Maddy N   0:19
Hello everyone. You know, welcome to another podcast of Worxmate. Today, our topic is building and defining strategies for business success and I’m very excited. We have an interesting personality today.
Who has started the, you know, his venture from a bedroom with just £100 in hand and you know, you know he has sold out his business multi name, multimillion dollars in just few years. Needless to say I’m sure the way I am excited you all will be excited to hear more from Luke.
Luke is an entrepreneur. He is an advisor. He is an investor to many CEO’s.
He also, you know, acts as an investor’s where if he looks out for exciting opportunities out in the market. So let me welcome Luke. Welcome, Luke. It’ll be great if you could, you know, give a little brief about you to our audience. 

Luke Tobin   1:12
OffCourse. Thank you very much for the introduction. Very kind. So Luke Tobin, I’m a serial entrepreneur. I I guess is the way of framing me. I’ve had eight companies to date 4 exits across three different industries. My focus these days is very much on kind of investing, helping to scale other businesses and helping other founders on their journeys. I have a portfolio company with around 15 active business investments and then outside of that you know try to keep my keep myself
saying with lots of hobbies but, but that’s really that’s really what I do now is help with the businesses on their journey. 

Maddy N   1:52
Amazing. Everyone will pounce on to this message.
Great. Luke. So you know, so I’ll, I’ll begin on this note, right. I mean, and I’m sure the moment I introduced you people must be wondering if you can expand on that further, right? So so you started as a freelancer, right from your bedroom and then you sold out your business for eight figures. 

Luke Tobin   2:12
Yeah. 

Maddy N   2:16
You know amazing.
So the question here is what helped you figure out what your clients needed, right and what you know that could help in terms of making your business successful? 

Luke Tobin   2:27
Yeah, yeah, I think, you know, talking about the the most recent exit, the agency it, you know, it was it was fast. So it’s the one that definitely gets the attention. But what I would say is I already I’d honed some of my skills over the years up to that point, which definitely helped me. And I think I’d worked in another agency and I’d noticed a real gap between the expectation of the client and the delivery of the agency. There’s almost this no mansland that sits in the middle between. 

Maddy N   2:31
Yeah.
Yeah. 

Luke Tobin   2:54
The relationship where the agency is trying to keep the fee and do a good job, but often is hindered.
Are able to do the job to the standard that the client wants and the client is kind of stuck thinking well I need to pay the agency because I can’t get the team internally and I thought to myself there’s got to be a better way of bridging this gap between the two. There must be a way of actually having like real alignment between those two businesses. 

Maddy N   3:17
Yeah. 

Luke Tobin   3:17
So I started off, you know, testing the model, I guess as a contractor, which was, you know, a handful of clients going and spending time in those businesses. And I think what I did differently early on was other agencies sell time for money. I would go in and say, hey, I want to come and sit in your business for a week or two and I want to get to know you. I want to go to dinner. I want to understand who to ask for which part of the department or different function in the business and I really a bit like I guess if you were a new employee in a business you go in and you integrate as much as you can and you start finding out who to go to to help you of different things.
I did that on an external basis, so it was really integrated and integrated solution and what that did was it built the foundations for a kind of fruitful relationship because again, where most 80s fall down and there’s this kind of expectation for the agency just to deliver from day one. I was given a little bit more rope and a little bit more allowance to maybe not always get it right, but it was OK. We’re not going to get rid of Luke. We like Luke. You know, we’ve got a relationship, Luke. He understands us, he gets us, you know. 

Maddy N   4:20
Yeah. 

Luke Tobin   4:23
He’s invested his time.
And that model works really well. So I went from a few clients to 20 clients and I thought, God, I can’t do this on my own. I need some more people. So after the first year and a half or so of struggling to try and do it myself with some freelance support, I started hiring staff. So in 2018 we hired our first team member in the February. By the end of that year, we had nearly 20 people. By the end of the next year, we had 50 and you know it grew and grew. 

Maddy N   4:49
Amazing. 

