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We’re publishing this episode just before the Autumn 2024 Budget, when Rachel Reeves will share her vision of how she plans to improve the country’s economy.

I really hope she understands how valuable the start-up and entrepreneurial economy is in the UK and that she’ll encourage it and ensure its continued success.

Today’s guest is a fantastic example of that British entrepreneurial spirit.

Magnus Willis hatched a plan with his co-founder during a long walk after they’d watched a cricket match at The Oval!

They decided to leave their highly-paid jobs in advertising to take a huge risk and launch a new business.

Through sheer hard work and perseverance, their company grew from two guys in a small room with laptops to become a significant business, employing 80 people, before being sold to a large UK company.

It’s a fabulous story with so many insights and lessons that Magnus shares.

Learn from the best

He explained how he was able to learn so much by being around talented and experienced people in the companies he worked for after he left university.

It’s important to get into the best companies in your chosen field and learn from those people as you build your own knowledge and experience.

Be a specialist, not a generalist

A theme that comes up regularly in my conversations is starting as a generalist and then pivoting to become a specialist. This creates significant value in your business and minimises your competition.

Magnus’s company, Sparkler, began as something of a generalist but then, over time, decided that they wanted to become the leaders in a specific niche market. This became a huge part of their success.

Be future-focused

Magnus discussed the importance of looking up from your day-to-day work, seeing where the world is going, and then aligning yourself with future growth opportunities.

In his case, when traditional magazines went online, and mobile was growing fast, this meant looking at the approaching ‘wave of opportunity’ and getting ready to surf it.

Life after exit

Towards the end of our conversation, he also reflects on his life now as a successfully exited entrepreneur and how he designed his ideal life, now that he’s no longer busy running a company.

His thoughts are deeply insightful.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Mr Magnus Willis.

Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/magnuswillis/?originalSubdomain=uk

Business & IP Centre (BIPC): Business Advice & Resources - The British Library

Pivot Podcast Series

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This show is all about reverse engineering the successful scale, sale, and exit of your business and enjoying life on the other side.

And for every successful business owner, smart tax planning is crucial to business growth and future sale.

Whether it's corporation tax, PAYE, income tax, dividends, or VAT, , they all play a part and impact decisions you make.

When the time comes to sell your business, planning effectively and well ahead of time can have a huge impact on you and your family.

Our new government’s first budget or autumn statement is coming up in a few weeks, on October 30th, and all business owners will be paying close attention to what Rachel Reeves, our Chancellor, says that day.

So, in a special pre-budget episode of Bulletproof Entrepreneur, I am delighted to introduce you to Nimesh Shah, the CEO of Blick Rothenberg, a leading firm of chartered accountants and tax advisers with a special focus on providing advice to entrepreneurs.

• During our conversation, you’ll learn what Nimesh believes could happen to capital gains tax, inheritance tax, and pension rules, all of which will impact business owners.

• He shares his advice on how entrepreneurs should plan ahead of the budget, including an idea that could lock in today’s possibly lower rate of CGT even if you don’t compete on your business sale for a year or so—although there are some risks, as he explains with an interesting client story!

• Aside from the budget, we also discuss broader tax planning issues for business owners and how to optimise your situation two to three years before you plan to sell your company.

• We also discuss an issue many business owners are considering—relocating overseas to a tax-favoured country. His advice is very thoughtful.

This is truly a business owner’s tax planning masterclass from one of the country's leading authorities on the subject.

Please listen, learn, and get in touch with Nimesh or myself if you want to learn more.

Links:

https://www.blickrothenberg.com/about-us/partners/nimesh-shah/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nimesh-shah-22b2b037/

This podcast is produced by GR Media
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Our guest today is Helen Pattinson, a former lawyer who left behind a promising career to embark on a bold and, at times, uncertain new path—one that would ultimately lead to a flourishing business, Montezuma Chocolate.

But this story is far from straightforward. Helen doesn’t just share the wins—she takes us through the moments of doubt, the near-disasters, and the pivotal choices that could have ended it all before the business even started.

• What would you do if your main supplier suddenly disappeared just weeks before launch?
• Or if your company was on the brink of collapse during one of the worst financial crises in recent history? Helen faced all of this and more.

In this episode, you’ll hear how a spontaneous adventure through South America sparked an obsession, and how that simple passion turned into something much bigger.

You’ll also discover how Helen and her husband Simon built their business from scratch—literally—and the unexpected hurdles they had to clear to keep their dream alive.

