Send us a text Welcome back to The Bulletproof Entrepreneur, the podcast where we explore what it really takes to build, grow, and successfully exit your business. The podcast is designed to be a helpful resource for business owners as they navigate the challenges of scaling their businesses. One area I’ve been spending time on recently is managing cash within your company's balance sheet. At my firm, we’ve always kept a healthy cash balance, but the interest rates we receive from our bank is pr...
Jul 10, 2025•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 72
Send us a text Welcome back to The Bulletproof Entrepreneur, the podcast that gives you the mindset, strategies, and tools to build a resilient business and thrive under pressure. Today, I’m joined by a true pioneer in the world of food entrepreneurship – John Stapleton. John is best known as the co-founder of The New Covent Garden Soup Company, where he didn’t just launch a product; he created an entirely new category in the UK food market. He later took that same disruptive energy to the US an...
Jun 26, 2025•1 hr 41 min•Ep. 71
Send us a text If you're a business owner or in a leadership role, this episode could genuinely change how you think about running and growing your company. My guest is Mike Paton, an entrepreneur and author who is one of the driving forces behind EOS—the entrepreneurial operating system We implemented EOS at my firm, Capital Partners, a few years ago, and it was truly transformative. So getting the chance to sit down with Mike was not just a privilege - it was personal. Mike explains EOS and wa...
Jun 12, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 70
Send us a text The pod's strapline is "reverse engineering the formula for successful scale, sale, exit, and life on the other side," and that's exactly what we discuss in this episode—strategically reverse engineering success. My guest today is Damian Connolly, the founder of a boutique accountancy business that focuses specifically on getting founders exit-ready and maximising their business sale value and terms. Most business owners only sell once and are often unprepared for the most signifi...
May 29, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 69
Send us a text Welcome back to the latest episode of the Bulletproof Entrepreneur podcast. I’m your host Alan Smith and right from day one my goal for this pod was to provide a valuable resource for all UK founders and business owners. And therefore I’m delighted today to bring you a masterclass in tax planning from one of the UK’s leading lights in tax advice for successful business owners. Malli Kini is head of the entrepreneur team at Blick Rothenberg, a Top 10 firm having already enjoyed sti...
May 15, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 68
Send us a text Hello and welcome back to the latest episode. We took a short break, but now we’re back. We've moved into a proper recording studio and launched our own YouTube channel. So you prefer to watch the discussion, please check out the link below and subscribe to our free newsletter as well. Our guest, Graeme Godfrey, is a successful entrepreneur who sold his business, achieved complete financial security and then crashed. He found himself lacking purpose and drive in his life, feeling ...
May 01, 2025•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 67
Send us a text Welcome to the latest episode of the Bulletproof Entrepreneur - a podcast for founders, owners and aspiring entrepreneurs. As anyone in business knows, things are tough out there. Inflation is driving up the costs of everything, including staff wages, rent, and supplies. Tax is at its highest level in 70 years and is about to rise further. The money in your company's bank account is receiving a very modest return—and even that’s subject to tax! I don’t know about you, but as a bus...
Feb 06, 2025•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 66
Send us a text This is the first episode of 2025 and I’m delighted to bring you a really insightful and valuable conversation I had recently with Adam Rossi from Washington DC in the United States. Adam is a born entrepreneur and always knew that he wanted to build his own company and be in control of his destiny. And so he launched a tech startup in the days before it was cool! From a humble husband and wife team, he grew to a business selling billion-dollar software contracts to the CIA and al...
Jan 23, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 65
Send us a text My guest today is Mac Lackey has a fascinating story and some original insights that I think you’re going to like and get a lot out of, especially if you’re building your company towards an exit - and let’s face it all, business owners are doing that in one form or another. When his original ambition to become a professional football player hit a dead end, Mac started an internet business in the early days of this emerging technology, and that resulted in an eight-figure exit whil...
Dec 12, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Season 3Ep. 32
Send us a text You may be familiar with today’s guest, Richard Farleigh, a high-profile entrepreneur, former Dragon on the TV show Dragon’s Den, and member of the Sunday Times Rich List. The successes are well documented - but Richard’s start in life couldn't have been much worse. Born into a family of 11 children with an alcoholic father, they travelled around the Australian outback, living in poverty in 2 tents. Eventually, Richard was taken into the care system at 2 years old, and his early y...
