The 3 Year £££ Plan, Hiring an FD & Entrepreneur Philosophy - Documenting the journey - Episode 12

Right, we're back. Episode 12 of Documenting the Journey. The first episode in a long while. Actually. Just put my notes up because I wrote a few notes. First episode in a while. About a month since I actually had this set up. When I sat down with the proper mic at the proper setup back in London. Yes, I'm wearing a pink dial. I'm not trying to flex. I'm just. I fucking bought this watch because it's pink and I felt like I had to. And I guess I want to wear it more when I'm fucking filming shit. Cause it feels good. So, yeah, it's a fucking pink dial on my wrist. If you know, you know. Yeah. That felt like a little gift to myself. Cause I haven't bought anything fancy like that in a long time, to be fair. And now the brand is starting to cook and have to get a pink dial. Cause it's obviously on Brand. Episode 12. What is going on? Fucking a lot is going on, to be fair. So I'm just gonna dive in as usual. Also wearing a first sample of a Space Goods running cap, which isn't quite perfect. Pull part of Social Club logo on the back. It's like a Collab between my two fucking creative endeavors right now. Episode 12. Yeah. So what's going on? Fundraising. I mentioned this a few times. Basically, I've done another round of funding, a bigger round of funding than I did in January at a higher valuation. A few people that already invested angel investors in the brand and a few other people, few of few key ones which I spoke about in the previous episodes and so on. These things always take longer than you think. Contracts have gone out and signed this week, so should be fully wrapped up within the next two days, that deadline. So that's pretty good. Just quickly on that, like the whole fundraising thing. And I've touched on it before about my previous round I did at the start. Fundraising, I think, you know, has two primary benefits, obviously. One is money. And it's not debt, it's equity. So, you know, people are buying a percentage of business instead of getting away fly, you know, going into debt, whatever it is, which is one thing, and that's fine. Capital makes things go quicker. And I'm going to come on to like how much you're going to use that in a bit. Try and make this a bit more like logical and actually valuable as an episode. A bit more detailed, but primarily, and as I've seen a million percent in the past few months is the value that people actually investing bring. Because I haven't let Anyone invest in the business. And a lot of people message me about from months and months ago from like LinkedIn, Twitter, whatever, because I've been kind of documenting the process anyway. But no one that I don't know is invested and they're all value add. They're either my mates or kind of mentors or older angels, all that sort of shit. They all add something. Granted, some are more involved than others. I think now with this round we'll be at like eight different investors, I think. Yeah, a few have put money in both times because obviously proof of concept. So the value went up and yeah, I feel like I've kind of event avenged. I feel like I've kind of assembled like an avengers, like kill squad, elite SWAT team of like E Com people really. And they're all bring different value whether they're running brands, running fulfillment centers, running agencies. Some are just my mates, but they're all doing cool shit. And some are much more experienced. Well, most, a lot of them are most more experienced than me. Much more experienced than me. And a few of them are sold businesses for a shitload of money and got very rich doing it. What I'm trying to do obviously. So having those people in my corner feels like a win win really. And yeah, I've only just started to see the benefit in the past few months having had investors for the first time and like, you know, more formal sort of mentors as a result of that, like how valuable that actually is. And it just makes the whole process feel like it's way more planned and likely to succeed. So yeah, granted I'll obviously give a bit of equity away. I still got a significant majority of the equity. But yeah, I just felt like at the end of the day like my long term goal is to have a chunk of a very valuable business and exit and sell my equity and get fucking paid and do it in a way that is enjoyable and is sustainable and actually build a sick business. And in the past I did that all myself as you know, like to a ridiculous level by the way. Like in 2020 I did a little over 10 million quid in revenue across both brands. And yeah, that's fucking mad for me kitchen. But don't want to do it that way this time. And yeah, so we've done that other fundraising round, the plan there as well. And I won't bang on about this too much because I could probably speak for half an hour just about fundraising and private equity and all that sort of shit. It's finally fascinating. But the plan there is I shouldn't need, I don't think I'll need, and I don't want to raise another equity round of funding for at least the next 12 to 18 months. By point, I would hope to be at at least sort of 10 million run rates, like a million a month in revenue and the business be valued if it was to raise more money, at least like 10 to 20 million, particularly