Towards the end, Helen shares her experience of the post-sale period, including her loss of identity and her need to find a new purpose.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Chocolate Entrepreneur - Helen Pattinson.

Links:

Helen Pattinson - Montezuma's Chocolates | LinkedIn

Montezuma's Chocolate

Alan Smith - Capital Asset Management | LinkedIn

This podcast is produced by GR Media
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Hello, and welcome back to the latest episode of the Bulletproof Entrepreneur podcast. I’m your host, Alan Smith. In this episode, I speak with someone I’ve known for many years, and as you’re about to discover, he’s a force of nature!

His name is Jason Butler, and although I’ve known him for a long time, I had no idea just how challenging his upbringing was.

People talk about a tough childhood and not having the same chances as other people from more privileged backgrounds, and Jason grew up in a house in south London with an outside toilet and a tin bath—almost Dickensian, as he says himself.

He had a challenging childhood, living hand to mouth, trying to hide from debt collectors and avoid being beaten up at the tough school he went to.

Yet he went on to build a leading financial services business, which he sold, bought back, and sold again.

• During the conversation, you’ll learn how his early years taught him to be resilient when your back’s against the wall—metaphorically and literally—and this proved useful in his later years in business.
• He shares the importance of creating a culture of continuous improvement and thinking about everything through the lens of your customers’ experiences.
• He also explains the value of having a deep sense of purpose after a business sale, the importance of giving back when one no longer has financial worries, and how he took 18 months off after he sold his business to think and design the exact sort of life he wanted to live in the future.

He also shares an incredible David and Goliath story about the time he took on the taxman over something he felt was unfair and won.

These are a fraction of the valuable insights that Jason shares. It’s a long episode because there was no way I was going to cut him short as he shared these nuggets of wisdom!

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Mr Jason Butler

Links:

https://www.jason-butler.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonfbutler/

Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine: Amazon.co.uk: Brown, Derren: 9780593076194: Books

The Antidote: From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Four Thousand Weeks eBook : Burkeman, Oliver

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My guest, Elizabeth Hopkins, candidly shares her inspiring journey through the ups and downs of life as a founder entrepreneur who has experienced everything that life has to offer, including scaling a business to a multi-million-pound exit, but then having to deal with the worst kind of tragedy immediately after.

As Liz mentions, she’s recently become a client of our financial planning business, and in the time I’ve known her, I’ve been blown away by her positivity, resilience, and sense of fun.

She encapsulates what it takes to be an entrepreneur, and frankly, that's why I started this podcast—to enjoy inspiring conversations with business owners and then share them with the world!

• You’ll learn about the vital importance of focussing on a niche market, which you can dominate when others fight it out as generalists.
• Liz shares something really interesting that no one has ever talked about in the past—her decision to run a lifestyle business for many years and enjoy lots of time with her family as they were growing up and then very intentionally pivot to a growth business and target a multi-million-pound exit. She believed you could have the best of both worlds - and did!
• She then candidly explains the tragic circumstances when, a week after the business was sold, her husband and business partner had a brain tumour and died. Her story of survival and resilience is nothing short of remarkable and a true inspiration to all of us.

This is an incredible conversation and I hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Elizabeth Hopkins.

Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethspencerphillips/

https://www.juliasamuel.co.uk/

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/grief-works-self-care-love/id1558867513

This podcast is produced by GR Media
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Our guest, John Rood, hails from Chicago, USA. John and his wife built an education business which they later sold to a private equity firm for a life-changing sum of money.

And to some degree, that’s where his problems started...

‘Life after exit’ was far from plain sailing for John, despite the fact that he was now financially secure. He went through a number of changes and realised that he was not prepared for the life transition and new set of challenges he faced as a wealthy ex-business owner.

He recognised that there was no blueprint or How-To guide for business owners who sold up and needed to navigate the next chapters of their lives - and so he wrote one!

John’s book Beyond the Exit charts his own journey but also provides valuable insights from his conversations with over 70 other exited entrepreneurs who’ve been on similar journeys and which we discuss during the conversation.

We also discuss:

• The 3 Things You Must Do Before You Sell Your Business and how to prepare yourself for life after exit - and what he’d do differently if he were ever to sell a business again..
• The 5 most popular activities for entrepreneurs after they sell - and why you should avoid most of them!
• We explore the concept of how much money is enough, a truly fascinating subject that has more to do with psychology than maths.

And John shares a great story about how he lost out to Sam Altman, the founder of Open AI when he was planning to invest some of his new-found wealth in a tech startup!

So much wisdom shared - and so now, ladies and gentlemen, I give you Mr John Rood.

