBS Accountants.

MBS Accountants is a very different type of accounting business  that are based in Cheltenham. It was started by Ian’s wife in 2005, and Ian joined in 2010. As you will hear in 2015 they made a paradigm shift that has made the highly focused accounts firm they’re today, that has a waiting list of business that wish to join them.

The journey they have are still on, is to make a business that meets their needs and that of their staff and clients by putting people first.

As always we cover a lot of ground, including:

 - Keeping things simple is key. Keep making things simpler and simpler.

 - Treating our Clients & staff as Humans, and using our know how to guide them.

 - Being Honest, is something people say, but how do you really demonstrate it every day?

What is so fabulous about this conversation with Ian is how a crisis point created a pivot in MBS accounting that has lead them all on a amazing journey of discovery & growth.

I know that you’ll get so much out of this episode.

 

Ian can be found here:

linkedin.com/in/ian-morgan-mbs

https://www.mbsaccountants.co.uk/

 

 

Resources

Xero - https://www.xero.com/

 

Dext - https://dext.com/

 

Traction by Gino Whitman - https://www.waterstones.com/book/traction/gino-wickman/9781936661831

 

Building A Second Brain by Tiago Forte - https://www.waterstones.com/book/building-a-second-brain/tiago-forte/9781800812215

 

Diary of a CEO - https://stevenbartlett.com/the-diary-of-a-ceo-podcast/

 

The Leaky Bucket Podcast - https://www.mbsaccountants.co.uk/podcast

 

Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for.   If you would like to be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Granger here: [email protected]   Kevin's New Book Is Now Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up.    More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/

What a great discussion today on ScaleUp radio I've had with Rob Markwell of Pitch Consultants. We started off by calling him the managing director but he's not really one for titles and actually, he described himself towards the end, more as a caretaker and you can hear how he gets to that through his conversation.

He's been through so much with Pitch Consulting.  He started it with a with a partner, two of them from the garage essentially, grew it up to having multiple locations, but also then scaled back and also went through having his founder leave amicably. 

So there's all sorts of things around that, some of the lessons around starting a business with somebody else, how you can protect yourself, how you can think about it if you do have to part your ways and get ‘divorced’.

But also some things about that journey of taking on more people and then having to make sure that you've got control of the business properly. And then restarting in a way almost from there having a bit of a rethink of strategy 

So lots of really great things that come through. Rob clearly knows what he's talking about. He's lived it, he's been through it, but he's also taken on those learnings and a lot of that comes across in this discussion. So I highly recommend that you have a listen to this interview with Robert Welch.

 

Rob can be found here:

linkedin.com/in/robmarkwell

https://www.pitchconsultants.co.uk/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/pitch-consultants/

 

Resources

 

Drive by Daniel H Pink - https://www.waterstones.com/book/drive/daniel-h-pink/9781786891709

 

Start with Why by Simon Sinek - https://www.waterstones.com/book/start-with-why/simon-sinek/9780241958223

 

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight - https://www.waterstones.com/book/shoe-dog/phil-knight/9781471146725

 

Slack - https://slack.com/intl/en-gb/

 

Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for.   If you would like to be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here: https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/apply   You can get in touch with Kevin here: [email protected]   Kevin's New Book Is Now Available!    Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brentexplores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up.    More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/