From Adversity to Adventure: The Adrian Knight Story

Rich Bennett 0:00
Thanks for joining the conversation today. We're joined by Adrian Knight, an extraordinary figure who's not only an accomplished entrepreneur, but also an adventurer. And Dawn's athlete. Adrian has impressively built a multi million children's education group from the ground up in less than three years. He has a compelling personal story. Having overcome significant personal challenges and addictions through a commitment to personal development and well-being. His athletic endeavors are equally impressive, including challenging expeditions across Scotland, the Arctic Circle and Northern England. And he's gearing up for the Spartan World Championships and a jungle expedition in Panama. Damn. Hadrian's journey is a testament to the power of resilience and personal you. First of all, welcome to Adrian. But just reading that, you remind me of somebody else I had on. He he just celebrated 32 years of sobriety. 

Adrian Knight 1:03
Wow. 

Rich Bennett 1:04
And to celebrate his 32 years, he ran for 32 hours. But from what I know, he's the only guy that run across the Sahara Desert as well. 

Adrian Knight 1:13
Wow. 

Rich Bennett 1:15
So I have to I just have to ask you right off the bat, man. Why? 

Adrian Knight 1:22
I mean, that guide I said I'd love to have a copy of it is a luxury, but. Yes. First of all, Richard, thank you for having me on on your show. Appreciative. Appreciate it and why it's such a good question. I mean, I've just come back from the Spartan World Championship Yips in Sparta, Greece, and there were a couple of slight moments there where I went onto ask myself why. But then when I looked up and I could see the Spartan Mountains, I was in the Spartan Mountains, and I looked around me and I looked at my hands and see on camera they're still bloodied from some of the events. I was like, This is why? Is because it's the experience. Because almost certainly I won't be in that scenario again in my lifetime. I mean, who knows? I may decide to sort of do it again and to be in that, but that particular moment is gone forever. And I was very conscious of of those moments and really like when I was in the world championships, it like it never is about the timing or the competitiveness outside. That was about people. It's always about the competitive with myself and using this to bring the best out of me, but also to be creating some truly lifetime memories. And so that's why. 

Rich Bennett 2:39
So, I mean, with these things, like, you know, the expeditions and all, I guess that's what like hunting are not hunting, but hiking and camping, Or is it actually like running like an Iron Man thing or what? 

Adrian Knight 2:52
It varies. So and don't know man done an I man is about eight or nine years ago and that that kind of like that was the beginning for some of the more extreme stuff for me because I was looking around after finishing the Ironman and it was an amazing experience and I highly recommend anyone who even has a slight inkling or not to do that, just, you know, train for it and do it because you can do it. But when I was looking around there, I was like, I don't want to just keep doing the same events. Like, I wouldn't take it a bit more of life. And so run the events and the activities within them have varied. So Scotland was running cycling and kayaking across Scotland. The classic Gippsland Lakes. So that was, that was really cool. And when I ran across northern England, so that was a 70 mile run following Hadrian's Wall from from West Side and Carlisle, which is sort of west of England to the Far East, which is Newcastle. 

Rich Bennett 3:55
How many miles? 

Adrian Knight 3:57
70. Yeah, that's what. 

Rich Bennett 3:59
I thought you said. Yeah. 

Adrian Knight 4:02
I can definitely say that. Was that was tough. That pushed me to whole new limits. But that again was why I was doing it. And I documented this thing on the whole thing on Instagram and by various stages of the journey so that this. 

Rich Bennett 4:16
Road so. 

Adrian Knight 4:16
To flow my next goal and I've only done 25 miles and there's never, you know, 45 to go and the Arctic Circle was that was snow biking. So essentially cycling with really big fat tires and snowshoeing. So you basically walk in big conical like the tennis shoes on your feet and cross-country skiing as well. But with that one, we we camped out in the Arctic Circle and it was -17 degrees. And one of the it was a different again, a different level of experience. And one of the one of the days we camped out at the base of a mountain. And we woke up the next day, obviously freezing. But Sage was was beautiful. And I've got some glorious photos of like the sun reflecting off the snow and the ice. And a very small group of us decided as it was such nice weather to essentially ascend the mountain, which we slept out that night to go out to the summit. But as we as we were climbing, the weather came in and sort of turned on us and it became really fierce. And when you're in the Arctic Circle or anywhere coves that degree, you have to really manage how you sweat because, yeah, it's so cold when you sweat, the sweat freezes. And I was halfway up this mountain and I wasn't expecting the weather to come in so quick. So it set sunglasses on and the wind started coming in. And, you know, when you catch a bit of wind in your hand, Teardrop comes out with a tear come out and it freezes. So my right eye was was like half closed because it was froze down. And so, yeah, so is it multiple sort of different types of events. But again, it goes back to it just doing it because when are you going to be in the Arctic Circle again? 

Rich Bennett 6:10
And yeah, really? Wow, man, God takes me back now. Anderson Cooper I want to go back and do some cold weather training, although I never went to the Arctic Circle. So now when's the the jungle expedition in Panama? When is that? Or do you already do that, too? No. 

