The Secrets Behind Business Value Growth: What Every Consultant for Small Business Knows
Strategy Leadership
Strategy Leadership
/
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TEP
TEP
Interview with Doua Aqel, Founder of Moshpit Growth Marketing Agency
In this interview series, we speak with successful entrepreneurs and consultants for small business growth about what truly drives business value. Today's conversation reveals practical insights that every growing business can apply.
What's the biggest thing you've done that directly grew your company's value?
Winning long-term contracts with high-value clients has been a turning point. Many of our clients have remained with us for years, achieving their goals in various markets while focusing on contributing to their success. Moshpit's valuation has increased gradually, exceeding our expectations. Even though we plan our growth goals every year, as a consultant for small business clients, our goals have grown faster with ambitious companies who invest more and expand to new markets.
One of our most significant moments was expanding into Qatar, as businesses in Qatar aligned with our company's values of preserving our regional cultural identity through numerous family-friendly events. That motivated our team to give their best, despite little motivation from management.
Qatar was also our gateway to a regional Gulf presence. You know, every event in Qatar after the FIFA World Cup 2022 received a lot of media coverage, which made Doha a gateway for our regional presence.
Tell us about the most enormous brick wall you encountered in your career and how you overcame it.
One of the biggest challenges I faced was expanding the team too quickly. Hiring ahead of operational clarity created inefficiencies and diluted focus. To address this, I restructured the organization, streamlined priorities around core value delivery, and shifted the mindset from "growing bigger" to "growing smarter."
The experience taught me that scaling requires timing, alignment, and discipline. Sustainable growth stems from ensuring the right people are in the right roles at the right stage of the business. By applying that principle, one I now share as a consultant for small business growth, I was able to strengthen execution and rebuild on a more resilient foundation.
What's one work philosophy you wish you'd discovered on day one?
Create your opportunities, don't wait for them.
Instead of following the traditional "wait-for-the-brief" model, I've learned to proactively initiate new ideas to current or potential clients, and design new approaches to help them achieve their targets.
This philosophy, which I recommend to any consultant for small business clients, taught me to aim for the best clients in the market and push myself and my team to continually develop and improve, striving to exceed the market's expectations. That helped us impress new clients with multiple strategies prepared ahead of time and helped us own the momentum, which most of the time makes all the difference.
In the last year, what step change increased your company's value, and who drove it?
Securing long-term partnerships and entering the Qatari market were game changers. These moves were driven by the whole team at Moshpit, through consistent service delivery, relationship-building, and smart, data-driven decisions. Their commitment gave us the credibility that led to growth.
As any experienced consultant for small business knows, it's the team's collective effort, not just leadership, that creates lasting value.
If you could develop one game-changing skill right now, what would it be and how would it grow your business?
On the one hand, advanced AI fluency has become essential in our business, not only because it is a valuable tool, but also because there have been numerous misperceptions and misunderstandings about its role in our industry recently. Hence, I focus on this side a lot. As AI redefines industries, understanding how to lead transformative use cases internally and for clients would become a unique edge and growth multiplier.
On the other hand, I learned that one of the most critical skills for our company is adaptability and optimization. Our region has gone through so many unpredictable situations in the last few years which affected how business owners, and customers take decisions and behave towards different products, services, and trends in the market. That's why I focused on training my team about adaptability and made sure my company has embraced enough flexibility to deal with different challenges. This has paid off in so many projects that faced difficulties which made our clients modify the requirements. Still, we were able to deliver impressive results, which increased our clients' trust and confidence in us.
This adaptability is perhaps the most valuable lesson any consultant for small business can share with their clients.
As you look to the future, what do you see as being the biggest factor in your organization's growth, and how do you intend to harness it to best effect?
I think it is the broad spectrum of potential clients in different sectors of the industry, which didn't happen overnight. It took us years expanding extra services and approaching new markets to reach the ability to serve this number of companies in so many sectors.
If you check our website, you will notice that we served at least one noticeable big business in each sector after serving many small and medium businesses to gain experience. We now receive inquiries from numerous companies requesting that we be part of their growth journey, following what they have witnessed in the development of our clients.
We consider every client a partner in our mission to grow their product, service, and brand. This partnership approach is essential for any consultant for small business success.
What's the best decision you made that didn't work out and what did you learn from it?
Expanding the team too quickly. While it stemmed from ambition and optimism, I learned that growth must be matched with operational clarity.
Talent is only powerful when it aligns with timing and business readiness. Bringing in new people before processes, roles, and priorities are well defined can create confusion, dilute accountability, and even reduce the effectiveness of the high-caliber talent you've invested in.
