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If I Wanted To Start A Business In 2027_ I_d Do This · The Empire of Wealth

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  Speaker 1: I have built 19 companies, one of them I sold
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  Speaker 1: for a huge amount of money to PricewaterhouseCooper. I've actually
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  Speaker 1: invested in over 85 companies as well. So if you
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  Speaker 1: wanna start a business, all I need you to do
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  Speaker 1: is just settle in for 20 minutes, get a notepad,
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  Speaker 1: I'm gonna teach it all to you for free.
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  Speaker 2: What have you got to lose? So let's get started.
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  Speaker 1: So there are eight basic principles that you need to
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  Speaker 1: know to start a business. And the first one will
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  Speaker 1: surprise you. You don't need an idea or money to
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  Speaker 1: start a business. What you need is a purpose. a
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  Speaker 1: problem in the world that bothers you. What is it
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  Speaker 1: in the world that bothers you that needs fixing? A purpose,
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  Speaker 1: a problem you've experienced can lead to a great business. Why?
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  Speaker 1: Because it matters to you. I recently invested in a
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  Speaker 1: business called Lovable. It's just hit 10 billion in valuation.
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  Speaker 1: And when Anton pitched that business to me a long
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  Speaker 1: time ago, he said, Simon, my friends kept asking me
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  Speaker 1: to help them code their apps. They kept asking me
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  Speaker 1: to be their CTO and I can't, I'm doing something else.
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  Speaker 1: But I wanted to help my friends out. So he
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  Speaker 1: built a product to basically help his friends out that
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  Speaker 1: kept asking him for help. It allows you to tell
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  Speaker 1: the app what you want it to build and it
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  Speaker 1: builds it for you. And the reason I tell you
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  Speaker 1: this story is because ultimately the lesson to learn here
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  Speaker 1: is that you have to do it.
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  Speaker 2: You don't want it to succeed, you need it to succeed.
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  Speaker 1: But it's important for a business to really be sustainable,
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  Speaker 1: for it to have a purpose beyond just making money.
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  Speaker 1: And so often your purpose is found in your pain.
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  Speaker 1: So again, for me, I was suddenly in the real
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  Speaker 1: world at 15, couldn't get a job, couldn't get help
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  Speaker 1: from social services.
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  Speaker 2: So I had to start a business, right?
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  Speaker 1: And I managed it. And now here I am 37
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  Speaker 1: years later, wanting to give that knowledge to you, right?
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  Speaker 1: That's my pain. I want to give that 15 year
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  Speaker 1: old me help to start a business because I didn't
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  Speaker 1: know how to do it. And maybe if you don't
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  Speaker 1: know your purpose, let's move on to ideas for a
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  Speaker 1: second because I can help you think of an idea
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  Speaker 1: that may be linked back to purpose in a minute.
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  Speaker 1: The second step in starting a business that so many
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  Speaker 1: people put first is an idea. So what is the idea?
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  Speaker 1: The idea you start with doesn't have to be the
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  Speaker 1: end business. So my first idea when I was 15
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  Speaker 1: years old was a gardening company. And today I'm one
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  Speaker 1: of the biggest business influencers in the world on social media.
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  Speaker 1: So where you end up doesn't have to be where
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  Speaker 1: you start, but you have to.
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  Speaker 2: To start.
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  Speaker 1: So an idea as simple as, and you won't like it,
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  Speaker 1: go wash cars, go wash windows, learn to sell to people,
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  Speaker 1: learn to get a customer, learn to make that customer happy,
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  Speaker 1: learn to hire people. That's what happened to me at 15.
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  Speaker 1: My first business didn't have a purpose. By the way,
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  Speaker 1: that's why it eventually failed. But it did have, I
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  Speaker 1: needed money and therefore I went and tried things and
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  Speaker 1: I had nothing to lose because I couldn't get a job,
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  Speaker 1: I was homeless, I had no choice. The best thing
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  Speaker 1: you can do is tell yourself, I've got no ego,
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  Speaker 1: I don't care if I fail. I don't care if
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  Speaker 1: people judge me, but I'm gonna try stuff. Let's assume
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  Speaker 1: you haven't got purpose, but you can figure it out later.
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  Speaker 1: Let's assume you have got an idea. What's the next
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  Speaker 1: step once you've got an idea? Starting your own business
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  Speaker 1: is like moving a mountain. Don't look at the mountain
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  Speaker 1: and think, how can I move this mountain? Because you
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  Speaker 1: might not even start. You might get totally intimidated. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: think like the Japanese, and the Japanese have a saying.
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  Speaker 1: To move a mountain, move one small rock at a time. So,
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  Speaker 1: you have an idea. It might be a big mountain.
