What Organic Growth is Costing You in the Long Run

You’ve built a £3-5M business, Congratulations! That puts you ahead of 99% of startups.

But, you’re working harder than ever, but the growth has plateaued.

Here’s what grinding organically for another decade actually costs you:

• Time cost: Growing from £3M to £10M at 15-20% annually takes 7-9 years. Using the FACE Methodology? Three years. That’s 4-6 years of your life you don’t get back.
• Enterprise value destruction: Organically growing to £10M might achieve a 3-4x revenue multiple on exit. A scaled business built through FACE? 5-7x or higher. That’s £40M left on the table.
• Market opportunity loss: The best acquisition targets won’t wait. Your competitors are consolidating now. 2026’s opportunities won’t exist in 2029.
• Personal exhaustion: You can’t sustain another decade of 70-hour weeks. FACE gives you a systematic path that doesn’t require heroic effort.

One takes 10 years grinding out incremental gains. The other takes 3 years of smart acquisitions and systematic infrastructure.

How the FACE methodology Changes Your Timeline

Over the past 15 years, I’ve raised over £150 million and completed more than 30+ acquisitions. What I’ve learned is this: businesses that scale successfully do four things exceptionally well.

That’s where my FACE methodology comes in: Fund, Acquire, Consolidate, Exit. 

Let me show you what it looks like through three deals I worked on:

Huveaux – Political Publishing £1.1M to £27.7M in sales (25×) in three years £0.4M to £4.4M in profit (11×) 23 to 240 people

Lonsdale – Education Publishing Over 1 million revision guides sold annually Perfect product-market fit at scale Acquired for £6.9M

ATP Egora – Healthcare Publishing €500K acquisition in France Smallest deal I’ve done. Best deal I’ve done. Strategic fit in a shifting market

Different industries. Different challenges. Same methodology.

Want to know what stage of FACE your business needs to work on?

Our FREE 3-minute Growth Readiness Assessment reveals the exact areas your business thrives and where it doesn’t, so you know what part of FACE you need to focus on first.

Why FACE Works

At Add Then Multiply, we help £1-5M businesses become £10M+ leaders through four essential pillars: Each one builds the infrastructure you need to Fund, Acquire, Consolidate, and Exit successfully.

1. Strategic Financial Planning

What it is: Capital that fuels acquisitions, not just working capital that funds operations.

Why it matters for FACE: You can’t acquire strategically without access to growth capital. This pillar is about raising debt and equity, building financial models that support M&A, and creating the reporting infrastructure that investors demand.

When we were scaling Huveaux, we raised £140M+ across multiple rounds. That wasn’t luck. It was systematic financial planning that made us attractive to investors and gave us the ammunition to make strategic moves.

The gap: Most £3-5M businesses have bookkeepers, not strategic finance leaders.

2. Operational Excellence

What it is: Systems that scale without breaking when you double or triple in size.

Why it matters for FACE: When you acquire another business, you need operational infrastructure that can absorb it. You need documented processes, quality control systems, and delivery mechanisms that work across multiple entities.

When we acquired Lonsdale and consolidated it into Huveaux, we didn’t rebuild everything from scratch. We had operational systems ready to integrate their 1 million+ annual revision guide sales.

The gap: Most founders run businesses on intuition and heroic effort. That doesn’t scale through acquisitions.

3. People & Culture

What it is: Teams that multiply impact, not headaches.

Why it matters for FACE: Acquisitions are people-intensive. You’re integrating teams, cultures, and ways of working. If you can’t attract, develop, and retain talent across multiple entities, your consolidation will fail.

Going from 23 to 240 people in three years wasn’t just about hiring. It was about building a culture that could absorb acquisition after acquisition without losing its identity.

The gap: Most small businesses have employees, not developed leadership teams.

4. Technology & Innovation

What it is: Infrastructure that accelerates integration and decision-making.

Why it matters for FACE: When you’re consolidating multiple acquisitions, you need technology that connects them. You need systems that provide visibility across entities. You need tools that enable fast decision-making without constant founder involvement.

The smallest deal I ever did was ATP Egora for €500K. It was also the best deal because it fit perfectly into our existing technology infrastructure.

The gap: Most businesses have cobbled-together tech stacks that barely serve their current needs.

Want to learn everything about the FACE Methodology?

 

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The Three Types of Founders Who Need FACE Most

The methodology works across industries, but I’ve found three types of founders who benefit most:

Visionary Clinician CEOs running healthcare or professional services businesses. You’ve built brilliant practices based on your expertise, but scaling requires systems that work beyond your personal involvement.

Authority Entrepreneurs in creative, agency, or consulting spaces. You’ve built your reputation and carved out a market position, but your business is still too dependent on you.

Ethical Tech Founders who want to scale without selling out. You need growth capital that respects your values, and you need infrastructure that can absorb rapid expansion.

What Could Your Next 3 Years Look Like?

So let’s return to where we started: You’re stuck because organic growth and strategic scaling are fundamentally different games.

Growing organically takes 10 years grinding out incremental gains. Strategic acceleration through FACE takes 3 years.

I’ve seen businesses go from £3M to £25M+ using this approach. Not in a decade. In three years.

The only question is: will you keep grinding organically, or will you build the four pillars that enable you to Fund, Acquire, Consolidate, and Exit?

If you’d like more guidance on how to approach this…

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There’s no reason why you can’t grow your business based on your vision.

— David B Horne