Adrian Knight 6:27
So that's next year. So I've got a couple of events next year. Panama I'm really excited about because I think that's going to be the toughest the toughest one today. That's a two week coast to coast, west coast to East coast. The first two days we're doing a marathon each day, which I'm expecting to be extremely challenging because of the sheer humidity and the heat. And then we go we go self-supported into the jungle and this is the bit I'm probably most excited about is because like there is no back, there's no turning around here. If anything happens, the only way out is helicopter by helicopter evacuation, so that I've never been in it in a while. Maybe the Arctic Circle. But for that length of time in the jungle, completely self-supported, it's I'm really excited and equally terrified about about that. And I've just I've just committed to and started to organise a number of events on Easter Island out in the Pacific in May of next year. So. 

Rich Bennett 7:36
Oh, wow. Wow. All right. So with the leg, the jungle expedition, as far as food goes, are you guys hunting for your own food or do you pack stuff? You Oh, really? 

Adrian Knight 7:50
Yeah. So we as a small group of us, there's about nine I know of and it's slightly more. Is it ten? 12 people? We all got our own machete, which was probably the biggest reason for signing up, for signing up and committing to this. You get your own last call. 

But yeah, completely, completely self-supported. There will be an element of luck. We're going to have some like some like no food supplies, but whatever we have, right, the five days and, and bits like that, I just Yeah, I've, Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 8:24
Wow. So, so with all these that you've done like the Arctic Circle and everything is. Yeah. Here we go talking about food. We were just talking about food before we started, but I'm always amazed by this stuff. Were you living off the land with those two or will Panama be your first time? 

Adrian Knight 8:41
Panama will be my first time, yeah. Okay. So we've Arctic Circle. We had, like, Arctic food, which I wouldn't recommend to anyone. 

Rich Bennett 8:51
It's snowballs, right? 

Adrian Knight 8:52
You can create. A base and a lot of reindeers in the Arctic anyway. So there's a lot of like, yeah, yes, I forgot about the. Yeah, but Panama is the first hot. 

Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 9:12
I for those of you listening because you can't see us, I have a funny feeling Adrian sees me with my beard. He's saying it. Oh I can't see that we eat. Father Christmas is reindeer. 

It's good eating, man. 

We actually. What led you to start doing all these different things? 

Adrian Knight 9:34
Yeah. So I know I always like to say to people because the events have become quite, quite extreme. And I love that because that's the stage of life for me right now. But it all started with a half mountain in red in the the the Town I live, which is about 30 miles west London. It's all with half marathon. And then having done the half marathon, I was like, I think I could do about that. And so and so it was about, I think I can do this. I want to prove to myself or see if I actually can do this. Then I've done the London Marathon and after the London Marathon I thought, I reckon I could do a triathlon. And so I signed up for the London Olympic Distance Triathlon and I done the Olympic distance and I don't know any time quick enough for be about 4 hours, but I've done it in Athens about military. I remember exactly. But then after doing that, I was like, I think I could do and I'm not enough to really train for this, but I think I've got it in me. And so all of this has been the same motivation, which is I think I can do that. I'm not quite sure why. Don't go and find out. And the worst that can happen is I don't do it. And for whatever reason I don't do it that I've identified maybe a person in my grade or of identify something. So that was like the first, not the first core thing that has constantly that underpins the motivation behind this. But after Tony the Iron Man, there was a big gap. So of a gap of several years that five, six years before picking them up again, partly because I couldn't see an event that that sort of not that caught my interest but really where it came from was a few years ago. So about to just like two years ago I was in a a fairly dark place and I was waking up like 233 in the morning with a dream anxiety and having severe panic attacks to the point where I would be laying in bed for an hour and a half in a state of code off and almost like a foetus position in a state of scared, sheer and utter dread that everything was coming in. And it took me that long to sort of talk myself out of it and off the back of that of that. This can't continue because it was getting worse and worse. And I went to see a therapist, and that therapist in many ways helped me to like make some fundamental shifts in my life. Like he always said, it's no was they've always said it's kind of like an oil tanker. You making a one degree shift in direction. But over a period of miles, all of a sudden that becomes like a hundreds and hundreds of thousands of hours where I was like, you know, where you end up. And that's exactly what's happened. So I've seen Steve, this therapist, but he said something to me that just struck a nerve, which was he didn't go into any detail because of client patient 

confidentiality, but he was like, Adrian, I've had a client sitting in the same seat that you're sitting in. And that client said to me like they were they were slightly out. I was coming up to retirement. But that client said to me that their biggest regret in life was that they didn't use their body in in every way they could. And it struck a chord because I'd never heard of that. Like, normally you hear about people when you look back over their lives, and I wish I hadn't worked as much or she spent more time with family. Yeah, stayed in contact away from my childhood friends. But I've never heard anyone say that they wish they'd used their body. And and it just got me thinking about how we do take our health so life for granted. And yeah, it's not a given. It's really not a given. And I was like, I'm fit, I'm healthy right now. I may not be forever. And this is something that's always caught my interest. Let's explore it. And that was that hit home to me. Look, I returned from Sparta on. So today's Friday of Return. Tuesday of this week. In the early hours and during the championships, I met a guy who was slightly younger than me. He was in his early thirties, but he had one leg. He literally had one leg and he was doing these Spartan World Championships, going up Spartan Mountains and doing some of the toughest obstacles I've ever participated in with one leg. And I was just like, Jeez, they're like, There's no light. You like. It was just so humbling. Yeah. C f Yes. So I think he'd go. 

