What £80,000 of Good Intentions actually costs

​How Matt turned a financial crisis in a Yorkshire notary practice into a four-country operation with thirty staff and a family who all work in the business he built.

He didn’t lack good advice. He had a room full of it.

And it nearly finished him.

THE SITUATION

Matt ran a notary practice from rented offices in Yorkshire. Four years in, he had built something solid. A reputation, a loyal client base, a small team. The kind of business that was working quietly and consistently, in a sector that rewards trust above almost everything else.

Like most business owners who reach that point, he was looking for the next level. He joined a mastermind programme, surrounded himself with successful entrepreneurs, and began taking their advice.

That advice cost him £80,000.

THE CHALLENGE

The risk with any mastermind, including the ones I run, is that the room can become so focused on solving the problem being presented that nobody stops to analyse what that solution would actually do to the rest of the business.

In Matt’s case, two things happened simultaneously. He expanded quickly, driven by the growth mindset the group encouraged, but with payment terms that didn’t keep pace with the cost of that expansion. Cash went out faster than it came in. And some tax reclaim advice, offered confidently and in good faith, didn’t amount to what had been suggested.

The combination created an £80,000 hole in a business that had been healthy six months earlier.

This is what growing broke looks like. Not failure. Not poor performance. A business expanding faster than its financial foundations can support, guided by people who meant well and didn’t model the consequences.

Matt’s question, when he finally reached out, was exactly the right one.

“Is there an alternative pathway to grow, or have I made critical mistakes that can’t be fixed?”

THE MEETING

In 2014, shortly after launching My TrueNORTH, I was still speaking regularly at other people’s events. I’d been invited to speak at the mastermind Matt was part of, run by Robin in Northampton. The response from those in the room was strong enough that Robin asked me to partner with him in running it together.

We did that for a year. But our values weren’t fully aligned, and I left to launch Explorer, my own mastermind.

Matt stayed with Robin, as he should have. He’d made a commitment, and he honoured it. But he also commissioned me to do some 1:1 work alongside it.

He described his first session with me as standing in front of strangers, completely naked.

He meant it as a compliment.

In three years with his previous group, he said, he had never encountered anything as deep, investigative, or actionable as what we covered in a single session. That wasn’t a criticism of the group. It was a recognition that the quality of the questions had changed.

THE WORK

We worked together through mastermind for twelve months, and a further six to nine months of 1:1 coaching.

The first ninety days were about stabilisation. We went through the business properly and uncovered nearly £35,000 in legitimate tax refunds that had been missed. Enough to cover his entire annual investment twice over, and enough to create the breathing room needed to think clearly rather than reactively.

Once the immediate pressure was off, the real conversation could begin.

THE INSIGHT

Matt’s business wasn’t a local notary practice that had hit a ceiling. It was a premium professional services operation that had been positioned locally by default, rather than by design.

Notarial services cross borders by nature. International clients, overseas property transactions, and legal documentation for global businesses. The demand wasn’t limited to Yorkshire. It had never been. The question was whether Matt was willing to build a business that reflected the actual scope of what he could deliver.

He was.

THE OUTCOME

In year three, Matt opened his first overseas office. Dubai.

He now operates across four countries: the United Kingdom, Dubai, Qatar, and the United States. His team has grown from three people to more than thirty. He has purchased the building that houses his expanded head office. Seven additional countries are in the five-year plan.

Matt, his wife, and two other family members are all employed by the business he built. He travels internationally on a regular basis to visit teams across three continents. He has recently bought a holiday home in Europe.

He came to me with a local practice and £80,000 worth of well-meaning advice that had nearly destroyed it. He left with the clarity to build something genuinely international.

THE LEGACY LINE

The advice that nearly finished Matt’s business came from a room full of successful people. What was missing wasn’t experience or goodwill. It was the discipline to stop and ask what the advice would actually do to the business before acting on it.

That discipline is the difference between growth and growing broke.

Matt understood the difference by the end of his first session.

He’s been building on it ever since.

“Jay rarely tells you what you want to hear, but always tells you what you need to hear. Sage advice, well presented, and with your vision and values at the heart of everything he does.”

Matt Lawless

​If Matt’s story sounds familiar, the first step is understanding exactly where you stand.

The Business Freedom Assessment takes less than ten minutes and costs nothing. It tells you precisely what’s keeping you at the centre of your own business, and what it would take to change that.

Take the Business Freedom Assessment

Could This Work for Your Business?

Key Indicators This Approach Might Work for You:

• You’re facing a business crisis that feels overwhelming
• You’ve received conflicting advice from “successful” peers
• You’re working harder but seeing diminishing returns
• You want to build something that integrates with, rather than sacrifices, family life

Matt’s story proves that trapped owners don’t need to choose between business success and family life—with the right strategic approach, you can build both simultaneously.

>>> Take the B.F.T Assessment <<<