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E45 Process Systems for Growth with Simon Read · Stronger Business Together

• Granger Forson: So is the Stronger Business Together podcast where business owners learn from other business owners. No theory, no gurus, just real journeys and overcoming real hurdles. Today I'm joined by Simon Reid who runs Accountants for Sale. And like every owner he's in that middle of building things, fixing things and growing something that really matters to him. So Simon, welcome. Simon Read: Good afternoon Granger, great to come on your podcast. Thank you for having me. Granger Forson: You're most welcome. You're most welcome. So let's go on to Act 1 now. Your business. So in plain English, Simon, what does your business do? Simon Read: So what we do, we are a business brokerage that happens to specialize in, the clue is in the name I guess, does what it says on the tin, accountants for sale. We sell accountancy practices across the UK, large and small. There is a massive demand for quality accountancy businesses and we deal with buyers. right across the UK that are looking either they could be one man bands, could be recent people that have been working for it, sort of large corporates that are looking to buy a small practice for the first time right the way up to large private equity backed national firms that are, you know, have deep pockets and are looking to buy bigger provincial and regional businesses and all points in between. So... So we work with a lot of accountants that are typically at retirement age or they're approaching retirement age. mean, in fact, we sold a business recently, the gentleman was only 36, but wanted to go off and become a commercial pilot. He ran his business for about 15 years, done very well. So we do sell, we do have some younger sellers. But a lot of the people we deal with are typically at that age where they worked hard for a long time and they want to hopefully get good price for the business and make sure that their clients are going to be well looked after and that their staff are going to be Granger Forson: Yeah. Simon Read: integrated. And then on the other side I've got another arm called Read 7a Advisory that's a little bit more recent, but again we're specializing I do like to get into niches and be really good at those niches. So we've got Reid's &A advisory and essentially we've got five satellite websites which Granger Forson: Okay. Simon Read: are Fire Safety Business for Sale, Electrical Business for Sale, HVAC Business for Sale. HVAC is Heating Ventilation and Controls. We've got Facilities Management Business for Sale. pest control business for sale, I think that's five. And Granger Forson: Yep. Simon Read: essentially they're all businesses that are within the sort of building compliance, maintenance sector. Again, they typically have a lot of recurring revenue and they typically often have quite sticky commercial clients and regular contracts. And I suppose if you sit in any public building, office, hotel and look around, It's a sea of fire alarms, fire doors, fire extinguishers, heating, ventilation, electrical systems. So it's a massive business. But again, there's a huge appetite to buy those sort of companies and a lot of owner-operators that are in their mid-50s, 60s, that are looking for an exit. Again, Granger Forson: Yeah. Simon Read: they're looking to realize... Maximum value and also, you know, hopefully protect their legacy and ensure that their teams and staff are well looked after And then finally Granger Forson: Brilliant. Brilliant. Simon Read: I've got a little bit a little bit of a side hustle, which is reads commercial finance So essentially we we help facilitate Acquisition funding so a lot of clients Granger Forson: Okay. Simon Read: do borrow money to buy businesses a lot of accounting to do in fact And it's an area that we try and help clients with as well. Granger Forson: I've worked with an accountant who built his acquisition trail to build and grow his business so I know it well. So Simon, how did so many different things you're doing that's built up over time, So how did the business start? Simon Read: yeah. Granger Forson: What was that original spark? Simon Read: So the original spark was a few years ago, I spent a lot of my career in recruitment, primarily in financial recruitment, a lot of that around recruiting financial advisors, IFAs, mortgage advisors, parent planners, did do a bit of accountancy, recruitments and other stuff. And I sort of reached a bit of an impasse in my own sort of career. I had a friend who sold IFA practices, so financial advisory firms, they again, Granger Forson: Yeah. Simon Read: likewise owners, to Granger Forson: Okay. Simon Read: sell up and retire. And I joined him and worked with him for probably a couple of years, something like that, before I went back into recruitment. And then I subsequently relocated, I'd separated from my wife at the time. I've reached a sort of bit of a crossroads in my life. And I was offered a role and relocated up to the Cotswolds, which is where I've for almost the last 10 years now. Time flies when you're having fun. And Granger Forson: It doesn't eat, it doesn't eat. Simon Read: yeah, of course, I met my partner about eight years ago. I've never looked back, really. got really enjoyed selling the IFA practices, enjoyed selling businesses, and I suppose I got a real feel for it then. And my partner actually started a business