Rich Bennett 14:23
Whoa, oh, no, no, no, that's okay. Because it makes you think it's like there are people worse off than me that are doing things that I thought I can't do. Well, I got to at least try, you know, if if you don't mind me asking, do you know what brought on the anxiety? 

Adrian Knight 14:41
Yeah, it was a number of things. The I mean, there's a lot there's a lot going on in my life. So right as an entrepreneur, I buy you turn around and sell companies and I've built quite a quite a life skill set in doing that. But the downside of that is that is now I can acquire companies quite effortlessly, which certainly a couple of years ago I was acquiring multiple companies, all within a very short period of time. So I mean, it was chaos, it was chaos, and there was so many moving parts and it was that was a big factor of it and all of that. But also there was this underlying 

aside feeling. There's this underlying, yeah, like sort of feeling underneath the surface of like is this aligned to what I want to be doing? And so that caused me to, to make severe change. And I still do it. I do buy in and out of businesses is absolute support me is who I am and but the way I was approaching it and the role I was playing, that wasn't as much. So it caused me to ask me to make some very fundamental positive changes. 

Rich Bennett 15:59
And I think that's something that a lot of people that start a business don't really look at is, Yeah, there's there's a lot of upsides, but there can be some downsides too. And you went the smart way. You I mean, you contacted a therapist, which helped you, which is good because a lot of people a lot of people don't you know, they'll turn to medication or sometimes they don't even do anything, you know. But but you you seek help, which is important. So actually, what how old were you when you actually became an entrepreneur? 

Adrian Knight 16:39
I mean, my entrepreneurial route. 

Rich Bennett 16:42
I was going to say, do tell me you started when you were a teenager. MAN. 

Adrian Knight 16:45
Yeah. I mean, that's that's come through there. So my first entrepreneurial venture was I had my little paper owned empire, so I took my first paper out. And when I was 30, that's my 13th birthday, which is legal age in the UK, because I was so I was signed to my cause. Such a motor like Petrolheads that I wanted to start saving for a car even though I couldn't drive for four more years. But I wanted to start saving. So I took my first paper out but and save loads of money, but quickly realised that I was limited by how much I could earn. So my natural instinct was to take on a second one and then the third one, and then the fourth one. And then if I had five paper rounds. But then I was like I got no time. So I essentially franchised those paper arms out to my friends who all wanted to paper out. But couldn't because I had them all. And I went to work in the paper shop signing up new clients and let me pay for race. And yet I ended up winning Paper Boy of the Year in in Hampshire, and I got a brand new bike. So that was that was cool. That's why I. Got my first taste of entrepreneurship. And then it was when I started university here. And so I dropped out of university after three weeks because I was looking around thinking, this career isn't for males studying construction management, but I ended up staying weeks. Yes, three weeks. I was very even then I was very clear. I was like, it makes no sense to me to be spending three years and all of this money to do something that I know right now at this very point, even was at the very start of the journey. I don't want to be doing so. I made that decision within three weeks, but I ended up staying for three years because within those three weeks I had started a very small student business, which essentially it was just before Facebook, right before we used to go out to the student nights, take loads of photos, hand out some business cards. We've got a web address on. We've put up a quick website and then gone to so all the photos on the website, but then in the three weeks have gone to a few of the local companies who wanted to target students and basically saw them advertise it to advertise on the website. And then that evolved to run in our local first event. So we started running the student events night and then that ultimately evolved to we've run in four of the five student event nights each week. We had the advertising, we had a paid weekly column in the newspaper which had a readership about 30,000, and we launched a charity of a student charity off the back of it that is still run today by Hampshire Constabulary. Really? Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 19:44
So that is awesome. So and I want to ask you before I get into some other questions, because I just before we started, I asked you about a previous business, but this one, this children's education group, what exactly is it. 