with being a subscription business. And that doesn't seem too stupid based on what my investors are telling me, like what this finance guy I've got on is telling me all this sort of shit. So that's the plan. And if I needed more capital to grow quicker, which all ecom businesses do, even if they're very profitable, it's a bit of a misconception that you can just bootstrap and go that quick if you're running like a legitimate business that's actually paying taxes and has a legitimate product. Gray Hat drop shipping. Very, very different. A lot of people on Twitter are kind of posting these screenshots and it's all just cap, to be honest, 99% of it. So yeah, a legitimate business that's, you know, you're probably looking at 10% EBITDA realistically in a proper econ brand that's growing quickly. Like if you can do that while growing, that's great. But obviously that has cash requirements. Buying stock, particularly for like a subscription business you might not get, might not be profitable right at the start, which again I might come on to in terms of my numbers. But yeah, if I needed more capital on the interim, I'd use a. I'd use Wayflyr or Pipe. Haven't used Pipe before. I've used Wayfly in the past. Obviously. One of my investors is the founder of waveflyer, so I definitely would, would use them. And if you, if you want to use them, there's a link in the bio, by the way. So, yeah, I probably use waveflyer if I needed more cash in the interim between like equity fundraisers. But enough on that. Yeah. So someone that has invest in the brand as well is actually someone that runs my ads. So not a huge, huge amount, but I thought it was interesting to try and align, align people that have massive impact on the business's performance by letting them invest in the brand. Obviously if we do really fucking well, it's a win win. They're getting paid anyway for their services. I just thought it made sense. So I've done that with, with one person there as well. One person that I have Got on in terms of like team and I'll come on to the team a little bit more in a second. But the primary person that Alex, one of my investors. Again this is proving the value like straight up. I wouldn't have had a fucking clue where to start with this, but he helped me hire a part time FD which might sound like really premature and I, my gut instinct was I felt a little bit like imposter syndrome and I thought, oh, is this too premature? You know, we've only done whatever, three months of revenue, all this sort of shit. But I couldn't be further from the truth, it was not premature at all. So his role, and he's also invested in the business as well, which is a good sign if a finance guy is investing in the business and he's the one running the numbers. So we've obviously got accountants doing all the statutory stuff, you know, standard yearly filings, all that. But he's basically responsible. I think I've touched on it before, him and his team, there's people that work with him and work across a few portfolio brands, etc. But he basically management accounts, budgeting and a financial plan which to be honest, I've never fucking seen. I've never seen a proper budget, a proper financial plan in the past. I was always child scaling in the past. I'll be granted have my own like P L had management accounts for my previous account in the previous business but it was never quite granular enough and contextual enough and didn't take into account what I was actually trying to achieve. So him coming on, he's literally a fucking genius by the way, Simon, if you're watching, which you're probably not, I think it's very cool what you're doing. Yeah, he's getting paid, he's got basically stock options as well. I think we've worked out over like two years vested which kind of keeps him like incentivized. Then he's also put some of his own money in this week which again is about aligning incentives. Like someone like that, super, super important. But yeah, it's just like for the first time ever I have granted management accounts but they're actually on time because you always be super delayed because now I've got someone that cares more about the business that's responsible for them. I've got budgets which again never really had in the past. So like for example, hypothetically I'm allowed to spend 100 grand on marketing in X month, right. Based on the CPA that we're Accounting for conservatively and you know, all the other things, you know, vat, margin overheads, etc, etc, etc, we can assume that based on the data we've got, if I spend this much this month, we should get this back. Then obviously at the end of the month we'll assess it, set a new budget for next month, all that sort of shit and account and take into account properly like buying stock etc. Etc. So it's just way, way more sophisticated than the financial setup I had in the past. And to be fair, like I've been pretty sharp on knowing that that's where it went wrong in the past and making sure I wouldn't let that happen again. So now it feels like the polar opposite. It feels like the finances are like pretty fucking bulletproof to be honest. We've got a lot of cash in the bank because of equity funding. Like I said, like yeah, a huge amount given how new the business is. To be fair, we've got fucking. Oh shit, I just realized my computer