Well, happy Boxing Day and welcome to this special edition of the podcast. Today we're talking about the highs and the lows of 2024, my biggest deals, my biggest fears for 2025 and how we can overcome them. JB and I are joined together as we do this Boxing Day special. See you in a sec.
Welcome back, gang. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas day. Merry Boxing Day, doesn't it? Merry Boxing Day. Yeah, we had a lovely day, yes, with the family. Did you? Both our families together. It was lovely. Oh, yeah. I can't believe how much turkey you decided. Oh, yeah, I know. Do you know the origins of Boxing Day? Yes, it was for the staff of Victorian people and they would get a box of goodies. And it was the only day off that they had. Yeah.
What are your staff doing? Do you still give them books a day off? No, we, we, yeah. No, definitely not. No. Are you open? You must be up in 365, aren't you? What's open on Boxing Day? The Bossy Parlour is definitely open on Boxing Day. It's a big day for it. The hotel is definitely, yeah, biggest one of the biggest trading days of the year for us is Boxing Day. Hotel open over Christmas. Hotel is open on Boxing Day.
Christmas Day as well? Yep. So you are a 365 24 7 entrepreneur nonstop these days. Go baby. Can we? I'm wearing a nice little Rudolph next number. Yes. And you come as a green carpet. Yep. Can you just show him one? Look at this, ladies and gents. Look at that. Oh, wait. I've gone all the way. There we go. And he wonders why his wife doesn't sleep with him. I don't wonder. I know why.
It's nothing to do with the outfit. So we thought in this, can you, by the way, if you're watching this on YouTube, can you vote who's got the best Christmas jumper? Thank you very much. I think you're going to win, JP. Do you reckon? You look like they're, let's kind of stylish. The fact that you're shirt that you've gone for looks like it was all part of the same set as well. I don't know whether you're going on a camp safari or you're having a Christmas celebration with that shirt on.
Shall we talk about the year then? The year that was 2024. What are we doing? Favourite guests, first of all? Yeah, shall we? Entrepreneurs that have been... Yes. ...had. 108 entrepreneurs on this year. Yeah, two a week, yeah. Yeah, roughly. There was a few specials we played, but definitely over 100. Yes. Oh, yeah, because we had the Capri's special and the Daniel Priestley double. That was so special. We included it. David, good episodes, though. They were bonus, so yeah. They were bonus.
Very rarely give eights, you know, we grade our entrepreneurs at the end of the show on the eight traits of the greats. We'll just remind listeners what they are. It might be your first time of finding us in the year, like, what the hell are going on here? So there's the eight traits starting with the end in mind, passionate about the cause, whatever you're in, untold amounts of resilience, innovate or evaporate commercial awareness, relationships with people, master marketers, they teachable. Number five, commercial awareness is quite broad.
It's knowing your numbers, it's knowing your profit, lost balance sheet, margins, credibility, tied that all in on that one. Two. I've got it.
All the way to the top. Do you remember who the two were? They were Gemma from Herbal Dog. Yeah. And it was from Herbal Dogco, the TikTok sensation. And Leo Dak from Dak Motor Group. Well done, JB. He came to our list of square theory to come and get an award. You can give Gemma an award, isn't it? Live next year. You can bring it to you right now, guys. June the 9th. Well 2025, a list of square theory. Get your tickets now. Jabsicleer.net.
lesser paranoid keys to come to the square. That's the tagline, isn't it? Well, I think if you add in your trail, it'd be more than a pair of nikies because you never let the truth get away with a good story. That's what I'll say. See you there. Well, I'm so impressed with Gemma's story that I reached out to her and got the OK from chance.
we are going to go up and make a video for the main YouTube. Oh, that would be cool. Especially because she's done very well in the TikTok space and built over a million pounds worth of sales in TikTok. Yeah. And I was only talking to her about 40 grand a live feed, isn't it? Yeah, very much so. And she's got great branding, brilliant entrepreneur, very good.
My next favourite, I think, and I know they're doing very well since they've been on the pod. It's Holland's outdoor country. Oh, yes. Do you remember that? That was a great episode. Yeah, Matthew. Family business. They don't, they still like each other. That's right. Because he's, he's the, he's a sort of the key shareholder, isn't he? Or the majority shareholder, but he's got to keep the other siblings with
When you actually look back and we were doing that before we came on, the amount of amazing businesses that we've spoken to this year, the ones you're like, oh my God, do you remember that one? Oh my God, do you remember? The AV company was doing half a million quid per employee and they had like 20 odd staff. That was a great business. That's a brilliant business. Why I'm so proud of them? Just because some of these big companies, they come to my events and I keep up to date with them on WhatsApp and stuff.