about four years ago called Cotswold Networking, which had gone on to become quite, you know, very successful throughout the Cotswolds, and she'd got about eight to 10 groups that meet monthly, and you know, it's a very successful networking platform. Granger Forson: Fantastic. Simon Read: As a result of doing that, I met lots of accountants and I'd had it in my mind. sort of, I'd been running my own recruitment business for a period of time. And during and after COVID, it was actually very boring. And then I suppose as the world sort of turned a little bit more normal again, I have to say the market did get quite tough, wasn't as good as it had been. I had this grain of an idea that I wanted to do the business broking again. And it was really just from talking to some of the accountants that I met and some conversations. I literally came back from an event one night and I think I sat down at my computer the following morning, had a look at what sort of names might be available, what sort of domain names. Accountants for sale was available to my surprise in fact and to my web developers surprise as well because they were like, wow, how did you get that? said, it was just available. Is that good? And Granger Forson: Yeah, well such a such a name like that being available is very good. Simon Read: yeah, so of course what it's meant over the sort of last three and half years is anybody going onto Google, onto the internet will go, accountants for sale, Accountancy business practice for sale etc. And so we were getting into the mix very very well right right from the off And over time we you know refined and improved a website. We developed a lot of backlinks and I've managed to Build some sort of journalistic relationships and had quite a few articles that have gone into things like accountancy daily and into with the ACCA magazine and I was then able to become a speaker at AccountX last year and it's sort of all of which have helped strengthen the website and help the brand to sort of grow. And as a Granger Forson: Right in. Simon Read: result, we've built a fantastic register of buyers right across the country and we've been cultivating, I suppose, something like 20,000 accountants that we've sort of acquired. the data on over a period of time and a fairly sort of soft, gentle marketing. We never overdo it on the email. We don't bombard people. We do a combination of emails and letters and things. Really just saying that if you want to sell or buy a business, come and talk to us. And over time, inevitably people keep the email. they also wake up on a Monday morning and decide that now is the time. you know, we just sort of built the business from there really. Granger Forson: Yeah, I like that steady growth, that understanding of building the connections with accountants over time, which then leads to leads coming in and opportunities when it's ready. mean, fantastic. mean, such great growth. What's the business size now today in terms of shape and size? Simon Read: So I suppose in the last, was primarily just me to start with, but what I've done now I suppose is trying to build out more of a sort of an associate partner type model. So one of the challenges I have got and I'm trying to address is as I've grown and got busier, and of course I've now got the &A side as well, which is adding to the workload. is Granger Forson: Yeah. Simon Read: around administration, the business processes and really getting organized because when you're only dealing with one or two sort of businesses for sale, so you can manage it and cope with it quite easily but when that starts to ramp up significantly it's become a real challenge. Granger Forson: Fantastic. what are you aiming for then for the business over the next 12 months and why? Simon Read: So I suppose our sort of vision is to, and we've got some strong competition within the accountancy sector and of course in the fire safety and HVAC and those areas, there's a lot of good business brokers out there, a lot of good high quality M &A firms. So I suppose the vision is for us to be recognised as a quality outfit that know what they're doing. that deliver results for people and our reputation is one of being straightforward to deal with, honest, transparent. There are firms out there that do like to tie people up in knots with very restrictive contracts and with lots of punitive penalty clauses or they charge ridiculous fees and so on and so forth. So I think our vision is to be good at what we're good at, to be well regarded and well liked in our respective industry. Ultimately the Granger Forson: Yeah. Simon Read: proof is in the pudding that at the moment we probably sell, I would say, in excess of 90 % of all the businesses that we take on. We do get Granger Forson: Well done. Simon Read: the odd one, we do get the odd thing that might just prove to be sticky for whatever reason. But generally speaking we're able to get good results from people in a very timely manner. Granger Forson: Fantastic. And one of the best ways of being different in the marketplace is to actually remove all those frictions and difficulties that other people put in their way within their businesses. removing those contracts, removing those difficulties makes you different and stand out in the marketplace, even though what you're doing is exactly the same. So fantastic. Love that. So Simon, let's move on to Act 2 now, your journey. Building a business, there are real highs and lows. So what have you