Category: Entrepreneur

Why did human beings develop machines, computers, and – ultimately – artificial intelligence? To reduce the work that had to be completed by us. Yet here we all are, working harder than ever.

In Britain, we work longer hours than any other country in the European Union. We work two hours more than the average European – and yet our productivity lags behind many other nations. I want to take action. I want to reverse this trend, and boost productivity while slashing down the hours my people have to work.

This may sound like wishful thinking but I have a plan. Machine learning and automation are the future of BigChange. We are actively using big data to make decisions for us. If necessary, we will take out the human element completely. Our technology lets users’ book jobs on the platform but there still can be a human element. I want to retrain those people and move them into more important roles while letting a computer do it automatically.

This is just the beginning. There is a whole layer of people who can move up into more challenging roles while machines analyse all our past data to work out the outcomes and answers we need to push the business forward. This is so exciting for the business but it also means that I can pass the benefits on to my hard-working people.

They will make the same money but will be given the tools to do their jobs in four days, not five. That means more time to relax, spend with their families, and exercise. They will take fewer sick days and experience less stress. And when people come to work, they will be fresh and engaged; how many people turn up to work on a Friday and are only running at 50% productivity because they are already exhausted? Doing less for the same salary is the dream, so I believe this step will also help us to recruit the industry’s best talent.

The four-day work week is already being employed by other organisations. A string of smaller firms have made the move and now even the Wellcome Trust has announced its commitment to the four-day week.

Back in the 1930’s, the economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that we would be working just 15 hours a week by now. My plan to get to 32 hours isn’t quite there, but it is a step in the right direction.

Martin Port
Founder & CEO

We’ve started 2019 on a high here at BigChange, with growth up 65% year-on-year in the first three months. This is an incredible time for the business. We recently acquired two businesses, which shows how mature the company has become.

We have successfully brought them into the fold and it’s another step on our journey to becoming a much larger organisation. I’m so excited and delighted by the progress we’ve made, and 2019 has only just begun! Here are some of BigChange’s highlights from the first quarter.

A boost to growth

The major milestone is that we have now hit 1,000 customers. That’s an amazing achievement and a credit to our incredible teams. Our two acquisitions have been an overwhelming success. Back in January, I blogged about buying Labyrinth Logistics Consulting, an award-winning supply chain, logistics and compliance consultancy, and Trace Systems, a creator of fleet, garage and workshop management software https://www.martinport.com/news/my-2019-scale-up-secrets-revealed/

Between them, these companies have added around 100 customers to our roster, and BigChange won 100 new clients independently. Overall, this represents £5m in new contract wins and brings our total number of users to 35,000. More than half of these are mobile workers, so we are having a major impact on the gig economy, which was one of my big goals for this year.

Our fast-growing customer base means that BigChange is on target to hit £18m in turnover this year. We have expanded internationally, establishing a company in France, and a reseller covering Cyprus & Greece. The US is next on the hit list, and we have now registered our trademark over there.

Maximising efficiencies

I’m very proud to say that BigChange has achieved BSI ISO 9001, which means we’ve made significant improvements to our products and services, and we’ve ensured that our business model is as resilient as it can be. We are also proud to be a certified Platinum Partner to Sage, the accounting giant. These kinds of certifications are important because they show that we are doing all we can to keep building efficiencies into our model and striving for excellence in all things.

A great way to show that you’ve made your business as lean and innovative as it can be is to apply for awards. We’ve been lucky enough to secure quite a few already this year. We came ninth in the Tech North Top 50 fastest-growing technology companies in the North of England. BigChange has also featured in the Tech Nation Future Fifty Awards for the second year running . We were recognised as one of the Maserati 100 – a ranking of the UK’s most innovative entrepreneurs, published in The Sunday Times. Finally, BigChange was dubbed one of Yorkshire’s Most Exciting Company by Ian Leech, editor of Insider Yorkshire Magazine.

It’s all about the people

One of the new developments that will have the biggest impact over the next few years is the BigChange Network, which launched this year. We’ve signed up the impressive Kevin Keegan OBE, former England manager, as Network Ambassador, and he will be giving his invaluable advice to our customer members. In June, a new network director will be joining the business too, and will be developing the network globally for the first time.

My colleagues are the lifeblood of this company. BigChange now employs 120 people. It feels really good to be growing fast and bringing in new talent, while encouraging long-serving employees to keep developing their skills. To help my colleagues reach for the stars, we have continued with our “Motivational Mondays” series in 2019, bringing in people like TV personality and businesswoman Michelle Dewberry and former football coach Lawrence McMenemy MBE.

One of the other ways we make sure people feel that BigChange is a great place to work is through charitable giving. This year, we will give more than £200,000 to good causes. I am personally planning to raise £50,000 for Brake and Transaid over the next 12 months first activity is a half marathon in October.

These are just a handful of the great things that have happened over the past three months. Share your 2019 business successes with me in the comments below.

https://www.bigchange.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/BigChange-Company-Introduction.pdf

Martin Port
Founder & CEO

I’ve abolished departments at BigChange. There will be no more divisions within my business. Instead, I’m creating teams. Some of these teams will be assembled according to specialty, such as RoadCrew customer service, but others will reach across different areas of the business.

This may seem like pure semantics – a change in name only – but it’s not. Language is important. When you think about departments, you envisage physical walls between different sections of your business. You think of the IT department in one part of a building, and sales over on a different floor. Teams, in contrast, have no boundaries. Teams share a common purpose. Team members support one other and work well with other like-minded groups – that’s why it’s called “teaming up”.

There is good reason for this change. When I started BigChange, we were just a few people working out of a single room in Leeds. Everyone knew everyone, and each win was celebrated by the whole company. Now that we are so much bigger, it is easier for colleagues to operate in silos where the needs of the department feel more important than those of the business as a whole. Departments lead to territoriality. This is the opposite of the culture that I want to foster at BigChange.

By creating teams that are focused on projects, it is easier to build fluidity into the business. People naturally do tasks that they are suited to, rather than just sticking to the typical activities of their department. As a business grows, sometimes people need to move into different roles. A team structure will allow me to make sure that everyone is in the right place at the right time.

The wake up call that prompted me to make the change came earlier this year when a valued colleague decided to leave. She missed the start-up feel of BigChange and, after two years, had become to feel disenfranchised. I never want to encounter that problem again, so I’m focused on implementing new ideas that all people to grow, and unite us all.

The idea of ditching the department and embracing teams isn’t original. I borrowed it from Microsoft. Its unified communications platform is called Microsoft Teams – and I imagine that many clever people and many thousands of dollars went into deciding that brand name. I don’t have millions to spend on a re-branding exercise but I can stand on the shoulders of corporate giants and learn from them.

I announced the change to the structure of BigChange at this week’s huddle. I noticed, even at that meeting, that people were standing with colleagues from their own department. Let’s hope that at future huddles, we’ll see cross-departmental “teams” grouping together instead.

Martin Port
Founder & CEO

I have been in business since I was 11 years old. I started out working for my father, an auctioneer, before growing my own bakery business in my twenties.

Now, aged 56, I run technology start-up BigChange. I don’t know many entrepreneurs who have experience across such varied industries, so I thought it would be a good idea to share all the lessons I’ve learned over the years.

If I can help any other business owner avoid mistakes I’ve made, and help them build on strategies that have worked well for me, then it’s been worth all the hard work putting pen to paper – I’m dyslexic, so it’s not easy for me. The following book is a compilation of blogs I posted on LinkedIn over the past couple of years. They range from management advice to updates about my fast-growing firm to my take on topical issues.

If you take one thing away from this, it’s to place the needs of your people and customers above everything else in business. It is also to appreciate your family and understand the power of your network. I hope that you enjoy my posts – and my unusual take on the world. I truly believe that the best way to get ahead in business and in life is to help others. That’s the ethos behind BigChange, which succeeds only by making others successful.

Click here to download my Blog Book

Martin Port
Founder & CEO

I’m the guy that’s all about face-to-face communication. I am always telling my fellow business owners to get out from behind the screen and go talk to their customers and colleagues.

But I know also how hard it is to make time for those kinds of interactions. So imagine how happy I was when I held the first Network event for BigChange customers (find out more about the network here Join the BigChange Network) and found it to be every bit as useful as I’d hoped.

The event brought together 30 of our customers, and was facilitated by Kevin Keegan OBE, the former England football player manager. He is very business-focused, and did a stellar job creating a feel-good factor in the room. Everyone introduced themselves and their businesses and talked about how their sales have grown since adopting BigChange. It was so validating to hear these stories, and to hear what everyone loves – and what they would change – about our offering.

I can’t reveal the insights that our customers shared about their businesses, because the event took place under Chatham House rules, but I can tell you how these conversations have influenced the future strategy and direction for us. It was, honestly, one of the most valuable interactions I’ve had for a long while.

The new BigChange charter

One of the concerns that customers raised was around trust. How can they trust that if they collaborate with other businesses on our system, the contractor won’t steal that client. There is also the fear that the work might be inferior, or unprofessional. This is why we are looking to introduce a code of conduct, the BigChange charter, to hold users accountable. We are about to hire a Network Director, who will draw up this charter and make sure that all our customers understand the rules of play, in order to get the most out of BigChange and the JobWatch system. I am delighted to tell customers that they can now have absolute trust in our system, because any abuses will lead to special measures. This way, every individual and company on JobWatch can focus on collaborating and growing their revenues with confidence.

The mighty sole trader

To date, BigChange has been focused on working with companies and over the coming year, I was planning to target larger corporations too. But our network event has shown me that we also need to make sole traders a priority as well. The gig economy is enormous, and many of our customers use sole traders and freelancers, so we will be reaching out to more independents. For example, there are currently 150,000 gas engineers in the UK; 75,000 of them are one-man bands. We want them on our network. To help bring companies and sole traders together, our BigChange app – which will launch soon – will act like a modern Yellow Pages, helping businesses and users book jobs with registered and vetted engineers.

Boost the buying power

Procurement is a massive issue for any growing company. You want the best deals, and you want them now. We have 1,000 customers – with combined revenues of £59bn, 142,000 employees, and an average business age of 20 – on our system. That is a lot of buying power. We want to help our customers to club together for deals on everything from insurance to vehicle rental and fuel. It’s the next frontier for JobWatch and will be another major benefit of our collaborative system. It will also be another reason for customers to recommend BigChange to their suppliers, clients and contacts.

These three major changes to BigChange’s business plan have all come out of a single network event. I can’t wait for our future meet-ups. Who knows what I’ll learn next!

Martin Port
Founder & CEO

Meetings are a necessary evil. They take up a lot of time, and can be an excuse for people to talk a lot while saying very little. Yet they remain fundamental to keeping on top of your business’ performance. How else can you share important information with the people who are driving the company forwards?

I have spent a lot of time in meetings, and almost as much time trying to work out how to make meetings more effective. Finally, I think I’ve cracked it.

One of the greatest strengths and the most debilitating weaknesses of the modern age is our ability to collect data on anything and everything. This data is then poured into PowerPoint presentations and delivered, slide after slide, at management meetings.

I’ve lost count of the number of three-hour meetings I’ve sat through, as each person shares their KPIs or whatever other metric is the flavour of the month.

Don’t get me wrong. I understand how crucial it is to collect and analyse data. BigChange is built on the understanding that we will harness customers’ data and use those learnings to improve their efficiency and customer service. But there is a fine line between using data to make smart decisions, and letting data drown those decisions.

Time and time again I see data used as a smokescreen in meetings: a way to prove that someone is aware of a problem, while allowing them to avoid actually thinking of a solution. Individuals will come to a meeting with an agenda as long as my arm, listing 20, or 30, opportunities or problems. The following week, they’re back, touting the same list, with only one or two items completed, and another 10 to add to the pile.

It’s time to stop letting the data manage us and start managing the data.

I have come up with the solution.

1.Exceptional reporting

It is important to review the data but I’m not interested in hearing the numbers unless you’re presenting exceptions. To explain: when you review your bank statement, you’re not interested in the regular outgoings that don’t change month to month – rent, your morning coffee, etc. You are interested in the unusual activity. The big bills that were unexpected. Or the sudden boom in earnings. Those are the details you need to study in order to repeat or avoid a trend. As a business, I want to know if I’m not on forecast. I can’t rewrite the past so I need to know what I must do to avoid x, or make y happen, in the future. Department managers need to review the data and make sure the patient’s heart is beating at right rate, reporting only erratic behaviour.

2.Start the timer

Management meetings must last no longer than an hour. Any more than that and people’s eyes start to glaze over. By setting a time limit, we force everyone to be succinct and to prioritise the issues that are most important. If you don’t raise it in time, you are out of luck.

3.Slash the agenda

Everyone is allowed to promote a maximum of two ideas or things causing them pain. Those issues must be dealt with within an agreed period of time. You can’t raise the next issue until you’ve completed the outstanding tasks. Don’t bring five things to discuss at a meeting because it’s impossible to deal with that volume of problems at once. No company can do that. And then you see people returning with the same problem, again and again, like Groundhog Day. Teams only have a certain capacity to change each week or month, so you can’t hurl millions of ideas their way and expect them to instantly adapt anyway.

This new approach to meetings and data could have huge implications for BigChange. If you complete just one task a week, that’s 50 improvements to the company over the course of a year. That’s huge.

The team here is on board with this new approach and everyone is excited to see whether we can deliver some incredible results. Wish us luck – and share any of your data/meetings hacks in the comments below.

Martin Port
Founder & CEO

People often assume that I am a disruptor and rule-breaker because I’m an entrepreneur. But here’s the thing: I have a huge amount of respect for rules, and have always seen the value in process and order.

When I was a young entrepreneur, I used to be obsessed with the present. How’s business right now? Are we hitting our targets? Have we solved immediate challenges?

But, having built several businesses, and listened (Audio) to hundreds of books on business and entrepreneurship, I’ve learned the error of my ways. To be truly successful, you need to look beyond the now. You need to have a vision.

Your vision is more than a goal or target. It’s an aspiration that seems so far away that you may never get there. It’s a bold plan that most rational people will scoff at, or say is impossible. Crucially though, it’s a vision that has a clear path to achieve it. And you have to believe you can get there within five years.

At BigChange, I decided on my vision very early on. I wanted to create a platform that would allow service and transport companies anywhere to collaborate and win more business.

I knew that it was just the right level of ambitious because when I told people, they either didn’t get it, or told me it wasn’t possible. Yet here I am, just a few years later, and I’m so proud to announce that we have actually achieved that vision.

BigChange JobWatch Network platform is a seamless environment where two companies can work together to win more customers and deliver brilliant service. It enables our users all over the UK – or even the world – to work together on contracts, share work, and find partners. It’s a truly collaborative tool that creates a powerful network effect. Ultimately, it helps other entrepreneurs to be more successful. You can read more about JobWatch here. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/bigchange-collaboration-marketplace-martin-port

This platform was finally launched on Thursday night, and within 48 hours, we had over 50 requests from our customers.

I have realised my vision. It feels amazing.

What happens after all your dreams come true? You have to come up with the next vision, even bigger and bolder than the last.

I want BigChange to become the market leader in our industry, providing the technology that underpins the global service and transport industry. The number one choice for any gig economy business or firm that uses a mobile workforce. Making every economy we work in stronger through innovation and world-class service.

It’s a big ask, but I truly believe that we can do it.

You have to have vision if you want to be successful. Importantly, you have to shout about your vision so that customers, colleagues and partners all buy into that plan and that mission. I have signage all over my offices that explains where we’re going and how we’ll get there. I’ve done that at all of my businesses, and find that it focuses everyone’s mind on the task at hand.

To achieve my new vision, we have to leverage the sole trader. We have to tap into the gig economy. We have to reassure consumers that we will provide them with a better level of service than they’ve experienced before. We need to disrupt our target markets. We also need to create a deeper connection between the work that needs to be done and the order jobs are completed, while boosting efficiency.

All of the world’s most successful companies have vision. If I say, who wanted to build the world’s supreme search engine? Or become the market leader in flat pack furniture? Or build the biggest consumer technology company in the world? I bet you can name all three.

I hope that, in three to five years, I will be able to post that we’ve achieved this latest vision.

In the meantime, please share your vision for your business. Let me see if I can help you on your way.

[email protected]

Martin Port
Founder & CEO

This is going to be a big year for BigChange. The year we expand overseas. The year we double our turnover. The year acquisitions supercharge our growth.

Taking your business to the next level is never straightforward so I’m sharing my three scale-up strategies to help anyone on the same journey.

1. Strategic acquisitions

Many companies tend to wind down over the holiday season but here at BigChange, we had a busy end to the year. We have made our first acquisitions as a company, buying two complementary businesses that will help us double revenues year on year.

The first, Labyrinth Logistics Consulting, is an award-winning supply chain, logistics and compliance consultancy. We also acquired Trace Systems, a creator of fleet, garage and workshop management software, which will be integrated into the BigChange system to make our platform even richer.

These businesses will give BigChange a strategic edge and neither distracts from our core market. We’re still 100% focused on our platform, but these companies will help us deliver an even better service to our customers.

Acquisitions are a great way to scale faster with very little risk. These companies are both small – employing 10 people between them. That means that integration shouldn’t be too difficult.

I have quite a lot of experience acquiring companies now, which means I know how to manage professional fees a bit better without reducing the quality of the advice. Make sure you know when you need to use a lawyer and accountant and when you don’t. If you’re not careful, doing deals can get crazy expensive.

My other tip for acquisitions is to make sure you have a great right hand man. That meant that I wasn’t too distracted from the core business while the deals were being done, and also sped up the process. It took just three weeks from heads of terms being signed for the deals to be done.

2. Go international

We will open our first international office in Paris in February. We decided to create a European operations hub to both take advantage of the weak pound and mitigate Brexit risk.

We have recruited a French national to help expedite the European expansion. Our new VP for Europe, Frederic Dupeyron, will be our man on the ground. I’ve known him for over 10 years: he bought my previous company, Masternaut, so it’s a wonderful twist that he is now coming to work with me at BigChange. There is no substitute for hiring local talent when expanding overseas: they understand cultural differences and tend to be much better at troubleshooting.

France is just the beginning for us. From this launch pad, we will move into Benelux, Germany and the Netherlands. Later this year, we’ll move into the US and Asia. Australia comes next on the international roadmap. We don’t know what’s going to happen with the UK economy over the next few years so having an international outlook is a good way to hedge.

3. Get the basics right

I launched BigChange in 2013 and the company has grown organically since then, which has enabled us to build up our cash reserves. We’ve had to be patient to get to this point, where we can invest in new acquisitions and international growth. Scaling is expensive: we have invested in new acquisitions and a new international team. When you have cash in the bank, you can move quickly to take advantage of new opportunities.

In 2018, we turned over £11m, and – with these acquisitions – we’re on course to hit £23m in 2019 – more than doubling revenues. Profitability will also double, which proves that our growth model works.

It’s really important that we don’t take our eyes off the ball here in the UK as we grow overseas. That’s why we’re investing in more sales and customer service colleagues right here. BigChange will employ 150 people by the end of this year.

As we grow, we also need to make sure everyone is moving in the same direction. This is why I just had a huddle with the team to explain the deals we’ve done, and ensure that everyone understands the transformation plan for this year. It’s important that everyone keeps doing the basics right, and doesn’t get distracted.

These three pillars make up our 2019 scale-up plan. If executed properly, BigChange should be a much bigger company by this time next year. Wish us luck!

Martin Port
Founder & CEO

BigChange collaboration allows companies to allocate jobs to their partners, and it tracks all the paperwork, monitors issues like health and safety, takes care of billing and scheduling, and updates all parties on the progress of the jobs in real time – giving a sense of control and transparency.

Imagine that you run a plumbing company in Scotland. Your local customers love you and want to work with you on a nationwide basis, but you don’t have the resources to take on contracts in Wales or down in London. Through BigChange, you can now collaborate with other plumbing companies in other areas and sub-contract out the work.

I can’t overstate the potential of something like this. Small businesses can act like big companies – at the touch of a screen. They can reach an almost unlimited scale, bolting on other services and growing their empires. Think of the savings in travel costs if you could sub-contract out work at the other end of the country?

Virtual companies could be created, drawing on the expertise of other firms, using their sales and marketing expertise to grow and thrive.

UK businesses could expand overseas using this system – something that many entrepreneurs may find useful post-Brexit. You could find a contractor in Australia for your customer and watch the job being done in real-time.

In the past, collaboration like this has been bogged down in paperwork, email and endless phone calls. The mist falls over Paper Town and it’s hard to know what’s going on. With JobWatch, it’s all clear and paperless, and your partners appear like an extension of your own firm. Your customers even see the same screen if they log into the booking portal to check which jobs have been completed. Your partner company invoices you, and you invoice your customer as usual – all through BigChange.

It’s that easy.

We don’t charge our customers anything extra to collaborate, but we benefit because we believe that the collaboration feature will encourage more customers to join us. That’s the beauty of a business like this: by focusing on making our customers more successful, we succeed too.

If you are interested in receiving more information on how you can expand your network please email [email protected] for more information

Martin Port
Founder & CEO