But Holland's country clothing have had a record trading period in December. They've implemented lots of what we said on the podcast. It's going like gangbusters. It's really working. I think they won't mind me saying that they're a great family business. So if you do want any outdoor country clothing, please go and support any of our guests that are listening to us. But certainly Holland's country clothing, really good business. Can't wait to see where they do.
Any other favorites you've got? I liked this year. I loved Australian racing tours. Do you remember Australian racing tours? Do you remember that? It's like a niche business that was doing a couple of million dollars per year. And if you take them to literally take a whole two worth individuals. Yeah, that's right. To like race meetings and do something like Ascot and Summer Epsom, but mainly it was in Australia. But yeah, that was a great business. Brigsy, the butcher. Brigsy, the boy was young kid.
23, 24, used indoor fire. That's right. Just go, go, go. Second shot. Up and running. Where were they based? Scotland. Scotland, it was, isn't it? And they're in a tourist town. We told them to go do some old school marketing. That's right. One of my other favourites was Robin.
Do you remember the joinery? Yeah. I've been Johnson. When we were sending him, well, you should go and open, like, start doing a personal brand. But then he just went, well, I suppose I do host a TV show on BBC Wilder. We went, well, yeah, that would give you a start. Do you know what he just said? Yes. Yeah. He didn't tell us in the pre chat chat or anything, did it? It just came out straight away. I'll tell you another one. Can we just say that? Not BBC radio.
BBC one TV show. The one that's probably the only thing that's still getting views on his TV show, which has just sort of dropped into conversation. A couple of other favourites. I had perfect footwear.
The two Scottish lads in Glasgow, who had that whole thing of like, well, let's make people think saying it's science going on, and they had bounces on the doors on their shop. Do you remember, they were telling us on a Sunday afternoon, pizza post? The two brothers who were doing the pizzas at events, and were doing a couple of million quid, and then also donating like
three quarters of their time to the church as well. So they were like 23 years old and part time running a three million quip pizza company. Oh, there's so many. I mean, I'm just looking down here now. Yeah, doesn't it? What about this one? Do you remember the fish business? But it's got family politics. They're doing a million. Right. Yeah. Yeah. He's taken over from his dad, isn't he? Yeah. 12 million pound importing business needs help on the 1st of August. 12 million pounds started almost 50 years. Let's have a look at this. This business is also set on three million pounds worth of stock.
Well, that was the food business. Yes, yes, yes. And I think that we're trying to do an MBO. I mean, there's so many, isn't there? Amazing business. If you've been one of our businesses that have come on this year, thank you for being so open, transparent, and giving us the time. And it helped a lot of people.
Yeah. Well, one of the previous episodes, I don't know whether it would go out before or after this one, but there was the guys who were doing the custom van builds. They completely changed their model because they listened to your YouTube content. They're like, the model's not right. The model's not right. The model's not right. What about this one? The American entrepreneur, the catering business. With the government funds. Yeah. For 1.2 million business.
with a government loan, but that's it. He lived like a six-hour flight. He'd never been there, he'd never met any of his staff, but he bought a catering company. Lots and lots. And did you remember the other American guy, which we could never really get to the bottom of, he'd done like 80 grand the year before, then turned 12 million quiddie record. And we were just like, really? Yeah. And a lot of people on YouTube were like, this sounds like BS to us.
And then I did one on my own, which we put on there with James Cambry, descendant of the company. I remember that. Good to know you watched it. That's a facet. He declined to drag his den off. That's right. Built a £5 million chocolate business and is losing £1 million a year. Yeah. And he went, yeah, that's, that's what I plan to do. Yeah. Why do you?
Yeah, good on you, mate. And he wants to fund the losses. And he said, once it gets to 20 million, it has start working or bigger bull. If you would like, by the way, if you're watching on YouTube, or even if it's one of the comments, if you'd like more of those like deep dive interviewee ones where you grill business owners, I thought that was really interesting. I remember doing.
