More Revenue Means More Profit And Other Fairy Tales Your Mate Told You.
- Keith "Numbers" McDougall
- Jun 25
- 8 min read
“Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity, but cash flow is what’ll save your arse.”
Round 1: The Myth, “More Revenue Means More Profit”
So you’re down the pub. Your mate Gary, the one who wears loafers with no socks and calls himself a ‘solopreneur’ is five pints in and banging on about his latest ecommerce empire.
“Mate, I did £150K in sales last month,” he boasts, puffing out his chest like a pigeon on heat.“ That’s amazing,” you say. “How much profit did you make?” “Ah well,” he says, taking a sip and looking into the distance like he’s about to drop some Steve Jobs-level wisdom, “It’s not about profit. It’s about growth.”
You nod. You smile. But inside, your brain’s screaming: “This man has absolutely no idea what he’s talking about.”
Welcome to one of the most common business myths known to humanity: More revenue = more profit.
Except it doesn’t. And believing it can land you in more trouble than mixing Guinness with Sambuca (which, for the record, is what Gary did the night his Shopify ad spend wiped out his overdraft).
Let’s be clear. Revenue is what comes in. Profit is what you keep. And in between those two figures lives an entire world of pain: stock, staff, rent, rates, the tax man, and if you’re daft enough to scale too fast, a business model built entirely on hope and Klarna.
Round 2: The YouTube Hustler’s Dream, “We Made £1M in Sales!”
Now, somewhere between your second pint and a packet of pork scratchings, someone inevitably brings up that lad on YouTube.
You know the one. He’s 22. He’s standing next to a rented Lamborghini with subtitles that scream:
“WE MADE £1 MILLION IN OUR FIRST YEAR, WITHOUT ANY EXPERIENCE!!!”
Yeah. And I once won £3 on a scratch card without any prior Lotto experience. Where’s my TED Talk?
Here’s the trick they don’t tell you: that million quid in “sales” was likely drop shipped from a warehouse in Shanghai, advertised using paid Facebook campaigns that cost £990,000 to run, and fulfilled by a bloke called Dave who quit after a week when his back went from packing orders in the garage.
The Lambo? Leased. The watches? Fake. The mansion? Airbnb for the weekend.
What you’re seeing is revenue theatre, the showbiz side of business where turnover is flashed like a nightclub wristband, but backstage it’s carnage: missed VAT payments, refund requests, and three maxed-out credit cards.
Real profit? That’s the bloke in the corner quietly sipping his pint, not saying much, but owns the freehold on three local shops and hasn’t been on social media since 2011.
Round 3: The Revenue Trap, When Growing Means Losing
Right, let’s say you’ve got a half-decent little business ticking along. You’re making £5K a month. You’ve got some customers who like what you do, and your cat hasn’t judged you for crying over your tax return in three months. Life’s alright.
Then someone, maybe your mate down the pub, maybe an “entrepreneur coach” called Brad who’s 23 and definitely not qualified to advise anyone on anything says:
“Mate, you just need to scale. You need to 10x that revenue.”
Sounds sexy, doesn’t it? You picture yourself on a yacht. Turns out, it’s more like watching your bank balance 10x… in reverse.
Because scaling revenue without understanding margins is like trying to win MasterChef by ordering a Domino’s.
Let’s do a quick pub napkin maths job:
You sell something for £100
It costs you £70 to make or source
You spend £20 on ads
That leaves you a tenner profit
You scale up to 1,000 orders. Congrats, revenue is now £100K.
But guess what?
Your supplier runs out of stock so you pay more
Ad costs go up because you’re competing with bigger fish
Your returns and customer service issues explode
You hire your cousin Kev to help and he’s utterly useless
Suddenly, your £10 per unit profit is now £2. And you’ve got to ship 1,000 items just to make two grand. Which you then owe to HMRC, DPD, and Kev (even though he spent most of the day on his vape break).