is unplugged, might run out of charge. We've got a solid plan and yeah, I just feel confident, confident in, in the financial side as well because it's all very well getting carried away in the marketing, which I've done in the past, kind of chat scaling to like a million a month again, which I've done in the past but it broke. But now I know that what I'm doing, someone's actually on my side and is properly responsible for the numbers. Obviously I am as well ultimately, I'm ultimately in charge of the business performance but this person is there to, you know, they're the financial mind. So yeah, it's a fucking game changer to be fair. They've also written a three year, actually a five year financial plan which again I've never even seen one of these but it's like some mad in depth graph slash spreadsheet that just has literally everything and I can plug in, you know, if we spend this and our CPA is this, assuming, assuming our AOV stays the same, assuming it goes up, assuming we add new products, where did we run out of cash? Hypothetically, if we're scaling too quick of stock, where do we not. Where would it make sense to raise more money? All this sort of shit. So like super in depth, high level stuff that maybe it's not high level, but it's certainly not the shit people on like Twitter that are running Greyhat Drop shipping stores are talking about. And it's where I slipped up in the past. I didn't have this part of the back end of the business covered enough and I'm being very, very, very conscious of that and I feel like it's covered now. So, yeah, that's a major thing that's happened in like the past month, particularly we've got properly set up. Is my laptop gonna run out of charge? Just want to check. Sorry, might have to fucking plug in. But I've run out of. What? Can I unplug one sec? Apologies. There we go, we're plugged in again. Yeah, what was I saying? So another thing as well is, and this is what I've always thought about and I've touched on in previous episodes, but since I've had proper investors and again, I'm talking about Alex and Jimmy mainly, which you've probably heard me speak about, who have both sold businesses and personally made a shitload of money. Like, I'm talking proper, proper money, which obviously everyone's trying to do, but these guys have actually done it. And starting with the end in mind for me as a founder and being like very, very, very clear on like, what is the actual goal for me to achieve. And obviously, yeah, granted there's an element of I want to fucking change the world and I want to build a great, beautiful, creative business and I do want to do all that, but I also want to get paid and yeah, like, make a fuckload of money building something great. And the way you do that is obviously building a business and selling equity in it or selling the whole thing. So I've got a three year plan basically from April when I started up to April 2025, which would make me 29 years old. And there's a number in mind, a minimum number in mind, basically the entire financial plan in terms of like aligning everyone and where I want to get to, numbers wise, like revenue, EBITDA, all the sort of shit growth rate, etc. Etc. Etc. Positioning the business to be investment worthy and potentially acquisition worthy at a certain point. It all ultimately comes down in my mind to does it achieve that goal for me and obviously my investors. But yeah, getting properly clear on that because I think in the past, again, just like Chad scaling, which is like term for obviously just fucking spending more and growing as much as possible for the sake of it. It's not the best approach and it's definitely not my approach here because everything I'm doing is like, does it facilitate the next step of getting towards that goal? And yeah, just being clear on that is something I've really had advice on and had Advice on getting that, getting clarity on that goal, but also advice on actually how to execute and make that goal a reality based on again, people that fucking done it because very different ball game. Like people talking about what they, what they want to do. You know, this is my plan with this brand, etc. We want to build 100 million pound brand. But are the people talking about that, are they actually done it? Have actually taken cash off the table to that level? Probably not, because most people haven't. Zero, you know, 0.0001% of the population actually have. So I'm very fortunate to be surrounded by some people that have done that. And it very much helps makes my what might seem like a pipe dream seem very, very, very achievable. And like I've said before a million times, I'm repeating myself. I finally feel like I'm in the right vehicle at the right time with the right, with the right resources and the right people and I'm the right founder to. If I can just get it done, I know what I have to do. It's just a case of executing it and it's very simple. But of course it's very, very hard and there'll be a million problems along the way as there already have been. But it does feel quite nice to be in that position where I'm like, I'm actually confident that I can do this if I just fucking do it every day. So just win the day for the next three years and we'll get there. And you know, beyond that, whatever happens, what else is