An experienced strategist alongside you at the top of the business
Running a good business can become surprisingly isolating.
There are plenty of people you can turn to for specialist advice, but it is much harder to find someone outside the company who understands the business deeply enough to bring useful judgement to the biggest decisions, while genuinely caring what happens next.
That is the role I play.
I work alongside a small number of business owners over the long term. I get to know the business, the people, the numbers, the pressures and what you genuinely want from it.
That means when something important comes up, we are not starting from scratch.
I already understand the business around the decision.
We start with what matters most right now.
Every business is different, so there is no standard first three months.
We start with whatever is most important to you at that moment.
It might be a pricing decision, cash-flow pressure, a management issue, an important proposal, a new opportunity or something that has simply been sitting on your desk for too long.
From the outset, the work is shaped around what can make a useful difference to your business now.
At the same time, I am gradually building a much deeper understanding of the business and where you want it to go
As that understanding grows, we can move beyond the immediate issues and start getting clearer on the bigger picture.
The longer we work together, the more useful I can become.
During the first few months, most of my time is normally spent with the owner or owners.
That gives me the context I need before the work naturally starts reaching further into the business.
Over time, I begin to understand things that do not appear in a spreadsheet. The personalities. The history behind decisions. Where confidence is high and where it is not. What the team responds well to. Where an apparently sensible idea probably will not work in this particular business.
That accumulated understanding is one of the most valuable parts of the relationship.
“The longer we work together, the less you need to explain and the quicker we can get to what matters.”
At first i am learning
→ How does the business really make money?
→ Where are the strongest margins?
→ Which clients do you enjoy working with?
→ Where does too much depend on you?
→ Who are the key people around the business?
→ How are decisions made?
→ What is working particularly well?
And, most importantly, what do you actually want the business to become?
Sometimes you need advice. Sometimes you need the work done.
I don't believe an already busy owner needs another person simply giving them a longer to-do list.
There will be times when my role is to challenge your thinking or give you another perspective.
There will also be times when the most useful thing I can do is take something off your desk and do the work for you.
That might mean building or improving a cash-flow model, reviewing margins and other business metrics, preparing a sales board or improving a spreadsheet so the information is genuinely useful to you.
I might work on the messaging and positioning of the business, help prepare important client or prospect communications, carry out detailed research, produce a report or draft something that needs specialist input.
Sometimes I will work directly with a member of your team on an important piece of work that sits outside your own strengths or available time.
The support changes because the needs of the business change.
When something comes up, you can reach me.
Important decisions rarely arrive conveniently just before one of our meetings.
A prospect might send an email that could lead to a significant piece of work.
A client might raise something unexpected.
An employee issue might need dealt with carefully before it becomes a bigger problem.
You might have an idea and want someone who understands the context to sense-check it before you act. Clients can call, email or message me between our working sessions.
High responsiveness and access between meetings are an important part of the relationship because they help keep momentum going and allow us to deal with things while they still matter.
And sometimes the message has nothing to do with a problem.
Sometimes a client simply wants to share a win with someone who understands why it is a big deal.
Owning a business can be lonely. Having someone alongside you who understands what has gone into that win matters too.
Working with your management team and advisers.
As I get to know the business, it often makes sense for my involvement to extend beyond the owners. If you are introducing management meetings for the first time, I might help establish them and stay involved for the first few months while the team gets used to taking greater responsibility.
When the wider team comes together, I can facilitate strategy sessions, workshops and team days, helping people understand where the business is going and encouraging them to contribute ideas. I also sometimes support senior team members individually, provide training in areas such as sales or business development, and help with the recruitment of important senior appointments.
There may also be times when it is more useful for me to work directly with your existing advisers. That could mean sitting with your FD, accountant, HR adviser or marketing team, bringing them up to speed on the wider strategy and helping make sure their specialist expertise is being applied to the priorities that matter most.
You remain the leader of the business.
I know I have crossed the line if the team starts looking to me rather than you for leadership.
My role is to make you and the business stronger, not to take your place.
The relationship works best when…
You are the owner, or have genuine authority to make important decisions.
You have already built something good and want to make it better.
You are excellent at what you do, while recognising that developing the business requires a wider set of skills and perspectives.
You listen, learn and are willing to reconsider assumptions.
You follow through.
And when we agree that something matters, you are willing to put the time, attention and resources behind it.
I predominantly work with owners of professional and technical service businesses in Central Scotland because spending meaningful time together face-to-face is an important part of how I work.
If you are looking purely for specialist sector expertise, want someone else to take over leadership of the company, or are unlikely to follow through on agreed priorities, this is probably not the right relationship.
Someone who knows the business.
And cares where it goes.
It is difficult to find someone outside your company who understands your business deeply enough to bring useful judgement to the biggest decisions, while genuinely caring what happens next.
That depth of understanding is only possible because I deliberately work with a small number of businesses.
Over time, I know the history behind the numbers. I know the people involved. I understand what has already been tried, what matters to you and why certain decisions are harder than they might appear from the outside.
So when something changes, you do not have to spend half the conversation explaining the background.
We can get straight into what matters. That is what I want the relationship to become.