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  Speaker 1: What's the first rock? In my opinion, it's naming the baby.
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  Speaker 1: Come up with a name for the business. Now, many
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  Speaker 1: years ago, I started a business called Fluid. And that
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  Speaker 1: business originally was a brainstorming session between me and my co-founder,
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  Speaker 1: someone called Helen Griffiths. And we both came up with
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  Speaker 1: a name. My name idea was Pink Tank, as in
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  Speaker 1: brainy think tank, right? And her idea was Fluid. And
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  Speaker 1: just by discussing the name, we came up with why
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  Speaker 1: the business should be called Fluid and not Pink Tank.
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  Speaker 1: Point I'm making is naming the baby allows you to
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  Speaker 1: have expectation that the baby will arrive. And it gives
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  Speaker 1: you a framework to build everything up. What does the
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  Speaker 1: brand stand for? Just as important, what does the brand
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  Speaker 1: stand against? And if you can figure that out by
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  Speaker 1: just coming up with a name, you're on your way.
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  Speaker 1: Step number two, idea and name it. Name the idea.
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  Speaker 1: Third step in building a business, assuming now you've named it,
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  Speaker 1: what do you do? In my opinion, it's get the trademarks.
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  Speaker 1: From all my years of experience, I once started a
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  Speaker 1: business called Fluid out in China, and it did really well.
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  Speaker 1: And as it took off, someone else took the trademark.
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  Speaker 1: And suddenly, I found myself in a trademark dispute. Because
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  Speaker 1: most people think there's three elements to securing your business name.
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  Speaker 1: One is the actual registered company. Let's call it an
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  Speaker 1: England company's house or wherever it is.
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  Speaker 2: LLC in America. You register the business.
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  Speaker 1: But that does not give you protection to use that name.
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  Speaker 1: You can have HSBC, and many people have named their
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  Speaker 1: company HSBC, but you cannot trade publicly with a brand
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  Speaker 1: of HSBC unless you.
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  Speaker 2: Own the trademark. It's so important.
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  Speaker 1: You can own the website address, HSBC.com, but it does
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  Speaker 1: not mean you can trade as HSBC. You must own
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  Speaker 1: the trademark, and it's actually very cheap if you get
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  Speaker 1: the trademark early. Most markets around the world per category,
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  Speaker 1: it's about 500 US dollars, which in reality, I'll give
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  Speaker 1: you that money.
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  Speaker 2: I'll give you that money.
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  Speaker 1: If you let me know your name down below, I'll
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  Speaker 1: pick one of you if I like the name, and
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  Speaker 1: I'll give you the money to get the trademark. The
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  Speaker 1: point I'm trying to get to here is that it's
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  Speaker 1: not launched the business yet. We're going to come to
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  Speaker 1: that in a minute. make sure the foundation of the
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  Speaker 1: business is solid. You've got a name that relates to
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  Speaker 1: your purpose and your mission, your brand, and then you've
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  Speaker 1: got ownership over that name. Now, trademarks will take about
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  Speaker 1: three or four months to get approved, maybe longer sometimes.
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  Speaker 2: You can still build up stuff in the business. I'm
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  Speaker 2: going to go through it in a minute, but I want.
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  Speaker 1: You to get that foundation locked in so that when
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  Speaker 1: you do fully launch, you don't get a cease and
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  Speaker 1: desist a bit later like I did because someone took
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  Speaker 1: the trademark of the business that I was operating, right?
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  Speaker 1: The fourth thing to do is secure all your assets,
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  Speaker 1: such as your social media handles on every channel. Again,
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  Speaker 1: this might be a bit of a headache these days
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  Speaker 1: because people sit on social media handles they're not even using,
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  Speaker 1: but you can report them now. So for example, on X,
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  Speaker 1: you can actually report a handle that's not being used
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  Speaker 1: and they will release it to you if you have
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  Speaker 1: a business account. So get your social handles secured for your.
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  Speaker 2: Business, even if you're not going to use them.
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  Speaker 1: They'll be useful later, and certainly things like website purchase
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  Speaker 1: and those sorts of things are really useful for SEO
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  Speaker 1: if people want to find you via your brand name
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  Speaker 1: a bit later. try and secure it. If you can
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  Speaker 1: secure all your assets for your name, it will help
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  Speaker 1: increase visibility over time. And it will help with things
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  Speaker 1: like search engine optimization and even things like AI search
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  Speaker 1: optimization later, which is going to be a big thing.
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  Speaker 1: It'll help you get traffic to your business. The next
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  Speaker 1: thing I want to teach you, you've got to learn
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  Speaker 1: to leverage AI. Right now, there's a big opportunity on
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  Speaker 1: two levels. One is social media. You can post a
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  Speaker 1: video and get a million views.
