What are the reasons why businesses fail to scale beyond seven figures? Today’s guest will explain why and what to do to avoid this.
We welcome Kevin Brent an award-winning entrepreneurial business practitioner and author with a focus on strategy, business development, and building value for business owners. He has combined senior-level pharmaceutical experience with strategy consulting, value-based management, medical communications, and e-business.
He holds an MBA from INSEAD, has built four businesses and specialises in SMEs, business growth, and exit strategies. One of these businesses is called BizSmart, which was founded in 2012 with the aim of supporting business owners to build scalable, sustainable, and ultimately valuable businesses.
In today’s episode, we’re going to be talking about the five key reasons businesses don’t scale as high as they should. Kevin will discuss the major challenges to scaling a business and how to do so successfully. He will also explain things you really need to be thinking about as a business owner to get to where you want to be.
Let’s pick on Kevin’s brains to find out the five reasons businesses fail to scale beyond seven figures.
In This Episode
[02:25] Kevin’s journey into the pharmaceutical industry.
[04:26] For Kevin, what’s the main difference between building value in the corporate world and small to medium-sized businesses?
[05:52] Kevin talks about BizSmart and the Flight Academy System.
[09:14] How do we balance in-house work with outsourced work over time?
[11:40] If someone went through the Flight Academy, what would be the key thing that they’d get out of it?
[13:53] “We can build a nicely profitable business if we’ve got the right ideas about it, that might deliver what we need.” – Kevin Grant
[18:34] The value of having a 90-day planning cycle and how Kevin utilises it in his business.
[21:58] How Kevin overcame his business challenges.
[22:13] The five reasons why businesses fail to scale beyond 7 figures:
- [24:11] Not having the desire and confidence to work on the business.
- [25:26] Not knowing or understanding what it really takes to scale and not having a competitive advantage.
- [27:32] Not focusing on our personality and our leadership, especially in the early stages of leadership.
- [29:31] Not building a good team culture by creating leaders behind the business.
- [29:43] Not having the confidence to invest from the early stages of the business.
[32:01] What key advice does Kevin have to overcome these challenges?
[38:08] How to maintain your core values and purpose as your business starts to grow?
[42:17] “I’d love to say there’s this magic bullet that will suddenly make us all brilliant business owners. But it’s not like that. It’s persistence and hard work but in the right direction. In the focus direction, understanding what it is we need to do and working on it.” – Kevin Grant
[50:49] What does Bizsmart do differently from other strategic business management companies? Plus how to get in contact with them.
[56:13] The one thing Kevin wants you to remember for your business strategy.
About Kevin Brent
Kevin Brent is an experienced and entrepreneurial business practitioner and author with a focus on strategy, business development, and building value for business owners. He has combined senior-level pharmaceutical experience with strategy consulting, value-based management, medical communications, and e-business. He holds an MBA from INSEAD, has built four businesses and built his own eco-friendly home.
He founded BizSmart in 2012 with the aim of supporting business owners to build scalable, sustainable, and ultimately valuable businesses. Their Scale Up System (Flight Academy) is aimed at owner-managed businesses with typically between 2 and 35 employees looking to reach the next staging post in their journey and combines a proven methodology for scaling up and creating value with peer-to-peer support to provide real and tangible support that delivers.
He is one of a select group of Gold Certified Value Builders in the UK. He is also a keen motorsport enthusiast competing in the BRSCC Mazda Championship.
Connect With Kevin
On his Website
On his LinkedIn
On Twitter
On Youtube
Listen to his Podcast
Read The Entrepreneurial ScaleUp System