Phil Fraser speaks to Ajaz Ahmed who built Freeserve, a company that went from a 'eureka moment' to a multi-billion pound valuation in just three years. Ajaz tells us how he did it and the key ingredient that powered its amazing success. He also tells us how you can get amazing FREE marketing advice from supermarkets, why Simon Cowell is the best business advisor
and the secret trick to an effective business card.
INTRODUCING AJAZ AHMED
Ajaz is a well-known Business Advisor, Non-Executive, Chairman, and Business Speaker who has worked with companies of all sizes, including a couple of listed companies.
He will always be best known as the founder of Freeserve, the UK's first Billion-Pound internet company. Freeserve was launched in 1998, floated on the stock exchange with a market cap of £1.5bn, entered the FTSE 100, and then sold to France Telecom three years later for £1.65bn in 2001. As you can imagine, I left after the sale.
You can read the fantastic Freeserve story "Make Money by Giving it Away" on his website - sosavvy.co.uk
He now helps companies by challenging the rules to get results. If your company wants to improve and grow, please contact him for a chat.
He also gives talks to industry and academic audiences. His talk is called "Cut the Cr*p" because he got fed up listening to gurus talking about Cr*p.
He has been in the 'Yorkshire Business Power 100', and the Queen awarded him a British Empire Medal 'BEM' in her 2017 Birthday Honours List.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
[00:00:30] – the Eureka moment that launched Freeserve
[00:07:30] – the difference between an entrepreneur and a business person
[00:11:10] – the launch of Freeserve
[00:16:20] – the importance of acquiring customers for free
[00:18:17] – the floatation of Freeserve
[00:25:00] – the huge change - walled gardens and browsers
[00:31:00] – the key lessons business owners need to learn and understand
[00:36:30] – what should start ups be doing to court Angel Investors and ugly baby syndrome
[00:41:00] – losing money on failed investments and lessons learnt
KEY TAKEAWAYS & BUSINESS LEARNINGS
* Apple stores have the highest sales per square foot compared to any other retail store
* Do the obvious before it becomes obvious or you will be too late
* Go to a supermarket and not buy anything. Look at how they market their products.
* There is no magic formula for business success
* Cut the Crap – keep your Powerpoint slides to a minimum
* If your business card is portrait they are more likely to turn it over
BEST MOMENTS
“Most people have a Eureka moment, and then don’t do anything about it”
“When Freeserve became the largest ISP in the UK we only had three staff”
“If you build it, they will come… no they won’t”
“Most of the companies that are looking for investment are pretty crap”
VALUABLE RESOURCES FOR YOU
Website: www.leedsbusinesspodcast.com
Website: http://www.sosavvy.co.uk/
LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/ajaza
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ajaz_ahmed
Shout out tags: https://www.quba.co.uk/
Take a look at https://philfraser.co.uk/business-idea/
Want to watch instead of listen? Subscribe to our You Tube channel - https://youtube.com/@LeedsBusinessPodcast.
DON'T FORGET THE LEEDS BUSINESS PODCAST ‘GENTLEMENS AGREEMENT’
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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
Freeserve, Quba, 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.
