I left school with GCSEs and no plan. At eighteen I was the youngest restaurant manager Burger King had in the UK, and I bought a studio flat in Dorking with the money.
In 2004 I started selling iPod cases from my bedroom. Within months I was processing 250 orders a week; within three years it was turning over more than two million pounds a year. Then I made one bad decision, the business went under, and I came out of it fifty thousand pounds in personal debt.
What I did next is the reason this exists. I had no money to pay a marketing agency (I had already paid several and got nothing back), so I taught myself how to get a business found. In 2009 I started an agency of my own. It grew to ten staff and more than 150 clients, from FTSE 250 companies down to one-van trades. Along the way I have spoken at The Business Show, Internet Retailing and TFM&A.
What twenty years of that teaches you
The businesses that grow are not the ones with the best ideas. They are the ones that keep doing the small things after the enthusiasm wears off. Asking for the review. Chasing the quote. Putting the prices up. Every owner knows about all three, and almost nobody does them, because nobody checks, nobody understands, and nobody ever says well done.
So that is what the Society is: the training, the tools to do the work, two small jobs a week, and a room full of owners who notice when you do them. Everything in it is something I have done in my own businesses and can show you the working for.
The short version
Youngest Burger King restaurant manager in the UK
Aged 18. Bought a first property, a studio flat in Dorking, the same year.
An iPod-case business from a bedroom
Online through eBay and Amazon. More than £2m a year within three years.
Lost it, and £50,000 in debt
One bad decision. The most expensive lesson, and the most useful.
Started an agency with no money for marketing
Taught himself how to get a business found. Grew to 10 staff and 150+ clients.
Wrote Expert Mastery: More Leads, More Sales
A short book on becoming the business people seek out, rather than the one that chases.
Started The Business Owners Society
Two jobs a week, and somebody keeping count.
Why it is £49
There is no headquarters, no sales floor and no team of a hundred. It is a small operation running good software, and the software costs roughly the same whether there are fifty members or five thousand. The price is not a promotion. It is what it actually costs to run, plus a fair living.
What we will never do
Ring you
Not because you downloaded something, and not because you asked for a free map.
Make leaving hard
Cancel in two clicks. No call, no retention pitch, no notice period.
Invent proof
No made-up testimonials, member counts or countdown timers. Ever.
Sell your details
Your information is used to run your membership and nothing else.