Strategic advice for amassing billions: Serial entrepreneur RICHARD HARPIN discloses the crucial recipe for corporate prosperity, a revelation that remarkably rescued his neighborhood tavern.
In the bustling world of British business, entrepreneur Richard Harpin is on a mission to double the number of large companies in the UK. He aims to achieve this by providing funding, advice, and networking opportunities to small and medium-sized firms, emulating the strategy that propelled his own success.
Harpin is best known for founding HomeServe, a domestic emergency repairs business that grew into a £4 billion FTSE 100 company. His journey began with a shrewd observation of the market and a keen eye for improvement. Like Netflix, which copied Blockbuster's video rental model and improved upon it to achieve success, Harpin learned from competitors and adapted proven ideas to create better solutions for customers.
One of his personal ventures is The Alice Hawthorn, a pub he saved in 2013 despite not initially wanting to run a hospitality venue. The Alice Hawthorn, set in a Grade II-listed building and located in Nun Monkton, a picture-postcard village off the beaten track in north Yorkshire with reputedly the tallest maypole in Britain, has since become an award-winning diner serving superior food. It is listed in the Michelin Guide 2025 as one of Yorkshire's best pubs.
The pub's success is similar to that of Jeremy Clarkson's renovated Cotswold pub, The Farmer's Dog, which gained popularity after featuring in Clarkson's hit Amazon Prime TV show. However, The Alice Hawthorn's journey was not without its challenges. Harpin struggled initially to find the right people to run the pub and lost money lending to a neighbour. But a husband-and-wife team were eventually hired who transformed the pub's fortunes, without inventing a new business model.
Despite the pub's impressive monthly earnings of around £30,000-£40,000, Harpin acknowledges that it is not a sound return on the £5.5 million he has invested. To keep the local community happy, he subsidizes the beer prices to avoid complaints from local farmers.
Harpin's investments extend beyond The Alice Hawthorn. He has made a significant portion of his estimated £500 million from the sale of HomeServe to invest in other businesses. His portfolio includes Easy Bathrooms, a company modeled on Howdens, a kitchen and bathroom retailer; a fitness club chain in Spain that is a twist on PureGym in the UK; and Passenger, a British version of US outdoor clothing business Patagonia.
In his book, "How to Make a Billion in Nine Steps", Harpin advises to copy successful models and improve upon them. Likewise, he believes that people who have made their money should stay in the UK, pay their capital gains tax, and give something back to the community. A Yorkshireman known for being frugal with money, Harpin's philosophy seems to be rooted in learning from others, adapting, and creating better solutions for customers.
- Richard Harpin, known for his strategic investing in various businesses, followed the example of Netflix by copying blockbuster's video rental model and improving it to achieve success.
- Beyond his successful pub, The Alice Hawthorn, Harpin's investments span multiple industries, including Easy Bathrooms, which has a similar model to Howdens, a kitchen and bathroom retailer.
- In his book, Harpin advises entrepreneurs to follow in his footsteps by copying successful models and improving upon them, suggesting that those who have made their money should contribute to their communities by paying their capital gains tax.