Luke Tobin   4:51
So that was kind of like this, yeah.
Kind of approach to something that was, I mean agencies attend to a penny, right? They’re everywhere. But it was like, how do we take a model that in many ways is broken, but it’s commoditized? And do we make it much more integrated? And that was that was really how we managed to build success in that that market. 

Maddy N   5:13
It’s amazing you know it. It brings a different perspective of looking at business, right. So what I understand is your idea was more of knowing your customer better before you jump onto committing something, but you know, invest into customers you know, know how get to know them. Then you know the challenges in real, you know in in a in a real sense otherwise you know it’s it’s it all becomes like one or two call and we feel that we understand customers and. 

Luke Tobin   5:36
Yeah. 

Maddy N   5:41
Probably as you rightly mentioned that bridging the gap between customers, what customer wants and you know what we deliver, there’s a huge difference between expectations to a delivery. Amazing. You know, I’ll tell you it’s it’s a great thought. Probably people might have thought about it multiple times, you just practised it. 

Luke Tobin   5:56
Yes. Yeah, yeah, I think I think a lot of people worry about how that’s scalable. You know, if you’re spending lots of time, like, how can you do that with multiple clients? And the honest answer is at scale, it becomes really challenging. And we have that challenge as well.
But you know, even if what we did in the end, we went from spending two weeks to maybe two days, but we got really good, really good at making the most of those two days. So what I used to fit into two weeks we we formatted into systems that allowed us to workshop through and have the same impact in a shortest period of time. And then at scale, that made sense financially and commercially. So you have to adapt always in business, I think businesses. 

Maddy N   6:17
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. 

Luke Tobin   6:36
Solving problems.
But that alignment to clients is the key. That was the big difference. And you know our retention rate then as a business was above 95% year over year, whereas the agency standard is 40% churn of clients every year. So you’re you’re chasing so much more new revenue all the time. And if the market conditions get tough or clients aren’t spending as much, you’re in real jeopardy, right? Because if you can’t sign new clients and you lose 40% of your current of your current clients every year.
You’re always a few months away from disaster, so we managed to mitigate that and grow really quickly because of that, that solution. 

Maddy N   7:17
Amazing. You know, I think it’s just a matter of, you know, you might you were so clear in your mind that how do you want to run the business? I think I think that’s that’s that’s a lesson that you know, they interpret and those who are flying to, you know introduce product out in the market is something that they really need to learn from this, which you just clearly stated out, right. I mean, going after crazy to acquire new business, you know, and not really worrying about retaining what they have in hand.
Right. It’s it’s very important. And as you rightly mentioned, if that both the things goes in hand, you have just few months left to figure out.
So moving on to the same subject, right, Luke, right. So you have built an existing multiple businesses. I’m sure you know there’s a lot of learning and failures that you’ve learned over the period, right, so.
What was your approach of defining strategies that worked out for you? You know, out of this? 

Luke Tobin   8:12
For me, you know, the businesses that I’ve gone into, I have to say, you know, I’ve never gone into, I’ve never tried to do the new sexy tech thing on the on the block. I’ve always gone for businesses that I understand that I think there is a better way of functioning or systemizing I’m. I’m all for systems and processes and then I’ve jumped into them. But out of the eight companies I’ve had, a few of them didn’t work out. You know, some of it is trial and error and I think.
For any entrepreneur that’s out there and expects just to get this stuff right.
It’s never the case you have to really work through it and I think any industry is rife for the taking when it comes to innovation. Always, you know, often I think we look at things and this is this is the way I’ve tried to always look at new business ideas. We look at things that go well, everything’s been done.
Or are somebody else has got the money and they’re doing it or somebody else, but actually you can be a bit of a copycat and take learnings, tweak slightly, change things a little bit, make put your own personality, your own stamp on things and.
And it can work that you know the the businesses I’ve exited are the ones that I’ve been able to look up to other businesses that have proven that the model can work. And then I’ve just basically put my own personality on it and that that’s how I’ve been successful and I know a lot of entrepreneurs will have brand new fresh ideas that have never been tested before and that’s great. And and you know, it’s amazing that we’ve got people, people like that. But you know, you have to lean into your strengths, I think.
Yeah. 