I realized that hiring is not just about adding smart people. It's about creating the right environment for them to thrive. Without clear systems, decision-making structures, and cultural alignment, rapid expansion can slow the team down rather than accelerate it. This is crucial advice I share as a consultant for small business leaders.
Another lesson was that timing matters. Expanding ahead of real demand or before achieving product-market fit adds unnecessary cost and risk. On the other hand, waiting until there is healthy traction ensures that each new hire has a clear mission, measurable impact, and the resources to succeed.
Ultimately, I learned that sustainable scaling is about balance: the right people, at the right time, with the right level of organizational maturity. Actual growth comes when ambition meets discipline.
When has investing in people (or culture) paid off in unexpected ways for your business?
When we opened our office in Qatar, we faced hiring challenges locally. But the unexpected win was our Amman and Cairo teams stepping up, flying in, managing major campaigns, and delivering beyond expectations.
That moment confirmed the strength of our culture and the loyalty we'd nurtured. It's a powerful reminder that as a consultant for small business growth, culture is your competitive advantage, especially when facing unexpected challenges.
What's one thing you'd tell another CEO/leader about staying ahead of market shifts?
Keep creating opportunities, even when the market feels slow.
Assign someone on your team to actively explore new tools and consumer behaviours. Trends shift rapidly; what's relevant today can become obsolete tomorrow. Constant curiosity is a key to continuous learning, and the most important job of a CEO in our market is to continually learn about new things that might add value to clients or the company.
Every CEO has to embrace rapid change, because market trends used to change every quarter or two, but now they change within a few weeks. Every new trend in the market affects how clients perceive brands, marketing campaigns, or even a simple post on LinkedIn. Clients are becoming more selective and critical of all the details.
This is advice every consultant for small business should emphasize with their clients.
Tell us one thing that's made your life easier and better for the long term.
Three things: Discipline, Music & Social Responsibility
Discipline helped me manage my time, lead with focus, and stay consistent even during chaotic situations because consistency creates healthy patterns of thinking. Every day I am looking for improvements in myself, my team, and the services we offer to our clients.
Music helped manage my energy, keeping me grounded, creative, and emotionally balanced. It is the source of comfort, even if other sources failed. Every song or piece of music we got connected to over the years became a capsule of positive emotions that I can recall once I play it on my phone or during the drive to my home after a long day.
Social Responsibility made my work feel valuable in unimaginable ways. I found joy in success, that is true, but sharing it with others felt so different, because I consider community responsibility a way of showing my commitment to my personal values. If any of us believe in something, it has to be part of what we dedicate effort, passion and resources to serve. It is not charity, it is our duty to do more for the improvement of our communities and spread the awareness about issues that matter.
Key Takeaways for Growing Businesses
This interview reveals several critical insights that every consultant for small business emphasizes:
1. Long-Term Relationships Trump Quick Wins
Building lasting client partnerships creates sustainable value and predictable revenue.
2. Adaptability is a Strategic Asset
In rapidly changing markets, the ability to pivot and adjust is more valuable than rigid planning.
3. Team Before Scale
Hire for the right stage, not just for ambition. Culture and capability must align with business readiness.
4. Opportunity Creation, Not Reaction
Don't wait for opportunities to come to you. Actively create them through proactive strategy.
5. Market Expansion Requires Patience
Geographic or sector expansion takes time and requires building credibility before scaling.
About The Executive Partnership
The Executive Partnership works as a trusted consultant for small business and mid-market companies across the UK, providing strategic guidance on:
Business growth strategy and market expansion
Leadership development and team building
Operational excellence and process improvement
Financial management and fractional CFO services
Executive recruitment and talent strategy
Whether you're navigating rapid growth, entering new markets, or building your leadership team, we provide the strategic expertise that growing businesses need.
Ready to accelerate your business value growth?
Book Your Strategy Consultation
Doua Aqel is the Founder of Moshpit growth marketing agency.
The Executive Partnership serves as a strategic consultant for small business and scale-up companies throughout the UK. Our clients span £5M-£100M turnover across professional services, technology, manufacturing, and distribution sectors.
Interview with Doua Aqel, Founder of Moshpit Growth Marketing Agency
In this interview series, we speak with successful entrepreneurs and consultants for small business growth about what truly drives business value. Today's conversation reveals practical insights that every growing business can apply.
What's the biggest thing you've done that directly grew your company's value?
Winning long-term contracts with high-value clients has been a turning point. Many of our clients have remained with us for years, achieving their goals in various markets while focusing on contributing to their success. Moshpit's valuation has increased gradually, exceeding our expectations. Even though we plan our growth goals every year, as a consultant for small business clients, our goals have grown faster with ambitious companies who invest more and expand to new markets.
One of our most significant moments was expanding into Qatar, as businesses in Qatar aligned with our company's values of preserving our regional cultural identity through numerous family-friendly events. That motivated our team to give their best, despite little motivation from management.
Qatar was also our gateway to a regional Gulf presence. You know, every event in Qatar after the FIFA World Cup 2022 received a lot of media coverage, which made Doha a gateway for our regional presence.
Tell us about the most enormous brick wall you encountered in your career and how you overcame it.
One of the biggest challenges I faced was expanding the team too quickly. Hiring ahead of operational clarity created inefficiencies and diluted focus. To address this, I restructured the organization, streamlined priorities around core value delivery, and shifted the mindset from "growing bigger" to "growing smarter."
The experience taught me that scaling requires timing, alignment, and discipline. Sustainable growth stems from ensuring the right people are in the right roles at the right stage of the business. By applying that principle, one I now share as a consultant for small business growth, I was able to strengthen execution and rebuild on a more resilient foundation.
What's one work philosophy you wish you'd discovered on day one?
Create your opportunities, don't wait for them.
Instead of following the traditional "wait-for-the-brief" model, I've learned to proactively initiate new ideas to current or potential clients, and design new approaches to help them achieve their targets.
This philosophy, which I recommend to any consultant for small business clients, taught me to aim for the best clients in the market and push myself and my team to continually develop and improve, striving to exceed the market's expectations. That helped us impress new clients with multiple strategies prepared ahead of time and helped us own the momentum, which most of the time makes all the difference.
In the last year, what step change increased your company's value, and who drove it?
Securing long-term partnerships and entering the Qatari market were game changers. These moves were driven by the whole team at Moshpit, through consistent service delivery, relationship-building, and smart, data-driven decisions. Their commitment gave us the credibility that led to growth.
As any experienced consultant for small business knows, it's the team's collective effort, not just leadership, that creates lasting value.
If you could develop one game-changing skill right now, what would it be and how would it grow your business?
On the one hand, advanced AI fluency has become essential in our business, not only because it is a valuable tool, but also because there have been numerous misperceptions and misunderstandings about its role in our industry recently. Hence, I focus on this side a lot. As AI redefines industries, understanding how to lead transformative use cases internally and for clients would become a unique edge and growth multiplier.
On the other hand, I learned that one of the most critical skills for our company is adaptability and optimization. Our region has gone through so many unpredictable situations in the last few years which affected how business owners, and customers take decisions and behave towards different products, services, and trends in the market. That's why I focused on training my team about adaptability and made sure my company has embraced enough flexibility to deal with different challenges. This has paid off in so many projects that faced difficulties which made our clients modify the requirements. Still, we were able to deliver impressive results, which increased our clients' trust and confidence in us.
This adaptability is perhaps the most valuable lesson any consultant for small business can share with their clients.
As you look to the future, what do you see as being the biggest factor in your organization's growth, and how do you intend to harness it to best effect?
I think it is the broad spectrum of potential clients in different sectors of the industry, which didn't happen overnight. It took us years expanding extra services and approaching new markets to reach the ability to serve this number of companies in so many sectors.
If you check our website, you will notice that we served at least one noticeable big business in each sector after serving many small and medium businesses to gain experience. We now receive inquiries from numerous companies requesting that we be part of their growth journey, following what they have witnessed in the development of our clients.
We consider every client a partner in our mission to grow their product, service, and brand. This partnership approach is essential for any consultant for small business success.
What's the best decision you made that didn't work out and what did you learn from it?
Expanding the team too quickly. While it stemmed from ambition and optimism, I learned that growth must be matched with operational clarity.
Talent is only powerful when it aligns with timing and business readiness. Bringing in new people before processes, roles, and priorities are well defined can create confusion, dilute accountability, and even reduce the effectiveness of the high-caliber talent you've invested in.
I realized that hiring is not just about adding smart people. It's about creating the right environment for them to thrive. Without clear systems, decision-making structures, and cultural alignment, rapid expansion can slow the team down rather than accelerate it. This is crucial advice I share as a consultant for small business leaders.
Another lesson was that timing matters. Expanding ahead of real demand or before achieving product-market fit adds unnecessary cost and risk. On the other hand, waiting until there is healthy traction ensures that each new hire has a clear mission, measurable impact, and the resources to succeed.
Ultimately, I learned that sustainable scaling is about balance: the right people, at the right time, with the right level of organizational maturity. Actual growth comes when ambition meets discipline.
When has investing in people (or culture) paid off in unexpected ways for your business?
When we opened our office in Qatar, we faced hiring challenges locally. But the unexpected win was our Amman and Cairo teams stepping up, flying in, managing major campaigns, and delivering beyond expectations.
That moment confirmed the strength of our culture and the loyalty we'd nurtured. It's a powerful reminder that as a consultant for small business growth, culture is your competitive advantage, especially when facing unexpected challenges.
What's one thing you'd tell another CEO/leader about staying ahead of market shifts?
Keep creating opportunities, even when the market feels slow.
Assign someone on your team to actively explore new tools and consumer behaviours. Trends shift rapidly; what's relevant today can become obsolete tomorrow. Constant curiosity is a key to continuous learning, and the most important job of a CEO in our market is to continually learn about new things that might add value to clients or the company.
Every CEO has to embrace rapid change, because market trends used to change every quarter or two, but now they change within a few weeks. Every new trend in the market affects how clients perceive brands, marketing campaigns, or even a simple post on LinkedIn. Clients are becoming more selective and critical of all the details.
This is advice every consultant for small business should emphasize with their clients.
Tell us one thing that's made your life easier and better for the long term.
Three things: Discipline, Music & Social Responsibility
Discipline helped me manage my time, lead with focus, and stay consistent even during chaotic situations because consistency creates healthy patterns of thinking. Every day I am looking for improvements in myself, my team, and the services we offer to our clients.
Music helped manage my energy, keeping me grounded, creative, and emotionally balanced. It is the source of comfort, even if other sources failed. Every song or piece of music we got connected to over the years became a capsule of positive emotions that I can recall once I play it on my phone or during the drive to my home after a long day.
Social Responsibility made my work feel valuable in unimaginable ways. I found joy in success, that is true, but sharing it with others felt so different, because I consider community responsibility a way of showing my commitment to my personal values. If any of us believe in something, it has to be part of what we dedicate effort, passion and resources to serve. It is not charity, it is our duty to do more for the improvement of our communities and spread the awareness about issues that matter.
Key Takeaways for Growing Businesses
This interview reveals several critical insights that every consultant for small business emphasizes:
1. Long-Term Relationships Trump Quick Wins
Building lasting client partnerships creates sustainable value and predictable revenue.
2. Adaptability is a Strategic Asset
In rapidly changing markets, the ability to pivot and adjust is more valuable than rigid planning.
3. Team Before Scale
Hire for the right stage, not just for ambition. Culture and capability must align with business readiness.
4. Opportunity Creation, Not Reaction
Don't wait for opportunities to come to you. Actively create them through proactive strategy.
5. Market Expansion Requires Patience
Geographic or sector expansion takes time and requires building credibility before scaling.
About The Executive Partnership
The Executive Partnership works as a trusted consultant for small business and mid-market companies across the UK, providing strategic guidance on:
Business growth strategy and market expansion
Leadership development and team building
Operational excellence and process improvement
Financial management and fractional CFO services
Executive recruitment and talent strategy
Whether you're navigating rapid growth, entering new markets, or building your leadership team, we provide the strategic expertise that growing businesses need.
Ready to accelerate your business value growth?
Book Your Strategy Consultation
Doua Aqel is the Founder of Moshpit growth marketing agency.
The Executive Partnership serves as a strategic consultant for small business and scale-up companies throughout the UK. Our clients span £5M-£100M turnover across professional services, technology, manufacturing, and distribution sectors.
Strategy Leadership
/
TEP
Strategy Leadership
/
TEP
Strategy Leadership
/
TEP
Strategy Leadership
/
TEP
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The Executive
Partnership
Exceptional Leadership: Enabling Transformation: Maximising Value
The Executive Partnership Limited
Company No. 16340502 | Registered in England and Wales
Registered Office: Chandos House, School Lane, Buckingham, MK18 1HD, UK
The Executive
Partnership
Exceptional Leadership: Enabling Transformation: Maximising Value
The Executive Partnership Limited
Company No. 16340502 | Registered in England and Wales
Registered Office: Chandos House, School Lane, Buckingham, MK18 1HD, UK
The Executive Partnership
Exceptional Leadership: Enabling Transformation: Maximising Value
The Executive Partnership Limited
Company No. 16340502 | Registered in England and Wales
Registered Office: Chandos House, School Lane, Buckingham, MK18 1HD, UK