05/10/2026
I went to a meeting recently that turned out to be a pretty expensive one.
Firstly, I wasn’t driving that day, so I’d already given up what I could have earned by being out in the van.
Then I came out of the meeting, looked at my phone and saw several missed calls from customers.
I’d made a basic mistake. I hadn’t diverted my phone.
By the time I called them back, they’d found somebody else to cover the work.
So I’d lost the day’s earnings, paid somebody else to cover work I could have done myself, and missed other jobs while I was sat in a meeting that might never lead to anything.
On paper, that’s a terrible day’s business.
But here’s the thing.
If the opportunity I went there to discuss eventually comes off, that meeting could pay for itself ten times over.
And that’s something I’m having to get more comfortable with as I try to grow the business.
Sometimes you have to lose money today to give yourself a chance of making more tomorrow.
There’s a guy who messages me fairly regularly on WhatsApp.
Every so often I’ll get a message asking if I’m around the following day.
I’ve told him a few times to just give me a ring and we’ll arrange something properly.
But I’ve started to notice a pattern.
He tends to message when it looks like he’s going to have a quiet day. Then some work comes in and, understandably, he takes the work.
And I completely understand why.
If you’ve got the choice between earning £200 or £300 tomorrow, or meeting someone for a coffee that might lead to absolutely nothing, it’s very difficult to turn the money down.
Especially when you’re an owner-driver.
But there’s a problem with that.
If you only work on growing your business when you’ve got nothing else to do, when are you actually going to grow it?
I’ve been guilty of exactly the same thing.
There have been times when I’ve subcontracted a job out and made £20 or £30 on it when I could have driven it myself and made a couple of hundred.
Instead, I’ve gone to meet someone.
Sometimes that’s led to work.
Sometimes it hasn’t.
And sometimes I’ve had a conversation with somebody and heard absolutely nothing for months before the phone has eventually rung.
That’s the difficult part when you’re used to driving for a living.
Driving gives you an immediate return.
Do the job. Send the invoice. Get paid.
Growing a business doesn’t work like that.
You can spend a whole day meeting people, making calls, sending emails or working on the business and finish the day with nothing obvious to show for it.
But you’re planting seeds.
And I think there comes a point where you have to stop asking:
“Can I afford to lose £200 today?”
And start asking:
“Can I afford to still be doing exactly the same thing in two years?”
That doesn’t mean I’ve suddenly stopped driving altogether.
I’m still on the road two days a week, and I actually try to protect those two days from meetings where I can.
There’s a practical reason for that.
Every day I put a self-employed driver in one of my vans is another wage the business has to find.
By covering two of those days myself, I can keep that cost down and effectively buy myself the other three days to work on the business.
Those three days are when I can go to meetings, speak to potential customers, follow things up and do the things that don’t necessarily put money in the bank that afternoon.
So I’m not suggesting an owner-driver should suddenly turn down every job and spend five days a week drinking coffee with potential customers.
You’ve still got to pay for the privilege of growing.
For me, at this stage, two days driving helps fund three days trying to build something bigger.
Eventually I’d like that balance to change again.
But right now, that’s the compromise.
One big customer can keep you busy five days a week.
But they might not be there forever.
A busy diary can make you feel like the business is doing brilliantly, when really you’ve just created yourself a well-paid job.
That’s something I’ve had to recognise in my own business.
For years, my value was obvious.
Get in the van. Do the job. Make money.
Now I’m deliberately trying to spend more time out of the van.
That means paying somebody else to do jobs I could easily do myself.
It means accepting £20 or £30 margin on a job instead of a couple of hundred.
And occasionally it means having a very expensive meeting.
I’ve basically made the transition from being a well-paid driver to an average-paid director.
And I’ve realised that’s how it has to be, at least for now.
Because my job isn’t just to make as much money as possible today anymore.
It’s to make sure we’re building something for tomorrow.
Not every meeting will turn into work.
Not every conversation will pay off.
Some of the seeds you plant will probably never grow at all.
But if you keep waiting for the mythical “quiet day” before you work on your business, you’ll probably keep finding a £200 job to fill it.
Sometimes you’ve got to deliberately give up today’s money.
Because the job you’re frightened of losing today might be the very thing stopping you from building the business you actually want tomorrow
