Episode 1 · new this week
Why I closed my first business and started again
Aisha closed a profitable shop because it was making her miserable. The episode that started the show: what failure actually looks like from the inside, and what she rebuilt.
Aisha Malik · Rowan & Reed · Cardiff
Audio drops soon
Why I closed my first business and started again
Latest sessions
All episodes →No venture capital required
Everyone here funded growth out of the business. No raises, no boards, no pitch decks.
Every trade welcome
Barbers, joiners, agencies, cafés, shops, e-commerce. Not just software founders.
Day zero to year two
The chaotic early stretch, when survival advice matters more than productivity theory.
Written interviews
All interviews →Local services
"I spent two years building a business I did not want"
Callum built a grounds maintenance firm to 14 vans, then deliberately shrank it back to six. He explains why bigger stopped being better.
Callum Fraser, Fraser Grounds · 7 min read
Hospitality
The café owner who fired her best customer
One corporate account made up 30% of Nadia's revenue and 90% of her stress. Letting it go was the best decision she made.
Nadia Hussein, Loom Coffee House · 6 min read
Manufacturing
Bootstrapped to £500k with no marketing budget
Ryan has never run a paid advert. He explains the referral machine he built instead, and why it took three years to work.
Ryan Doyle, Doyle Signs · 5 min read
Playbooks, not forum threads
Structured, step by step guides pulled from what actually worked for the owners we interview. Read one, do it the same week.
All playbooks →Sourced and linked
What it actually cost them to start
Real published accounts from UK owners, with the figures they gave on the record. Every number links back to the original interview.
£10m+
revenue since launch
He started with £10 of ingredients and quit Google to keep going
Simmy Dhillon, Simmer Eats · via BBC News
£5m
turnover in 2021
£500 of savings, a kitchen table, and a £5m curly hair brand
Lizzie Carter, Only Curls · via SME Magazine
£5.8m
business built from scratch
She borrowed £6,000 from a friend and did not pay herself for two years
Ros Heathcote, Borough Broth · via SME Magazine
£3m
annual recurring revenue
He turns down three or four VC approaches a day and runs a £3m ARR business
Charles Preston, usecure · via BusinessCloud
£5m
revenue, from a £5,000 start
He launched an online shop with one product and a dead navigation menu
Ash Young, carmats.co.uk · via Moz
Run a business?Come and talk.
We interview owners at every stage, in every trade. If you have a story with real numbers in it, we want it on the show.