Businessman and Investor Matt Haycox Introduces No-Bollocks Guide to Growth in a Noisy Market
Businessman and investor Matt Haycox has launched a blunt, practical growth guide designed for founders overwhelmed by the noise, trends and contradictory advice flooding today’s business world. The new resource, part of the expanding No Bollocks Business HQ, aims to give entrepreneurs a clear, grounded understanding of how to grow a business sustainably without being pulled off course by hype.
Haycox says the timing is deliberate. With social media overflowing with shortcuts, ‘overnight success’ claims and recycled strategy frameworks, he believes most founders are struggling not because growth is impossible, but because the market is too loud to see what matters.
‘Growth has become a buzzword,’ Haycox says. ‘Everyone online is screaming about scaling, going global or tripling revenue in ninety days. Nobody is talking about the basics. Real growth comes from clarity, structure and consistent execution, not trend-hopping.’
The new guide sits inside Haycox’s Business Scale & Growth framework, one of the 11 pillars of the HQ designed to help founders grow without burning out or blowing up their operations.
Growing a Business in the Loudest Marketplace Ever
Haycox says the biggest challenge founders face today isn’t competition. It’s distraction.
‘Founders aren’t short of advice,’ he says. ‘They’re drowning in it. Every day, there’s a new tactic, platform, funnel or content trend. Most of it is noise. The No Bollocks guide strips that away and tells you what will actually move the needle.’
According to him, the problem is that entrepreneurs chase growth before they fix the foundations. They try to scale a business that doesn’t yet have clear positioning, stable operations or sustainable margins.
‘That’s why so many founders plateau,’ he adds. ‘They try to accelerate when the engine isn’t built for speed.’
A Framework Built for the Real World, Not Social Algorithms
Haycox’s No Bollocks approach breaks growth into the practical realities founders usually avoid: tightening delivery, fixing pricing, improving margins, strengthening leadership and building reliable demand that doesn’t collapse with one bad month.
He insists that the concept of explosive, effortless scale is a myth sold online by people who have never run a real business.
‘Growth isn’t glamorous,’ he says. ‘It’s messy. It’s operational. It’s numbers. It’s saying no more than you say yes. Once founders accept that, things get a lot easier.’
A study by McKinsey found that companies that prioritise operational discipline during growth outperform peers by as much as 30% in long-term profit stability. Haycox says that stat matches exactly what he sees across the companies he funds.
‘If your operations buckle every time you get busy, you don’t have a growth problem. You have a structure problem. The guide teaches people to fix that before it costs them.’
Launching in One of the World’s Fastest-Growing Entrepreneurial Ecosystems
The UAE continues to be one of the most active entrepreneurial hubs globally. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2024 to 2025 report ranked the UAE number one in the world for entrepreneurship for the fourth consecutive year, outperforming every major market on 11 out of 13 indicators.
Business creation is also rising at record speed. The Dubai International Chamber reported a 138% year-on-year jump in new company registrations in the first half of 2025. More than 35,000 companies joined the Dubai Chamber of Commerce during the same period.
Haycox says this rapid expansion means founders can’t afford to rely on guesswork.
‘In a fast-moving region like the UAE, a founder’s biggest risk isn’t lack of opportunity. It’s making decisions too quickly, based on bad information. The guide gives them structure in a market that moves at warp speed.’
What Most Founders Get Wrong About Growth
According to Haycox, founders consistently stumble in three places:
- They try to grow too quickly.
- They try to grow without knowing their numbers.
- They try to grow without building the systems that make scale sustainable.
‘They think growth is marketing,’ he says. ‘It’s not. Growth is leadership. Growth is delivery. Growth is tightening the screws behind the scenes. When the foundations are solid, marketing works ten times better.’
Haycox argues that sustainable growth looks simple only because it’s built on discipline. ‘Everyone wants scale. Nobody wants the structure required to earn it.’
The No Bollocks Growth System: What’s Inside
The new guide includes founder-focused support, such as:
- Growth diagnostics that identify what’s holding a business back
- Plays for increasing capacity without increasing chaos
- Pricing and margin levers that create room for expansion
- Leadership behaviours that stop bottlenecks
- Strategy filters that help founders choose the right opportunities
But the one thing it does not include is hype.
‘I’m not here to promise that founders can triple their revenue in six weeks,’ Haycox says. ‘What I can promise is that if they follow the system, they’ll make better decisions, avoid expensive mistakes and build a business that grows without swallowing their life.’
A Closing Note for Founders Trying to Break Through
For Haycox, the goal of the No Bollocks HQ is simple: give founders a framework that protects them from the noise so they can focus on what actually drives growth.
‘If you want to grow in a noisy market, you need a filter,’ he says. ‘The No Bollocks system is that filter. It takes out the guesswork so founders can finally build a business that scales for real.’
