Welcome back to all 8590 of you tuning in for your weekly dose of everything you need to know in the world of business, entrepreneurship and all things Matt Haycox!

Welcome to your Friday morning dose of everything that matters in the world of business, finance, entrepreneurship and my life! If you want ‘agenda free’ news, top tips, tried and tested strategies and a bit of my banter, then you’re in the right place!

This week you’ll find:

• 🤔 INSIGHTS: What I’ve been up to this week and what you can learn from it.

• 💬 QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Personal motivation from the experts.

• 📈 BEHIND THE NEWS: Major trending business news this week and my take on it.

• ✂️  SNIPPETS FROM THE WEEK: What the business world is reading.

• 📸  BIG PICTURE: A deep-dive into some of the biggest market trends and what’s the impact on businesses.

• 📊 POLL: Tell us your biggest business headache for 2023!

• 🎟️ EVENTS & NETWORKING: The only event you need in your calendar this summer to entertain clients, meet HNW’s and rub shoulders with legends of the sporting world. And I’ll be there!

🤔 INSIGHTS

There are always 3 constants in my weeks - they are hectic, varied and always include a lot of marketing related activities. Whether it is studying the latest marketing theories, creating content or creating and implementing marketing strategies across my businesses, marketing always forms a major part of my agenda. That’s because I love it but also because I think it is one of the most important activities within a business and something any CEO or entrepreneur should have a massive hand in.

A large part of my time is spent on content creation – recording podcasts, writing blogs for my website or content for this newsletter, social media posts and live broadcasts. Building a brand is essential for both lead generation and maximising sales opportunities, ensuring high margins are achieved.

Without a brand you are a commodity, and selling a commodity is a race to the bottom.

One of the biggest mistakes business owners make when it comes to their business or personal brand is farming it out to a third party and leaving them to it. I always say that the clue in the words ‘personal brand’ is the ‘personal’ bit.

For a personal brand to be truly successful it should be created and managed by the individual themself – or they should as a bare minimum have a major hand in it.

But one of the main factors that prevent people from properly building a personal brand is the fear of trolling – people dishing out the hate and the horrible comments online.

FACT: If you want to be an entrepreneur, a successful business owner, then you need to get comfortable with rejection.

This includes rejection from customers. Rejection from banks and investors. Rejection from potential employees you are looking to hire. The list is endless.

The quicker you learn to accept rejection and get comfortable with it, the better. Sweating it, overthinking it, trying to fight it will just consume time and energy, achieve nothing and fuck with your mind…

Trolling, the online hatred and negativity, is just another form of rejection. If you have followed me for a while, you will know that when I receive abuse online I usually repost it on my social channels, with a bit of banter back at the sender. I do this as it amuses me and I do it to try show you guys how little it affects me, and how little it should affect you.

The way I see it is this…most people in life are good and supportive. It’s the absolute minority who are bitter, negative and abusive. So, for every 1 person writing shit about me online there will be at least 25 people writing something positive and nice.

So, what does it mean if I get 5 or 10 negative comments? It means not enough people know who I am, or I would be getting a lot more! I need 1000’s of people hating on me! Because that means I will have millions who know me. And the more people that know me, the more people who can transact with me – and that is ultimately the whole reason for doing this right!

FINAL THOUGHTS: Go think about that for a minute. Instead of fearing the hate, court it. A simple shift of perspective can change everything. And if you can learn to think like this, you’ll never be feeling anxiety from social media ever again.

💬 QUOTE OF THE WEEK

📈  BEHIND THE NEWS

Shein’s “meteoric rise” hits Boohoo Group sales and profits

Manchester-based fashion giant Boohoo Group (which owns brands including PrettyLittleThing, BoohooMan and NastyGal) has posted a loss of £90.7m for the year to February 28. This compares to pre-tax profits of £7.8m the previous year.

As cost-of-living pressures squeeze its core customer base of twenty-somethings, along with competition from the likes of Chinese ultra-fast fashion giant Shein, sales for the year fell by 11% to £1.7bn.

CLICK TO READ MY LATEST ANALYSIS ON WHY

UK revenues fell 9%, compared to last year, but were up 61% on 2020. International revenues fell 13% compared to the previous year but grew 22% on 2020.