I think we will do that if we find genuinely interesting people. But I think people who have gone quite far in business, I think you do in a conversation that isn't just like, okay, so tell us about your business for PR value, but actually grill them. Why did you do that? Why are you willing to fund million quid losses? How long can you fund it for? You must have some back in somewhere. I really enjoyed it.
There you go. But I have to be careful because we had a YouTube comment the other day, which was, it was, I used to like it before, James, but JB is just turning to a big fan of James Sinclair. It's a bit sycophantic. I've always been a fan of James Sinclair. I've always been a fan of you.
Oh, I did do it. We didn't know Dodge would do. And that was another once one deep dive on how we built his personal business. No, I like that one as well. Who's been your favourite? I think a notion of favourites gets like your children. You shouldn't have a favourite, but we know we all do. And I think that Gemma was hard to beat.
Yeah. She was amazing. If you haven't yet, listen to the Herbal Dog episode. Go and check out. Very much so. Brilliant entrepreneur. She's definitely up there. But the one that you mentioned earlier about the pizza guys, I just found that. So that came out in the 1st of April. They were selling two million quids worth of pizza. That's right. But they were quite religious, the two guys. They worked for their church, Monday to Friday till 6 o'clock. And it all just came out on the air.
In the last 10 minutes, we don't want to get busy, because we can't donate any more time to the church. They were full-time working for the church, weren't they? And then doing this on the side. Yeah. They just built... Wow. They built that 2 million pounds worth of sows in quite quick order. Yeah, two or three years. One of them was University, I think. Yeah. They were just doing that weekends and evenings. That's right, yeah. It's worth going and listening to that, because they really grabbed Google PPC by the horns and converted that into it.
And the other one, the AV one, where he was having half a million quid revenue per head, the how he had built that and how small the sector was, but how he had really doubled, doubled, doubled down into it. That was worth listening to, I think.
Yeah. I think what we should say is we don't verify anyone that comes on. We just assume what people are telling us is the truth. Yeah. We don't have to do your own research. We're not trying to be investigative journalists. We are just having a conversation with people and trying to help and support them move forwards with their...
I've had a lot of people who've been on the pod who've connected with me on LinkedIn. You can see they've actually taken the advice and pushed on. I'm a Nick from Ginger Wizard, who is the podcast producer. Oh yeah, I remember. And he had just left the BBC for years. Yeah, don't they? Yeah.
When they fall from grace, they know where to come. So that's our favourite podcast ever. Well, I miss the food from grace. It's just that mainstream media is a dying thing, isn't it? Oh, 100% is becoming the dinosaurs. I listen to Chris Evans on Virgin Radio. Sometimes I take the kids in them because I've normally listened to podcasts. Is he back doing that then?
Yeah, he never really left. He had a couple of weeks off from Radio 2 and he went straight back on to Virgin. So Chris Evans used to own Virgin Radio back in the day. Yeah, yeah, very, very smart guy. And he owned it along, so he bought it from Branson. So Branson owned it and then he bought it from Branson. And the whole rock and roll football thing, he started literally was the idea that he had on Saturday afternoon in the bath, was like, let's just do this.
and just sort of done that form of broadcasting. Anyway, he was on Virgin Radio the other morning and he was talking about the BBC. And he wasn't slagging it off because he's very grateful for everything he's done for him. You know, is that Radio 2 for 13 years? He got to be the breakfast show host after Terry Wogan, you know, site set as a great organization. But he's like, but it has got to change.
He's like, we cannot. He said, I cannot remember think of the last time that I watched a BBC program. They cannot continue in this country to charge us a license fee for content we just simply do not take in a world of Netflix, prime Disney plus where you pay on demand for the thing that you actually want. You can't be expected in this day and age. And he's like, why are they not? He said, do you know what they should be doing? They should run adverts just on Christmas.
Imagine between, that's right. We talked about how good the billing was yesterday at the time we were recording said, like Gavin and Stacy called the midwife, a new Wallace and Gromit. They've been exclusively made for them, like a load of other great program. And he's like, imagine if they just sold adverts just for one day.
They sold out votes for one day and they just went commercial. And he's saying it like tongue in cheek as a joke, because actually they make so much dough, then women have to pay a license for anymore. So to your point, I think that mainstream, well, you've got proven this year, didn't it? About getting political. Look at the Donald Trump, Joe Rogan effect.
