How has your week been? What have you learned?
Our week got off to an exciting and insightful start. We attended a 3 hour talk by international speaker, coach, author and successful entrepreneur Brad Sugars. Listening to someone who was able to retire at age 26 and then go on to buy, grow and sell over a dozen companies in his next 20 years, you’re clearly going to learn a lot in 3 hours.
We had the privilege to meet Brad briefly after the talk and chat with him over a beer in small groups- a phenomenal businessman and inspiring guy.
Learning and the continuous journey to become the best version of me that I can is my highest value. There’s a good chance that many of you reading this weekly post also have something similar in your top values so I hope that you appreciate these highlights of the week’s learns.
The title of this post is a line we heard from Brad Sugars on Monday, and very fitting for this post.
Here are some highlights from my notes:
Brad’s definition of a ‘Finished business’
A commercial, profitable enterprise that works without you. Getting to this stage was the essence of his talk and it’s what he has specialised in doing for the last 20+ years. Once a business is ‘finished’ it can be sold for a multiple of profit. He finds that a sweet spot is getting a company to £5m in profit as it results sales valuation multiple of circa 9-15x. Although he once sold a dog food business for 37 times profit!
Brad Sugar’s topline formula for success:
DREAMS (‘nothing if not at first a dream’ – have dreams in all areas of life)
X
GOALS (When we have goals we have direction, and we know what we have to learn)
X
LEARNING (learn how to achieve the specific goals)
X
PLANS (once got the knowledge can then make a plan)
X
ACTIONS (once you have a plan you can then go to work on the right things)
=
SUCCESS
3 main business owner challenges
- Time – means they are doing everything themselves
- Team – means not right people in place
- Money – likely a combination of the above
Business doesn’t get easier, you get better at business.
Brad shared his BE X DO = HAVE formula which you can see here in a short video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCZEiI-8aa4
He also shared his 6 Steps for a Winning Business (working from the bottom up)
- Freedom/Results
- Synergy
- Team
- Leverage
- Niche
- Mastery
If you are interested in learning more on this here is a presentation on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSDKfHIYxiY
If you can take a little more learning, here are a few nuggets from a great day with our Development Discovery mentor Alan Christie on Tuesday- thanks Alan.
In no particular order:
- A reference point for when looking at optimising a development site is that you can comfortably fit 16,000-20,000 SqFt (1486-1858 SqM) of building on an acre site (of course there’s obviously so much more to take into account i.e. utilities, access, where and how this fits in with the local plan and so much more).
- Our cohort member Neil gave us a mini masterclass on using the measurement tool on Adobe Acrobat Reader to calculate areas on an architect’s drawing when floor areas are not provided and all you have is a scale at the bottom of the drawing. This is a free to use tool that just requires a little investment in time
- If you don’t have Adobe to hand you can use Alan’s handy trick of measuring a parking space on the drawing with a ruler to find the scale. Typically a parking space is assigned 2.5 x 5m.
- Where there is a requirement for housing as stated by Central Government, planners are obliged to approve the plan on appeal if there are no issues with the design.
- Planning fees in England have increased by 20%.
- Councils can’t be seen to be an impediment to development as a consequence of requirements i.e. for AF contributions, CIL etc. In the case of our development site, we are currently pulling together a viability report to justify to the council that their suggested commuted sum and other contributions are currently too high.
Thanks also to Mark Doyle who presented a great talk on his experience of buying at auction, where he has had great success. Here are some of his new to auction simple rules:
- Observe first
- Go through the legal packs of any interesting property
- Check land registry and title of the lot you’re interested in
- Listen to the auctioneer’s reading of the rules
- Watch out for the bidding increments so you don’t get caught out
- Be seen (he likes to wear a red shirt)
- If you are bidding, come prepared with proof of ID and address (and the ability to pay a deposit of course)
Tips on properties that could hold hidden value:
- Japanese knotweed – this can be treated and then if you get a 5-10 yr insurance product on it you’ll be fine to refinance, sell on etc.
- Look for old, struggling pubs that have few customers and some parking, they may have even been houses previously
- Can you split properties vertically with firewalls to make 2 units
- If the property is suffering from black mould, cold spots and bad condensation, this can be remedied with the addition of pacifier vents on cold walls at height.
So, a busy week both on the learning front and on the operations of our business. We have also just kicked off our recruitment campaign for a Property & Operations Manager.
Have a great week ahead.