Runagood’s founder shares his story

Runagood has shared the story of how its founder came to set up the innovative business – could you follow in his footsteps?

Runagood CEO Duncan Collins shared the story of how a lack of government funding for small businesses prompted him to set up his unique franchise opportunity. Back in 1988, he launched his career as a business consultant and worked with the government to help small businesses get set up and grow.

However, in 2010 all of the hard work he’d done was spoiled when the government pulled their funding. Small businesses were left to fend for themselves, as they couldn’t afford private business consultants charging £500 per day.

So, Collins was inspired to take the knowledge he’d learned and the methods he’d developed over the previous 22 years and automate it. He spent the next eight years working hard to develop an AI software that could help small businesses for a fraction of the price.

Revealing how he actually launched the business, Collins said:

“We had the database, of a million small businesses, we had the performance statistics, and we also had the methods that we had as consultants to apply all this stuff to them. And it proved to be easier to automate than I thought. We then looked at how would be reach 5.5m small businesses on a tight budget. We concluded that we needed to engage accountants to act as what we call Runagood business centres.”

Collins also explained how the software allows Runagood to deliver the same results at a fraction of the price.

“What a standard consultant charges £500 a day for can now be done for £5 a day. It’s an extraordinary difference, and it’s because the consultant doesn’t have to spend time anymore. What he or she does is sit down with a client or a prospect ask them 19 questions. That generates a business dashboard in about 10 minutes. The business dashboard allows them to see exactly what’s happening with the business [in five key measures of success] – where it’s strong, where it’s weak, where its value is low but it could be high.”

He encouraged accountants across the country to consider becoming a Runagood business centre to give their business extra longevity and appealed for entrepreneurs to become business advisers in these centres. Though it’s early days for Runagood, the consulting franchise already has more than 50 accountants on board and is building its network to help small businesses across the country.