Business Is Not Complicated. You Have Just Been Doing It Wrong.
- Chris Gore
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Business is not complicated. The entire framework in plain English, formula, models, numbers, marketing, operations and scaling. No MBA required.
Chris Gore | Updated 2026
Most people think business is complicated. It is not. You have just been doing it wrong, and that one misunderstanding could cost you years. This is the entire world of business broken down in plain English, scaling, operations, marketing, the numbers. No MBA. Just what actually matters and why.
Most people think they are building a business. What they have actually done is buy themselves a stressful, badly paid job with an unreasonable boss who happens to be them. That is exactly what happened in the early years of SPOR Group, the AV and meeting room technology company built over the past seven years. Winning clients, delivering global projects, and still starting from zero every single month. The reason was simple: understanding work is not the same as understanding systems. Work is the thing you do. A business system is what makes that work sustainable and scalable.
Part One and Two: The Formula and the Six Models
The only formula that matters
Revenue minus costs equals profit. Revenue is the money that comes in. Costs are everything spent to operate. Profit is what is left, and it is the only number that keeps the lights on. Most founders obsess over revenue because it sounds impressive at a dinner party. Tesco does over £60 billion in revenue at a 3 percent net margin. A decent SaaS company might make £5 million and keep 70 percent of it. More revenue does not mean more money. Margin is the game.
Six business models
• B2C — sell direct to people. Quick decisions, lower individual value, direct consumer access
• B2B — sell to companies. Longer cycles, bigger contracts, built on trust and referrals
• Subscription — predictable, repeatable revenue. The holy grail for planning ahead
• Marketplace — connect buyers and sellers, take a cut. Hard to build, huge at scale
• Freemium — give the product away, charge for the good stuff. Needs massive volume
• Direct to consumer — skip the middleman for better margin, more operational work
Part Three: The Numbers Every Founder Must Track
Watch the full video!
Gross profit margin
Revenue minus the cost of making your product, divided by revenue. Tells you whether your pricing is sane. SaaS sits around 70 to 90 percent. Retail 20 to 50 percent. Restaurants 60 to 70 percent.
CAC and LTV
CAC is what it costs to win one new client, total sales and marketing spend divided by new clients won. LTV is what one client is worth across the full relationship. The golden rule: LTV needs to be at least three times CAC. Spend £500 to win a client worth £600 and you do not have a business, you have a slow leak.
Churn rate
How many clients are leaving, and why. Most founders only look at this in a crisis. Track it every month so you can act on the reason before it compounds.
Parts Four to Seven: Marketing, Operations, Scaling, Mindset
Marketing without the nonsense
Four questions: what are you selling, who needs it, where do they hang out, how do you tell them. The mistake is starting with tactics, should we be on TikTok? Instead of starting with where the buyer actually is. Marketing is a trust machine. Every piece of content should do one job: build belief.
Operations is the boring bit that wins
Standard operating procedures, documented process, clear roles, metrics that show what is breaking and why. SPOR now manages over 1,500 meeting rooms across 200-plus enterprise clients globally. None of that happens without systems.
Three ways to scale
Organic — slow, sustainable, right for most businesses under £1m revenue. Investment, raise money, give up equity, right when the model is proven. Acquisition, buy other businesses, faster but expensive, right with strong cash flow already in place.
Pick a lane: Apple or Amazon
Apple, high margin, premium pricing, fewer products, around 24 percent net margin. Amazon, low margin, massive volume, reinvesting everything into growth, around 5 percent net margin. Neither is wrong. Most small businesses try to be both and end up being neither.
Understanding how business works means nothing if the systems underneath it are a mess. A business without systems is just an expensive hobby. The 5 productivity killers guide covers the practical fixes for what is most reliably blocking growth — free, no form required.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the one formula every business runs on?
Revenue minus costs equals profit. Revenue is money coming in from sales. Costs are everything spent to operate. Profit is what remains and is the only number that determines whether a business survives.
What are the six main business models?
Business to consumer (B2C), business to business (B2B), subscription, marketplace, freemium, and direct to consumer. Each has different sales cycles, pricing dynamics, team structures and growth ceilings.
What financial numbers should every founder track?
Gross profit margin, customer acquisition cost (CAC), lifetime value (LTV) and churn rate. The golden rule is that LTV should be at least three times CAC, and churn should be reviewed monthly rather than only in a crisis.
What are the three ways to scale a business?
Organic growth (slow, sustainable, right for most businesses under £1m revenue), investment (raising capital and giving up equity for faster growth), and acquisition (buying other businesses, which requires strong existing cash flow).
Should a business aim for high margin or high volume?
Either can work, but not both at once. Apple represents the high margin, premium, fewer-clients model at around 24 percent net margin. Amazon represents the low margin, high volume model at around 5 percent net margin. Most small businesses that try to be both end up being neither.
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