Nov 28, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Season 3Ep. 31
Send us a text Paul is a serial entrepreneur who has started, scaled up and sold several businesses, invested in many others, and is now building yet another company. He also advises and mentors several other founders and business owners. Through his personal and business experiences, he’s effectively created a success blueprint for any business owner to adopt and apply within their company. During the conversation, Paul explains. How to build a systematic sales and marketing engine to drive gro...
Nov 14, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 3Ep. 30
Send us a text Welcome to a special episode of the Bulletproof Entrepreneur podcast. One issue that has been dominating the conversations online and in person for business owners over the last few days has been the budget. October 30th was a very significant day. It was the first labour budget for almost 15 years and the first by a female Chancellor. After three months of speculation and predictions, we finally had the details—and there was a lot to unpack for all business owners. For starters, ...
Nov 02, 2024•47 min•Season 3Ep. 29
Send us a text We’re publishing this episode just before the Autumn 2024 Budget, when Rachel Reeves will share her vision of how she plans to improve the country’s economy. I really hope she understands how valuable the start-up and entrepreneurial economy is in the UK and that she’ll encourage it and ensure its continued success. Today’s guest is a fantastic example of that British entrepreneurial spirit. Magnus Willis hatched a plan with his co-founder during a long walk after they’d watched a...
Oct 17, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Season 3Ep. 28
Send us a text This show is all about reverse engineering the successful scale, sale, and exit of your business and enjoying life on the other side. And for every successful business owner, smart tax planning is crucial to business growth and future sale. Whether it's corporation tax, PAYE, income tax, dividends, or VAT, , they all play a part and impact decisions you make. When the time comes to sell your business, planning effectively and well ahead of time can have a huge impact on you and yo...
Oct 03, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 3Ep. 27
Send us a text Our guest today is Helen Pattinson, a former lawyer who left behind a promising career to embark on a bold and, at times, uncertain new path—one that would ultimately lead to a flourishing business, Montezuma Chocolate. But this story is far from straightforward. Helen doesn’t just share the wins—she takes us through the moments of doubt, the near-disasters, and the pivotal choices that could have ended it all before the business even started. What would you do if your main suppli...
Sep 19, 2024•1 hr 33 min•Season 3Ep. 26
Send us a text Hello, and welcome back to the latest episode of the Bulletproof Entrepreneur podcast. I’m your host, Alan Smith. In this episode, I speak with someone I’ve known for many years, and as you’re about to discover, he’s a force of nature! His name is Jason Butler, and although I’ve known him for a long time, I had no idea just how challenging his upbringing was. People talk about a tough childhood and not having the same chances as other people from more privileged backgrounds, and J...
Sep 05, 2024•1 hr 32 min•Season 3Ep. 25
Send us a text My guest, Elizabeth Hopkins, candidly shares her inspiring journey through the ups and downs of life as a founder entrepreneur who has experienced everything that life has to offer, including scaling a business to a multi-million-pound exit, but then having to deal with the worst kind of tragedy immediately after. As Liz mentions, she’s recently become a client of our financial planning business, and in the time I’ve known her, I’ve been blown away by her positivity, resilience, a...
Aug 22, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Season 3Ep. 24
Send us a text Our guest, John Rood, hails from Chicago, USA. John and his wife built an education business which they later sold to a private equity firm for a life-changing sum of money. And to some degree, that’s where his problems started... ‘Life after exit’ was far from plain sailing for John, despite the fact that he was now financially secure. He went through a number of changes and realised that he was not prepared for the life transition and new set of challenges he faced as a wealthy ...
Aug 08, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Season 3Ep. 23
Send us a text My guest today, Marc Adams, is the author of a book by the same title and has spent nearly four decades deep in the trenches of business and entrepreneurship. His extensive experience, from a career in corporate life to setting up his own business, has given him a unique perspective on the ups and downs of life as an entrepreneur. A cancer diagnosis in 2020, giving him six months to live, compelled him to write a book about everything he knows about business building, creating ent...
Jul 11, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 3Ep. 22
Send us a text This podcast is for entrepreneurs, reverse engineering the formula for successful scale, sale, and exit—inspired conversations with world-class entrepreneurs and the specialists who support them. I came up with that strapline when I launched the pod a couple of years ago, as that’s exactly what I wanted to create—a resource that, if you’re a business owner or aspiring entrepreneur, you can tap into and learn from those who were perhaps a few years ahead of you on the journey. Then...
Jun 27, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Season 3Ep. 21
Send us a text This podcast is for business owners and entrepreneurs - reverse engineering your way to success through inspiring conversations. And the conversation you're about to hear is truly inspiring. I'm conscious that many of the guests I've had on the podcast over the last couple of years have shared stories of incredible success. But anyone who’s been in business for any length of time knows the significant challenges and difficulties of entrepreneurship. And no one knows that better th...