Adrian Knight 20:02
So spectacular group is is a small group of companies that's focused on like our central mission is to build an integrated learning experience for children. And we it primarily consists of 

a lot of two core brands or national franchise networks. So we all the franchise, all these are businesses that I've acquired. I bought both of them when I was on the brink of bankruptcy and turned them around in a very short period that the problems have run really bad compared to some of the other businesses I've I've sort of looked at and dealt with. And yeah, I thought rather than looked to sell it and to try to create an exit event, I, I very much went into the with the, like the central driving force behind it is about the kids. And to be perfectly honest, it's like I never went in I never went into the sector expecting to build like an empire from it. Certainly if anyone would have said, Yeah, most million a couple of years without revenue out of enough, Well, no, don't be silly. That's not why I'm doing this. I went into it because I've recently become a dad myself and my lovely daughter Evie, who's now four years old. And I was going to like different baby classes in these different environments. And I was looking around thinking, This isn't sitting right like it is like those first five years of a child's life are the most important years of a person's life because they largely influence the trajectory of the rest of our life. And it felt like it was so under, so disjointed and and that so I went into it with the mindset of, you know, I just want to play a part. I don't care how big or small it is. I just want to if I can influence one child's life, that it's been totally worth it. Whereas today we educate just under 10,000, under five year olds every academic term. And yeah, we've barely got started like it. And it's so excited because it's like I started it. Yeah, like just after I've turned one years old, but actually for day one. And so this particular group is just over three years old images of four year olds, and I'm so excited to see how it grows as Evie grows. And now she's into like primary school and a secondary school, and we start to sort of tap into these different areas of of a child's education. 

Rich Bennett 22:43
Isn't it amazing how when you have your own children and how it can change everything but even your outlook on business, 

it's it's a godsend. I would never change any of it for the world. I would never. Can you actually share your insights on the strategies and approaches for acquiring a business with limited or no capital? 

Adrian Knight 23:08
Yeah. So. 

Rich Bennett 23:08
And how has the process typically unfold? 

Adrian Knight 23:12
Yeah. So I want to jump in. I love talking about I great. 

Yes. So all of my acquisitions and I've done around ten in the last three years, so I just under three is I the all of them have been without using any of my money. And there's two reasons for this. First reason was when I first started, I didn't have any money to acquire, so I physically couldn't pay even if I wanted to. But that proved to be a blessing in disguise because what I've since learned is that there is obviously like, I'm sure people would say this, but as risks in buying a business, don't know of the ten I've fully had around the 50% success rate and so I've had 50% of failures. And a couple of those values have been absolute train wrecks like sheer disasters. And they've been great because they've been a huge learning experience and they've made me significantly more savvier and astute buying companies. But what they've also done is reinforced the level of risks in that if you don't know what you're doing, like it really does pay to get some guidance and some knowledge here. And so the reason why I always structure them without risking any of my own capital is because of that. So I know that I know for a fact without any shadow of a doubt that if I'm buying, if I'm buying a business because of the size, I'm buying a bunch of problems, there will be a bunch of problems and they're guaranteed. And the owners of that business, they will know some of the problems, some of the problems they won't know. And for the problems I know some like some of them, they're going to share, some of them they're not going to share because they want to sell the business. That's human human nature. And so if I'm going into this business and I've got my house on the line, my life savings and my Evie's educational fund as well, then one, that's a risky place to put that money. But two, it also means I'm less likely to do what's needed to be done to get those like to get the businesses out of those problems. And one of the benefits you have when you go in without risking your own capital is that you're not afraid to rip off the plasters and to get into the the dirty work that needs doing, but which their previous owners are. So emotionally tied up, they they just mentally and emotionally cannot do it so. 

Rich Bennett 25:43
Huh yeah. And talk about risk. And like you mentioned, there are a lot of risk in acquiring a business, but how do you recommend mitigating these risk? 

Adrian Knight 25:56
So largely it comes down to how you structure the deal. And the DOS acquisition is is really quite a good case study to sort of go through here. So so that business, the the the purchase price of that business was hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pounds, like several hundred thousand. You know, this is a lot of money, but I structured to do it in a way in which I didn't put down any of my own capital. On day one. There was a time the token payment on day one, which was of £10,000. But that money I took from a previous acquisition and the only reason I paid that was that I could see that I could get that money back within seven days. And as it turned out, seven days after taking ownership of the business, I, I paid that 10,000 bucks to the other company and I took a dividend of 20,000 personally. So like I structured the deal on the way from the very beginning. But the second thing I've done and the key thing here that I learned from previous failures was that I built in certain mechanisms within the deal so that if any problems came up, they would essentially be taken off of the purchase price. And so problems did come up. It's a fairly significant problems all within the first 30 days. And unfortunately they just kept coming. So within within the first 30 days, I'd had a letter from HMRC, so equipment to the IRS in the States saying that the previous the business had over claimed on certain benefits during COVID and has immediately repaid 16 and a half thousand pounds back to them immediately. No questions. Otherwise, heavy fines would be coming in. There was a the one of their largest customers had accidentally like four or five months before I became involved, had accidentally paid off £20,000, invoice twice, and why they'd accidentally paid a £20,000 invoice twice, but they'd only just realised like five or six months down the line. But the previous owners had taken that decision not to let them know to repay it. And I'm like, Come on, guys. 

Rich Bennett 28:19
God. 