Like the effect of that was real. Podcasting absolutely helped Donald Trump get the... I think it probably gave him those three, four, five million extra votes to make all the difference. The swing states. That's where they reckon they had the most. The whole vote by about six million, didn't they? Yes. Which is in 330 million people, whatever, they've got 350, I'm not sure.
It's not actually that many that it was just enough. Yeah. And it's where he won it as well. Those swing states were like, these ones could go either way. There's always, there's very obvious, I guess it's like the UK. There's very obvious blue in the very obvious red, but those swing states. Well, though, I do think that is changing as well here in the UK. If you look at what Nigel Farage has done in building a personal brand,
There's arguably Nigel Farage is the internationally best known British politician. Yes. Boris Johnson would be there. Yeah. I think if you went, probably one of the most powerful because of that personal brand, I think if you walked around the street in America and said, name me three British politicians, I think, or five, I think they would say, Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher, Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage,
And then they might know who the current Prime Minister is. Yeah, maybe. There's how many British, sorry, how many American politicians do you know? Oh, none other than Trump and Biden.
Yeah. And Camilla Harris, I'm sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's really, if you are known, if you're well known and you have a person on brand, it gives you a very competitive edge. Yeah. As long as you've, you know, done anything untoward, untoward. Um, okay. So we talked podcasty stuff. Let's have a look at the rest of 2024.
You bought a company every other day, wasn't it? I think. I mean, I lost count. You lost count. We all lost count at some stage. You vertically integrated it. But you bought a few bits and bobs didn't you this year? Cafe Deli? Was that your biggest deal to date? Biggest turnover deal. Yeah. I agreed.
To buy the freehold of one of my main businesses, which was a 10-year, reps and sets asking to buy that. Really? 10 years of asking. Yeah, I managed to get... That was the Marsh Farm freehold. Right. So, that was getting that over the line was a really big step for me. I think already... What was that big step?
Just because I had a very long lease on it, but I wanted to earn the free hold on. I used to get frustrated building a building on something I didn't own. And long term, I was putting my lots of money into it and I needed to own it. It's not like just a warehouse is something that has continued. Did you get it across the line before you built the dinosaur park then?
I just, when I bought the business and I took the long lease, I made sure that was written into the lease that I would have first-right infusions by the freehold. Right. And they would have to discount all of my improvements on it. And I, I just persevered and persevered and persevered.
So that was a very good thing. I bought a couple of commercial properties, I'm sure. I've had a very active, bought another nursery. I've had a very active year, very busy year, a challenging year as well. Challenging year overheads are still very difficult and going into the new year with Rachel Thieves. This budget is going to be even more challenging.
Is that the rebranding that you're going to stick away politically on the podcast? I haven't done it for a long time. But on that one, because it is so damaging to our country's economy, I do say my piece on that. I'm not.
asked to meet me at the Rossi parlour. In the idea, I'll put a picture of her outside Rossi eating an ice cream with some senior label officials. I decided I didn't want to go and meet because I was busy and she wouldn't do an interview for YouTube. I just wanted to have a chat and I said, well, I'm busy as hell wouldn't do it.
I wish I did now because I would have told her, be very careful what you do with taxation because it's going to make the economy smaller. Again, what she's trying to do, she's trying to raise money to invest in the NHS, but the NHS can't manage its own money. It's so inefficient. They're just going to get more money that's going to be taken from taxpayers and, in my opinion, waste it even more.
Do you think we'll see anyone step into the Elon Musk role of department of government efficiencies over here? Do you think there's going to be a four years, Toby, haven't we? There have only been in five months at the time of six months, maybe at the time recording this. So we can say all those things, but you've got to get through the next four and a half years. And I think it's going to be very difficult.
But people are going to give up and sell up and get out and that could provide lots of opportunities. But that's been a repetitive story of 2024, isn't it? The amount of talent that we are losing as an island to a Portugal, a Dubai, more sort of prevalent tax havens. It's very, very sad.
What's been your, so you said that the cafe deli deals, biggest turnover deal to date. And it's a very good, profitable business. What that allowed me to do was just vertical integration on a catastrophically good scale, literally overnight. So on the other side of this building, where we record this is, I've got another warehouse where we manufacture ice cream and we was doing our food distribution from the food services part of our business.