Jun 13, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 3Ep. 20
Send us a text Joanna Jensen is the founder of Child's Farm, the hugely successful baby and child skincare company that was recently sold for £40m. This is one of the most inspiring conversations I’ve had since we launched the podcast. Joanna is a fabulous storyteller, and her enthusiasm is infectious! Hers is an amazing story of grit, resilience, and sheer determination to succeed against the odds. Joanna battled cancer, surgery, and a divorce, all while building her business. She funded it in ...
May 30, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Season 3Ep. 19
Send us a text Welcome back to the Bulletproof Entrepreneur podcast, where we delve into the minds of experienced entrepreneurs and uncover their secrets to success. I’m your host, Alan Smith, and I’m really excited to bring you my conversation with today’s guest, Alexis Sikorsky. Alexis is an entrepreneur who built a software business from the ground up and eventually negotiated a sale to private equity for over $100m. I’ve just read his new book, "Cashing Out: A Business Owner’s Guide to Selli...
May 16, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Season 3Ep. 18
Send us a text If you’re a business owner who plans to sell your business one day, this episode is essential listening. Picture this: You've poured years of your life into a business, helping to build it from the ground up, and then the business is sold. As a result, you receive a seven-figure sum, and you’re financially secure. Or at least you hoped so. But then you take the proceeds, decide to invest in a new company, and lose it all. That’s the situation today’s guest, Jim McLaughlin, experie...
May 02, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Season 3Ep. 17
Send us a text Peter Cowley is one of Europe’s best-known angel investors and active supporters of entrepreneurship. He studied computer science at Cambridge and founded his first company in 1984. Since then, he’s launched no less than 12 companies, some of which he exited from successfully, some of which failed, and one that is still going over 40 years later. As one of the UK’s most successful business angels, he’s invested in 76 technology companies, and his book, The Invested Investor, is wi...
Apr 18, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Season 3Ep. 16
Send us a text I’m pleased to share a fascinating conversation I had recently with Jeremy Harbour, one of the most successful and experienced entrepreneurs around. Jeremy is a born entrepreneur who started selling jeans, watches, and even Cadbury creme eggs at age 11! He left school at 15 and has gone on to build, buy, and sell multiple companies. He’s currently more active than ever through his company and network, The Harbour Club. Jeremy has deep insight into the strategies and tactics needed...
Mar 21, 2024•1 hr 5 min
Send us a text Let me set the scene by telling you that one of my all-time favourite TV shows is "Succession”. It's a fascinating tale of a wealthy family wrapped up in the complexities of their business empire led by the founder and patriarch, Logan Roy, brilliantly portrayed by the actor Brian Cox. If you haven't watched it yet, I highly recommend you do. But let me give you a quick overview: "Succession" is not just about wealth and power; it's a saga of business intrigue, sibling rivalry, an...
Mar 07, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Season 3Ep. 14
Send us a text Let me start by sharing some statistics with you, which I find rather shocking. 90% of SMEs are unsellable 50% close down for zero value Only one in 2,000 are sold for the full market value. It was today’s guest, Christine Nicholson, who shared that data with me, and as awful as the numbers are, the good news is that she’s developed a business owner’s toolkit to ensure that you’ve got the best chance of being that 1 in 2000 who do have a successful exit. Christine is an extraordin...
Feb 22, 2024•1 hr 27 min•Season 3Ep. 13
Send us a text Alex Chisnall is the creator and host of one of the UK’s leading podcasts called Screw It Just Do It and is now a highly successful entrepreneur in the content creation space. The name of his podcast is a reference to the time he spent working at Virgin and observing his then-boss, Sir Richard Branson, at close quarters. Screw It Let’s Do It was a phrase often used by Sir Richard and the title of one of his books. During our conversation, Alex talked in depth about the resilience ...
Feb 08, 2024•1 hr 19 min•Season 3Ep. 12
Send us a text My guest today, Rand Fishkin, is the author of one of the best business books I’ve ever read, and trust me, I’ve read a lot of business books! It’s called Lost and Founder, and it charts his journey as a marketing tech business entrepreneur who raised money from Venture Capital investors and was growing at 100% year on year. It’s a ruthlessly honest book in which Rand breaks down the details and behind-the-scenes experiences of an entrepreneur. I think it’s essential reading for a...
Jan 25, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Season 3Ep. 11