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  Speaker 2: You can. It's not about how many followers you have anymore.
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  Speaker 2: Point is.
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  Speaker 1: that you must leverage these tools. AI in particular right
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  Speaker 1: now can be your CFO. Like I just mentioned about Loverboard,
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  Speaker 1: it can build your site for you. My sponsor for
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  Speaker 1: today's video is Build Your Store AI. And you can
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  Speaker 1: literally go to the link down below, click another button
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  Speaker 1: that says get started, and build a Shopify store in minutes.
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  Speaker 1: And in addition to that, if you don't know what
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  Speaker 1: product to sell, It will help you pick what products
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  Speaker 1: you could sell. I suggest you pick things that actually
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  Speaker 1: matter to you. You should just try it. For me,
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  Speaker 1: these sorts of products are exactly what the wealthy do.
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  Speaker 1: They learn to leverage tools like AI instead of being
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  Speaker 1: scared of it and running away from it and not
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  Speaker 1: realizing they can actually help you get where you want
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  Speaker 1: to be.
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  Speaker 2: Of course, no one knows what's going to happen in
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  Speaker 2: the future.
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  Speaker 1: But right now, these tools can give you a chance
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  Speaker 1: to go out there and build the life you want.
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  Speaker 2: Why would you not try it? Learn to use them.
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  Speaker 1: The next thing we need to do is sell something, anything.
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  Speaker 1: When I was 15 years old and I started the
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  Speaker 1: gardening business, I knocked on the door and I asked
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  Speaker 1: to tidy up someone's garden and they said yes. Now,
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  Speaker 1: as I was tidying up the garden, I also noticed
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  Speaker 1: that their house was in a little bit of disarray
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  Speaker 1: as well. Now, at the time, my brain wasn't mature
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  Speaker 1: enough to realise I could have sold a second thing.
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  Speaker 1: I could have sold the fix your house up service,
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  Speaker 1: but I didn't. But I remember thinking at the time,
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  Speaker 1: These people have a lot of money. It's a big
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  Speaker 1: house in a very expensive area. Why the hell is
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  Speaker 1: their house a little bit run down? It was the
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  Speaker 1: same reason their garden was run down. And it's called
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  Speaker 1: market fit. If you have a painting that you've done
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  Speaker 1: and someone will actually buy it, you can prove there's
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  Speaker 1: a market for your services. And you need to do
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  Speaker 1: the numbers game most of the time. But you need
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  Speaker 1: to make sure you get one sale. That one person
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  Speaker 1: you sell to can tell 10 people and help do
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  Speaker 1: the sales for you.
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  Speaker 2: But what I'm trying to teach you is you have
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  Speaker 2: to sell.
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  Speaker 1: Now, if you're an introvert and you're listening to this
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  Speaker 1: and thinking, I can't sell, learn to send a good email.
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  Speaker 1: Learn to post something on LinkedIn that is a soft
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  Speaker 1: sell for what you do. Tell your friends what you're
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  Speaker 1: doing and ask them to tell your friends, right? Selling
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  Speaker 1: is just communication. It's just storytelling.
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  Speaker 2: I've got a book called Watch Your Story.
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  Speaker 1: If you want to learn how to tell stories, which
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  Speaker 1: is a huge, huge part of selling, you can buy
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  Speaker 1: the book. The link's down below. And I use the
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  Speaker 1: profit from this book to fund dreams just like yours.
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  Speaker 1: But what I'm getting to is like, Be brave. Go
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  Speaker 1: and sell something. That's an important step to prove there's
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  Speaker 1: a market for your business. The next thing you need
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  Speaker 1: to do, and this is scary.
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  Speaker 2: I know it's scary.
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  Speaker 1: But if you really want to build a business that works,
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  Speaker 1: you're going to have to do this.
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  Speaker 2: Hire people. Now, it's not scary. And I'll tell you why.
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  Speaker 1: Most of the businesses that I've built started off, my
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  Speaker 1: first hire is my co-founder.
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  Speaker 2: I love co-founders.
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  Speaker 1: I'd rather have 50% of something I love that's working
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  Speaker 1: than 100% of something where I'm struggling to have.
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  Speaker 2: People in the business.
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  Speaker 1: I'm struggling to make it work. I'm struggling to make
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  Speaker 1: the 100% equity worth anything. Co-founders is one of the
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  Speaker 1: biggest hacks as.
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  Speaker 2: Your first employee. Frankly, it can be the second employee
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  Speaker 2: and the third employee. Most of the people that.