Wasn't as good as it could be because it didn't have the volume. We were doing a million half quid on that. A million half quid on ice cream. Buying cafe deli, we bolted that million half quid to their 10 million of turnover, making that business overnight bigger, using their experience, their economies of scout. And now we distribute our ice cream into London each and every single day. We don't need a transport manager or warehouse manager over here. They've got so much better systems and processes.
So overnight, that acquisition allows for massive savings at Rossi. Cut hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of revenue. And I do think what government have done now with this much higher national insurance and stuff, you're going to see lots of mergers and acquisitions so that companies can survive. And that's my worry is we just become a country with lots and lots of big massive corporate conglomerate companies that can absorb this stuff.
And it's going to make it much harder for the SME. And we need the SMEs because they're tomorrow's Dyson's, they're tomorrow's JCBs. And we'll be careful. Absolutely.
You mentioned there that it was the biggest turnover deal because it was a big already established profitable business. I know you've spoken about this a few times on the pods before in terms of your previous model was going fix, improve, crack on. This was already a good business. So this is a good to great rather than a turnaround situation. What sort of different mentality did you need to go into this with as opposed to your
Hey, you've got a problem. We can fix it. Here's my brilliant team. Don't worry, we'll keep you going sort of thing. When you go into something that's already really good, how do you deal with it differently? Well, let's look at Rossine. Rossine manufacturing was a turnaround business. It was losing hundreds of thousands of pounds each and every single year and had done.
Is that Rossi ice cream manufacturing the brand right so the shop were profitable the two main shops that were left and we've bought them back as well right they weren't really problems but the the core manufacturing business didn't have the volume didn't have the scale to get economies to scale on transport all right.
good people on manufacturing on overheads and stuff like that. And still at four years in, it's still losing money. And I've had to find other ways to fix the business at a bakery, dilute the transport by buying cafe deli. Now,
It will turn eventually and we've got some great deals lined up to make ice cream for other people, but still hugely challenging. Now, Cafe Deli on day one, every day, 50,000 pounds, 60, 70,000 pounds worth of sales every single day. Good customers, brilliant supply chain, good systems, processes and operations. And those things, that's the difference.
And whilst they didn't pay loads of money up front for Cafe Deli, and I'd done a structured deal and took on all of their debt, from a cash flow point of view, it's caused me a lot more pain, whereas Cafe Deli paid all the money up front, but immediately it's adding positive cash flow to the business, even after paying off the investment that I put into it.
So when you go into something that's already working and they've got skills and areas that you don't, you mentioned like the distribution and the facilities and they can get you into places that you hadn't been before. How do you integrate that skills? I think that's the big difference, what you've just alluded to there. Cafe Delhi, when we bought it, gave more to the existing group.
When we bought Rossi, the existing group was giving more to it. Weirdly, we had a brand that was worth a lot and everyone knew the brand locally and that was very valuable. So yeah, I learned a lot through.
And now that you've done a good to great purchase rather than a turnaround, would you ever go back to turnaround? No, I think we'd always look at both. But sometimes it is better just to buy a good business and pay a fair price. And if you can improve things 10% on a good business, that can make you a lot more money than mass turnarounds. But sometimes you do these mass turnarounds when you start out in the beginning, you don't have the money to go and do this.
But actually, there are great businesses right now owned by baby boomers that you can go and buy that are just fantastic investment deals. If you've got some time, there will be anything that you've put into a bond into the S&P 500 or the 3100, you can go and buy great businesses and get your money back in 18 months.
Those baby boomers are sat there right now. Every time I'm watching, I can't be bothered to start again in January. I've got like 23 probably good active deals I'm looking at. Really? Yeah. I'm buying another attraction that we're at heads of terms on that we'll announce next year. We're going to do accommodation next year in a big way. How are you? I'm not talking about another hotel.
Another hotel, another importing brand that we're putting into DailyTasty. We're buying a huge warehouse that we will complete very soon, 100,000 square foot warehouse. We're looking at a coffee roasting company, vending machine companies, all of these things that I'm looking at that can vertically integrate into what we've got. Wow, we were. There's some more as well, I mean, I've just come.
with, no, we won't go down to the political route again, but given, you know, what the this year's budget was, those 23 deals that you've got in the pipeline, does it put you off at all?
Well, all of the deals to look for savings and efficiencies. And everyone wants to earn more money, mate. That's the problem. You know, that's not the problem. I get, you know, but if I don't make more profits, I can't pay people more, invest more. And the march of increased overhead. So I'm trying to grow bigger to make sure I can pay it. Or I've got to find another two million pounds to give Mrs. Thieves from April onwards.