The moral? More sales do not mean more profit. In fact, if you don’t know your numbers, they usually mean more problems. Ask anyone who’s grown too fast, they’ve got the stress rash and sleepless nights to prove it.
Round 4: “But WeWork Made Billions!” (Exactly. And Then They Didn’t.)
Ah, WeWork. The Mona Lisa of modern business delusion.
On paper: £3 billion in revenue. In reality: fire festival for office leases.
WeWork is the classic example of confusing top-line revenue with actual business success. For years, they kept shouting about how much money they were making, while casually ignoring the fact they were setting fire to even more money out the back.
Imagine hiring out your spare bedroom, but to make it look cool, you spend £15K on beanbags, neon signs, kombucha taps and a motivational quote that says “Hustle Harder.”
Then you realise the bloke you rented it to is paying you in Bitcoin memes and a Spotify playlist.
That was WeWork. Lots of space, no sense. Huge turnover, massive losses, and a founder who thought he was the next Messiah, but ended up with a Netflix documentary and a billion-dollar severance package. (Not bad work if you can get it.)
So next time someone says, “But look how big they are!” just remember: dinosaurs were big too. Didn’t end well for them either.
Round 5: The Hidden Costs of Chasing Turnover
aka: Why You're Skint Despite the Buzz
So, let’s say you’ve bought the dream. You’ve read the LinkedIn hustle posts. You’ve listened to that geezer on TikTok who said “don’t worry about profit, just focus on top line.” You’re chasing revenue like it’s the last taxi out of town.
You feel like a big deal. Turnover’s growing. You're busy. You’ve even started calling people “team” on Slack.
But then you check your bank account.
£83.46.
And that’s after you got paid.
Where’s all the money gone?
1. Advertising
“Oh, I’ll just run some Facebook ads.”
Brilliant. Now you’re £6,000 lighter, and your best-performing ad got 342 clicks from people in Indonesia who just wanted to watch your cat fall off the sofa.
You’d have had better ROI handing leaflets out on a roundabout.
2. Staff
You hire a mate. Then his mate. Then their cousin. Now you’re running a daycare for underqualified adults who all want beanbags and ‘flexible hours’ but can’t find the stapler.
You’re not a business anymore. You’re a social experiment.
3. Premises
You upgrade offices to “make a statement.” And you do, mainly to the landlord, who’s now making a fortune while you sit in a trendy industrial space with exposed brick and existential dread.
Meanwhile, Janet from accounts just wants a chair that doesn’t squeak.
4. Subscriptions
You’ve got 19 bits of software you don’t use. One to manage your email, one to track tasks, one to automate follow-ups, and one that just sends you inspirational quotes on a Tuesday.
No one knows how any of them work. Including you.
The truth is, growth costs money. And unless you know your margins, properly know them scaling will eat you alive. Every new customer, every shiny system, every jazzy rebrand you launch off the back of that one month you did £40K?
That’s all margin erosion, my friend. That’s your profit being slowly boiled alive while you’re busy flexing your ‘top line growth’ on Instagram.
Round 6: When Less Revenue Actually Means More Profit
Now, this might sound radical, especially if you've been raised on a diet of Dragons’ Den and “Side Hustle Nation” but sometimes… scaling back actually makes you more money.
That’s right. Less revenue. More profit.
Let’s meet two fictional business owners (who may or may not be based on actual blokes I’ve met at The Dog & Duck):
Dave: The Hustler
Dave runs a “seven-figure business. ”He sells low-margin gadgets imported in bulk. He’s constantly managing staff, refund requests, broken stock, and the fact his website crashes every time someone sneezes. He’s got revenue. Loads of it. Profit? About enough for two pints and a Tesco meal deal. If he skips the crisps.
Sheila: The Sharpshooter
Sheila’s a one-woman band. She offers a premium service, charges decent prices, and says “no” more than she says “yes.” Her turnover is modest, maybe £100K a year. But her costs are low. Her margins are solid. Her customers actually pay on time. And she’s got more in her savings account than Dave’s made in five years.
