Three Things I Wish I’d Known About Scaling To Seven Figures

I’ve now been Managing Director of Pintail Candles for a year (at time of writing), and it feels like an opportune time to reflect on all the things I thought this year would be, and all the things it actually was.

So, to the obvious - it has been much harder, much scarier, and much more rewarding than I expected. It has, at the same time, both broken me and rebuilt me in a different way.

I was reticent to write this, because we’re not an ‘overnight’ success. We haven’t trebled in size in six months or become the lead manufacturer for Fortnum & Mason (still manifesting…).

But we have taken a 30 year old business, from a humble Cumbrian village, prised up the floorboards and emptied out the cupboards.

We have distilled what it is to be makers from the North of England into the essence of what it is to be a ‘brand’ in 2024. We’ve hugely expanded our textiles business, brought processes and skills in house, shared handshakes and hugs with customers across the country. 

We’ve won our first stockists in New York, Texas and Switzerland.

We’ve made more sample product in the last year than in the previous five.

And, most importantly, we’ve held the ship steady in some very choppy economic waters. We’ve kept our team together - and better renumerated than ever before. 

And, hand on heart, it has been incredibly difficult. If I would have known about the anxiety, the sleepless nights, the fear of ‘what if it all fails’, I’m not sure that 2022 me would have believed I had the strength to do it at all, never mind to do it with grace and good skill. 

It has taken everything I had to rebuild the foundations of this business.

To reduce our over-reliance on one big customer, to pitch our work and skill again, and again, and again. To be ghosted from great potential business, to win better business, to anxiously wait for news.

I’ve had to build a huge new skill - of relying on my sense of self to define whether work is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ - because there is truly very little relation between great creative and sellable creative. 

So, if you’re thinking of buying, or building, a business with a team, here’s the three things I wish I’d had some reassurance on before going into it - 

1. You cannot outsource the finance function even if you hate it

Your one job as the person in charge, is to ensure your business can continue.

To stay in the game.

Working capital, not sales, is what is going to trip you up here and you absolutely must know what is going on with your bank balance at all times.

And this goes doubly if you, like me, feel squirmy-wormy about accounting and anything to do with the tax man. Get comfortable, and get comfortable quickly. 

2. The best way to deliver change is quickly

There are two components to this. Firstly, you need to get clarity about what change is needed and why. We’re not in the game of throwing mud at a wall and seeing what sticks. 

Reflections of leaders worldwide are universally that they wished they’d been more radical. In my 20s, a CEO once said to me:

”If I ask you for the impossible, we’ll get 70% of the way there. If I ask for the do-able, we’ll get 70% of that.”

Change is always slower than we think it will be. Unforeseen delays, unintended consequences, misunderstood processes are going to happen. And so, get clear on the change you need and don’t water it down in the pursuit of misplaced kindness. 

If you’re only ever going to get 70% of what you need, you need to ask bigger. 

3. Get really comfortable being uncomfortable

That feeling in the pit of your stomach when you make a decision and you don’t know if she’s the right one? Make friends with your gut, because leadership is very lonely and your intuition is going to be very important moving forward. 

If you’re 70% confident something will work, do it. If you’re more than 70% confident something will work, it’s either not a risk at all, or you haven’t assessed it properly.

The trick is knowing the difference. 

Leading is about plotting a path through the unknown. It is doing the best job you can with the information you have available to you. And you are never going to have all of it.

Above all, remember that no decision is a decision - and it is the worst one.

Being at the whim of the fates is a cowards way out, not a strategic choice. Innovation and change can be the wrong route for your business - active rejection is not indecision. 

Navigating scaling at seven figures requires more patience, and more doggedness, and more empathy for self than I could have imagined was possible.

The best support I have invested in is that that keeps me on my feet, keeps me honest on my own behaviours, and gives me a soft place to land when it all feels too much.