This interview is with Julian Frincu FIOEE • MCMI • MIC • MABM • MABP • MNCIP, Business consultant, Skills 2 Grow.
Julian, as a business consultant and founder of several service-led businesses, what experience do you draw on most when helping start-ups make practical growth decisions?
The experience I draw on most is building service businesses from the ground up, using limited resources and learning directly from real customers.
I have launched and developed businesses across consultancy, mobile wellbeing services, digital marketing, and local media. That practical experience has taught me that new businesses rarely need more theory; they need clarity about what to do next.
When helping a new business, I focus first on whether there is genuine demand for the service, who the ideal customer is, and what problem the business solves. From there, I look at pricing, operating costs, customer acquisition, and the simplest way to test the idea without taking unnecessary financial risks.
I also draw heavily on my experience growing Mobile Massage Oxfordshire from one therapist into a network of 19 professionals serving clients across four counties. That growth required practical decisions about recruitment, service quality, local marketing, systems, and reputation, not simply a business plan.
Through Skills 2 Grow, I combine these lessons with my professional training in strategic management, leadership, marketing, and business mentoring. My role is not to make decisions for the founder, but to help them examine the evidence, identify the risks, and choose realistic actions that move the business forward.
The most valuable advice is usually advice that can be implemented immediately, measured, and improved as the business learns.
How did your journey from arriving in the UK with limited resources to running businesses in consultancy, media, marketing and wellness shape the way you advise entrepreneurs today?
When I arrived in the UK in 2014, I had around £200, spoke very little English, and spent time living in hostels in Birmingham. I did not have an established network, financial backing, or a clear route into business. I had to learn by working, observing customers, researching new ideas, and applying what I learned.
Over the following years, I built businesses in consultancy, local media, digital marketing, and mobile wellbeing services. Each business taught me something different. Local media taught me the importance of trust and community engagement. Marketing taught me that visibility alone does not guarantee sales. The wellness sector taught me how to recruit professionals, maintain service standards, and manage growth across several counties. Consultancy brought those lessons together.
My journey shapes the way I advise entrepreneurs because I understand what it feels like to start with limited resources and make decisions when every pound matters. I do not assume that a founder has a large budget, a team, or access to specialist support.
I encourage entrepreneurs to begin with the customer, test their ideas carefully, and invest in areas that produce measurable value. I also remind them that progress is rarely perfect: some decisions work, others do not, but every result provides information that can guide the next step.
Most importantly, I try to give advice that is realistic for the person and the business in front of me. A strategy is only valuable if the entrepreneur has the resources, confidence, and ability to put it into practice.
When you are working with an early-stage business, how do you help the founder identify a real customer problem worth testing before they invest heavily?
I begin by asking the founder to describe the problem from the customer’s perspective, not from the perspective of the product or service they want to sell. We examine who experiences the problem, how often it occurs, what it currently costs them, and what they already do to solve it.
I encourage founders to speak directly with potential customers and ask open questions about their experiences. The aim is not to persuade people that the idea is good; it is to discover whether the problem is important enough for someone to take action and pay for a solution.
I then look for evidence. Are customers already spending money or time trying to solve the problem? Are they dissatisfied with the available options? Have several people described the same difficulty without being prompted? These are stronger signals than compliments, likes, or survey responses saying that an idea sounds interesting.
Once there is evidence of a genuine need, I help the founder design the smallest practical test. This might be a simple service offer, a basic booking page, a limited trial, or direct outreach to a small group of potential customers. The goal is to measure real behaviour before investing heavily in branding, technology, premises, or stock.
A successful test does not need to produce large profits. It needs to show that the right customers understand the offer, value the solution, and are willing to take the next step.
This approach helps founders protect their resources while learning quickly. It also allows them to improve the offer using genuine customer feedback rather than assumptions.
You have used local communities to test demand for services; what made that approach effective for Mobile Massage Oxfordshire, and how could another service business adapt it?
Local communities made the approach effective because they allowed me to place the service directly in front of people who lived in the area and could genuinely become customers.
When developing Mobile Massage Oxfordshire, I used local community platforms to explain the service clearly, observe how people responded, and answer practical questions. Customers wanted to know:
- who would visit their home,
- whether the therapists were insured and qualified,
- which areas were covered, and
- how much the service would cost.
