BB# 36: Why I paid £7.5k for a spreadsheet!!

Hey friend,

I remember back in 2015-2016 when my company, Strength and Conditioning Education, was growing fast. It had gone from just me working part-time while coaching full-time to around half a million in revenue and 14 employees in that first year. That kind of growth got the attention of corporate finance consultants sniffing around to help us raise money and continue scaling.

At the time, I entertained it. I took meetings with investment houses, family offices, and corporate finance firms. Then came the next step, I needed financial modelling done to show where the business was heading. The cost? £7.5K!!

I remember thinking, How on earth can a spreadsheet cost that much?

And the response was simple.

"Brendan, this is just the cost of doing business."

It stuck with me. And since then, I’ve heard that phrase over and over. I’ve said it myself countless times.

Because some things just cost money.

You are not paying someone to input numbers into a spreadsheet. You are paying for the expertise to frame those numbers in a way that gets the deal done. The £7,500 wasn’t about the hours spent. It was about securing funding, funding that would make that fee look like pocket change.

I paid the money.

I didn’t take the funding, but I took the learnings. I bootstrapped the business, grew it further, and eventually sold it five years later in a solid deal. And when I sold it, the costs were a whole different level.

Selling the company cost me around £70,000.

• £15K in legal fees

• £20K in corporate finance time

• £10-15K in stamp duty

• £15K in success fees to experts

• And a little more...

I paid far too much.

Looking back, I could’ve hired one excellent non-exec director for around £3K per month who had all the right contacts, could negotiate lower fees, and would have helped me grow the business even further. At the time, I didn’t see that. A lot had happened in a short space of time.

But hey ho... the cost of doing business.

This Lesson Shows Up in Every Business

• You want to close a big deal? You will probably need legal fees to structure it properly.

• You want to raise money? There are due diligence costs, advisory fees, and structuring costs before you see a single penny.

• You want to market your business properly? Good branding, copywriting, and ads cost money upfront before they make you money.

• You want to scale? Hiring the right team isn’t cheap, but not hiring them is far more expensive in lost opportunity.

This came up again last week.

A young founder approached me to join his business. He wanted my expertise, my connections, and ultimately, my money. But when I told him how I work, six months of consulting and coaching first before any investment is even discussed, he hesitated.

He talked about "skin in the game."

But what he really meant was my skin, my money, while he kept his in his pocket.

I get it. I’d have done the same back in the day.

But here’s the thing. Always think about outcomes, not time when making decisions.

The question isn’t how much does it cost? The question is can this person, agency, or brand get me to my outcome faster and more effectively?

The Reality: Expertise Costs Money

If you want to grow, if you want to make more, if you want to do bigger things, there will be costs. And you either accept that, or you stay small forever.

If you’re serious about playing a bigger game, understand this:

There is a cost to doing business. You either pay it, or you stay exactly where you are.

And remember, you’re not paying for the time. You’re paying for the experience and the outcome. The ability to get the deal done, to get the results, to unlock the opportunities you’re chasing.

The right person can unlock all of that for you.

But first, you have to have the skin in the game.

Keep making it happen :)

B. Xx

My clients winning, here’s just a few recent examples:

• A selection of clients winning Here. 

• Learn how Sam from a handful of clients signed 5 clients from one event Here. 

• Learn how Russell generated £32k of increased revenue in just 6 weeks Here. 

• Hear from Craig who signed his first £30k client and scale from there Here. 

• A selection of my clients speaking about their personal and business transformations: https://youtu.be/DefGWRjHrsA 

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