Who’s winning?
Exactly.
Sometimes the smartest move isn’t more customers, it’s better customers. Not more sales, but higher margin sales. Not grow or die, but work smarter and stay alive.
Final Round: Your Mate’s Full of It, Talk to an Expert Instead
So, you’ve made it this far. You've endured Gary’s revenue flexing, watched TikTok traders drop more jargon than GCSE Economics, and possibly Googled “how to sack your cousin legally.”
Welcome to the realisation that every small business owner eventually reaches (usually somewhere between the third VAT bill and a full blown stress rash):
“Why does everyone else seem to be smashing it while I’m wondering whether to cancel Xero or my broadband?”
Answer: Because you’re listening to the wrong people.
Let’s Review the Line-up of Non-Experts You’ve Probably Consulted:
Your mate Gary, who once flipped vintage football shirts on eBay for a month and now calls himself a “scale-up consultant.”
Someone on LinkedIn, who reckons they made £500K last quarter but definitely still lives with their mum.
A bloke in a Facebook group, who posts photos of revenue dashboards but never shows profit, costs, tax, or the seven court summons from HMRC.
A YouTube guru, who filmed their “how to 10x your business” video in a car park using a leased Audi and borrowed WiFi.
And Geoff down the pub, who ran a kebab van in 2003 and has some very strong views on business rates, TikTok, and how to ‘go viral’.
Sound familiar?
These people are great for a pint and a laugh. Maybe even a game of darts. But they’re not the ones you should be trusting with your livelihood, your mortgage, and your future. Because while they’re shouting about “revenue growth,” what they’re really doing is ignoring the only number that matters:
The bit you get to keep.
The After-Pub Pep Talk: Here’s What You Should Be Doing
Right, we’ve had a few laughs. But let’s get serious for just a minute — sober enough to drive, at least.
If you're a business owner, a freelancer, a founder, a side-hustler, or anything in between…
Here’s what actually makes a difference:
1. Know Your Numbers
Like, really know them. Not just “we made £20K last month,” but “we cleared £6K after costs and paid ourselves £2K without crying.” Understand your margins. Know your cash flow. Track your burn rate. Not sexy. But profitable.
2. Focus on Profit, Not Ego
Stop chasing revenue to impress LinkedIn strangers. Build a business that gives you time, money, and sanity. That might mean charging more, doing less, or saying no to terrible clients. All of which are signs of maturity. And brilliance. And probably a better night’s sleep.
3. Talk to Someone Who’s Been There
A proper expert. Not your brother-in-law. Not a £7 Udemy course. Not the bloke on TikTok offering “one-on-one mentorship” in exchange for crypto.
We’re talking about:
Accountants who don’t just file returns but actually understand business
Mentors who’ve run real companies (not just built Instagram followings)
Advisers who’ve seen the ugly side of scale — and survived it.
They’ll tell you the truth. Even if it’s boring. Even if it stings. Especially if it stings.
Because while your mate might boost your ego, an expert will protect your bottom line.
Last Word Before the Taxi Arrives
If you take one thing away from all this rambling nonsense, let it be this:
Big revenue doesn’t mean big profit. And listening to your mate down the pub about business is like asking your dog for tax advice.
Sometimes, growing your business means shrinking your ego. Sometimes, saying “no” makes you richer than saying “yes.” And sometimes, the smartest thing you can do is admit you don’t know it all and ask someone who does.
We’re not saying don’t have a pint with Gary. He’s decent company and he’s got a good playlist.
Just… maybe don’t let him talk you into opening five ecommerce stores in a weekend.
Cheers to profit. The quiet, unsexy, glorious kind. Talk to an expert. You’ll thank us later.
Written by ‘MyMateDownThePub.com where we myth-bust business nonsense, serve up hard truths with a smile, and help UK entrepreneurs keep more than just the lights on.
Got a business myth you want us to roast? Or need an actual expert instead of your old schoolmate? Get in contact.
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