learned about yourself as things have Simon Read: Ha Granger Forson: got tough within your business? Simon Read: I think what I have learned is that I spent too many years enjoying myself and playing too much golf when I was younger. Granger Forson: Ha Simon Read: And I think you realise as you get older, as the sort of sand starts to run through the glass a bit faster, that you have less time. And I think someone did say to me many years ago, waste anything you like, but don't waste time. And I never really kind of maybe appreciated it. But you know, they were absolutely right. And I think the big thing for me, I suppose, that I've learned is you've got to work really hard. You've got to really work hard and you've got to be prepared to do those Saturdays and Sundays. You know, you've got to work the evenings. If a client gets in touch with you and emails you at eight o'clock at night, know, reply back to them. know, time kills deals, particularly in this game. So you've got to be really, really on it. You've got to work hard. And I suppose for me, when I first started the business, it was really tough for a while because it took a few months to get those first deal in over the line and then the next one. And I'm not embarrassed to say, I've had to rock Peter to pay Paul a bit. You tend to Granger Forson: Yeah, we all do. Simon Read: rack up the credit cards and you do all that stuff. which 90 % of people don't do and they won't do. And that's the difference, I guess, is what separates the entrepreneurs from the wantrepreneurs. You've got to Granger Forson: Yes. Simon Read: be prepared to make those sacrifices. And I think, you know, looking back when I was younger, you know, I didn't make the sacrifices that I make now to try and get where we want to get to. Granger Forson: Yeah, and that's what entrepreneurs do. We take those risks that other people won't, knowing that there is a benefit at the end, but we maybe take a while to actually find it. It will take us a while sometimes. Absolutely. Yeah, well, yes, very true, very true. Another different conversation. Simon Read: we hope, providing it's not completely stolen by the government. That's a different conversation. Granger Forson: yes, mean, every business, you know, we need leads because leads then turn into sales opportunities. You know what? What sort of have you tried that maybe surprised you, either good or bad, in lead generation? Simon Read: Yeah, it's a really good question and I think these days where I think there's a lot of people that have a perception that social media and putting something up on Instagram is the answer. I think what I suppose my view on it is it's not really a magic bullet. I think you've got to do a bit of everything and you've got to be consistent. Having said that, I think you've equally got to be aware that sometimes You can spend a lot of money on things and you do need to be able to say, this really given me a return? If I stop spending this money, what would happen? What would the impact be? But for me, I think it's a case of trying to do a little bit, spread the marketing, cover the different bases and do it consistently. I suppose the networking for me has been enormously valuable. I was a member of a networking group many, many years ago for a period of time in a previous life with a different business. And I did go do any sort of business networking for years, years and years. And what I've done over the last four years with Angela and her groups and the number of people I've met that have been able to help me, that have referred people to me. and become friends and colleagues, I guess, of sorts. That's been fantastic. And I also do a thing called Four Business, which is golf networking. So if anybody's a golfer, yeah. Granger Forson: Yep, I know of it. Yeah. Simon Read: I run the Swindon group with another chap and been a member Granger Forson: Yeah, excellent. Simon Read: of Four Business for about three years. And again, I've met so many people. And so, know for me the marketing yeah, we do Google Ads and all those things and you websites and making sure that you're taking the expert advice from people that really understand social media and websites and all the little tricks and things to put into websites and in the back end and Funny enough. I had a client the other day that contacted me and I said always did you find me on Google? because we're currently doing some Google Ads. And they said, and I was really pleased, they said, no, we found you on AI, which is something that a lot of marketeers Granger Forson: Wow, that's good. Simon Read: are talking about. Everybody Granger Forson: Yes, definitely. Simon Read: now, I must say, we Granger Forson: Yeah, yeah. Simon Read: go into Claude or Chuck GPT and say, find me a restaurant, Granger Forson: Yeah. Simon Read: tell me about this, tell me about that. And they literally went on AI and said, we want to sell our account to see business. What's it worth? How do we do it? And then they said, you recommend a broker? And we were one of the ones that came up. Granger Forson: Wow, brilliant, brilliant. That's really, really good. that's everything you're building in the background that then allows AI to do that because there's a lot of discussion about how to get that to happen within AI search. But actually, it's all the Simon Read: I think so. Granger Forson: Google stuff and all the structures you're building in the background is the real power behind that and