Amazing I think, yeah again it’s a perspective that you know makes you unique what I am learning  more and more about you right. So you know as rightly mention something you know lot of times even as a investor must have asked this question 100 times right, that have you tested your idea? How validate is it. Do you see any need of this particular product or solution out in the market.
Maddy N   10:04
and as you very nicely described what you’re doing is the you are picking the idea, which is already tested on the market. There’s huge need, but yeah, it has to be presented right? And that’s where your personality plays an important role, right. And thereby customer finds it more valuable. And the moment you bring value to a product, you know customer would like to go for it. 

Luke Tobin   10:24
Exactly. 

Maddy N   10:25
Keeping keeping that in mind, Luke, right. I mean, you have built one of the fastest growing agency which we run like in the UK market and this is very important, right? So people have got strategies, right? They define strategy and even in our subject we discuss about strategies quite often. One of the thing which everyone struggle is when you have a strategy you know between planning to execution.
Right. And that’s my next question to you, right? I mean you built one of the fastest growing agency in UK. You know how you have executed your strategy so right? 

Luke Tobin   11:01
I have to be honest, a lot of the time we didn’t. We were we were kind of figuring it out, right. And I I often talk about businesses like the seesaw that goes up and down. So for a long time when we’re getting new customers, the operations would start falling down, right. And we were having to hire a lot of staff. We were having to figure things out. I think the one thing that that allowed us to be successful in the end because there was tough periods like there wasn’t any business.
And the thing that allowed us to reach an exit and become attractive for sale was the systemization of process and really looking at hiring the right people and empowering them to to run with certain departments. So for a long time, I think one of the big mistakes founders and entrepreneurs make is they hold on too tight to too many things. And I learned really quickly in my businesses that you need to empower others and find people that are smarter than you to do the roles that you either can’t do or shouldn’t do. There’s a lot of things. As a founder, you shouldn’t be doing.
Even though you think you can do them all and.
It’s just because you’ll work hard than anybody else. Doesn’t mean that you should be doing that role. So yeah, I think that delegation and systemization was really the thing that set us apart, and it was also an exciting place to be, right? We were growing quickly. There were new revenue fixes. Most problems, you know, we’re able to hire better people and all that stuff. So it was exciting, but I think it was very tough for the team as well. I have to say, I think, you know, it was it was a, you know, aggressive growth. We were growing nearly doubling every year.
One year was like almost, almost triple, and the team aren’t ready for that. We don’t have the tools, the processes, the whatever. So there was a lot to figure out as we went basically. 

Maddy N   12:42
What a great problem to have for any company. I mean growing 3 times a year. You know your team is like worried about something else when they go out in the market and they talk to their, you know, friends and colleagues and then they say, what is that you’re worried about? They may be saying, you know, we are growing three times. 

Luke Tobin   12:44
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. 

Maddy N   12:59
So you know, I as you’re you know, it’s total because when I speak, spoke to leaders who have successfully built their product out in the market and they have, some of them are still running their business, some of them have exited. But you know direction it’s so well with your thoughts because that’s what they say. You know if you can empower people within your organisation to a level when they can independently execute what you’re thinking of.
You’re building a great team.
Right. And and it’s good to have zero dependency on you then you are actually building a real that can run its own? 

Luke Tobin   13:35
Exactly. 

Maddy N   13:36
Amazing. You know, it’s a it’s a great view, right? So keeping, you know, continuing on the same lines, right, and it’s more of it’s not related to the business, it’s more about those companies who you know found a need in the market and they have launched their product out in the market and they are almost on the verge of scaling business, right? What key factors do you believe are crucial to like a constant result that one needs to be delivering it right?
Let’s take your example right. So I’m sure right. Initial one 1 and 1/2 years. Right? You were focusing more on like getting things right.
You know, be it understanding customers, be it the process the way you wanted it to be, right and you know understanding the need and you know executing in a certain manner and whatnot. So maybe I can get one first, you know few months you just figured out, but later on your growth was 2X and sometimes 3X, right. So you were scaling right, what are the crucial factors you know that one needs to keep in mind to consistently deliver the result well that’s the key, right. 

