Entrepreneur Matt Haycox has unveiled a hard-hitting new resource for founders struggling to scale without losing their grip. His latest release, part of the growing No Bollocks Business HQ, is a no-nonsense playbook that shows business owners exactly how to grow beyond the chaos stage and build a company that can actually run without them.
After two decades of funding and advising businesses across the UK and UAE, Haycox says he built the playbook because he was tired of watching founders hit the same wall over and over.
‘Scaling is the part nobody warns you about,’ Haycox says. ‘It’s not glamorous. It’s systems, pricing, team performance and dealing with all the stuff you’ve ignored for too long. The problem is that most advice sugarcoats it. This playbook doesn’t. It tells you what really happens when you try to scale and what to fix first.’
A Playbook Designed for the Messy Middle
The new No Bollocks Business Scaling Playbook sits inside Haycox’s wider HQ platform, which he describes as a command centre for founders. Not a blog. Not a content dump. A decision-making environment.
According to the HQ framework, every serious piece of content must help a founder ship, sell or solve a problem within seven days. The Scaling Playbook is no different. It breaks growth into practical steps:
- Tightening positioning so demand becomes predictable
- Fixing pricing before volume increases pressure
- Building repeatable delivery rather than relying on heroics
- Installing management cadence instead of firefighting
- Sorting cashflow before growth amplifies mistakes
‘Most founders don’t have a scaling problem,’ Haycox explains. ‘They have an operations problem, or a pricing problem, or a people problem. Scaling just exposes whatever you’ve been avoiding. The playbook shows you how to prepare before growth crushes you.’
Launching as UAE Entrepreneurship Hits Record Highs
The move comes at a time when entrepreneurship in the UAE is accelerating at a pace rarely seen anywhere else. According to the latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2024 to 2025 report, the UAE is ranked number one in the world for entrepreneurship for the fourth consecutive year, outperforming global markets across 11 out of 13 indicators.
The numbers on the ground reveal the same story. The Dubai International Chamber reported a 138% year-on-year increase in new company registrations in the first half of 2025. The Dubai Chamber of Commerce added more than 35,000 new member companies in the same period.
Haycox says this surge is exciting but warns it comes with a predictable second wave.
‘When thousands of new businesses launch at once, the next challenge is scaling them,’ he says. ‘Demand, hiring, delivery, operations, money management. It all comes at founders fast. If they don’t sort their structure early, scaling becomes the quickest way to break a business.’
Tackling the Hard Parts Founders Avoid
The No Bollocks Scaling Playbook dives into the most common choke points founders face once they get initial traction.
It provides practical steps for cleaning up back-of-house chaos, building delivery systems that don’t depend on the founder’s energy, strengthening leadership as headcount grows, tightening forecasting and cash controls, and creating plays that turn early growth into sustainable scale.
A report from Deloitte has shown that more than half of SMEs cite operational inefficiency as their biggest barrier to growth. Haycox says that stat barely scratches the surface.
‘Everybody talks about winning clients,’ he says. ‘Nobody talks about making sure you can deliver without going insane. That’s the real bottleneck. If your operations can’t hold the weight, no amount of marketing or sales will save you.’
Part of a Bigger Command Centre for Founders
The new playbook plugs directly into the broader No Bollocks Business HQ architecture. Within the HQ, the Business Scaling Playbook sits alongside:
- Stage Hubs that tell founders exactly what to work on, depending on whether they’re validating, launching, growing or systemising
- Paths that give step-by-step journeys, such as ‘Fix Your Pricing’ or ‘Get Control of Cash’
- Kits, tools and templates, including SOP packs, pricing calculators and delivery checklists
- Case Files showing the real decisions behind successful founders and operators
‘Founders don’t need more reading material,’ Haycox says. ‘They need something they can open on a Monday morning and actually use. The HQ is built like a cockpit. You sit down, you know where you are and you know what to do next.’
Grounded in Haycox’s Own Experience and Failures
Like everything in the No Bollocks ecosystem, the playbook pulls openly from Haycox’s wins and mistakes. He frequently talks about the early bankruptcy that forced him to rebuild from scratch and the lessons that shaped his approach to scaling and operational discipline.
‘I learnt the hard way that you can’t scale chaos,’ he says. ‘It doesn’t matter how big the opportunity is. If your foundation is shaky, growth will break you. This playbook is the guide I wish I had fifteen years ago.’
A Tool for a Region Hungry for Structure
With the UAE attracting record numbers of founders, multinational expansions and ambitious service businesses, Haycox believes the Scaling Playbook will become one of the most-used assets in the HQ.
‘The region moves fast,’ he says. ‘Dubai rewards action. Abu Dhabi rewards smart strategy. But both punish poor structure. If you can’t scale cleanly, you get left behind. The playbook gives founders the backbone to handle real growth.’
What’s Next for the No Bollocks Scaling System
Haycox’s team is already working on supplementary kits for the playbook, including management cadence templates, systemisation checklists and cashflow scenario tools. Additional UAE-specific guidance will follow, covering hiring patterns, regional expansion and regulatory considerations for scaling businesses.
For Haycox, the mission is straightforward.
‘Founders don’t need another online coach telling them to dream bigger,’ he says. ‘They need someone who tells the truth and hands them the tools to build a business that actually works. That’s what this playbook is designed to do.’
The No Bollocks Scaling Playbook is now available inside Matt Haycox’s No Bollocks Business HQ..
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