It's a lot of dough, isn't it? What's your... If I was to say... What do you fear most about 2025? Overheads. Overheads. Yeah, everything that the government are doing to destroy businesses are worried about.
So the extent where are there any of the deals? I've never been worried about that before, like I am now. Really? You have never known that whatever the government has done. The scale that you're at now, because obviously every one of the same. No, because if it's too hard, before the government was an irritant that, you know, oh, that's a bit unfair, but we can absorb that. I think a lot of businesses are not going to be able to do this. And they're going to, it's, I think we're going to see a rise in new fund employment. I think we're going to see the poorest people in society punished the most.
She's exactly the opposite of what people are there to do. Yeah. People are giving up and going, I'm not doing this. I'm going to sell up and move abroad and they'll take all their talent and brain out of our UK economy. Yeah, it's really work. And then people say stupid things like, well, let them go. Let them go elsewhere. Don't be stupid. You want this much talent and risk taking people in your economy as possible.
What's of the 23-ish deals that are sort of active right now? Is there any that have been kibosh store like put on ice a little bit because of changes when they're very active and want to get out? Right. They don't want to get out before April before the next round of tax changes.
So is there any of those that's actually going to speed up the process to do those deals potentially? Yeah, I think people, well, they will be running businesses and thinking, I'm just turning money here.
which goes into one of the eight traits of the great. So we always talk about like, do you know, in numbers? Because if you don't, you can so easily find yourself just turning cash in. It's not to take a good, hard forensic look at those numbers. You go, Oh, wow. It's going to be harder, but there will be opportunities and we will get through it. But because that's always you're like, where there's a challenge as an opportunity. That's always sort of like your thing. But do you get the best way to think? I'm just saying it. I think this budget is going to be very, very difficult. Yeah.
Is there any deals that you were looking at that based on what's coming down the line in April, you're like, no, I'm not touching that one now.
Well, one of the deals we're looking at is buying some vending companies, because I think we should be looking at vending water, which is in machines. Yeah. Okay. Well, we can self-serve coffee and stuff like that to reduce our labour costs, because I think labour's just... Really? There's something is getting people to want to work in those hospitality jobs in the UK. Yeah. It's becoming far more challenging. People just don't want to do them, right? They used to do them.
And, yeah. So are you very proactively looking at things to reduce labor cost, then? Is that one of the big sort of thing to you? Or why revenue per employee businesses as much as possible?
Does that become now one of your key metrics? I know it's like a million could have turned over, established management team, some moats around it in terms of establishment. Our revenue employee, player employee, would be one of them, I think, yeah. Has that always been one that you had? I wouldn't. That isn't a hard and fast role, but that would definitely be all that's nice. Right.
But if it's not looking at cafe deli, for example, it's a 10 million pound or 11 and a half million pound business and it's probably got 35 key staff. If you look at a childcare business, if you had 11 and a half million turnover, you would probably have 400 staff. That's the point I'm trying to make.
So would you buy high margin in childcare, low margin in cafe deli? So as you build the portfolio, you're mindful to make sure you're doing a balancing act all the time of you've got things like food services. But you never can have it all like my business that makes all this stuff. We call it JSC. We've got three full-time equivalents.
but no one could ever buy this business. It's a revenue business because I'd have to go with it. It's all about my voice, my personality and my teachings. Like a lawyer, when you come to the end, you might have a share in the partnership, but that's it, isn't it? What are you most excited about for 2025?
Some of the acquisitions we're making, I'm really excited about. I think with all the doldrums, I'm excited about some of the things that some of the clients were bringing in into Teddy Tastic. Really cool.
And what will, at the time of recording, obviously, we're doing this a couple of weeks before Christmas. We talked on a previous episode. No, we've not got together on Boxing Day Live to do this. Sorry, we've just got to pop up for a couple of hours. We're going to Westics again. What's the, what is that week between, because we talked about this on a previous podcast. This is actually one of your favourite times of year, because you get like that quiet time, people are not on the phone. So what were you doing? Well, I was saying, if I go on holiday and do something like that,
The world's still spinning. The world's still spinning. It's slightly generally slows down for this week and this week alone, isn't it? No. What we do to reset every charge in in this series? Just like, I mean, I probably do some really... Potter about. Potter and veg out on the sofa and watch movies. And, you know, I will do some then big strategic thinking, but because my brain is rested, I'll think better about it. Do you study the golden picture frame thing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I will redo definitely that as well.
So, tell people what that is. Tell them what you do. Um, only chance. Can you just bring my laptop over? Actually, um, have you got? Have you done a video on this? Oh, it's a university maybe. I always say it's seminars. And I think if you're watching this, this would be a really good thing for you to do. Get yourself down to the range or B&M. Yeah. And buy yourself a photo frame.
I've done this before. Type the things that you really want to achieve. And I was reading this to Chad. This is the one. This is my list that I did. Oh, is it for this year? For this year? Amazing. Yeah. And once you haven't quite ticked off, you just roll over into the next year, don't you?
I'm going to be telling that. Yeah, yeah, because sometimes things take some time to do. Here we go. Look at this. That's why I find all this. I just don't close anything. Bosh, a million emails. Can we have another 300 grand for the more ice?
Yeah, absolutely, baby. That's it. I can't. That's not letting me. By the way, while he's finding that, if you are watching this on YouTube, please, please, please, genuinely let us know in the comments because we love hearing from you guys who watched the podcast and follow along. Even if you're listening to this, feel free to jump over to YouTube. In fact, Chads can put a link in the show notes on the podcast so you can match over to YouTube. Leave your comment, leave it in your comments.
What is your biggest goal for 2025? I'd love to know that from everybody who's watching and listening. What is it? If you've got a big business aspiration, are you going to increase staff? Are you going to increase turnover? Are you going after profitability? What is your big goal for 2025? Let us know in the comments because you guys who are generally watching this podcast are a great level of entrepreneurs. It'd be great to hear what people are planning for 2025.
Right, it's coming up. Don't worry. Here we go. Oh, look, this is this. It's just search for the name of it. What's the name of it? Surely it's like goals or something, isn't it? Goals. Here we go. Here we go, baby. Was it saved? Oh, Jensen, clear greatness. Oh, no, that's up. Oh, there it is.
Oh, this is my May goals. I'm not going to find it. But basically, a lot of them were covered off. And I think the power of writing it down. And you have it on your desk. So like the point, the freehold of Marsh Farm has repeated on the year after year. But it won't go back on next year, but I make sure I write it every flippin' time.
That is satisfying one to pick off the list. Sometimes you can't get it done in the year, but just put it on to the next year. But most of them I get done like I wanted to get 100k YouTube subscribers, you know, writing it down, making a document with yourself, I think is really important. Yeah, I like it. If you, if you had a good GJB, I've actually had a really good year. Yeah.
You're happy? Didn't look like it was going to be a good year in the middle of the year, but it's turned the tide. Then you want to go again and build a big team again. Yeah, but do it in a different way because again, I don't think one of the benefits of doing this podcast and people who are watching and listening to this can probably attest to this is that you can't
be around content like this and not absorb it if you come back to it consistently. Yeah, only so many times I could sit there and listen to you say to people, do you do them up for the P&L? Do you do them up for the P&L? And I was like, oh, you really should be doing it because he keeps telling everybody. And as soon as I started doing it, a third month that I'd done it was like,
turning money, turning money here, and then making that decision to re-align. Well, that's the thing about monthly profit. Well, some of the best things that it can do is it gives you the up. Oh, yeah, 100%. And then it makes you change things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's exactly what it did. And it would not have been for, had I not been doing this podcast and listening to the content here, go pin out, pin out, pin out, I've got to do that.
So yeah, it's ended up being a great year in the end. I'm happier now than I've been in the last four years, I'd say four or five years. I think that's pretty one of the biggest differences. But I know what you're thinking, guys. You're thinking, well, that was a slightly
drab and depressing episode. I don't know if I've ever elevated. I was looking for some boxing day cheer and some joy. I know what you're thinking also. You're probably thinking, oh my God, is it? You're not, you're not going to do your normal features. You know, that's what turn up for. Hang on. Can't be sat and knocking at the door because he came yesterday. It's time for this. Don't worry guys. We still got the business quiz. If you've been playing Christmas games when we're here. I love a Christmas game.
