21st June 2026

Opening Reflection 

Once a week, usually on a Thursday or Friday, I make a trip to our wholesaler to buy stock for the farm shops.

The wholesaler offers a delivery service, and common sense would suggest I should use it. But when you’re dealing with chilled food, shelf life is everything.

The difference between profit and loss can often be found in a date stamp.

When products are delivered, you get what you’re given. But when I go myself, I do what every sensible shopper does — I reach to the back of the shelf and pick the products with the longest dates.

That simple act can give me an extra four or five days of shelf life.

And in retail, four or five days can make a huge difference.

It’s a tedious job. It’s not how I imagined spending my time as a business owner. But until we’re large enough to receive daily deliveries, it’s a necessary evil.

A Sudden Fall

Having collected the stock, I arrived back at the shop and started helping the team unload.

As I walked around the front of the vehicle to collect more items from the passenger seat, something happened that reminded me just how fragile life can be.

I tripped.

A small concrete bumper protruding from the road that was almost impossible to see.

One second I was walking.

The next I was flying through the air.

I landed heavily on my hands, my knee and my head.

At nearly seventy years old, a fall like that hits differently.

You become acutely aware that your body isn’t what it once was.

I didn’t lose consciousness, but I sat there stunned for a while trying to gather myself.

The pain came quickly.

The shock came even quicker.

The Kindness of Others

As I sat on the pavement trying to make sense of what had happened, something struck me.

The reaction of my staff.

Within seconds they were around me.

Helping me up.

Checking I was okay.

Making sure I wasn’t seriously injured.

Looking after me in a way that felt incredibly reassuring.

As a founder, you’re usually the one doing the looking after.

You’re solving problems.

Making decisions.

Supporting everyone else.

It’s very rare that the roles are reversed.

And I have to admit, it was strangely comforting.

For a few moments I wasn’t the founder.

I was simply a wounded old man being looked after by people who cared.

That meant a lot.

The Football Knee

As I write this, my knee resembles something closer to a football than a knee.

Walking is difficult.

Standing is uncomfortable.

And I’ve spent far more time with my leg elevated than I would care to admit.

Which has left me with a lot of time to think.

And one particular question keeps returning to me.

What happens when the founder isn’t there?

Can the Ship Sail Without the Captain?

For years I’ve operated with the mindset that the business needs me.

Most founders feel this way.

We’re involved in every decision.

Every crisis.

Every opportunity.

Every problem.

But lying on a sofa unable to move very much has forced me to confront an uncomfortable reality.

Could the business survive without me?

Could it continue operating if I wasn’t available?

Could the machine keep running?

Thankfully, the answer appears to be yes.

And that has given me enormous comfort.

The Value of Systems

For years I’ve bored people talking about systems.

Processes.

Procedures.

Checklists.

Documentation.

All the things that people often find tedious.

But what I’ve discovered this week is that those systems are beginning to work.

The shops continue operating.

Problems continue getting solved.

Customers continue being served.

The machine keeps moving.

That’s the reward for all those years spent obsessing about structure.

Because one of the greatest dangers in business is creating something that only functions when you’re physically present.

That’s not a business.

That’s a dependency.

Managers and Leaders

This experience has also made me think about the difference between managers and leaders.

I know I have good managers.

They keep things organised.

They solve problems.

They make sure things happen.

But leadership is different.

Leadership is about challenging assumptions.

Questioning convention.

Seeing opportunities others don’t see.

And that’s where things become more complicated.

Because if I’m honest, I don’t particularly enjoy managing.

I’m interested in where we’re going.

I’m interested in what comes next.

I’ve always regarded myself as a disruptor.

The Black Farmer brand itself was born from challenging the status quo.

The Succession Question

Which leads me to a difficult question.

How do you find the next generation of leaders?

How do you find people brave enough to challenge convention without creating chaos?

Because if truth be told, I’m not sure I’d employ someone exactly like me.

One disruptor is useful.

Two disruptors can sometimes create fireworks.

Yet every business eventually reaches a point where it needs fresh thinking.

Many great companies have disappeared because they became too comfortable.

Too settled.

Too protective of what they had already built.

The challenge for The Black Farmer is ensuring that the spirit of disruption survives long after I’m gone.

Closing Reflection

A simple trip to the wholesaler wasn’t supposed to become a life lesson.

But that’s often how life works.

One moment you’re worrying about stock rotation and sell-by dates.

The next you’re lying on the pavement wondering whether you’ve broken something.

The fall hurt.

My knee is still reminding me of it every day.

But perhaps the bigger lesson wasn’t physical.

Perhaps it was the reminder that every founder should ask themselves:

If I wasn’t here tomorrow, would the business survive?

Because if the answer is no, then your most important job isn’t building the business.

It’s building the systems and people that allow it to thrive without you.

Thankfully, this week has shown me that we’re moving in the right direction.

Now all I need is for this knee to agree.