Here’s the secret to growing your business beyond £1m turnover

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According to recruitment entrepreneur Geoff Shepherd, who runs £10m turnover iSource Group in Leeds, the answer is in the execution of ideas, lots of attention to detail and hard work. “That’s it,” he said.

“People are always in search of the next great idea but that doesn’t matter. If you can’t execute the idea then what’s the point?

He added: “People say do what you love, but that’s nonsense. That kind of life isn’t available to most people. If you want to grow a business, do what you can make money out of and then do what you love in your spare time.”

Meanwhile, John Readman, founder of cycling events and holidays organiser Ride25, believes it’s not as difficult as people might think to reach £1m turnover. “A lot of people get to £1m but then find it hard to get to the next level,” he said.

Ten months ago, Mr Readman set up the Yorkshire Forum of exclusive membership community The Supper Club, which helps CEOs and entrepreneurs scale their businesses.

The Supper Club has been running in London since 2003 and having been a member in the capital for six years, Mr Readman was keen to bring the concept to Yorkshire.

Mr Readman and Mr Shepherd had tried to do a similar thing within the Yorkshire Mafia networking group seven or eight years ago to support each other’s businesses but it never progressed beyond the pub.

“We didn’t have that level of being held accountable. We needed the structure of The Supper Club to make it a success,” said Mr Readman.

Now the Yorkshire Forum has about seven members, including Mr Readman and Mr Shepherd. It accepts business leaders turning over more than £1m but the current average turnover of its members is more like £10m.

“It’s for ambitious business leaders looking to scale and share ideas. It’s very much a sharing mentality,” Mr Readman said.

There are two types of membership: a social membership which gives access to dinners and events; and a Yorkshire Forum membership which includes a meet-up up once a month for half a day with like-minded entrepreneurs.

Membership also provides access to working space at The Office Group, which provides flexible workspaces in London, Leeds and Bristol.

“The forum is a bit like therapy - entrepreneurs anonymous,” Mr Readman said. “It can be quite lonely at the top and you don’t want to admit to people you don’t know what you’re doing. Everybody in the group is in the same boat. You’ve got a group of people who have made mistakes that you can learn from.”

Common issues that members help each other with include recruiting and retaining talent, export and expansion, and raising finance.

Mr Readman believes there is enough scope to create multiple forums in Yorkshire in the future. His aim is to have three by next summer.

“There’s nothing exactly like this where you can meet up with the same people and talk about the same businesses. I’ve now got six other non-executives in my business without having to pay them. I’m held to account and they are too for their businesses,” he said.

Duncan Cheatle established the Prelude Group in 2000 as a learning and consulting service to help businesses scale.

Having spent a lot of time networking, he became frustrated with the choice of events on offer. Instead of meeting experienced entrepreneurs at these events, he and his peers met people who wanted to sell to them or were at too early a stage to offer valuable advice.

Recognising an opportunity, Mr Cheatle arranged a dinner for eight entrepreneurial friends in a private dining room, where he hosted an open discussion. They learned so much and they proved so popular that they increased in regularity.

In 2003, The Supper Club was born. The club has now hosted over 3,000 events and supports entrepreneurs at every stage of their journey, from scale to sale and beyond.

It runs forum groups in London, Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham and is continuing to extend its reach.