In our ‘Inspiring small businesses’ series, we share and celebrate great stories from small business owners who started and run their own business. By bringing you closer to these inspiring businesses we hope that you find motivation, tips, and ideas for building yours. In our next interview, we spoke to John Ellmore, Co-founder and Operations Director of Know Your Money, an independent financial comparison website.

What is it that you do?

I co-founded Know Your Money in 2004 with 2 colleagues. It is a financial comparison site based in Norwich, Norfolk. Run by a dedicated team, our goal is to provide clear, accurate and transparent comparisons for a wide range of financial products. We aid our users in making informed decisions about which products are suitable for their circumstances by providing accurate, up-to-date comparisons and a range of straightforward, concise guides.

What's the story behind your business?

We initially launched Know Your Money as a part-time venture with an initial investment of a £5,000 credit card. For the first 2 years, we operated the website part-time in the evenings. Fast-forward to 2017 and the company broke into the Sunday Times Top 100 list of fastest-growing UK technology companies, seeing a three-year growth in revenue of over 200% (from £2.7m in 2014 to £8.3m in 2017).
The last ten years have seen a steady period of organic growth, today, we are a team of 20 staff servicing over 450,000 monthly visitors to the site.

What inspired you to start your own business?

My co-founders and I all enjoyed careers in marketing financial services when the concept of Know Your Money was born. We believed we could improve our industry offering with a straightforward site offering quick, simple and clear financial comparisons.

What is the most difficult aspect of running your own business?

The most difficult aspect of running your own business is dealing with forces beyond your control!
For a financial comparison site, this could be changes in interest rates or new regulation. Businesses will always experience external forces they are unable to change; the best approach to overcoming this challenge is to develop a team and workflows that are accustomed to change and that can react quickly.

What is the best thing about running your own business?

Controlling the direction and strategy. Know Your Money has grown organically and so we have no external stakeholders. Because the business is completely organically funded we are able to test new markets and products without the pressure of investors!

To find out about Know Your Money, visit their website and follow them on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook.