David Abingdon  

Hey,

As you can no doubt tell from my picture, I've been around a while. Over that time I've been fortunate enough to launch and build four of my own companies from nothing to multi-million enterprises - each in less than 12 months. 

Naturally, like every other entrepreneur, I’ve had a few other business ventures that didn’t do quite so well. You live and learn but you never stop.

As a Business Growth Consultant, I’ve helped many clients build their businesses by increasing their sales and revenue. For one client, I made them a recurring £35 million from zero in just two and half years. My fee was over £1.27 million for that plus I got a tidy settlement lump sum. 

More recently, I made a client a fast £1.2 million windfall with a further £600K recurring annually - and I was given 40% equity in the company.

I’ve worked across many industries to assist clients to build, develop or sell their businesses - both B2B and B2C i.e. Insurance, Landscapers, Public Transport, Restaurants, Finance, Plant Hire, Wealth Management, Home Improvements, Accountants, Online Directories, Florists… The list goes on and on.  

What I’ve learnt is that all businesses are the same. It doesn’t matter what they sell, their main business is, and always will be, sales and marketing. That's because no business can exist without those two crucial activities.

Over the last 20 odd years I've trained and mentored literary thousands of entrepreneurs and business people in marketing, sales, business development, franchising, business consulting and deal making. 

Some have gone on to achieve huge success - people like Nigel Botterill, Carl Allen, Kerwin Rae, Michelle Peters and others.

It’s satisfying stuff and I love this work. It's pretty rewarding too. I’ve also met and worked with a few notables, most of whom taught me a thing or two (and more). Like Dan Pena, an old friend and mentor who I appointed as Chairman of one of my international business franchises. 

Around that time, one New Year’s Day, I opportunistically ‘cold’ pitched Sir Richard Branson in the Virgin Atlantic Lounge. A couple of weeks later Pena and I went along to his London offices to meet his team. A delightful and enlightening experience.

But perhaps the most memorable life lesson I learnt from Pena was ‘perception is reality’. True, not a new idea perhaps but the realisation of what that can do literally changed my life. From spending much of my childhood in a Birmingham council flat to a small room in a nurses home (there’s a story there) in Melbourne and from there to buying a Gloucestershire country estate was all the proof I needed. Perception really does become reality. 

Dreams can, and do, come true. 

As Pena loves to quote, "If you don't have a dream, How are you going to have a dream come true."

My move into self-employment happened in 1983 when I became an insurance agent for National Mutual in Melbourne. I earned more money in a couple of months than my entire earnings as a registered nurse for the previous year. I decided right then that I was in my element. So, fairly rapidly I was promoted to divisional manager (still self-employed) then a short spell with another insurer as general manager before starting my boutique 'finsurance' company.

It was there that I created and designed several new and somewhat innovative products in both the life and pensions/superannuation markets which I then sold for a lot of money to a large multinational insurer. One such superannuation product achieved huge success in Australia and was still sold until recently.

Here I am looking rather young and serious.

The family from the TV show 'How The Other Half Live'.

The other big concept that reinforced this reality was again highlighted to me by Pena - and from my observation of others like Branson – that is, you must have a vehicle. And with that vehicle, you must have a destination. After all, no ship or plane leaves without a clear idea of where it’s going.

If you are reading this then you are probably already in a business that can become your springboard – your vehicle. Because of all the businesses I’ve been in, I’ve never found a business that comes anywhere near the business advice industry as a fast vehicle for success. 

That’s because the possibilities are absolutely huge. Anyone involved in business consulting, business coaching, marketing and sales consulting and digital marketing in all its forms, has the surprising capability of ratcheting and scaling it all up to something that can be much, much, much bigger and far more lucrative. That’s the business I’m involved in and those are the reasons why. 

So, if you are in one of those businesses (or want to be), you are in the drivers seat to take your foot off the brakes and onto the accelerator and manoeuvre your vehicle into the fast lane!

I've written around twenty odd proprietary manuals on business and marketing. I've had a few books published - including a college manual on marketing and one called Out Of The Box Marketing which continues to be sold.

I've also been privileged to provide expert opinion and comment on TV, radio and other media in the UK, Australia, India and the UAE. And, some years ago I was humbled to be featured in a UK Channel 4 documentary ‘How The Other Half Live’ which was shown around the world.

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