Adrian Knight 28:21
But oh, and these are just two minor examples of many things that that happens. But from a previous failure, I hadn't had these mechanisms come into place and I'd had a letter from HMRC again saying that the business owed is about £20,000 from the previous ownership. And I was like, as the owner of this business and the director of this business, I'm liable. So I had no choice either to pay it or to to to essentially liquidate the company. And that's exactly what happened with that. 

Rich Bennett 28:56
Wow. Holy cow. So those of you listening or thinking too big, you know, by businesses, listen up closely because, yeah, there are risks, but there's are there's rewards, too, right? 

Adrian Knight 29:12
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 29:12
Actually, with that, what can you tell us? Like some of the biggest rewards from the businesses you acquired and sold? 

Adrian Knight 29:20
Yeah, I mean. 

Rich Bennett 29:22
Well, selling them is a big reward, I guess. 

Adrian Knight 29:24
Yeah. I mean. You're talking like you're talking about multiple like the access I've done have been they've all been in the six figure ranges but. 

Rich Bennett 29:35
Wow. 

Adrian Knight 29:36
But there are multiple like multiple of these events in a very short period of time. And then also to consider that, you know, my first acquisition, I bought for a pound and I sold that two years later for a very healthy six figure sum. 

Rich Bennett 29:50
So nice the. 

Adrian Knight 29:51
Return on investment and return on time and my only my biggest mistake with that was that I should have sold after six months because I would have got the same values as got after two years. And so, yeah, like that would have been a really nice payday for six months work, but even for two years, considering I wasn't directly involved in the business, what a very limited input. Right. It was. Yeah, very, very lucrative. And yeah, the exits are nice but also the, the multiple sources of decent income that's coming inside of however many you know normally like good five figures coming from this business and the nut business. So it really adds up very quickly. And again, without risking huge amounts. But I mean pounds. And. 

Rich Bennett 30:40
So is there a secret or how do you decide what businesses you want to purchase? 

Adrian Knight 30:49
MM 

So my, my sort of playbook, I guess for want of a better phrase, has, has formed over the last years and through as I've gone through various experiences and, and that, so that there is a criteria that I look for the business, it has to be a certain size. So I wouldn't touch anything. We have under half a million in annual revenue purely for the fact that if it's got under half a million of annual revenue, then the owner of that business or owners are almost certainly heavily involved in the day to day. And so I would essentially be paid a lot of money for a job that will take me a long time to get that money back. When you get to half a million, you tend to have a very small team that you can start to play with. Really, I look for businesses like North of the Million in revenue because although the owners tend to be heavily involved, they're very often they tend to be the bottle necks. And by removing them, you do two things. It's, you know, the business tends to grow, but also the teams, these are the owners that need to be there anyway. And so I tend to look for these companies, but also I look for what am I going to do with a slot? I have to have a vision for a business, even if I'm planning to sell it. Like there has to be a vision that of a genuine, authentic vision. I can see how we can fix this or how we can take this to the next level. And I also separate in look for like I know my exit before I even got into it. And yeah, I particularly like opportunities where I can't see myself long term in that business, but I see a good owner. Heart's in the right place. The business isn't quite right in the in the right place. They want to move on, but there are certain things that holding them back or they're not addressing in the business. I require that company do what needs to be done and then of look to maybe sell it to the management team and give them that next sort of big career opportunity and and so forth. So I always look for the value, what value is there and and do I want to like to do it? Because it can be right, It can be long, hard work like, yes, it's yeah, you need to know what you get yourself into. 

Rich Bennett 33:15
What's your shirt. Shirt. Shirt. Yeah. Right. What's your shortest turnaround time for. Actually buying a business is a business and selling it for profit for weeks. 

Adrian Knight 33:27
That what? Yeah, I mean. 

Rich Bennett 33:29
It out of here. 

Adrian Knight 33:30
Arguably, the best time to sell a business is when you bought it. Because a lot of business and you always hear this with people who sell in the business and even if they're not selling their business, we've entrepreneurs in general, we're an optimistic bunch. And so next year is always going to be the best year and there's always these huge potential and there's always these immediate things that can be done to improve the business. But, you know, first all year, same again and possibly it's the same again. But what they fail to realise is that, yeah, I see the potential, but I'll go do the work. Like, who's going to do that? Well, okay, so sometimes you can quite easily like do quite a lot in the business simply by removing the owners from the company. And clearly movements like listing out like these or the things that can be done with this business and the put an end straight on by on the market and let someone else do that, that hard work. So you don't necessarily to be up to it you can you can vary quite greatly. 

Rich Bennett 34:32
Wow. So in your experience, what are the key skills and quality these that contribute to success in small business mergers and acquisitions, as well as in turning around struggling businesses? 

