How To Wreck Your Business

22/10/2026

You know what your house, car and pension is worth. Do you actually know what your business is worth? It's potentially the biggest of them all.

It's not what your accountant told you three years ago, or what Jimmy Down The Pub advised after his mates, cousin's uncle sold for £36m.

It's not the figure you’ve had in your head after a cracking year either.

What would a serious buyer with their own advisors put on the table if they walked in tomorrow? More importantly, is it enough?

Most owners genuinely don’t know, and most of them have decided that’s fine, because the sale is still years away and there’s plenty of time to find out.

Here’s the problem with that logic.

The number a buyer offers is not just based on what your business earns. It’s based on how transferable it is, how dependent it is on you personally, how clean the contracts are, how predictable the revenue is, and how much risk they are taking on when they hand over the cheque.

Every one of those factors is either adding to your value or quietly reducing it right now, while you are focused on everything else.

Owners who find out their number early have time to change it, because it takes YEARS to prepare a business for sale, not months.

You need time to fix the things that are dragging the multiple down, remove the risks that would give a buyer a reason to reduce an offer, and build toward the valuation they actually need rather than accepting whatever the market decides to give them.

Owners who find out late take what they’re given.

Find out what your business is actually worth today using the free valuation tool on the website.

It takes minutes and the number might surprise you.

14/10/2026

8 things that silently kill a business sale. Most owners don’t spot a single one until it’s too late.

They don’t show up in your accounts, that's why they're silent killers.

They don’t trigger any alarms, you don't see them "day to day".

They only surface when a serious buyer starts asking serious questions, and by then, fixing them is someone else’s problem.

Here’s what they are:
1: The business can’t run without the owner in it
2: Customer concentration, one client is more than 25% of revenue
3: No clean, up-to-date management accounts
4: Verbal agreements that were never put in writing
5: Key staff with no contracts and no retention plan
6: Intellectual property that was never formally protected
7: Premises on a lease that expires during or just after the sale
8: A valuation expectation that has no basis in what buyers actually pay

None of these are unfixable, they just need time and preparation.

The problem is that most owners find out about them at the worst possible moment, that's when a buyer is already in the room ASKING the questions and not liking the answers.

Your Business Exit Readiness Score will tell you which of these could affect your business right now, before anyone else finds them.

Are you really ready ? Here's the link - https://www.howcanisellmybusiness.co.uk/exit-readiness

It is never too early to start exit planning, but it can be too late.

Your FREE Business Exit Readiness SCORE, it's The Stuff That No One Dares Talk About. This is the harsh reality when preparing your business for sale. Get this BEFORE you start that process.

05/10/2026

Could your newsletter be KILLING your sales pipeline?

You finally get someone onto your email list, that prospect you have been keen to get in front of for a while.

Or, perhaps there's a number of customers that haven't been as active as they could have been.

So, the marketing team decide to create a NEWSLETTER, and out it goes

We won an award.

Dave’s been here 10 years.

Look at our new van.

Our new machine has arrived.

Here are some photos from our Christmas night out.

Unsubscribe.

And just like that, you’ve lost the ability to communicate with someone who might have bought from you in 3, 6 or 12 months.

The problem isn't newsletters. The problem is newsletters that are all about YOU. You may want to revisit the name and subject line too... "Here's Our Newsletter", really?

GetResponses email benchmark data, based on billions of messages, puts the average newsletter click-through rate at just 3.84%.

Mailchimps benchmark across all users tells a similar story: only 2.62% clicks.

So you've already got a battle to get their attention. Why waste it talking about yourself?

Your email should be about THEM.

Their problems.

Their frustrations.

Their opportunities.

Their questions.

Their business.

Your award might matter to you. Their pain point matters to them more though. They may be interested in the award once they see how you can help

Before you hit SEND on your next newsletter, ask one simple question:
“If I was the customer, why the hell would I care?

”If you can't answer it...Maybe don't send it.

Would like to subscribe to my Newsletter? You can't. I don't send one. The website is jam packed full of FREE business tools though. I'll put the link in the comments section.

27/09/2026

You can be busy. You can be growing. You can even be making decent money.

And still have things quietly WRECKING your print business.

I've built a FREE Reality Check specifically for independent print businesses.
16 questions. Around 5 minutes.

You'll get your Reality Score, identify where the biggest weakness sits and get 3 things I'd be looking at first. Here's the link https://www.howtogrowmyprintbusiness.co.uk/reality-check

Don't answer for the business you tell people about. Answer for the business you actually have.

21/09/2026

The biggest mistake I made was not realising the mistake was a mistake.

I think Mark Twain said it best; "It's not what you don't know that gets you into trouble, it's what you know for sure that just ain't so".

The success of my business was masking the mistakes I was making. I was utterly convinced I was right, because it all worked before.

Without realising it, I went from being the businesses biggest asset, to becoming it's biggest liability.

I never knew it, I never saw it, but I recognise it in many business owners today.

We think it's "entrepreneurial", because it is.

We think it drives our business forward, because it does.

But, as I found out, and the back of my book says is CLEARLY - "Flying by the seat of your pants only gets you so far".

