Struggling with cash flow whilst trying to scale your business past £3M? Here’s how one colonial official’s breakthrough moment with playing cards offers profound lessons for today’s growth-minded entrepreneurs…
Ever wondered what happens when conventional business growth strategies fail? You’ve built your business to £3M, but traditional funding isn’t working, your accountant doesn’t understand your ambitions, and you’re stuck in operations instead of strategic growth.
The most successful business exits I’ve facilitated started with exactly this type of constraint-driven innovation.
The Crisis That Changed Everything
New France, 1685. Local official Jacques de Meulles faced every entrepreneur’s nightmare: catastrophic cash flow crisis, creditors demanding payment, no funding solution, and an economy grinding to halt.
His money shipment from France was months away. Sound like waiting for traditional bank funding?
On 8 June 1685, de Meulles had a breakthrough moment that separates true entrepreneurs from those who give up. He used playing cards as money.
This wasn’t desperation – it was strategic innovation under pressure. The type of thinking that transforms £3M businesses into £10M+ success stories.
The FACE Methodology: Modern Innovation
At Add Then Multiply, we see this pattern repeatedly. When ambitious entrepreneurs hit growth constraints, breakthrough solutions emerge through our FACE methodology:
- Foundation: Getting your financial house in order
- Acceleration: Strategic growth that doesn’t wait for “perfect conditions”
- Capital: Creative funding beyond traditional banking
- Exit: Building towards profitable sale from day one
Three Tests Every Growth Strategy Must Pass
De Meulles’ playing cards worked for 30+ years because they passed three crucial tests:
- Medium of Exchange – Does your business facilitate valuable transactions?
- Unit of Measure – Can you clearly quantify your value?
- Store of Value – Will your business retain and increase worth over time?
These principles underpin every successful business valuation we’ve helped increase.
Modern “Playing Card” Strategies
When conventional wisdom fails, strategic acceleration becomes essential:
Cash Flow Innovation: Create alternative financing through strategic M&A and equity partnerships instead of waiting months for traditional funding.
Strategic Growth: When organic growth hits a ceiling, smart entrepreneurs use acquisition to achieve exponential expansion without traditional constraints.
Market Validation: Test partnerships through acquisition rather than expensive market research.
The Constraint-Innovation Connection
De Meulles understood what many entrepreneurs miss: constraints often force the most elegant solutions.
He couldn’t create actual money, so he created functional money. He couldn’t wait, so he redefined the rules.
The most successful acquisitions and funding rounds we’ve facilitated emerged from similar constraint-driven innovation.
Your Strategic Growth Opportunity
Every growth-minded entrepreneur faces their own 1685 moment – when conventional solutions fail and strategic innovation becomes survival-critical.
Ready to cut up your own “playing cards”?
What if your cash flow challenges could become competitive advantages? What if your “impossible” scaling targets could be achieved by redefining the rules through strategic M&A?
De Meulles pledged himself personally to redeem those cards. Sometimes exponential growth requires that level of commitment to breakthrough thinking.
The Add Then Multiply Difference
Unlike traditional accountants focused on compliance, we specialise in accelerated growth through strategic acquisition. We’ve secured over £110M of funding and completed 30+ M&A deals because the fastest path from £3M to £10M+ isn’t always linear growth – it’s strategic multiplication.
We partner with you through the entire journey: from stabilising finances to identifying acquisition targets, securing funding, and preparing for exit.
Ready to discover your “playing card” moment? Every constraint could become a competitive advantage. Every challenge might be solved by redefining the growth game. What’s your experience with constraint-driven innovation? That’s where our Growth Readiness Assessment can help, it doesn’t just analyse your numbers; it reveals whether your business passes the three crucial tests that made playing cards function as legitimate currency for over 30 years.