showing how that all works. That's fantastic. mean, so Simon Read: It is. Granger Forson: within our client base, know, the stronger business together. We talk about simplifying, making the processes, making your organization simpler because we're very good at adding and adding and adding as business owners. So maybe what's something that you've stopped doing that's made your business simpler to run or to manage or to organize? Simon Read: Yeah, that's a good, that's a really good question. And we're sort of inundated with requests from people that want to buy, particularly on the accountancy side. And I suppose like a lot of businesses, email, you know, we get a lot of email. And it's how we're sort of refining and managing that and trying to sort of use, you know, auto responders and templates. And, you know, frankly, I sort of try and... put some of it over to my administration team to deal with some of that stuff. But I suppose quite a lot of what we do and the questions that people ask sometimes just do need a personal response from me. So it's difficult to let go. It's difficult to let go of some things, isn't it? But you've got to if you're going to move forward, I think. Granger Forson: Absolutely very much so, which actually sort of brings us nicely on to Act 3, our hurdle round, our discussion. So what have you brought as a challenge for us to talk through today? Simon Read: my goodness. Granger Forson: Ha ha. Simon Read: I think for me, I suppose it's several challenges. One of the things I think when you start a business from scratch, it is having the money and enough money in the business to be able to build a business. Because you know, and to be able to survive for that period of time that you know... you're doing all the right things but the money isn't necessarily coming in. So I think that's a massive challenge for anybody starting a business. For most businesses, having sufficient cash flow is huge. If you're going to keep the lights on and get that boulder up the hill to the top, hopefully it will start to roll down the other side if I could use that analogy. Granger Forson: Yeah, yeah. Simon Read: That's the thing, think a lot of people, you get close to the summit and then you fall down. So I think for me, think... Granger Forson: Or you get close to the summit and you discover there's another summit. Simon Read: Well, that is exactly it. think that's true. You get get around the corner and you think oh and I suppose I'm just getting to that sort of stage. answering your question, know, challenge for me is just being Realizing that to sort of keep growing the business and driving the business forward. It's how you how you deploy resource in terms of administration outsourcing marketing and different things and I suppose it's having that conviction Granger Forson: Okay. Simon Read: to sort of spend a bit of money because you know you're spending the money on the right things which is going Granger Forson: Yeah. Yeah. Simon Read: to build a business. you know I think for me particularly, yep. Granger Forson: And one of the key things around that is having, if you're going to start outsourcing or insourcing with people, it's building those processes, those systems that can be used and managed to help that happen as well, isn't it? So it's not just the money, absolutely, have you got enough revenue, but also have you actually got the capability to actually... pass those on to other people securely because they'll never be the same as us. They'll never have the passion like us. They'll never have the drive like us. But we have to build that structure. Simon Read: Yeah, I for me, I think it's interesting. I suppose I've been quite frustrated for a period of time knowing that I've needed to do certain things and not being sure quite what to do. And I think like a lot of business people, you can't always see the woods for the trees. And I've worried and Granger Forson: Yes, absolutely. Simon Read: thought, what can I let go? What would I really get somebody to do? Have I really got enough work for somebody? And what I found is by engaging with, you know, a good... good administrator, they were immediately able to just come up with a whole list of ideas and say, well, do this, do that, I can do that, do that, do that. And within an hour of sitting down, we've created a whole spreadsheet of daily tasks, weekly tasks, nice to have, things that need to be done. And because they're experts, and this is the thing, I suppose, it's engaged with people that are experts and good at what they do. Granger Forson: Yep. Simon Read: I'm good at what I'm good at, but I've only got Granger Forson: Absolutely. Simon Read: a little brain. I can't cope with Excel and things. I don't understand how forward that's work. Granger Forson: And one of the things often is to find, you is to maybe, you either find an administrator that you're going to bring into the business or we outsource it. Now, I always recommend initially experimenting with VAs, finding Simon Read: Yeah. Granger Forson: a VA that you like, buying a set of hours or recurring set of hours, et cetera. But as you said, getting them to work with you because they're the knowledge holders of doing these type of things, of taking over work from us, for writing those down, defining those. But actually one of the key things here is also to ensure that they are then creating the procedures. Now we talked about creating procedures. I think one of the best ways of creating