These three things make a great entrepreneur

Richard Harpin created and sold a £4bn business – now he wants to help others do the same

Like Sophi Horne, I wanted to be running businesses even before I left school. You may not be familiar with Sophi’s name but, if you’re lucky, you might be enviously staring at one of her super-sleek yachts or speedboats from your sun-lounger this summer. The 32-year-old has been so successful that her company, Seabird Technologies, is one of  this country’s fastest-growing, with revenues of £12.5m, an astonishing 620 per cent increase in the past three years. 

Like most successful entrepreneurs that I’ve met, she didn’t wait to pass her exams before making her way in business and, instead, developed a side hustle in her teens. One of mine was making earrings from fishing tackle. Sophi’s was designing the boats from which people do the fishing! Now she’s one of the yachting industry’s most influential players. 

That ambition, drive and determination is what marks out Sophi and hundreds of other inspirational entrepreneurs who have made it into the inaugural Business Leader Growth 500. The biggest list of its kind ever compiled and covering every sector using the accounts of companies across the UK to identify those which are growing at a phenomenal pace. 

Last night saw us bring together these incredible entrepreneurs and their British-owned  companies to celebrate this success at the Sky Garden in central London. 

But, more importantly, I want us all to learn about how they’ve done it. Their secrets of  success. Because at a time when everyone is talking about pursuing economic growth, these 500 dynamic businesses have actually achieved it. Perhaps we can build a  blueprint for a stronger British economy by studying their extraordinary progress. 

These aren’t necessarily the familiar titans who hog the business page headlines,  although fast-growing companies like Revolut, Ovo Energy, Atom Bank, Starling and Castore are there, alongside celebrities such as fashion designer Victoria Beckham and Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie. We also wanted to tell the inspiring stories of quiet achievers like Sophi, and have unearthed dozens of surprising success stories. People who have found the right formula to turn their ideas and passions into companies enjoying annual turnovers of several million pounds. 

Top of the list is Barrie Marshall whose music promotion business Marshall Arts helps our biggest pop stars – Sir Elton John, Lionel Ritchie and Sir Paul McCartney – fill stadiums across the world. Barry hit more than £68m in revenues this year with annual growth topping 24,000 per cent over the past three years. 

Runner up is Green Create which turns the methane-rich organic waste produced by farms into natural gas and other products. Its expansion across Europe has been breathtaking and now its sights are set on conquering the US. Little wonder its annual revenues have increased more than 20,000 per cent to more than £30m 

Then there’s Wendy Wu who’s third on our list, with annual turnover of more than £28m. She formed her travel company, Wendy Wu Tours, almost by accident after promising to guide holidaymakers around her homeland, China. Now she does the same throughout Europe for tourists from across the world. 

What links all of these brilliant entrepreneurs are qualities and approaches that I recognise in myself, and which I’ve written about in a new book, How To Make A Billion in Nine Steps. In 1992, Jeremy Middleton and I started Homeserve with a £50,000 investment, convinced that an emergency plumbing business could be a winner. Two years ago, it was bought for £4.1bn, having pivoted early to annual home assistance cover and then rolled out globally. 

Three secrets

Like every entrepreneur, I made plenty of mistakes along the way but I also identified what I believe are the nine essential ways of building a great business – and the Growth 500 have consistently demonstrated the value of three of these ‘secrets’ in particular. 

First, they’ve copied and pivoted. They’ve seen how others have built a successful  business, adopted that idea and then adapted it for themselves. We frown on copying at school but in business it’s good practice to take something that already works and make it better. Improve the product or service, tweak it to reach new customers, continually innovate by gradually making small pivots, out-manoeuvring your competitors. Sometimes there’s merit in coming second. 

Next, our Growth 500 have avoided endlessly disrupting the market with revolutionary new approaches. Evolution, not revolution, is their mantra. We entrepreneurs can easily fall prey to our enthusiasm for new ideas that are two steps removed from the current business. I’ve had my fingers burned many times by that approach! Which is why I know  that truly sustainable success lies in evolving your business, rather than making sudden changes of course or latching on to the next big thing, which is a step too far from the core business model. Prove your model and then build it. Get the pieces in place first before seeking investment. 

A brilliant entrepreneur has the essential magic ingredient of a great leader. Character. They possess bucketloads of courage, curiosity and attention to detail. They’re risk-takers but aren’t in it for themselves, conducting business with the kind of low ego that inspires others around them

Third, every one of these brilliant entrepreneurs has the essential magic ingredient of a great leader. Character. They possess bucketloads of courage, curiosity and attention to detail. They’re risk-takers but aren’t in it for themselves, conducting business with the kind of low ego that inspires others around them. They’re non-conformists who don’t always follow the rules and instead create their own paths to success. And no matter what gets in the way, what hurdles they must overcome, they’re persistent and resilient. In short, they’ve got guts.

One of the reasons I created Business Leader after selling Homeserve was to use my experience to help the next generations of entrepreneurs achieve similar success. The Growth 500 is part of that plan – to bring people together so that we can learn from each  other. I know that my success would have happened much faster if I’d been able to tap into such a group of leaders, and been part of a peer group of fellow entrepreneurs and  CEOs. 

More than ever, we need to celebrate the success of our companies, the unsung heroes often outshone in the media limelight by the 7,500 large companies we have in the UK. Shining the spotlight on the mid-size can help them become the next large companies. And that’s what will get our economy growing again. 

Politicians and pundits hypothesise about growth but these men and women pursue it every hour of their working lives. People with brilliant ideas, fantastic products and smart business models who have achieved one of the simplest and yet most difficult things in all of business. They produce things that we want. Not just want, but seek out again and again, outsmarting the competition and building a loyal following. 

There’s much that we can learn from them. Me included.

Richard Harpin is the founder of Homeserve and growth partner and owner of Business Leader