From serial entrepreneur to private equity investor

I left school at 15 and over the next 35 years started built and sold 7 companies learning first-hand what does and doesn’t work when building a business to an exit and while i've failed many. many times, I've learned from each of those experiences to go onto then succeed on a level that was only a dream to my younger self.

Born into a family of self-employed business owners, I’ve been fascinated about the sales and entrepreneurial process for as long as I can remember, initially honing my skills in the highly competitive home improvement & motor industries, where competition is a constant pressure and closing business a daily necessity.

An early breakthrough moment, for me, came in the 1980’s when I landed an opportunity to sell Jeeps and Harley-Davidsons to the US military in Germany.

That experience inspired a lifelong passion for learning the psychology behind 'why' people buy the things they do from the people they buy them from, and resulted in the building of an entrepreneur training company from which I teach business owners the psychology behind selling more of the products or services that a business sells.

"The road to success is a journey of joy, bumps in the road & the occasional road crash.

BUT for those who focus on their ultimate goal, it's an adventure that makes every experience worth it."

John F. Kettley

All through my business life

I've invested in, built & sold a diverse range of businesses, accruing business knowledge and interests here in the UK, Ireland, Spain and the USA.

I’ve also worked with companies as diverse as Mercedes Benz, FedEx, Ports, Recording studios & just about every type and size of business out there, sometimes as a supplier and over the last 10 years as a personal business mentor and private equity investor.

Through these experiences I've developed a tried & tested methodology for building businesses to an exit event that works regardless of sector a business is operating within, and through those experiences came to the vivid realisation that all

Success is reverse engineered

Proof that anyone can make it...

Two other things about me I’d like to share with you. Firstly, I spend a lot of my spare time on 2 wheels – competing on dirt bikes. It’s where I first learned how to calculate risk quickly and decisively which is a huge component in running a successful business.

The second thing is my dyslexia. It hasn’t stopped me from achieving success, in fact you could say I’m living proof that if you decide upon something at a DNA level, nothing but nothing can stop you from achieving your goal.

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How to build a Business that Creates Wealth

Whether you're thinking of starting a business, need to turn you fortunes around, or you want to dramatically increase the sales revenues and income you make from your business, this is the book for you...

'How to Build a business that creates wealth' shares with you the formula all truly successful entrepreneurs have used to create a high-income wealth creating business.

It's absolutely stacked full of earthy real world stories, tactical exercises and strategies, to give you absolute clarity of exactly what to do next, in your quest to create a high-income business...

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Private equity business investor

In recent years I've pivoted my business focus towards investing in businesses that have the potential to be built to a much higher valuation and exit.

This is done by creating a wheel of assets known as a consolidated syndicate that once built, dramatically increases the valuation of each of the individual businesses that operate under a holding company umbrella. We then source and negotiate with a several potential buyers to obtain the entire syndicate which in of itself significantly raises the valuation of each of the individual businesses within the group.

As a governance shareholder in each of these businesses, I guide the operating management team to dramatically increase the business's valuation by fine tuning the financials, sales and marketing playbooks to make each entity both saleable and attractive to a potential acquirer.

I and my team are not 'operating shareholders', which means we will not be physically in the business on a weekly basis, we prefer to leave this to those in the business who have a far greater finger on the pulse of day-to-day operations. I mention this because many business owners often worry that an investor is going to be hands on changing and upsetting the balance of the business which is the last thing we want to do in scaling a business's revenues up for a future exit...

If you own a well-established and profitable business, and you're now ready to sell or plan to sell your business, I will welcome your call.

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