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  Speaker 1: Join me in this platform that we're building now to
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  Speaker 1: help you with your business all have equity. Again, I
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  Speaker 1: think people aren't leveraging equity in the early days and
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  Speaker 1: they way that they could. People are too scared that
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  Speaker 1: that person might leave. You can have clawback.
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  Speaker 2: If people leave, they have to give up the equity.
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  Speaker 1: There's all sorts of ways you can manage it. But
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  Speaker 1: I think people should give equity to their first few employees.
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  Speaker 1: I don't think everybody in their company should get equity.
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  Speaker 1: But hiring is going to be important. And this is
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  Speaker 1: the basic framework. What are you good at? What are
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  Speaker 1: you bad at? What gives you energy? What takes your energy?
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  Speaker 1: Make a list and make sure whatever takes your energy
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  Speaker 1: and you're not good at, give to someone else. Find
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  Speaker 1: someone else to do those things. And there are people
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  Speaker 1: that can do everything. I'm not one of them. I'm
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: not good at editing. I'm not good at copywriting. I'm
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  Speaker 1: not good at accounts. I know what I'm not good at.
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  Speaker 1: And I think that's why I built successful businesses because
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  Speaker 1: I'm able to be honest with myself. I can do
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  Speaker 1: accounts and I haven't forced myself to read the accounts,
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  Speaker 1: especially when I didn't know the equity hack and I
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  Speaker 1: used to think I had to hire someone and I
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  Speaker 1: didn't have the money.
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  Speaker 2: But you don't need to do those things.
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  Speaker 1: You need to find someone that's good at those things,
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  Speaker 1: that gets energy from doing those things, and you need
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  Speaker 1: to give them equity. The final thing I want to
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  Speaker 1: teach you about how to build a business is probably
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  Speaker 1: the most important. The only reason that I am successful today,
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  Speaker 1: it's not because I'm smart. It's simply because I never stop. Now,
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  Speaker 1: it's very important when describing this concept to never give
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  Speaker 1: up to also highlight there are moments when I have
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  Speaker 1: shut down businesses. I had a comic book business that
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  Speaker 1: initially it wasn't my idea. But when it came to
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  Speaker 1: crunch time and I didn't really, really love the idea,
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  Speaker 1: it was someone else's idea I was working on. I
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  Speaker 1: stopped and I'm glad I did for all sorts of reasons.
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  Speaker 1: If I hadn't stopped that business, it was called Devachard.
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  Speaker 1: It was destined to be a movie. I just stopped
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  Speaker 1: the business after losing nearly a million US dollars on it.
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  Speaker 1: It was painful, but I'm glad I stopped. So it
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  Speaker 1: sounds like I'm counteracting what I'm just telling you, never
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  Speaker 1: give up. But the important thing is the businesses that
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  Speaker 1: have made work like Fluid, like this platform, is because
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  Speaker 1: I believed in the purpose and the mission and I
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  Speaker 1: never give up.
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  Speaker 2: Now I can pivot.
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  Speaker 1: I stopped the comic book business and I pivoted into
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  Speaker 1: making Fluid really successful, right? Helping people with their businesses,
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  Speaker 1: something I really feel passionate about. So I lost the
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  Speaker 1: money in a business that I didn't feel passionate about.
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  Speaker 1: And I put all my energy into a business that
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  Speaker 1: I did feel passionate about. And that's what I'm saying.
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  Speaker 1: You will never give up if you put purpose at
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  Speaker 1: the beginning. That's why I was trying to get purpose
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  Speaker 1: in here and how to build a business. Most people
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  Speaker 1: don't talk about it enough, but I've seen it like
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  Speaker 1: a fluid when I was building that business because that
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  Speaker 1: business was about helping creative people get respected and get
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  Speaker 1: properly paid. That was the purpose of fluid, not to
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  Speaker 1: help clients necessarily have a beautiful brand campaign.
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  Speaker 2: It was designed to make sure the creative people were
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  Speaker 2: well paid and well looked after.
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  Speaker 1: And that meant people stayed with us because the business
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  Speaker 1: had a purpose beyond just making money. So I want
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  Speaker 1: you to have that because never giving up will be
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  Speaker 1: easy if you know how important it is. If you
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: don't do it, someone dies, that sort of framework in
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  Speaker 1: your mind, it will make sure you never give up.
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  Speaker 1: If you follow the framework I've just given you, you'll
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  Speaker 1: have people in it that are helping you. It will
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  Speaker 1: have a mission that makes you want to keep going.
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  Speaker 2: It won't all be on you and you will enjoy it.
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  Speaker 1: I hope you got value from today's video. If you did,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: let me know down below. It would mean a lot
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: to me and have a good day.