Making Your Mark: How I built a fortune from £1.50 and you can too cover

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Making Your Mark: How I built a fortune from £1.50 and you can too

By Mark Mills

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About this book

"Cover me while I cut around that blue Mondeo and ambush the guy in the grey suit."There are not many successful entrepreneurs who will enthusiastically break off in the middle of a multi-million pound deal to have a huge snowball fight in the car park with their finance director.But then Mark Mills is not just any successful entrepreneur. Whether organising one of his infamous Summer Christmas parties, flying to New York to find a new business idea or staying up all night to celebrate a successful deal, Mark Mills has always believed in the absolute importance of having fun in business. And not just for him, but for his employees, customers and suppliers too.His brilliantly unique approach has more than paid off. Mark's infectious enthusiasm, relentless energy, can-do approach and spirit of adventure have powered him to the very pinnacle of entrepreneurial success, both in his own businesses and by helping others to do the same in theirs. Over the years he has won countless Entrepreneur of the Year Awards and been asked to give speeches at prestigious events around the world about his achievements.Making Your Mark tells the fascinating and entertaining story of Mark's extraordinary success in business, from selling broken biscuits at the age of 8, through his early years selling everything from payphones to post boxes, to his outstanding success creating Cardpoint, the cash machine business he founded at the age of 29 which at its peak was valued at £170 million.But just as importantly, it also tells the story of Mark's disasters along the way, about the times when things went badly wrong and when failure was more often the outcome than success.Along the way Mark shares his unique Golden Rules on how to achieve your own success in business, from learning how to think like an entrepreneur to creating a great business model, from understanding how to build a strong team to learning how to communicate effectively.

BusinessFinance & LawManagementManagement SkillsLeadership

About Mark Mills

Mark Mills, podcast guest

OBE Business Sale Advisor Helping UK Founders Maximise Exit Value

5 Businesses built & sold£175M Cardpoint exit valuation6,500 Cash machines in Cardpoint network£500M+ Monthly cash dispensed by Cardpoint network

Mark Mills OBE is a business sale advisor who helps UK founders sell their businesses for maximum value.

He got into this work after spotting overlooked value as a child selling broken biscuits at school and then carrying that instinct into founding and exiting companies. The early biscuit story taught him to see what others ignore and to turn small advantages into commercial wins, a thread that runs through his approach to identifying hidden value in mature businesses. Over time that practicality led him from founding companies to deliberately learning from each exit and packaging those lessons into a repeatable system.

He has built and sold five businesses, most notably building and exiting Cardpoint at a £175 million valuation; Cardpoint floated on AIM at £7 million, grew to 6,500 cash machines and 300 employees, and dispensed over £500 million a month. Since 2007 he has worked as a Non-Executive Chairman and advisor applying his methods to other owners. In December 2024 he was awarded an OBE for services to Business and Charity and he holds the title of Deputy Lieutenant of Lancashire.

Day-to-day he steps in as Non-Executive Chairman, works directly with founders to uncover hidden value, and manages the full sale process from preparation through to finding the right buyer.

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Don’t BE for Sale: Mark Mills on Building Leverage and Maximizing Your Exit
0:00 / 34:31
The Exit - Presented By Flippa· Listen to Mark Mills on air