happening? Hiring. I was looking at hiring someone like performance content, but I'm actually now just working on an agency and to be honest, I'm finding that a lot easier because they already have the systems in place. Granted you pay a slight premium, but it saves a lot of time and time right now and my mental energy is worth a bit more money than me trying to spend, you know, a month or two trying to hire someone and then probably not even having the same output as the agency that doing what they would be doing are already doing. So I kind of parked that for a while. I'm pretty convinced anyway that I could scale to, you know, I mean, just off top my head, like a million a month, 10mil run rate plus maybe even more with literally just the team setup I've got now. And it's like two freelancers, two agencies and me pretty much. Is that right? I think roughly about that. Obviously quite a few people go into like the background of agencies, so it's more than five people involved. But I think you can keep it super lean. I'm not convinced you need to have a bunch of PAYE employees and an office in 2022 to build a massive business. But the flip side of that is it would be nice to have an office and be surrounded by people. Because another thing I've been thinking about and I wrote down to remember to speak about is hypothetically, let's say I could get to 20, 30 million revenue in three years, whatever, which would be fucking mad. But let's just say I can do it. I think I can do it and I could do it all from working from home, you know, a laptop, whether I'm traveling in Bali, making off that last week or I'm in London like now. But it's not that enjoyable, a lot of it, because as anyone knows that watches this and an entrepreneur, it's very fucking lonely at times and I'm as victim to that as anyone. And you know, I sometimes miss that. I've never really been in office with people that much, but I can imagine that would be a nice part of the process because it's not all about the end goal. I've obviously touched on that, but I want to actually enjoy the process as well. So yeah, it's a weird one because I don't need an office. I'm not even sure I would ever need an office because I wouldn't necessarily have people in one place that have to come to an office. But maybe having some sort of semi office set up, whatever that looks like, I don't know, like a small office that people could go to. But then, you know, I'm very self aware in the sense that the second I have that I'd probably think why the fuck have I got an office? I used to have an office with Adam Reid. He's one of my investors. Crown and Poor Go and watch episode seven. Back in Leeds like four years ago we had this idea of having an office together. Four months later we sacked it off because we're like, fuck, I don't want to be here, I don't want to commute every day. So yeah, it's a weird one. That's something I'm debating a lot and it's kind of like similar sort of debate without the hiring. Can I just outsource everything to freelancers and agencies or do I want full time people that just work for me and then get them in an office? Right now I'm not really sure. I mean my only priority is growing the business and Making sure that customers are happy. The numbers make sense. So I think for like, the next six months at least, like the end of 2022, I keep doing what I'm doing, which is working from here. I genuinely travel like, once a month. Anyway. I'm going Bali, like, next week. Next week, Sorry, two and a half weeks for about two or three weeks. So obviously having the flexibility to do that sort of shit is very cool. But a bit of me does think, probably because I'm getting old and decrepit, I'm like 27 in three months, which is fucking mad. I'm getting old. And I think maybe having, like, some more consistency and roots beyond just working from home in one place would be nice. But, yeah, I'm debating that anyway. I'm rambling on this episode as normal. I wrote down a few things that are kind of business and obviously, like, mindset and that I was going to. One thing I've been really thinking about and reflected on it after Mykonos, having spoke to a few guys there, one of them that's just invested in my business and, you know, they have a lot. They're seven years older than me, they have a lot more life experience. And I'm always debating, like, do I have to, like, sacrifice every element of, like, social life, like, maybe like, romantic life, fucking, you know, going out, sending, which. Which I still. I haven't ever really sacrificed a lot of that, to be honest. And there's like this voice in the back of my head that thinks, oh, maybe I need to sacrifice all that entirely for three years and then I'll get there. But I'm just not convinced because I would hate to get to that number when I'm 29, let's say, and be filthy rich and think, oh, but. But I'm fucking lonely because I sacrificed friendships and I sacrificed maybe a beautiful girl that could have become a future wife or something. Do you know what I mean? So, yeah, I find that line quite hard. Again, I think I found that balance that works for me, which is, you know, genuinely in the week, Monday to Friday, I'm fucking 15 hours a day, laser focused. Then at the weekend, I like to go out and have dinners out with my mates and shit. And