Adrian Knight 34:48
So on the acquisition side, 

there is misconception when people think about mergers, acquisitions and M&A. You can quite often think of the scene which almost certainly seen on TV of a long boardroom highs, you know, to skyscraper. You've got 20 lawyers on each side. And you know, that may be the way that acquisitions happen when you're dealing with businesses that are in the hundreds and hundreds of millions, etc., about the small business level light, you've got pacing. And Jane, you've been running the plumbing business for 20 years, setting the table to really nice down to earth people on a grafted hard. This is their life's work. Well, the skill that you need is to be human and and it's about people. It's about swinging your chair to their side of the desk saying, Hey, guys. Right. What's actually going on here? Like, what are you looking to do? Why you two sell this business now? What's actually going on in your life outside the business? Very often that you will find patterns where there is there has been some event that has like triggered their like either accelerated their sort of plans or a side and it could be a health. It's very common and I've seen that they could have had a close friend get on the cup wave or you know, they met wherever they suddenly passed away and and it jolts them and they realise like crap, like it's, you know, I'm not going to live forever. I spent 20 years doing this and they and, and so the skills is an authentic understanding of that and wanting to, to do well by it. And so that is the biggest one. And people often surprised to hear that. I tend to start a conversation. I tend to not really look at the business. I tend to be wrong. I have a glance of the financials to make sure that worth my time, but I'm all about the ideas and understanding where they're at. And that's the key about yeah, because I've seen people go into this who are like, great with numbers and great finances, but they're completely missed the human component aspects of it because they're so logical and data driven. And equally I made I won't say his name, but I know a guy who has been trying to buy a business for about about four years now. And I mean, hats off to the persistence behind it. But when speaking with him, he has such an abrasive personality, it's really, really hard to warm to him. And I'm not. That's why you have a bull is because the light is so hard to connect to view. And it. Yeah. So Jane got one hand over there the other baby that the building for this time to this person you know probably not. 

Rich Bennett 37:51
I guess for somebody like him he's better off having somebody like you do all that stuff for him and he just sit in the back. 

Adrian Knight 38:00
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 38:01
And 

that to me, that makes more sense. 

Adrian Knight 38:05
So yeah, exactly that. And Annie, you've touched on a really good point because of lack of mentor, a lot of people in this and of anxiety in myself and 

everyone tends to have their strengths when they go in stuff. So like, I like numbers, but I'm not a numbers person. So to get someone who is like, I've got, you know, I surround myself with good financial people and, you know, they're not taking equity in the business. I'm not paying them by large retainers is simply like, Hey, I know you, I trust you. Can you look at this? And I may pay a small fee for that, but I know that I've got an experience, Piers, seasoned eyes in the finances and it gives me more confidence to go back in. And quite often is that the biggest bulk bottleneck, the biggest barrier to buyers for business is there is this big discrepancy between what the sellers think the business is worth and what the business is actually worth. So quite often I've got the numbers people feeding me the numbers saying, Adrian, they are madder than I think we get in this. This is the real value of it. I don't take in that and I'm packaging up in my way to get that across to them in a more understanding, empathic human way. Whereas if they had the conversation they'd be like, eyeball me. Nobody is worth that much and it's going to shut the door down there. And then because I've seen it happen so many times. 

Rich Bennett 39:31
So yeah. Wow. So Adrian, from your perspective, why is it beneficial for current business owners to develop skills in acquisitions? And how can this skill set contribute to their overall business worth and strategy? Because I think every business owner should know how to do this. 

Adrian Knight 39:53
You know, I'm always saying this because as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, you have to learn key skills. You have to learn finances or at least have an understanding of your finances, marketing, sales, you know, some form of delivery, whatever you put out to surfaces. And I'm like, Hey, everyone, you need to have this in your toolbox as well. You need to know how to how to buy businesses because there's a huge opportunity as more businesses like ever for sale or which are going to be for sale over the next 20, 20 years, basically, than there are buyers for them. And, you know, you look at spectacularly my children's group, I've gone from a complete newbie stand in store. I don't have a clue about anything in this industry to multi-million revenue and it's in the space of like literally it was two years when we hit the barrier. I got into the multimillion wow revenue. And so you think about it from a business owner, if you're running a plumbing company or marketing company, how long would it take you to double that business? It probably take you years, but you could buy one within a matter of months that could double your revenue. You're literally double your revenue, if not more, and give you resources and talent and infrastructure that you don't currently have now. And it all just comes down to having a basic understanding of what the process looks like and you know that support to see for it to look in a safe way. I just I just think is a no brainer. And so my final point on this, because it is so important when you have that skillset, your biggest problem is not how do you grow, it's how do you how do you scale with the growth? Because like we grew so quickly, which is great because I want it to keep on acquiring more. But then you look into the businesses like this, like it was as chaos at the beginning. We had to integrate staff, we had to reorganise and that's where your biggest problems come from in the end, right? 

Rich Bennett 41:59
So what advice would you give to someone who's interested in entering the world of buying and selling businesses? 

