This week we speak to Nigel Botterill, Founder of Entrepreneurs Circle.
Nigel tells us why bootstrapping is the WRONG way to run a business, how incompetence launched his most successful business, the day he found £500k missing from his business bank account and the bedroom business that went multi-million pound in months.
He also gives a 'how to' that, to quote Nigel, is "the most powerful 'how to' that you have ever had on the podcast."
INTRODUCING NIGEL BOTTERILL
Nigel Botterill - serial entrepreneur, Sunday Time best-selling author & one of the UK’s most sought after business growth experts.
He ‘took the leap’, left his corporate career and started his first business in 2003. Since then, he’s built ten separate million-pound-plus businesses from scratch. Now, at the helm of Entrepreneurs Circle, the country's largest organisation dedicated to helping its members businesses grow, Nigel spends his time helping other entrepreneurs to do what he’s done – escape mediocrity, get and keep all the customers their business needs and live the lives they’ve always wanted
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
[00:01:00] The spark to start as an entrepreneur
[00:07:00] The plan…. And the smart move
[00:10:00] The conference that changed Nigel’s life
[00:12:30] The side hustle, MyMag, that became a £6m phenomenon
[00:15:00] The ‘Best of’ online business
[00:18:00] The genius of incompetence and the start of Entrepreneurs Circle
[00:20:00] The effects of the lockdown announcement
[00:28:30] What is Entrepreneurs Circle
[00:30:30] The importance of the ‘rhythmic acquisition of customers’
[00:36:00] The nightmare of missing revenue
[00:38:30] Going into a CVA
[00:42:30] The key learning from going through a CVA
[00:45:45] How to get your business to where you want it to be
KEY TAKEAWAYS & BUSINESS LEARNINGS
• Funding growth through revenue isn’t the best way to grow
• All businesses need rhythmic acquisition of customers
• When you spend your time in business juggling cashflow it’s like a cancer
• As a business owner you need to be all over your numbers
• Anyone managing their business by looking at their bank account is bonkers
• It’s the day-to-day that kills dreams
• Profit and loss accounts are a work of fiction
BEST MOMENTS
“I had a year to move £100,000 from the business to our personal bank account”
“We were one of the first customers of Google ads in the UK”
“We set up over 2,500 magazines in three years”
“What she did was genius but did it out of incompetence”
“We had a massive hole and we just didn’t have the money”
“I didn’t want to go to work and I didn’t want to go home”
VALUABLE RESOURCES FOR YOU
Website: www.leedsbusinesspodcast.com
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/leeds-business-podcast/
Website: https://entrepreneurscircle.org/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/entrepreneurs-circle https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelbotterill/
Shout out tags: https://www.trustelectricheating.co.uk/ https://rushfirthcreative.co.uk/ https://www.tendo-uk.com/
DON'T FORGET THE LEEDS BUSINESS PODCAST ‘FAIR DEAL’
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ABOUT YOUR HOST
Phil Fraser went from an accidental kitchen table start up, with no investment, all the way to multi-million pound sale to a PLC 18 years later. He’s travelled the full SME business journey of launch, growth, scale and exit.
As well as hosting the Leeds Business Podcast, Phil now works with ambitious SME-owners as a Business Sounding Board (think somewhere between Business Coach and Business Mentor). In simple terms, he’s ‘a pair of ears and an extra pair eyes’ for SME Owners helping them to be better at what they do. Phil’s mantra is It doesn’t need to be ‘lonely at the top’. He helps Business Owners to be better business owners, by helping with their clarity and focus.
As a Business Sounding Board, he gives SME Owners the time & space to regularly discuss their challenges and opportunities, with no sense of judgement or bias, and in complete confidence. This allows them to explore their options in full, culminating with a list of issues to address/clarify, a clear target in mind, a roadmap to success, and a renewed enthusiasm and confidence for the challenges ahead.
Phil has appeared as a guest on over 60 podcasts, webinars and interviews, from around the whole globe, talking on a variety of business subjects. You can view them all at https://philfraser.co.uk/watch-hear-phil/.
LEEDS BUSINESS PODCAST
Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Hamish Ogston, John Caldwell, Leeds, Leeds Business, Business in Leeds, Nous of Fraser, Business Sounding Board, Business Coach, Business Mentor,
Email: phil@leedsbusinesspodcast.com
Mentioned in this episode:
Pre roll November
As November is my birthday month, I've got three special offers for you.
If you can say yes to the following four points, you qualify.
You have to be a business owner, have three to 15 staff, a turnover of between 350, 000 and 3 million, and wanting to develop and improve yourself and how you run your business.
