Steve Daniels, co-founder and CSO of PE, shares practical insights gained from scaling, exiting and building multi-sector businesses over three decades.
Steve Daniels is passionate about championing the nation’s SMEs. With a career history spanning three decades – and having founded and scaled several businesses himself- he has a unique, first-hand perspective on the challenges and opportunities faced. Now his company helps business owners and leaders to save time, reduce costs, boost profitability, and operate more sustainably.
Through PE, the UK’s largest independent largest business-to-business energy supplier, Steve and his team not only deliver electricity and gas, but a full suite of business services, including financial services, EV charging, renewables, smart tech, and water – all from one trusted source.
After advising private equity firms on how to reduce their costs, Steve set up an energy brokerage, serving mainly the hospitality sector – seeing the pressures operators were under and how SMEs, in general, were overlooked by energy suppliers.
This business naturally transitioned into PE – the company he runs today, alongside three other co-founders. Since its inception in 2016, from a small office in Essex with three members of staff, it now has a £1.2billion+ turnover and operates across three continents – serving a customer base of 94,000, operating across 150,000 sites, in numerous sectors. It has a global workforce of almost 900.
Speaking to SME Today, Steve shares his eight key learnings and advice on how to scale a business – and what not to do.
1/ Do your research
What does your market really want? What’s happening within it now, and what can you improve? We were brokers, back in the day, and from our perspective, the way the energy market operated wasn’t great. So, we looked at how we could improve the process for ourselves and especially for customers – by enhancing the service they receive and adding in tech. We made our jobs easier, their experience better and were able to get more done.
2/ Create a business scaling strategy
Ask yourself what success looks like? What do you want to achieve in year one? Are you going for a £10k or £100k turnover? Do you want a lifestyle business, or do you want to go big? Both are fine but you need to know.
There’s nothing wrong with working to fit around your family but work out what you need to earn to do that. And if you want to go big and scale quickly, be prepared to extract yourself from the business as soon as possible. Staying too involved in the daily do will mean that you create bottlenecks. You must almost make yourself redundant. Working in the business rather than on the business is a major obstacle to scalability.
3/ Don’t be a ‘me too’ supplier
Differentiation is key, so don’t be just another number. Every business needs a point of difference – and it’s even more important in our crowded utilities market. We had to create something different from our competitors.
Decide what does – or could – make you attractive for that click through, website visit or phone call? There’s got to be something that grabs a customer’s attention. What’s your magic formula?
4/ Add value to your offering
Up until a few years ago, we couldn’t sell on margin as we didn’t have the money in the bank. We never borrowed or took loans out. We bootstrapped it, rolled our sleeves up and did whatever we needed to grow.
When you’re operating on price and undercutting the competition, it tends to be a race to the bottom. So, we thought about how we differentiate ourselves to add value. We asked ourselves what do our customers want, and need, that money can’t buy? They wanted improved technology and customer services, they wanted us to take control of the areas of their business that we’re expert in, so that they could concentrate on what they’re good at and enjoyed – to have more time and mental capacity to grow it. And that’s what we did.
5/ Have the right attitude and mindset
Focus on what you can do, rather than what you can’t. I think us Brits are sometimes prone to give up too easily. It’s nothing to do with work ethic, but rather attitude. We should look at the ways that we can, rather be put off by why we perhaps can’t.
There’s a big difference between being an SME owner and being an employee. Running and scaling a successful owner means your phone’s always on, you’re always working, to some extent. Running your own business can be very hard.
6/ Be prepared to ‘roll the dice’
Be ready to take calculated risks. We’ve done it at PE several times and it’s not always pleasant but sometimes you just have to go for it.
I’m not talking about being reckless. It’s important to weigh everything up but try to do it quickly. Putting off any decisions often means that opportunities are lost. And I’m not just talking about taking monetary risks – they could be to do with margin, IP, reputation, profile. Anything. Be open to giving something new a go.
7/ Create a positive company culture
Doing so will attract and retain the best employees and teams. Be relatable and approachable. Get to know the people who work for you – not just about their roles, but about their partner, their kids, pets and pastimes. Also give them responsibility within your business. Trust them and allow them to grow – it’s very satisfying and does wonders for company culture. In doing so, you tend to find that everyone ends up on the same bus, driving in the same direction and they’re all enjoying the ride.
8/ Don’t micromanage
If you feel like you must micromanage an employee, you probably shouldn’t have given them a job. I really enjoy the autonomy that we give to our employees and love it when they come to me with new ideas on how we could enhance our offering and operations. Only an entrepreneurial business can be a scalable business.
Steve concludes: “Ultimately, scaling isn’t just about bigger numbers – it’s about building a business that works harder for your customers and smarter for your team. It’s about surrounding yourself with experts in the field, who can help you run your business more effectively, efficiently and profitably, freeing your time to concentrate on what you’re good at, in terms of commercial growth and achieving your goals.”