Updated
What changed after the sale
After Reclaim Tax UK was acquired, the priorities changed. My business partner Richard Canfer-Taylor and I saw some smaller clients risk being left without the level of support they had been promised, and team members were affected too. We worked to continue serving those clients and protect the people involved. We later bought the business back together.
I am not sharing that as a dramatic business story. It changed a very practical part of how I think about ownership. You can care deeply about a customer or a colleague and still find that your ability to act has changed when somebody else controls the decision.
Relationships still need something behind them
I value relationships and long-term trust. They are a big part of why a business works. But relationships are not a substitute for clear agreements, proper responsibility or enough influence to honour a commitment when circumstances change.
The question I ask now is who is responsible for the promise and whether they have the control to keep it. If the answer is unclear, it will usually become a problem at the point somebody most needs certainty.
What I take into the businesses I build now
I now pay closer attention to ownership, contracts and decision rights. That is not about trying to control everything. It is about making sure responsibility sits with someone who can do something when a customer, partner or team member needs an answer.
It has made me more deliberate about the companies I build from the ground up and the promises I am prepared to make in them.