Those conversations helped me understand that trust, convenience, and clear information were essential.
Instead of making a large investment based on assumptions, I could test different messages, locations, and services using real enquiries. Bookings provided stronger evidence than views or likes. Customer feedback then helped improve the experience, build reviews, and generate recommendations.
As demand increased, I recruited additional therapists and expanded gradually. What began with one therapist developed into a network of 19 professionals serving clients across four counties. The growth followed demonstrated demand rather than coming before it.
Another service business can adapt this approach by:
- choosing one defined local area,
- presenting one clear offer, and
- inviting customers to take a measurable action.
Measurable actions can include:
- requesting a quotation,
- booking an appointment, or
- joining a waiting list.
The founder should record the questions people ask, the objections they raise, and the services they actually purchase.
Local communities are valuable because they provide more than visibility. They create conversation, trust, and rapid feedback. Used responsibly, they can help a business confirm demand and improve its offer before committing significant money to wider expansion.
What signals told you it was time to expand Mobile Massage Oxfordshire from a one-person operation into a network of therapists across multiple counties?
The clearest signal was that customer demand had begun to exceed the availability of one therapist. We were receiving enquiries for times, locations and treatment preferences that could not always be accommodated. Turning away suitable bookings showed that the limitation was capacity, not a lack of demand.
Repeat bookings and recommendations were another important signal. Customers were not simply trying the service once; they were returning and referring other people, which suggested that the service was solving a genuine need and that the model could support further growth.
We also began receiving enquiries from people outside the original service area. Rather than expanding immediately, I watched whether those requests were consistent and whether there were enough potential customers in each location. This helped distinguish occasional interest from sustainable local demand.
Before recruiting, I considered whether the standards that built the reputation of the business could be maintained. Growth would only make sense if new therapists were appropriately qualified, insured and able to provide a professional and reliable customer experience.
The expansion happened gradually. I recruited therapists in response to demonstrated demand, monitored bookings and customer feedback, and developed clearer systems for allocating enquiries and maintaining service quality. This allowed the network to grow from one therapist to 19 professionals serving clients across four counties.
For me, the decision to expand was not based on ambition alone. It was supported by repeated enquiries, returning customers, recommendations, unmet capacity and demand from new locations. Those signals provided evidence that expansion could improve the service without growing faster than the business could manage.
As a business grows, what practical systems have helped you maintain reliable customer service while giving more delivery responsibility to other people?
The most useful systems have been simple, clear and easy for people to follow consistently.
I begin by defining the customer journey from the first enquiry through to delivery and follow-up. Everyone involved needs to understand what information customers should receive, how quickly enquiries should be answered, and what standard of service is expected.
Clear written procedures are essential. These cover areas such as:
- Booking information
- Customer communication
- Cancellations
- Complaints
- Safety
- What to do when something unexpected happens
Templates for common messages also help people respond efficiently while maintaining a consistent and professional tone.
I make responsibilities clear so that each person knows which decisions they can make independently and which situations need to be referred to me. Delegation works best when people have enough authority to solve normal customer issues but also know when support is required.
Shared booking information and accurate records are equally important. They reduce mistakes, prevent information from being lost, and allow another person to understand what has already been agreed with the customer.
Customer feedback provides the final control. I monitor reviews, repeat bookings, complaints, and direct comments to identify where standards are being maintained and where a process needs to improve. When a problem occurs, I look beyond the individual incident and ask whether the system contributed to it.
Giving people more responsibility does not mean losing control of the customer experience. It means creating clear standards, providing the right information, and checking results. Good systems allow people to use their judgement while ensuring that customers continue to receive a reliable service as the business grows.
When a client has a limited marketing budget, how do you help them choose a small, measurable experiment rather than chase too many channels at once?
I start by identifying the single result the client needs most. That might be enquiries, bookings, quotation requests, or sales. Without a clear objective, it is easy to spend money across several channels without learning what actually works.
Next, we identify where the ideal customer is most likely to pay attention. A local service business may benefit from a community platform or local search, while a specialist business may find its audience through a professional network. The choice should reflect customer behaviour, not whichever platform is currently popular.
