I won't tell you what you want to hear. I'll tell you what your business needs you to hear.
Not every business is the right fit
I only work with founders who are commercially ambitious, open to challenge and serious about building a business that no longer depends on them.
My engagements typically range from £5,000 to £50,000+, depending on the scale of the work.
What really happens?
You tell me where you want to go.
Then what’s working, what isn’t. What’s frustrating you. What keeps pulling you back in.
While you’re talking, I’m listening for something else.
- The conversations you’re avoiding.
- The patterns you’ve stopped seeing.
- The assumptions driving your decisions.
- The gap between the business you’ve built and the one you’re trying to create.
Most founders arrive with a problem. They leave understanding a different one.
Then we ask one question:
What needs to change for the business to grow beyond you?
Every founder starts somewhere different
Sometimes we grow the founder…because the business has outgrown the way they’re leading it.
Sometimes we scale the business…by building a leadership team capable of making decisions without everything coming back to the founder.
Sometimes we increase business value…by reducing founder dependency and preparing the business for investment, succession or sale.
Whatever the starting point…
We build a business that’s capable of growing beyond you.
WAYS WE CAN WORK TOGETHER
Every business is different, so we’ll start where you’ll benefit most.
Strategic Advisory Partnership
Everyone wants you… but who’s there for you?
The bigger your business becomes, the fewer people you can think honestly with.
You need someone who’ll challenge your thinking and help you make the decisions that shape what happens next.
Strategy Day
You need clarity before making another significant decision?
Growth. Investment. A new MD. A restructure. Succession. Sale.
All decisions that are too important to make alone, so one day of focused thinking can change the next five years.
Leadership Development
You don’t need more managers.
You now need leaders because the people who helped you build the business aren’t necessarily the people who’ll help you scale it.
If the business is going to grow beyond you, you need to grow your leadership team.
The business you’re trying to build won’t be created by the leader who built the one you have today.
SOMETIMES CONVERSATIONS START ON STAGE…
Some founders first meet me in a boardroom, others in a conference hall.
Whether I’m speaking to 800 founders at a national conference or facilitating a leadership event for an organisation, the objective is the same.
- To challenge assumptions.
- To change the conversation
- To help people see their business differently
Answers to your questions
If you’re considering working with me, you probably have a few questions. Here are the ones I’m asked most often:
Is this executive coaching, consultancy or something else?
I don’t fit neatly into any one category.
I work where founder behaviour, leadership capability and business performance meet. Some days I’m your strategic adviser. Some days I’m challenging your thinking. Other days I’m working with your leadership team.
The goal is always the same: building a business that no longer depends on you.
The result is a stronger Founder, saleable business and more valuable asset that give you choice.
What kind of business do I need to be?
Usually businesses that have moved beyond startup and are experiencing the pressures that come with growth. Typically £500k – £5m turnover
Typically founder-led businesses with 5-100 employees that are growing and facing increased complexity. Predominantly in Professional Services.
We already have an HR Director. Where do you fit?
Your HR team supports the business. I support the founder and the leadership team.
I’m not there to replace internal expertise. I’m there to provide an independent perspective, challenge thinking and accelerate growth.
Founders and senior leaders work best when they have a private place where they can safely say the things they can’t say anywhere else.
They need to be able to think out loud, test ideas, explore concerns and challenge their own thinking, without worrying about the consequences inside the business.
I provide confidentiality and honest conversations from an experienced external perspective.
Do you work with Founders, CEOs or leadership teams?
All three. I mostly start directly with the founder. Then the leadership team.
How do you measure ROI?
The impact isn’t always measured in a single number. However, clients often see improvements in:
- Reduced dependency on one person
- Faster decision-making
- Stronger leadership accountability
- Improved team performance
- Attracting better people
- Increasing ‘the right’ staff retention
- More effective communication
- Increased leadership confidence
- Greater capacity for growth
- Reduced operational bottlenecks
- Improved succession readiness
In many cases, these improvements contribute directly to increased profitability, stronger business performance and increased business value.
The strongest commercial results rarely come from working harder. They come from building a business that no longer relies on one person.
What investment should I expect?
I only work with a small number of founder-led businesses each year.
Most engagements range from £5,000 to £50,000+, depending on the scope and the level of partnership required.
Every engagement is designed around the unique business.
Will you challenge me?
100%. Respectfully, honestly and always with the business in mind.
My job isn’t to tell you what you want to hear, it’s to tell you what you need to hear to help you build a stronger business.
That means asking difficult questions, challenging assumptions and helping you see the patterns, behaviours and blind spots that may be limiting growth.
Clients often tell me I say what others won’t and that’s what accelerates them.
Will I need to explain my entire business to you before you can help?
No.
Whilst every business is unique, the leadership challenges inside growing founder-led businesses are often remarkably similar.
For more than 25 years I’ve worked with leaders, teams and business owners navigating growth, pressure, change and complexity.
My role isn’t to become the expert in your industry. It’s to quickly understand the patterns affecting leadership, communication, accountability and performance so we can build your business to gives you more options in the future.
Whether that’s scaling further, attracting investors, selling… or simply enjoying owning your business again and loving your life.
Will this just create more work for me?
No. Quite the opposite.
The aim isn’t to give you another programme, another framework or another thing to do.
It’s to reduce the pressure you’re carrying, strengthen the people around you and help you build a business that no longer depends on you for every decision.
As the business becomes stronger, founders often find they have more clarity, more confidence, more capacity and more time for the things that matter to them. Whether that’s growing the business, spending time with family or simply enjoying owning the business they’ve worked so hard to build.
Do you only focus on the business?
Absolutely not.
Founder-led businesses are deeply personal. When the founder is overwhelmed, carrying every decision or losing sight of why they started, the business feels it.
As businesses grow, the founder’s strengths become the business’s strengths, but it means their blind spots can become business risks.
I start with the founder, because they are the business. The two are inseparable.
The goal is building a business that doesn’t rely on the founder anymore, which gives them more choices and a better quality of life.
Can improving leadership really increase business performance?
Absolutely!
I’ve worked with businesses where:
- Founders have retired early millionaires.
- founders have stepped out of day-to-day operations
- leadership teams have taken greater ownership
- businesses have accelerated growth
- succession plans have become viable
- business valuations have increased significantly
The exact return looks different for every business.
But when stronger leadership creates better decisions, better accountability and better execution, commercial results always follow.
What does working with you actually look like?
Every business is different, so there’s no one-size-fits-all programme.
I start by understanding where your business is today, what’s keeping you up at night, and what you want to achieve. From there, I work alongside you and, where appropriate, your team to reduce dependency on you, develop leadership capability and create options for both you and the business.
Support can include 121 strategy days, leadership development, 121 executive coaching, board facilitation and longer-term strategic partnerships.
How do we know if we're ready?
If you’ve reached the point where business growth is creating more pressure instead of more freedom, you’re ready.
If you’re still at the centre of too many decisions…
Or if you know your business can’t continue relying on you…
It’s probably worth having a conversation.
Most founders contact me because they’re working harder than ever, their leadership team isn’t stepping up, or they know the business relies too heavily on them which is slowing them down.
You don’t need to have all the answers before we speak. That’s what the conversation is for.
What if my team is the problem?
Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t but one thing I’ve learnt is this:
Most businesses don’t have the problem they think they have.
That’s why I never assume. We find out first.
Do you work remotely or in person?
Both.
CURIOUS BUT NOT READY FOR A CONVERSATION?
Follow my thinking instead
The Thinking Room is where I share the observations, questions, and patterns I’m seeing inside founder-led businesses.
Not every observation I make ends up on this website. Some I only share with members of The Thinking Room.
No weekly newsletter. Just observations worth reading, when they’re worth sharing.