I wouldn't say I, you know, I'm not out, like, clubbing and sending it. Like, I probably used to be, because I don't want to be, by the way. I enjoy running and going out for nice dinners and shit, a glass of wine. Not necessarily sending it now and then, of course. But, yeah, it's finding that balance. And for me, I sometimes debate it depends when you ask me, it depends what time of the day, depends who I'm with and where I am when I'm thinking about that. But yeah, it's a hard one because a bit of me thinks if I sacrifice everything and just went like full monk mode almost for three years, would that, you know, would that move the needle more to a great enough extent than doing what I'm doing now, which is, I think, a decent balance that warrants the sacrifice. And I'm just not convinced it would because your mental health and fucking life matters as well. Along the way, I think I realized that probably as much as anyone. So yeah, that's what I'm thinking about. I think another thing that I've really got better at and become just a result of greater self awareness with age and time and experience is just fucking. I feel so much better about stresses and the journey and all this when I'm just honest with my mates and mentors, investors, people around me about shit I'm worried about. Of which there's always going to be a million, as there probably are for anyone in a fucking modern world, but particularly entrepreneurs grinding, you know, as a solo founder, particularly like just sharing your concerns and getting advice on shit. Because again, I used to be probably an arrogant little shit and thought I knew everything and thought I could do everything better than everyone else, but I just can't. And I've recognized that a lot in recent years, particularly in the past year and particularly since launching this. And yeah, just getting advice and knowing that people are on your side and setting up your business to have people on your side like I've now done is fucking invaluable because this shit is very, very, very hard. Yeah. Like even just on a day to day basis, of course I've probably made the past few episodes sound like everything's going fucking perfectly. It's absolutely not. And even if it is, my mind and brain don't tell me that it is a lot of time because I overthink everything. You know, I'm definitely a bit of a warrior. I've never let it get in the way of me having conviction and doing things. But I always overthink, you know, what if this happens, what if this doesn't go right, etc. Etc. Just the way my mind works. So yeah, it's fucking hard. And I think the point there is just being humble enough and is that the right word? Just, yeah, not being afraid to ask for advice and just speak to Your fucking boys or mates or girls around you, whatever it is about the stresses because it's fucking hard. And especially if they're in. In the game, like you are, like 95% of my mates are. To be. It just really helps. So, yeah, I mean, the final point, I don't know if this has been a remotely valuable episode at all. It's just me rambling as usual for what I think is 10 minutes and then it's like 25. I've been reading. It's probably so stereotypical, but I read a lot of Ryan Holiday a few years ago and I finished reading his Stillness Is the Key book. And then I got into this and I've. Yeah, I'm trying to live more stoically. Is that the right word? And. And I've definitely taken a lot from this because I've folded a bunch of pages and I've been rereading because, yeah, I think to execute in every area of life and obviously I'm trying to be the best I can in every area. You know, with fitness, with my social life, with my romantic life, which I don't know where the. That's going right now, with my business obviously being the priority. And yeah, I just think stoicism and principles from that philosophy, as ancient as it is and as timeless as it is, can be very fucking helpful. And I feel like, yeah, I'm trying to read more and I found solace. Is that the right word? In reading a lot of stoicism shit recently. So, yeah, I think it's a decent book. If you. If you haven't read Ryan Holiday stuff, then read this and a few others. And yeah, I think it's helping me for sure. And trying to just live more. Trying to live, operate and think with more clarity, I think is probably how it summarize it. And. And be like, again, like I said, be more in the moment, focus on the day. Because, you know, anxiety comes from worrying about the future. Depression comes from worrying about the past. If we just focus on the present. So stereotypical, but it's fucking true. If we just focus on the present, then it's a better way to live. Yeah. Quick side note, got like some sample accessories that are coming. This one's not very good. This one actually can't even get the lid off, so it looks pretty sick, but the quality is crap. I've got these flyers going out, 10,000 of these coming in. It's like some pearlescent finish. I don't know if you can see that. It's like me wrote, like, a little note and then did, like, a handwritten signature, which is pretty cool. So, yeah, loads of new shit coming, maybe. That was fairly philosophical, as always. Episode 12, as always. Space Goes to the fucking moon. Let's fucking go. Catch you next in the next episode. Cheers for watching. Peace.