procedures is don't create them yourself, okay, is to actually take somebody, whoever that is, show them what you do, ask them to then create the procedure which you then review and sign off. So because you're getting that double learning, not just from you, but you're seeing from someone else's point of view. they're learning how they would actually implement what you've shown them and asked them to do. And that way with a VA externally you can get them to create those processes off the back of what they have learned because at some point VA's become expensive. Absolutely because you know Simon Read: Yeah. Granger Forson: having those amount of hours because you're paying for their profit etc. they'll come a point when you want to in-source bring somebody into the business can do that full-time which is cheaper than the VA process. and therefore you Simon Read: Yeah. Granger Forson: want those processes already defined which you can take back. So a lot of VAs I've worked with, if they don't do that I'll run a mile. Don't allow them to do that. Make sure they are creating your processes and procedures from what they are learning and doing and you have the rights to take those back from them whenever you're ready to in the source and to set up. And that's in terms of administration procedures, that's often some of the best ways of doing that. Get them to write it, get them to learn it. get them to feed it back to you. Simon Read: I you're absolutely spot on. For me, it's such a relief to suddenly think, oh, this is wonderful. Granger Forson: Yeah. Simon Read: I'm going to sleep better. I'm not going to be worried about this stuff. Because Granger Forson: Absolutely, yes. Simon Read: in the end, I suppose it's about being able to deal with the volume of work and expand and grow a business. And you've only got one pair of hands. But for me Granger Forson: Yes, absolutely. Simon Read: also, I want to try and make sure that my clients are getting the very best possible service and that we're looking after them and you know, we're ultimately charged with a massive responsibility of helping somebody sell their life's work or very often buying a business for the first time. you know, it's really important that we're organised. Granger Forson: Yes. what we do as business owners is what we're often very doing is we can outsource all of the stuff that we don't like doing. Okay, so that's all the administration stuff, know handing over stuff to your accountants using any accountants to manage the bookkeeping etc. For finding a really good VA that can take over administration actions etc. Or somebody that joins your business to do that. But what you're doing there is you're adding overhead costs to your business. You're not actually adding revenue generating. So one of the key things you said about how do you balance this dichotomy between you know taking on people is the bit that needs to release you from Is the day-to-day delivery, the day-to-day operational activity? Yes, the admin work is important because that is what you do. You need to be able to contact your clients, the opportunities you need to negotiate, you need to be able to make that happen. You need all that back-end stuff doing. That's some of the administration cost. But what you have to focus on then is growing the business and that is from your sales and marketing and developing moving away from the operational activity and moving more into the growth which is the sales and marketing making that better and better making that really refine and grow to such point that your growth has taken place you can manage those extra salaries that you've got in the business and now you're at the point where can I bring in somebody else who can start to do that marketing or that sales activity? And that's when you truly get that point of being able to sort of step back a little bit. I always say a little bit about doing that. So just be careful when you're balancing salaries and outsourcing that you're not losing that real focus, which you've already learned how to do, but you just got to make happen even more. You know, the expression is 10X is easier than 2X. Because how you're to 10x your marketing activity to bring in 10 times as many opportunities then deliver 10 times as many sales. That's the real bottlenecks that you then try and find and fix. So when you're talking about where do you go, that's the sort of structures. What's your thoughts on that? Simon Read: It's a really difficult one. I guess for me at the moment, you know, it's something I've really sort of wrestled with and I'm wrestling with. I guess it's exactly, it's a little bit chicken and eggs, you know, in order to build, you know, Granger Forson: That's it. Simon Read: we could generate all the sales in the world, but if you can't then deliver and cope with that volume of businesses that saying, we want to sell, help us get this business to market and get us in front of some buyers. If you can't deliver, if you're not geared up to deliver. So it's a really difficult balancing act, it, to get that, to try and get the two to grow, you know, at the same sort of rate. But I think Granger Forson: Absolutely, yes. Yeah. Simon Read: you have to sort of, you have to make that commitment to the business from a point Granger Forson: You do. Simon Read: of view of saying, we recognize that our costs might rise in the short term. but our sales and profits will overtake that again in a couple of months time. Granger