Gross margin dropped by 190 basis points to 50.6%, reflecting Covid related cost pressures on raw materials and freight, and stock clearance.

The Group says inventory has been “reduced significantly”, down 36% year-on-year or £101m in absolute terms as at the end of February.

Adjusted EBITDA dropped 49% to £63.3 million, on margins of 3.6%.

The Group says its focus for the year ahead is on rebuilding profitability and getting back to growth. For the year ending 28 February 2024 (“FY24”), revenues are expected to be between flat and a decline of 5% versus the prior year, with increased emphasis on driving profitable sales.

Adjusted EBITDA for FY24 is expected to improve year-on-year as a result of operational gains, cost efficiencies and cost deflation in the retailer’s supply chain, with adjusted EBITDA margins of 4% to 4.5%, and adjusted EBITDA of between £69 million to £78 million, in line with market expectations.

✂️ SNIPPETS FROM THE WEEK 

• Bank of England governor admits UK economy is suffering from wage price spiral. Read here>

• JD Sports reports record sales in its latest results and expects profits to reach £1bn this year. Read here>

• CEO pay - how much money is too much? Read here>

📸  BIG PICTURE: 5 Ways AI Can Boost The Bottom Line

AI is still shaping the news agenda, as the world gets to grips with what it is and the potential impact.

AI itself has been around for decades, anything from Alexa to predictive text is a result of AI. But, generative AI (of which ChatGPT is one app) is what’s new and causing all the hype.

ChatGPT became the fastest growing app in history earlier this year when it reached over 100m users in its first few months of launch.

In this week’s BIG PICTURE feature, we investigate the ways in which generative AI can help boost future profits.

CLICK TO READ

📊  POLL - LET US KNOW

🎟️ EVENTS & NETWORKING

The summer is almost upon us, and that means only 1 thing. No, not more pictures of me with my shirt off on Seasquirter - it means it is time for Berry’s Tennis on the 22nd and 23rd of June!

If you are from the Yorkshire area I am sure you will have either been yourself or heard about it in the press. I created the event about 6 years ago as the perfect fusion of 2 of my favourite activities - tennis and networking! We built a marquee and created a grass tennis court in the beautiful grounds of Hazelwood Castle, and over the course of the event our sponsors and my businesses entertain around 800 guests between us.

The food and Champagne is flowing, our partners showcase their luxury items like Patek Philipe watches and Rolls Royce cars, and everyone is entertained by tennis legends such as Richard Krajicheck, Mark Philippousis and Henri Leconte.

When it comes to my networking events I like to create incredible environments and provide ‘money can’t buy’ experiences to my best clients. And arranging them to play games of tennis with Wimbledon champions is the prime example of a way I get to attract the attention of people who normally have access to everything they want.

So if you want to entertain your clients, network with the good and great of Yorkshire, or just entertain yourself at a unique day out then get in touch with me or my team for information on tables and tickets. There aren’t many left!

TELL YOUR FRIENDS AND GET REWARDED

I love sharing things with friends, and if this newsletter has made you smile or been helpful then please share it with your mates and wider connections. Even better, there will be something in it for you.

We are still finding our feet, and the full reward programme isn’t in place yet. But any referrals you do in the meantime will all count towards it when it is.

What rewards can you expect? One of the rewards will be a long weekend in Dubai with me for the ultimate business immersion experience and dinner with some of my network on my yacht. So get referring now!

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JOIN MY TEAM

I’m also looking for new people to join the Matt Haycox group. I own a number of businesses including Funding Guru, Huddle Capital, Zoom Property and Larizia.

I’m currently looking for a management accountant & a group financial controller. If you know someone who fits the bill, you’ll be rewarded with a referral fee if they are taken on. Send me an email with more information.

GOODBYE FOR NOW

That’s all for this week. I hope you enjoyed reading! I always love to hear feedback so let me know what you liked and what you want to see more of. I’m all ears!

And if you want to talk to me about borrowing, investing, growing your business, or anything else I am good at, then get in touch!

I’m an entrepreneur, investor, funding expert and mentor who has been building and growing businesses for both myself and my clients for more than 20 years. There’s nothing I don’t know about finance!