£10 million in sales, but…

Originally sent exclusively to The Letter subscribers on November 10th. Want to be the first to get my personal newsletter in your inbox every Monday at 7am? Subscribe for free here.

This weekend, I was in the office, planning.

I had to.

I need to generate more cash to keep up with the constant onslaught of overheads.

Here are some facts for you:

My companies are spending £600k a year on insurance, £500k on software, and £2 million on head office staff.

As my FD totted up the numbers and presented them in a freshly bound pack, I realised we’d become something of a giant.

In the first six months of this year, we did £10 million more in sales compared to last year - and yet, we basically stood still on profits.

Rachel’s new taxes have kicked in.

I was livid.

We need profits to invest, pay down loans, and grow. Standing still doesn’t help.

My brain was screaming, “How about NO?”

The regret hit me like a freight train - that I hadn’t generated more profits to combat these new turnover taxes.

This is why tracking the numbers monthly is so important.

Our gross profits took a hit. I knew they would, with our growth and the government's onslaught - but seeing it in black and white during our half-year finance meeting sent me into a spiral for the rest of the day.

It’s my fault. Not Rachel’s. Not my team’s. I need to be better.

My brain kicked into overdrive...

I should have grown my way out of this. Made a better plan. Been closer to my teams. Got more done.

I must take ownership, accountability, and responsibility.

So I got up early on Saturday morning, toured a couple of our sites, and unlocked the door to our head office. Just me.

Empty chairs and empty tables looked over me like the end of a good party.

Like so many business owners, I’d pulled myself away from family frolics to catch up over the weekend.

But weekends in the office bring silence - which is Handy Harry if you want to do good-quality thinking and help yourself to zero distractions.

Cuppa tea ready (Yorkshire Gold, made with proper blue-top milk), a couple of McVitie’s milk chocolate digestives in one hand, my fountain pen in the other - I began to ponder.

I grabbed some paper, wrote down some headlines for each brand, and started bullet-pointing ideas to drive sales and efficiencies.

I’ve been on this treadmill of poor results before. It’s good for you. It forces you to push into gear.

My entrepreneurial DNA kicked in. I came up with some strong revenue-generating ideas - thankfully, they took up 80% of my thinking. The remaining 20% went to efficiency.

The earlier version of me would have tried to contract my way out of the problem - focus on cost-cutting.

Back then, that would’ve been 80% of my thinking, with just 20% focused on growth.

But when you’re miserable about something, you quickly realise misery loves company - and a contraction mindset won’t get you very far.

During times like this, I train my brain to focus on abundance and growth.

We never want to save £5 at the cost of losing £50 in top-line revenue.

One idea: adding school residential camps at Marsh Farm with Camp Beaumont. If it works, we could roll it out to our other sites - giving us off-peak revenue and something we could do better than most, given our infrastructure and experience.

Another: creating a playbook and software system to help entrepreneurs and managers hold their teams accountable on KPIs - driving real results.

This could be genuinely useful for other businesses and offer us a powerful stream of residual income.

The silence helped me conjure million-pound ideas.

It’s in that loneliness that I do my best work.

So if you find yourself in the office at the weekend, missing out on family frolics - or if you’re there because you love the solitude and the space to tinker - just because you’re wired a little differently - I’m with you.

And lastly…

I told my wife I was opening a theatre.
She said, “Are you having me on?”
I replied, “Well, I can give you an audition… but I’m not promising anything.”

Quote of the week:
”The bigger you think, the less competition you’ll have.”

To your continued success,

James

PS. Marketing Mastery is a one day seminar designed to change that. It is built to help you understand how to attract the right people, get them to buy faster and feel confident in the marketing you are doing. You will leave with practical ideas you can use immediately, not theory or fluff, just what actually works.