Luke Tobin   14:41
To you need to. I think the first and foremost thing because some of it you won’t have in place early, but it’s it, it is, it is finding the right people to have around you. I think I was very fortunate about getting some good people in early and that really helped me.
I think also having a plan. I think if you can have a really solid plan and way of implementing strategy processes, goals that makes a huge, huge impact and you need you need the right systemisation for that and the right way of tracking that I think.
Each individual in the business had their own individual targets goals.
Aspirations, parts that they added to the business and overall value, so yeah.
Really, staffing right people right goals, right metrics and having everybody aligned and unified to the vision and you know a big part of my job was constantly.
reselling the vision to everybody, I think a lot of businesses stagnate when they don’t do right. You need. You need to keep an element of momentum and wind in the sales constantly. 

Maddy N   15:40
Yeah. 

Luke Tobin   15:46
Otherwise, people become complacent. It’s natural. So yeah, I tried to always keep the ship going at full speed, basically. 

Maddy N   15:57
That’s right. And I think somewhere I connect the dots here, right? Yes. And I’m gonna pick this word right that you mentioned reselling your vision internally, right. And that’s so true, right. Lot of time. We keep selling this vision outside. 

Luke Tobin   16:09
Yeah. 

Maddy N   16:14
You know, to the customers, to partners, to distributors, to whomever you think, right and very less sold insight, right. And there has to be a story, right? I mean, people need to believe in it first of all, because that is what they will. You know, take it outside and let the customer believe in it. And as you rightly mentioned, if you don’t empower people, you know you cannot alone run the sift.
Right, so you need right people at right places and they’re doing everything right. So just running like a, you know well while smooth machine, right. So you know I mean and while you started your, you know your entrepreneur journey and you successfully exited and you have done multiple businesses, right? So as an entrepreneur and as an investor right now you are invested into multiple you know businesses. 

Luke Tobin   16:45
Yeah. 

Maddy N   17:03
You’re right. And I also understand, you know you are a founder of domain capital wherein you basically invest mentor, a lot of players.
Umm, right out in the market. So this is an interesting question because that’s the area we deal into, right. So as you fairly aware of, OKR framework, right, how often you know, do you see that? OKR plays an important role in shaping the, you know, startups or any businesses and how do you see as an investor that this framework is very much needed because you know, I mean from a from a custom standpoint, it’ll help them in running and bringing people to the same goal. But as an investor.
I do see. 

Luke Tobin   17:44
Yeah, I think this. I think it’s pivotal, right, especially in a more distributed global world with teams often being dotted around. I think having clear goals, ways of tracking progress and unifying everyone back to that same direction is is, is critical and OKRs as a as a as a kind of systemization of those objectives, I think is is a fantastic solution and yeah across most of the businesses, if not all of the businesses that I see successful.
They have, you know, even if you talk about Google and and these guys that made OKRs famous, right, you know they still to this day have OKRs with each of their individuals, each of their departments, each of their roles, management and and beyond. And I think it just it just helps keep everybody on track. 

Maddy N   18:19
Yeah.
Amazing. No. Absolutely right. Look. So you know, with this, I end in my podcast here, but great learning. I really loved, you know, your starting point. And I’m gonna keep it with me. When you said, you know, you invested yourself into, you know, the customer’s shoe, right. You said, you know, you’ll be there for a week or two.
You’ll be with them. You’ll go for a lunch, right? You’ll try and understand their challenges they face. You’ll listen to people, right? And I think it’s it’s a unique perspective. Right. So thank you so much, Luke, for sharing your views. And I’m sure you know, there’s a lot of learning, right. And a lot of unique way of looking at things. Right. And it’ll fascinate because people, you know, it it. It is just there in front of your eyes.
Adjust that you know the person who has the ability to view it and capitalise it. The one who does it and you are that one guy, right? So you know, thank you so much for your time and I, you know, I wish you a lovely weekend. Enjoy your time over the weekend.
Luke Tobin   19:25
It is.
Sounds fantastic. Thank you so much and have a nice weekend as well. OK, cheers. Bye for now. Bye.