Why don’t I just cash in?
Originally sent exclusively to The Letter subscribers on February 16th. Want to be the first to get my personal newsletter in your inbox every Monday at 7am? Subscribe for free here.
As the years in business roll by, I have realised a couple of things.
Good news and bad news hit you in equal measure.
The real win, in hindsight, is that we learn far more from failure and bad news than we do from good news.
As I run a much larger business now, I have to discipline disappointment every single day.
The sheer size of the game my company is playing at now is unimaginable to most people. In fact, I Googled how many companies are in our group’s position. The answer is surprisingly small.
The number of companies that even get past £5 million turnover is tiny compared to the 70 million people living on these great British Isles.
Here are the Google facts I found on the subject. To be honest, I was so shocked I investigated further. I am sure you will do the same. There is some variation in the data, but it is all broadly similar, give or take a few thousand.
Breakdown by Turnover Size Band (2025/2026)
While the vast majority of UK businesses are micro-entities, the number of companies drops significantly as revenue thresholds increase.
£50 million and over: 10,435 enterprises
£10 million to £49.99 million: 32,350 enterprises
£5 million to £9.99 million: 35,445 enterprises
£2 million to £4.99 million: 92,900 enterprises
Key Characteristics of High-Revenue UK Companies
Economic impact:
Although large businesses (those with 250+ employees, typically linked to high revenue) make up only 0.15% of all businesses, they generate nearly 48.8% of the UK’s total private sector turnover, which reached £5.5 trillion in 2025.
So I worked it out for myself. Roughly 10,000 companies get to our size, and many of those will have multiple shareholders and far less personal risk on the line than I do individually.
I will admit, I have days where stress marches towards me. I ponder how many leaders are having the moments of contemplation I have.
I know I could be selfish and cash in, even a fire sale could serve me up way more than I need. I could live extremely well just from my commercial property portfolio, my camper van, Nats, dogs and delightful children that get way too little of me.
So why don’t I?
Because I feel responsible for the people I lead, and I love creating. This thing we built has become bigger than the founding team that built it. Its a responsibility now.
I have never really enjoyed holidays or time off because I have always pushed myself, pushing creates stress most could not handle.
Other than Covid, I have never really had downtime, and honestly, I hated that period.
Even within the numbers above, the next tier down shows there are only around 130,000 companies doing more than £1 million in revenue.
This is the path less travelled. You are allowed to find it hard - it is.
If you want more, if your personality is wired for more, you must have a system for disciplining your disappointment.
- Contracts will be lost.
- The bank will say no to a loan.
- Employees will leave.
- People will steal from you.
- You will have bad months or bad years on your P&L.
- You will get knocked down.
But here is the truth...
You will win the next contract, and it might be even better.
The next bank might offer you a better deal.
New employees might bring new ideas, and the person who left
might have been a blessing in disguise.
You will have excellent months and great years because you learned so much during the hard times.
If someone steals from you or knocks you down, it often means you created something valuable. Be grateful you have the skill to create, because you can create again.
I do not want to sound overly philosophical, but I genuinely believe that if you keep building knowledge and keep learning continuously, you cannot truly lose, As long as you have hunger, the hunger feeds you.
You might have a bad year or two, but you can recover. In the end, it is down to you and your will.
I want to leave you with this. If you are not satisfied with where you are and you want more, remember the three constraints you need to solve:
Constraints on capital
Constraints on talent
Constraints on you (your knowledge, capacity and skill set)
On the talent piece, if you want to move mountains, you must employ people who are better than you.
I am currently searching for a new Finance Director. I go into every interview with one key objective: what am I going to learn from this person? How will their 10,000 hours of practice help our organisation get to £100 million?
I train my brain to think - this person must out skill me.
The needle moves when business owners start recruiting professors.
Most businesses recruit students and train them up.
Like everything else, do not obsess over the professor’s salary. Create the mindset that you need this level of talent, and the actions required to afford it will become clear.
Before every master, there was a starter.
Start thinking better.
And lastly, I sold my hoover this week. It was just collecting dust.
To your continued success,
James