Forson: And that's the risk that we take as business owners. We will potentially have a drop in our own salary because we are playing the long-term game. We know that if we successfully fix these problems in our business, yes, we will have reduced our revenue for a short amount, as in our personal income for a short while, but actually the benefit in the long term is we will have a bigger, larger business which will actually deliver more. income to us than we've ever had before. So the structure I always say to my clients is always, how would you double your sales? So what have you got to do to double your marketing activity first? So doubling your marketing activity first to bring in twice as many leads that then will move the bottleneck to your sales process. sales process, how do you then improve your sales process to making sure that's no longer a bottleneck? And then you then manage the administration activity because the reality is you've already said it. You are the person that will work all the hours to make it happen. You will fix those problems and you'll bridge those gaps until you can find somebody to fix the internal processes that you need to do and to make happen. So you are the leveler within your processes with the hours you'll do, the commitment that you'll make to a drop in salary for this period of time while you make that transition and that change. And that's the difference between someone who sort of thinks they're growing a business and someone who actually really does it. You've already gone through that pain, you'll just go through that pain multiple times as you're growing and scaling. But always start with, for instance, doubling marketing, bring in more leads, doubling then the sales conversion because you've now got a bottleneck and then balancing the delivery activity that you need to do. Now you could do all those at the same time but you can't fix the internal stuff if you haven't got enough revenue coming in so always do it in that order. Simon Read: You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. I know certainly a lot of the people I speak to at the moment, a lot of small businesses in all sorts of sectors, it's quite tough out there at the moment. It's a tough economy of where we are right now, particularly for small businesses and businesses that trying to grow. I suppose the one mistake that you see people make time and time again, and again it comes back to the sort of having enough cash to stay in the game. It Granger Forson: Yeah. Yeah. Simon Read: is on the marketing because if you stop marketing and you stop focusing on sales, your business will wither and die. You might say, well we're Granger Forson: Absolutely, absolutely. Simon Read: going to save money, we're not going do Google Ads this month, we can't afford this, we can't afford that. And all you're doing eventually is you're just going to sink below the waves, aren't you? I know Granger Forson: Yep, absolutely, yes. Simon Read: it's very easy, you've done it, you can't. Granger Forson: Absolutely, Simon Read: You can't magic money out of thin air, can you? Granger Forson: No absolutely and I love the expression that Alex Hormozzi does and he talks about when we're trying to fix that reel you know how do I double the number of leads? How do I double the conversion rate in my sales process? How do I sort out my internal activities that allows me to do that? All those are like smashing through a wall. You don't actually know how thick that wall is. You just know when you get to the other side it will be better. Simon Read: Yeah. Granger Forson: And often we just have to find that way of ploughing through. And that is ultimately our time. our sacrifice that we do that levels the all out that allows that team to to grow and to develop within the business around us knowing that we will get to the point when we probably get to around the 10 to 12 staff level which does seem pretty big when you've only got two or three staff but once you get to that level you will actually you won't be needing to sacrifice the hours and your salary levels because actually you'll now have enough people to balance that load as you grow and scale beyond there. Simon Read: think that's also a great skill and think you do need to have quite a lot of luck as well around recruiting and building a team, don't you? Because I think I'm quite lucky that I've got some great people around me, I've got some great people that I know that can help me, that can advise me, guide me, my own accounts and people that I sort of rely on for advice. I'm really lucky I've got that network. And I think from a recruitment point of view, and it's so difficult now, particularly with the new employment regulations and everything else, recruiting people and making the right decisions and making the right hires, it's so important. And if you can get a couple of good members of staff, then they're just worth their weight in gold. They really are. And they're so hard. Granger Forson: Absolutely, absolutely. Simon Read: and you're so hard to come by and sometimes you might be lucky, sometimes you might not be so lucky. Granger Forson: Absolutely and that's and that's why Bringing people together, business owners together, the stronger business together, we have a thing called a round table and we designed that specifically because one of our principles is better decisions with peers. You need to talk to other people. You need to rely, you need to speak to