What's your favourite Christmas game? Oh, a lot, who know? Do you? Yeah, yeah. We like playing... What's out of the game that we play? We've been playing it loads and I can't think of... I talked to Louie yesterday. Connect 4. He was our school ill. Oh, cheat. That's the game we love playing. Cheat. Bullshit. We call it Russian swear, but that's what we call it. Okay. And our children won't be there allowed to say bullshit.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
I'm just having a stab in the car. I'm going a million miles. What have you got, Chads? JB.
I'm going to go 600,000 miles. You'd be the winner at 227 miles of wrapping paper. This is enough to wrap around the island of Guernsey or cover more than 11,000 football pitches. The average UK household uses four rolls of wrapping paper each year. The amount of wrapping paper thrown away each year is equivalent to 108 million rolls.
This makes sense. That is it. We're throwing away 108 million rolls. Oh, is that the whole world? But we're only using 227 miles. Each road is not a mile though, is it? Sorry, 227,000 miles. Yeah. That doesn't make sense. Does it? We've got that wrong. We've got 108 million rolls.
227,000 miles. Oh, of course, yeah, I get it now. It does work, isn't it? Yeah, it does work, yeah. So, there you go. It's your Christmas edition of the Business Quiz. I'm thinking each. I'm thinking each. Each row is a mile long. Imagine you're not dragging that back from being anxious.
Well, your turn. And it's Christmas. Let's have another one. Yay! We have the jingle again, do we? There we go. Right, so. Oh, celebrations was the most popular chocolate tub in 2023. And quite right, too. Yeah, they're my favourite. They are amazing. Do you remember before we get- How about a bouncy? Do you remember what we get with roses?
Oh, roses, so sickly these days, aren't they? Celebrations are the most popular chocolate tub in 2023. How many chocolates are there in a 650 gram tub of celebrations? Well, let's time check this. It's about 40 minutes in. Put the time you're watching this and your comment in right now if you want to join in this quiz as well at the same time. So how many chocolates are there in a 650 gram tub of celebrations?
What have you got? I'm going 125. I'm going 45. 45? Yeah. Can't hear it. Absolute tie-ass, right? Come on then. Oh, I've got the answer to it, haven't I? 125 versus 45. The answer is 73 chocolates. Damn it.
Bonus question. Bonus question. What has been voted? Oh, this is brilliant. Okay. So what has been voted the least popular of the selection out of a Mars, a Twix, a Snickers, a Bounty, a Maltese, a Galaxy, a Galaxy Caramel, and a Millway? Galaxy Caramel are the waste of time.
Get rid of them. Just like, have you done it? Have you put this guy, you can't join in? That's annoying. And Milky Way, they're always the two that are left. And what's that? Yeah, Milky Way is weird, isn't it? What's the most popular then? Maltese, I reckon.
is in our house. You are an absolute chocolate connoisseur. He's in our house. More teaser is, in fact, the most popular chocolate was Milky Way is the least popular. I know. I've had us some celebrations in the time. Maybe this year, though. Well, yeah. How do people like Milky Way? Less than a bounty, bounties at a disc. It's the devil's food, isn't it? I love bounties. Bounties are vile. Do you remember a dark chocolate bounty, though? No. I mean, like a purpley packet. It was red.
Red. He doesn't remember it, but he knows the colour of it. OK, sure. Right. Give him some Christmas cheer as they head off. Listen, guys, I hope you thank you very much for watching, listening to the podcast. More of you are watching and listening ever before. We hope that we're helping you grow your business, your entrepreneurial career.
We hope that you support our listeners. Sorry, I guess if you listen to any of these shows and think, well, that was a really good guess. If you could support them with your purchasing power, that will be something that we're very grateful for. Because it really is the guest that made this show. We just facilitate it. If you have a business and you would like to come on and get your business exposed to,
the many hundreds of thousands of people that listen over the year. We would love to have you on. You can apply it on my website, James Sinclair.net. Click on the podcast button and then we will see you there. There you go. Thank you very much for watching. Happy Christmas. Happy Christmas. I'll see you in 2025. I've seen about 25 minutes to do the next episode, which is coming out next time, shall we? We're making our Easter special next.
We're going to be having a challenge. Who wears the bunny costume the best? You can't do that. It's sponsored by Playboy. You can't say that anymore. Thank you generally for watching and listening this year. We generally appreciate it and hope that you and your family had a fantastic festive period wherever you are watching around the world. And we'll see you on the next episode. Ta-da!