Links:

Beyond the Exit

What Happens When You Get What You Want?: Success and the Challenge of Choice

Finish Big: How Great Entrepreneurs Exit Their Companies on Top: Amazon.co.uk

This podcast is produced by GR Media
Sponsored by Capital Asset Management

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My guest today, Marc Adams, is the author of a book by the same title and has spent nearly four decades deep in the trenches of business and entrepreneurship. His extensive experience, from a career in corporate life to setting up his own business, has given him a unique perspective on the ups and downs of life as an entrepreneur.

A cancer diagnosis in 2020, giving him six months to live, compelled him to write a book about everything he knows about business building, creating entrepreneurial value, and exiting in the most tax-effective way.

Happily, Marc overcame the diagnosis and is now in good health, providing advice and consultancy to founders keen to benefit from his knowledge and experience.

During our conversation, Marc unpacked some steps you can take to increase revenue, reduce costs, and multiply your company’s value.

• He explains how he helped a company reduce its costs by over £2 million and redeploy that capital to fuel future growth.
• He explains what so many businesses have got wrong about their website and digital presence and how they can improve it and drive sales.
• He also shares some smart ideas on getting financially organised ahead of a sale to minimise the tax burden on founders when they sell their company.
• And as someone who only a few years ago was staring death in the face after his terminal diagnosis, Marc's view of what true wealth means is well worth hearing.

He goes through so much more, and we could have gone on for another hour and still not covered everything!

Check out the show notes for links to some fabulous resources Marchas offered for free to listeners on this podcast, including a complementary diagnosis of your current business based on the advice in his book.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Mr Marc Adams.

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/1marcadams/?originalSubdomain=uk

Secrets To 10Xing Your Business: And Cashing Out Tax-Free: Amazon.co.uk

The Secrets to 10xing your business and Cashing Out Tax-Free Scorecard?

Acquisitions4You

Russell Brunson Collection 2 Books Set (Expert Secrets, Dotcom Secrets): Amazon.co.uk

How To Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No (Acquisition.com $100M Series Book 1) eBook : Hormozi, Alex

This podcast is produced by GR Media
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This podcast is for entrepreneurs, reverse engineering the formula for successful scale, sale, and exit—inspired conversations with world-class entrepreneurs and the specialists who support them.

I came up with that strapline when I launched the pod a couple of years ago, as that’s exactly what I wanted to create—a resource that, if you’re a business owner or aspiring entrepreneur, you can tap into and learn from those who were perhaps a few years ahead of you on the journey.

Then, you can apply the lessons learned and the wisdom shared.

In many ways, today’s guest, Josh Keegan, is the perfect guest for the pod.

A chartered accountant and successful entrepreneur, he has started, scaled, and exited several businesses and, in his current role, applies his experiences to help over 100 business owners.

I recently read his book Small Business Big Profit and I loved the way he used his experiences - good and bad to codify precisely how to create a successful business.

During our conversation, Josh shared how facing a financial black hole in his business that could have been terminal forced him to rethink how a business should operate, particularly regarding all-important financials.

He explains why he decided to sell his business just as he’d got it into great shape. It was working like a dream, and he needed to spend only 90 minutes a week working in it.

He breaks down his three-part framework and the specific actions you should take to achieve organisation, structure, and control.

He also shares valuable insight into the right approach to improving your pricing and creating greater profits and enterprise value.

And listen towards the end of our conversation when Josh explains the surprising method he uses to eliminate stress and anxiety—he recommends it to every entrepreneur and guarantees its effectiveness!

He also provides links to many free resources, including frameworks and templates, that you can download and use immediately in your business.

Before we hear from Josh, I'd like to ask you for a quick favour.

As you know, this podcast production is a labour of love. There are no annoying advertisements or walls, but it does take time and effort to create.

So, if you've benefited from listening to the conversations, I’d be grateful if you could head to the Apple Podcasts platform and leave a five-star review and perhaps a few positive words.

Also, remember to hit the subscribe button to receive the latest episode as soon as it's available.

But now, without further delay, a masterclass in building a financially fit business.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Mr Josh Keegan.

Links

https://www.ultimatefd.co.uk/about

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-keegan/?originalSubdomain=uk

https://www.instagram.com/the_ultimate_fd?igsh=bmJkbWtxNWlrM2J0

https://www.property-entrepreneur.co.uk/daniel-hill/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Lecture-Achieving-Childhood-Lessons/dp/0340978503

This podcast is produced by GR Media
Sponsored by Capital Asset Management