We then create one clear offer for one defined audience and test it through one channel. Before spending anything, we agree on the budget, the length of the test, and the result that will determine whether it was worthwhile.
I focus on meaningful measures. Reach, impressions, and likes can be useful indicators, but they do not necessarily generate revenue. I give greater weight to enquiries, appointments, sales, conversion rates, and the cost of acquiring each customer.
A small experiment also needs enough time and exposure to produce useful information. Stopping after one unsuccessful post may be premature, but continuing to spend without reviewing the results is equally risky.
At the end of the test, we examine what happened. If the right people saw the offer but did not respond, the message or offer may need improvement. If people responded but did not purchase, the issue may involve price, trust, or the sales process. If the test produced profitable customers, we can repeat it and increase the budget gradually.
The purpose of a small experiment is not only to generate immediate sales; it is to purchase useful information at a cost the business can afford.
You favour learning through application; how do you turn a training course, qualification or piece of research into a useful change inside a real business?
I learn best when I can connect new knowledge to a real problem and apply it quickly. Completing a course or qualification is valuable, but the real benefit appears when the learning changes a decision, process, or result inside a business.
I begin by identifying one idea that is relevant to a current challenge. I then translate the theory into a specific action. For example, learning about customer segmentation might lead me to refine an advert for one particular audience. Research into service quality might result in a clearer customer journey, a new feedback process, or improved communication standards.
I prefer to test one change at a time when possible. Before applying it, I decide what improvement I expect to see and how I will measure it. Depending on the situation, that could involve more enquiries, a higher conversion rate, fewer complaints, faster response times, or better customer retention.
After the change has been used in practice, I review the results and compare them with what happened before. If it works, I document the process and apply it more widely. If it does not work, I examine whether the idea was unsuitable, implemented incorrectly, or affected by another factor.
I also reflect on what the experience teaches me beyond the original material. Real businesses involve people, limited resources, and unexpected circumstances, so theory often needs to be adapted.
This approach has helped me turn learning in strategic management, leadership, marketing, and customer service into practical improvements across my businesses. For me, knowledge becomes valuable when it improves judgement and produces a result that can be observed, measured, and repeated.
What is one lesson from building and advising small businesses that founders often learn too late, and what can they do this week to act on it earlier?
One lesson founders often learn too late is that a good idea is not the same as proven customer demand.
It is easy to spend months perfecting a website, brand, product, or service before discovering that customers do not understand the offer, do not consider the problem urgent, or are unwilling to pay the proposed price. Confidence in an idea is important, but evidence is what protects the business.
This week, I would encourage every founder to speak directly with at least five potential or existing customers. Ask them what problem they are trying to solve, what they currently do about it, what frustrates them about the available options, and what would make them pay for a better solution.
The founder should listen carefully without trying to sell or defend the idea. They should look for repeated problems, common language, and evidence that customers are already investing time or money in finding a solution.
The next step is to create one simple offer based on what they learned and invite customers to take a real action. That could be making a booking, requesting a quotation, paying a deposit, or joining a waiting list. A genuine commitment is more useful than someone saying that the idea sounds good.
Founders do not need complete certainty before acting, but they should avoid making large investments based entirely on assumptions. A few honest customer conversations and one small test can reveal information that changes the direction of the business.
The earlier a founder learns to seek evidence, the less money and time they are likely to waste, and the more confidently they can invest when genuine demand appears.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge and expertise. Is there anything else you'd like to add?
I would add that entrepreneurship is not reserved for people who begin with significant resources, perfect confidence, or a ready-made network.
When I arrived in the UK, I had very little money and spoke limited English. My progress came through consistent work, continuous learning, listening to customers, and being willing to improve after mistakes.
Business growth is rarely the result of one brilliant decision. It usually comes from many small decisions made with care, tested in practice, and adjusted based on evidence.
Through Skills 2 Grow, I want to make practical business support more accessible to founders who may have ambition and ability but need greater clarity, structure, or confidence. I believe good advice should help people understand their options and take realistic action, not make business feel more complicated.
I am grateful to Connectively for the opportunity to share my experience. If one founder reads this interview and feels more confident about testing an idea, learning from customers, or taking their next step, then sharing my journey has been worthwhile.