Adrian Knight 42:06
I get skilled up, get knowledge really important and I'm a little bit 

so, so I speak on the margins that Small Business wrote and that acquisition circuit. I've been in Dubai next month. I spoke to a number of different places about Boston and L.A. and lots of different places, if you will really consider this or not the idea of this. You need to get knowledge, There's no question about that. But also be mindful of sort of two things. The first is that you can't get this knowledge in like a two or three day course, but we can course, right. Knowledge dump. You're not going to learn it. You're going to come out like a rabbit in the wool, deer in the headlights. You know that knowledge needs to be soaked up and absorbed over five years at a time, and you need to take on board. Second thing to recognize is that the way you really learn this is by doing it, that it's an experiential process. It's kind of like anything, you know, you don't learn to swim by sitting in the classroom, reading all the books, being shot. You learn to swim by getting in the pool. And remember in the spreadsheet we showed and it's exactly the same here. So you kind of want to hit it from both angles, but always start with rather knowledge. 

Rich Bennett 43:28
I love that 

actually. And talking about the knowledge and getting the knowledge and I don't know if you've done it yet, but have you considered writing a book about this? 

Adrian Knight 43:39
And 

yes, interested in. Yeah, you know, I have it. I've been so I've been so busy this year and I'm quite. 

Rich Bennett 43:48
Fortunate because you're traveling everywhere, man. 

Adrian Knight 43:52
I sort of put myself in a position where because I'm. I don't I'm not involved at all day to day with the children's Education group. I've got a team of people in there. Okay. I own the business 100%. I do almost have a monthly salary, but I have the luxury of not actually having to go to work or write to do it. Like I have some small meetings, like management stuff like strategy. So I have a lot of free time, which I could fill it up with. It's pretty stupid. It's like adventures, I guess. But yeah, you know. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 44:24
It's I think you should, because you definitely have a lot to offer, you know, it's a people or even a podcast. Well, let's face it. A well, even write a book, you can always do that while you're traveling to different places. But a podcast, you can do the same thing, man. Just traveling all the different places and talking about it. 

Adrian Knight 44:45
Yeah. And I get a lot of people, a lot of people have approached me, particularly people within Flight Network, and they've seen spectacular group of some of the other things I've done and they've come up with how, how know you do this and like they want to know because I want to apply and I love that right And so I've been working with a small group of 

very small private group of of clients to help them to do, you know, to show it in the ropes in a more intricate way. But they even a few of the others have all advised like, you know, is there some form of. Right Yeah like the online version which I don't I, I will say, but I think a plan to do something like that. 

Rich Bennett 45:30
All right. Well, first of all, for the business then, is there anything you like to add? 

Adrian Knight 45:36
Not at all. I would say, particularly if you're an entrepreneur, Listen to this. 

Rich Bennett 45:40
Right. 

Adrian Knight 45:41
You really need to look into this as a as a skill set to add to you more because you can double, triple or quadruple your business within months. You know, it's very, very exciting. 

Rich Bennett 45:55
Yeah, actually, I do have a question about that because do you find it that some business owners who have built a successful business are afraid to sell the business? I hear you. 

Do you find that they're afraid to sell the business? 

Adrian Knight 46:11
Yes, I do. And I've I've really started to spend a lot of time thinking about the sellers and sell inside the table and how I can how I can add value to that. I'm clear how when average people are looking to when to buy a business, but the sellers is in particular really pulls my heart strings because many of them have spent decades building their business and they want to move on. But they emotionally struggle with so many aspects of it and the business isn't ready to sell and they don't know what they're going to do with their time. If they if they do so. And quite often it's not uncommon to hear of, well, the marriage or, you know, relationship isn't going well. And they've almost been and distracted through the business before the business goes, then they've got to confront. And so yeah, so many emotions on the set aside and it does make it hard for them to to move on. And unfortunately, they don't really move on until it's normally how long they physically have to, but their business is not in the state, so they don't always end up getting what they could be getting if they had started preparing for it. So, you know. 

Rich Bennett 47:27
So you my take is if you've built a successful business once, you can probably do it again. 

Adrian Knight 47:33
Of. 

Rich Bennett 47:34
Yet another business and build another one man and sell it again. You know. 

Adrian Knight 47:39
The previous one, you. 

Rich Bennett 47:39
Charge it. 

Adrian Knight 47:40
Well, the owners of the business, I mean, last acquisition, they were in their early fifties, far too young to retire, but they were like, Andrew, we've spent over 15 years building this business. We want to retire around ten, maybe 15 years if we're ever going to have another career or one of design deferral now at the time. Otherwise we're just going to spend the whole life doing what we've always done and they just want to do something different. 

Rich Bennett 48:09
All right. So out of all these things, you've been to the Arctic, you know, running 70. 

Adrian Knight 48:16
Miles. Jesus Christ, 70 miles. 

Rich Bennett 48:20
Go headed to Panama. Is there any place that you really want to go or do that you haven't done yet? What is on your radar? 

Adrian Knight 48:28
Yeah. So the next year I've got Panama and Easter Island. I'm also doing like the three peaks in the UK. So the Welsh, Scottish and English, the highest peaks in 

2025. I turn 40, 20, 25 and I've I'm actually doing the world's first ultramarathon on the Galapagos Islands in November 2025. But my aspiration has always been to go to the South Pole. I always wanted. 

