I’m interested in helping businesses to “scale up” rather than “start up”. There’s a lot of hype about start ups and there’s also a fair bit of support out there for them. Incubators, Accelerators, Co- working space, Product venture capital, etc, etc, etc.

Now don’t get me wrong I love the start up process but a lot of it is a bit of a dream. Have an idea, get funding, build a product, sell it to Silicon Valley. Fantastic!…odds?….very low.

I’ve built business and it takes perseverance. It involves taking a risk, and it takes belief and vision. Many businesses fail in the first year. Less than a third will make it to 10 years. But here’s the thing, small to medium enterprises are the life blood of an economy. They provide services. They manufacture goods. They employ people. They need to be nurtured, encouraged, and supported. If we can improve the performance of mid-size businesses we can make a really positive impact on the economy.

Most regular businesses that employ people in the economy get very little support, other than what they can find for themselves. And yet they are so busy doing all the things in a business needed for it to survive. They work long hours. They go to bed thinking about it. They wake up thinking about it. And they hold on to a dream. They dream of growing their business and building it in to something that will give themselves and their families a better life. They dream of building their business to a level that it will be valuable enough one day to sell it and fund their retirement.

So how do businesses grow? They invest in themselves using debt or get others to invest in themselves using equity. Both are valid approaches and at some point in your business journey either or both will probably make sense. But they come with strings. You’ll end up with obligations to your financiers and shareholders. That’s fine, but do it when the time is right.

Most business owners haven’t run a business themselves before – many are learning as they go. Their main focus is purely on revenue and expenses and having enough left over to leave something for themselves. That is the sum extent of their knowledge about the business finances. Is that you? If it is then I want you spend a little bit of time educating yourself about all of the key items in the Financial Statement.  If you do you will soon realise that there is another source that you can use to fund the growth of your business, and that is the cash that already runs through your own business. That’s the journey I went on and once I understood the levers the business improvement was astronomical

So, if you want to learn a little bit more about how this might work for you then come with me a bit further. I’ve created a downloadable e-book that will get you started. It lists 8 key things that you can do to start the process of unlocking the cash already in your business.