In my early career as a support services analyst back in 2004, I encountered businesses that seemed to defy conventional valuation methods. HomeServe was one of them. Its financial statements told one story, but its market behaviour suggested entirely different value drivers. The result was a “black box” effect: numbers on a spreadsheet couldn’t fully explain where the value was coming from.

Two decades later, Richard Harpin’s How to Make a Billion in Nine Steps provides the missing context. His journey from selling conkers at age seven to building HomeServe into a £4.1 billion global enterprise reveals why the most successful businesses operate according to principles that financial models struggle to capture.

Value Creation Beyond Financial Engineering

Harpin turned a £50,000 start-up—losing half a million in its first year—into an international business serving over 8.5 million customers. The transformation didn’t come from clever financial structuring but from disciplined execution of fundamentals.

The first of his nine steps, “copy and pivot”, challenges the obsession with revolutionary innovation. Instead, Harpin built on proven models, adapting them to underserved markets. HomeServe grew by spotting inefficiencies in home repair services and executing better than incumbents.

Equally pivotal was investor alignment. His early partnership with South Staffordshire Water provided not just funding but instant customer access, credibility, and operational know-how. The lesson: investor quality often matters more than investor quantity.

Harpin also credits external coaching with transforming his decision-making. Leadership development, though invisible on a balance sheet, proved decisive in scaling beyond the founder’s direct involvement.

Operational Excellence as the True Moat

HomeServe’s success lay less in financial tricks and more in building operational muscle. Three elements stand out:

• Customer-centric service: Reliability during emergencies created loyalty that far outweighed the cost of acquisition. In subscription services, retention beats rapid expansion.
• Technology and scalability: By investing early in platforms to coordinate emergency response, HomeServe achieved network effects that powered international growth.
• People and culture: Hiring exceptional talent and embedding strong values gave the business resilience during market shocks. Human capital rarely shows up in spreadsheets but often decides long-term winners.

Strategic Growth Through Smart Transactions

Harpin’s acquisition of Checkatrade in 2017 illustrates how the right deals can accelerate growth when they strengthen existing capabilities. The integration added new customer touchpoints and cemented HomeServe’s market position.

He also built partnerships with utility firms, insurers and developers—relationships that delivered mutual value and created competitive differentiation that rivals struggled to match. International expansion added further scale, but only because HomeServe adapted to local regulations and customer behaviours rather than trying to impose a one-size-fits-all model.

Market Positioning Through Trust

Price was never HomeServe’s primary differentiator. Harpin understood that in moments of crisis—burst pipes, broken boilers—customers value trust and reliability above all else. By investing in brand strength, service quality and consistent delivery, HomeServe secured customer loyalty and pricing power.

Regulatory capability further reinforced this position. The ability to navigate complex environments, meet compliance requirements and manage risk quietly built resilience and protected future growth.

Leadership and Organisational Capability

Perhaps the most challenging step for any founder is hiring their replacement. Harpin emphasises that scaling requires systems and leaders who can run the business independently. Decision-making frameworks, cultural consistency across markets, and shared values allowed HomeServe to grow without losing its service ethos.

These organisational capabilities don’t appear on a P&L, but they separate businesses that plateau from those that compound.

Lessons for Today’s Founders and Investors

Harpin’s nine steps deliver practical guidance that applies far beyond HomeServe:

• Execution over invention: Success often comes from adapting proven ideas better than others.
• Choose investors wisely: Strategic alignment beats deep pockets alone.
• Invest in yourself: Coaching and development may be the highest-return investments you’ll ever make.
• Retention is king: Customer loyalty compounds value in ways acquisition metrics can’t capture.
• People and culture matter most: Build teams and values that can outlast you.
• Partnerships create advantage: Collaborating with the right ecosystem partners creates defensibility.
• Adapt as you scale: International growth demands humility and localisation.

For investors, the message is clear: actual value lies in quality of growth, leadership capability and operational resilience—not just headline numbers. Due diligence must go beyond financial statements to uncover the cultural, operational and strategic levers that drive lasting value.

Conclusion

When I first analysed HomeServe in 2004, the spreadsheets never quite added up. Harpin’s story shows why: the most decisive levers of value were cultural, operational and strategic—factors that models rarely capture.

How to Make a Billion in Nine Steps is essential reading for anyone building, leading or investing in businesses. It distils thirty years of practical lessons into a framework that explains how a £50,000 start-up became a multi-billion-pound global enterprise.

The ultimate takeaway? The fundamental drivers of business success often exist beyond the spreadsheet. Harpin proves that disciplined execution of simple principles—customer focus, operational excellence, leadership development—creates the kind of long-term value financial analysis can only partly explain.

Have a great week!