Rich Bennett 49:02
Really. 

Adrian Knight 49:03
To South Pole and I want to do it these last year I'm turning 40, so I've got my fishing boat out there. I can see it and that's the one how I'm going to do that. I have no idea. Right now it's extremely expensive as well and that has to be like that. Partly drives what I'm doing because I'm. 

Rich Bennett 49:24
Extremely cold. 

Adrian Knight 49:25
Extremely cold. But when I've done the Arctic, I made a real point because I could have hired some of the equipment. I thought, No, I'm going to buy the equipment, because then I know email kind of buy it and use it once. I'm going to have to do something to be able to use it again. 

Rich Bennett 49:40
Right? 

Adrian Knight 49:40
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 49:41
So now you got to go to Antarctica. I mean. 

Adrian Knight 49:43
Yeah, I've got to go to the South Pole to use my sleeping bag again. 

Rich Bennett 49:46
So 

have you ever thought about have you ever thought about maybe Everest climbing Mount Everest? 

Adrian Knight 49:53
Yeah, I've, I've sort of considered it. I'm actually just getting into climbing. So I go with my daughter with and I like to help. Amazing for her social and physical development and her confidence is just going through the roof by learning to climb. And so I've been doing it with her, but also with the mindset of I can see this maybe, maybe bend something because I haven't got much technical skill in it. I yeah, I'm not giving too much thought, but so I mean, some of the things I would love to do would be a lot more of Asia is not Mongolia, Nepal, China, Russia, places that yeah I've never been to. But if I'm going to go there I want to do it in a you know, quite different style like I want to write about across Mongolia what some of. 

Rich Bennett 50:51
You just got. Remember all these different places you go to, You got to try the cuisine, man. 

Adrian Knight 50:55
Oh, yeah, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 50:57
I've got to try what they eat. Try what they eat. All right, So you've been on several. Several. So actually, do you even know how many different pockets you've been on now? 

Adrian Knight 51:07
I've. 

Rich Bennett 51:10
I know I was going to say, I know it's been a lot. So this is something I always like to ask everybody out of all the hosts that you've talked to, is there anything that a host has never asked you that you wish they would have asked you? And if so, what would be their question? What would be your answer for? 

Adrian Knight 51:30
Well, I've never been asked out before, and that's cool. That would all be well. I never been asked, but I wish I had been asked. 

Rich Bennett 51:41
And doesn't necessarily have to do with business either. 

Adrian Knight 51:44
Yeah. What comes to mind, actually, and the focus I was on not too long ago 

there was talking about a lot of like where things are today. So the like the adventures and the business and you know, all of that stuff and it's really cool. But I'm also extremely conscious that it could also send the wrong impression. Like if someone was listening to this, I don't want them to think that, Oh, life is rosy, life is nothing but amazing. Don't get me wrong, life is fantastic, but it's also extremely challenging. This year has been the hardest year of my life. There's been several major life events happen within space of of weeks. We've had deaths, deaths. We've had deaths in the family. We've had close family members being diagnosed with cancer. There's been lots of stuff going on and it's like it's been so intense and I wish people would I wish I would have been asked like, you know, how are things? How are things now? How are you today? Because I've been on so many podcasts where literally my world is falling apart at the morning and the afternoon, I'm going to focus and I talk about all the fun stuff I love. Like, I just don't want people to get the wrong impression. And so, yeah, I'm, I'm active on social media, but I really try to share, oh, I woke up this morning and I was really anxious and this was the reason why, like beneath the surface of what actually is going on rather than just what people may want to see or what people want to see. 

Rich Bennett 53:29
Yeah, but you know what? You have something to wear, and I'm sure this helps you a lot and me because I went through anxiety and depression and certain things helped me. But know I'm sorry, four years old. Evie. 

Adrian Knight 53:42
Evie Year four years old. 

Rich Bennett 53:44
So you all you have to do is look at that smile and face. And I'm sure that just brightens up your day all the time. 

Adrian Knight 53:52
Yeah. Or more light. And she's put me in my place, and I. 

And telling me what I need to do and just a big smile on my face. 

Rich Bennett 54:03
So 

yeah, I know my daughter was the same way when she was younger at 424. All these years I kept looking for a convent and couldn't find one, you know? Now she's 22 and I just couldn't. I'm done. 

Well, Adrian, I want to thank you so much. Beard. And the door is open. Any time you want to come back. Especially like after you do Panama. Well, I would love to talk to you about all these different expeditions and tell Evie that Father Christmas said hi. 

Adrian Knight 54:37
Yeah. I will. 

Rich Bennett 54:39
Watch it. Ah. 

Adrian Knight 54:41
And I won't tell about anything to anybody else. Exactly. So. 

Rich Bennett 54:45
Yeah, there you. 

Thanks a lot. 

Adrian Knight 54:48
Thank you so much. I'm really grateful for the opportunity to be on the show and yet love the conversation. Thank you. 

Rich Bennett 54:55
All. My pleasure. My pleasure.