other people. You may not agree with their answers, but actually you need that ability to bounce ideas and to grow. know, the purpose of this podcast is also to help that opportunity for people to listen to it, for us to have these conversations and other people to listen to them and say, okay, how would I use those ideas? Because there are lots of ideas out there but we are all very insular because we're so focused on growing our businesses trying to bring that into us is difficult so that's why I built this podcast and that's why I built the business Stronger Business together with my co-founder to actually help this take place to have business owners have these type of discussions which helps Simon Read: I think you've got to be out. Granger Forson: them to grow and to be more successful in their business. Absolutely fantastic conversation. I'm very conscious about time because we had a few difficult Simon Read: That was a crocky. Granger Forson: moments to forget it. So let's move into our wrap up and close now. So Simon, what did you hear yourself say today that maybe surprised you? Simon Read: I think talking to you really, it sort of just helps me reflect on how far I've come from where I was sort of three and a half, four years ago to where I am now. Sat in my nice office in Cirencester. It's a long way from, it feels a very long way from my back bedroom. I do it seems cool with a palm tree in the background. And knowing where we are in terms of pipeline, customer base, what we've got. going on now from when I started three and a four years ago, I could never have dreamt of really. So I think I've been very lucky and hopefully long may it continue to grow and go the right way. Granger Forson: Yeah, fantastic. brilliant. Thank you for that honesty and that share. I always think about luck. I think it was Alex Higgins said, you know, people say I'm lucky, but actually what I find is the more I practice, the luckier I get. So I don't think it's just luck. Simon Read: Yeah, yeah. Granger Forson: It's what you've created and the energy that you've put in that made it successful. So Simon, how can people get a hold of you? How can they follow more of your journey if they wish to? Simon Read: So yeah, I mean I'm on LinkedIn, Simon Reed, R-E-A-D. People can get hold of me on Simon at accountantsforsale or Simon at reedsadvisory.co.uk So yeah, anybody that wants to sort of get in touch, I'm always very happy to have a conversation. I think I was just saying you have to be agile and take on board new ideas and you need to be able to sometimes take a bit of criticism as well, don't you, people? That's what you were saying, that people... Granger Forson: We do. do. We do. And Simon, you also have a podcast, a radio show. Do you want to just put a plug in for that? Simon Read: Yeah, absolutely. So I do one of those odd things that came about. think I saw an advert on Instagram one night and thought, how odd can that be? And like an idiot, I applied to be a presenter on Cotswold Radio, who are based up the road from us in Northleach. And Cotswold Radio, you know, a small community radio station that's grown quite well over last few years. And I present once a month a two hour show. called the Business Forum that's on between 12 o'clock and 2 o'clock tomorrow. I normally have around three guests on. They're quite often Cotswold Networking members who come on and talk. We do what we're doing, talk about their business, talk about current affairs and we try and play a few songs. I try and play a few songs if I can work the relevant controls. So tomorrow I've actually got coincidentally a VA coming on. a lady called Kelly Jones in Zara Ancestor. I've actually got quite a famous pop star from the 1980s called Simon Toulson Clarke who was the lead singer, still is the lead singer and front man of a band called Redbox that had some pretty big hits back in the 80s and he currently still works as a music producer and has got another business now doing Memoriescapes. for people that want to record their memories for their grandchildren or to help people with dementia, that type of thing. And I've got a lovely lady called Paris Caince from Bristol who runs a business called Complete Pro. And she is a social media marketing expert. three very Granger Forson: Fantastic. Simon Read: different guests, hopefully I have a really good couple of hours. Granger Forson: Excellent, excellent. I recommend people search it out and listen to it. So Simon, thank you so much for being open and honest and having a fantastic conversation today which I know our audience will get a lot from. So thank you very Simon Read: Pleasure. Thank you, Granger, and thank you for having me on, inviting me to come on. So it's great. it's nice to talk to a fellow podcaster and try and, know, if somebody finds it useful in some way, then thank you. Granger Forson: Thanks for spending your time with us today. We're on a mission to make business owners stronger together. If this conversation has helped you, please like, follow and comment on whatever platform you're using. About 60 % of our audience hasn't done this yet and these small actions will help us reach more business owners just like you. If you'd like to join in the conversation as a guest or if you have a hurdle question for us to try and tackle at a future episode, do reach out to us at info at strongerbusinesstogether.com. Now. Go make this next week really successful and we'll see you next time. Cheers!