This might not be you, maybe someone you know !!! Ask them to have a chat with me.

18/09/2026

Whether you're selling or just growing, you need to know where you're going.

So I created this really handy and easy to use 12 month Customer and Sales Planner.

Break your business down into each sector, division or main product range you offer. For example, a printer may have, General Print Work, Large Format, Signage, Digital Print.

Simple to use:-

1) Select the month you want your planner to start.
2) Insert the AVERAGE sale value.
3) Insert the estimated number of SALES.
4) Insert the number of CUSTOMERS needed for those sales. This is optional but recommended.

Repeat for each month, and the planner does the rest.

Your 12 Month Forecast is at the bottom

The Sales Needed
The Customers Needed (awesome for marketing planning)
Turnover Target
Your Monthly Turnover Target.

THEN.. the good bit. Enter your target NET profit.

That's it. It's that simple.

Save as you progress or download your completed PDF.

There's no sign up, data capture, cross sell, up sell, pressure sale, email etc - use it, don't use it, it's up to you.

Here's the link: https://www.howtowreckyourbusiness.co.uk/sales-planner

17/09/2026

90 Day Plans ARE A TOTAL WASTE OF TIME.

I have never understood that phrase.

I have found it's my 90 Day Plan that keeps me focussed and ON TRACK.

What I did struggle with was a format that worked. Spreadsheets were OK, but they were spreadsheets.

So, I created my own online.

Select your quarter.
Add your ONE big goal for that quarter.
Add other goals that "earn their place", add as many as you like.
Prioritise the goal.
Commit to start and completion dates (needed for the planner)
Download your planner (which is built for you).

It's all yours. No sign up, no email capture, no upsell, no cross sell. Just use it.

Here's the link - https://www.howtowreckyourbusiness.co.uk/90-Day

16/09/2026

What Year on Year Growth are you planning, and why? This is a screenshot from a conversation from Friday.

David asked me about Year on Year Growth. We'll call him "David" because that is actually his name. This is LinkedIN not MI5.

The simple calculator is on my website, we put in the current business turnover and in seconds ran multiple scenarios. 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30% and 40% year on year growth.

David decided 30% year on year growth was the magic number. Why?

He had already worked out what he needed and wanted to build the ideal business that provided the lifestyle he wanted. He is now building a business to deliver that.

When he saw it visually, that 30% YOY growth looked sustainable, achievable, and realistic. David is now creating a solid marketing and growth plan that maps this out to the POUND.

This also lets David plan an accurate Cash Flow forecast now.

It also let's him know when he'll need to recruit, long before he needs to.

David now knows what marketing is needed and when, and how much to invest.

All that from a simple online calculator.

David is selling his business at year three, as soon as the £1m turnover milestone is achieved. That gives him three years to show and prove his "Growth Plan" is both accurate and realistic.

Have a go at it. It's free, there's no sign up or data capture. No sales lead, no funnel, no lead magnet, no hidden agenda, no upsell, no cross sell, no sell. Just use it.

Here's the link - https://www.howtowreckyourbusiness.co.uk/year-on-year

10/09/2026

We all make mistakes, but this one really hurt.

Every business owner makes mistakes, it's how we learn. Most of us have experienced failure to some degree. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

I made a series of mistakes right at the time when mistakes could NOT be afforded, that was at the peak of the Global Financial MELTDOWN.

The trouble was, that wasn't the REAL problem.

My mistakes were made many YEARS before. How's that possible?

The success of the business was MASKING those mistakes, and what's worse, they were all avoidable.

So, I created the WRECK CHECK. 20 questions that probe and prompt and leave you with a solid action plan at the end.

And yes, I know you're saying this won't happen to me. That's what I said too.

Then on the businesses 20th Birthday it was administrators rather than cake.

Try the Wreck Check, let me know how you get on. Link in the comments.

08/09/2026

The success of my business masked the mistakes. That's a hard one to accept.

It's really difficult when things are going well, there's supercars in the driveway, to look in the mirror and say "you're doing this wrong".

But that's EXACTLY what was happening.

I went from being the businesses biggest asset to becoming its biggest liability... and I didn't see it.

No one told me, and had anyone DARED, would I have listened? NO!!!

Arrogance and complacency kill more businesses than any recession ever will.

It creeps up on you. It starts as confidence, then over confidence, and these DRIVE a business forward. Then, complacency sets in, soon accompanied by arrogance, and that's what the Army Air Corps refer to as a "non recoverable event".

I went from being the biggest asset in the business through creative marketing and ambitious business development, to unknowingly undermining EVERYTHING the business had become.

The previous SUCCESS was masking those errors, until it couldn't any longer.

I see this a LOT in business owners today. I know how that ends.

How To Wreck Your Business is that story. It's never ONE thing that crashes a business, it's the combination of MANY factors that go unchecked.

That's why it's a #1 best seller, and a business course like no other.

Tales From The Crypt shares the mistakes I made that cost me dearly. Mistakes that go unnoticed, mistakes that are being made by most business owners right now.

Follow Tales From The Crypt every TUESDAY.

C U Next Tuesday... as they say !!!!