2013 - NOW

A little bit of history

It was a B-I-G step when I started my business consultancy. For the 25 years prior, I’d forged a successful career, moving steadily up the corporate ladder to become a Chief Executive.  

As a CEO, I’d had a nice, albeit stressful life. A nice London home, lovely holidays, and an active social life. I was putting this all on the line to build a business consultancy because I was fed up of seeing small businesses invest in support from business coaches who promise you can build a 6-figure business, earn money in your sleep and work just 4 hours a week from a beach in Bali by doing this ONE thing.

I will never forget my first morning as a fledgling entrepreneur. I commuted the 13 stairs to the back bedroom – and home to my new business empire. With the house silent, save for the sparrows chirping outside my window, the thought struck me: ‘What have I done?’ 

I quickly pushed such thoughts aside because I was fired with determination to succeed - and despite all my experience, blissfully ignorant of the work it would take to replace my salary. Starting a business couldn’t be as hard as turning around a failing company and leading it through an economic recession to deliver winning results, could it? 

The Truth About Starting A Business 

Having the freedom and flexibility to choose where, when and how you work is one of the great benefits of running a business. But somehow, that envisioned future is not always the reality. 

If you think I began my business as an enormous success, perfectly branded with my messaging on point, you would be wrong. I made many of the mistakes new and seasoned entrepreneurs make. Transitioning from the corporate world was tough going. And that’s without taking into consideration the five years I spent getting up at 5am to meet 45-50 business owners for a BNI breakfast every Thursday morning!  

The truth is getting a business off the ground requires day after day, night after night, of experimentation, trying and failing, and then trying something else until you find the lead generation and growth strategy which works best for your business.  

And then just when you think you have got it figured out, something happens – whether that’s the algorithm changing on your primary social media account, a global pandemic, or now a cost-of-living crisis. Nothing stays the same and it’s time to start experimenting all over again. 

Thankfully, when I’ve needed to dig deep, I had the experience I gained from my corporate career, coupled with the guidance I received from my mentors during the CEO years, to draw inspiration from. Whether you’re creating a sales and marketing strategy or getting clear on the direction for your business, I want the same for you.

The Reason I Started A Business 

Like so many women who who work in the corporate world, I was working round the clock and almost constantly on the brink of serious burnout. The toll on my relationships, health, and overall quality of life wasn’t sustainable. So, I took a sabbatical, headed to Southern Spain and developed a plan that would enable me to succeed at work without sacrificing my personal priorities.

I knew that I didn’t want to get another J-O-B, so I considered and dismissed a variety of business ideas because they didn’t feel like they had a purpose. Purpose-led business wasn’t a thing back in 2013! I worked up a business plan for an online yoga studio but couldn’t get the investment I needed to build a robust tech platform. What I didn’t know then was that female founders face an uphill battle for funding. Ambitious women founders, growing incredible businesses, just don’t have the know-how, connections or confidence to secure the investment their businesses need, and deserve.

I thought about all the things that I’m really good at, which I love doing and which could, if I wanted, form the basis of a scaleable business. I have a deep knowledge of what’s involved in growing and scaling businesses, having led teams of 150+ people and been responsible for overseeing multimillion-pound budgets, multiple workplaces and complex change management projects. And I love figuring out how to take a business from where it is now to achieving its potential, and then supporting the team through that journey.

I realised the impact my strategic planning skills could make on small businesses, whether they were a kitchen table startup or a scaleup, and created my Built To Succeed System. Now, my proprietary Built To Succeed System serves as the guiding force behind all that I offer, from strategic planning, business consulting and small group coaching programmes.

The CEO Years

Eight years as a Chief Executive means that I have a deep knowledge of what’s involved in growing and scaling a business, including through a merger, turnaround and severe economic downturn.

When I first became a CEO, I quickly learned that the company was in a dire state, and not as I’d been told. My job was to turn things around fast as time was not on our side. There were many times when I felt overwhelmed and daunted by the scale of the challenges. But giving up was not an option so I cleared my diary and spent a few days assessing the current reality and working on a new future for the company.  

The situation was grim, and it would have been easy to conclude the situation could not improve. Compounding the problem was my own inexperience. While I’d worked in a number of senior management roles, I was a rookie CEO. How did I know I would not finish off the company?! Using my strategic planning skills, I was able to capture a new vision on paper and set about selling it to my team and making the changes that were necessary.  

Because the strategy was aligned with our endgame, I was able to lead the company through an economic recession and deliver winning results more quickly than I thought possible. It was not easy, but I worked with an Executive Coach who helped me to keep my vision intact and develop the skills I needed to succeed. 

We trebled the size of the business in three years, earning the Investors In People, a prestigious accreditation for people management in the process. We were also accredited by the forerunners of the Financial Conduct Authority and the Care Quality Commission, meaning we had to adhere to rigorous quality standards. Diversity and Inclusion was a strategic driving force, and we embedded work-life balance policies into our culture and built a remote working culture before this was a thing. The outcome was 80% of my management team were women.

The Purpose That Guides My Work 

Diversity and Inclusion is one of the threads which has run through my career. I led the introduction of equal pay and flexible working schemes at three workplaces and worked on a London-wide project to implement the MacPherson Report into systemic racism and introduce anti-racist business practices.  

My interest in working with female founders was sparked when I coached 6 women-led startups as part of a mentoring programme for my accreditation with the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs as part of their professional learning programme. When I read the 2019 Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship - which found that women face barriers at every stage of the entrepreneurial journey although women are every bit as ambitious as male founders - I made the decision to specialise in female entrepreneurship.

That’s why the purpose of my business consultancy is to equip fellow entrepreneurial women with the tools they need to thrive in business, and make purpose and values the strategic driving force in their success. Its wider mission is to support the work of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 5: to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. 

Nothing lights a fire in me like helping talented women connect with their purpose and make this a strategic driving force in the success of their business. If this sounds like you, let’s chat. 

Who I Work With 

My clients range from kitchen table start-ups to established business owners. They come from all over - the US, Canada, Singapore, and Australia as well as the UK. Some lost their job during the pandemic and decided to take the plunge and start a business, some are doing “the juggle” of caring responsibilities, many are going through midlife changes.  

Typically, they seek my help because: 

• They know what they want to achieve in terms of business goals but just can't seem to bring it all together. 

• They feel like they have 'hit the ceiling' in terms of growth and don't quite know how to break through it. 

• They got lost down the online rabbit hole, downloading the free trainings and lead magnets thinking they would find the answers they were seeking there, only to find themselves feeling confused and overwhelmed. 

• They need just that 'bit of extra help' to guide them in the right direction or to fine tune their systems and processes and ways of doing things. 

What they all share is an ambition and determination to build brilliant businesses rooted in purpose and passion, together with a desire to balance their business success with their personal life. 

How I Work 

When I am working with my business consulting clients, I follow a similar strategic planning process to the one I used as a Chief Executive: a process which aims to answer the following four seemingly simple questions: 

• Where are you now? 

• Where are you going? 

• How can I support you in bridging the gap? 

• How will you measure progress towards that envisioned future? 

Through my blended approach - using proven consulting frameworks drawn from my time as a Chief Executive combined with expert coaching - I help my clients to create a roadmap to take their business from where it is today to their envisioned future. 

• We work together to understand where they are, where they want to be, and what they have in place already to get them there.  

• We look at available resources, capacity, assets, and existing systems and processes to identify their best opportunities for growth.  

• We focus on five key areas: building a brand, business growth strategy, financial health, building a successful company and making values and purpose a strategic driving force.  

• In true collaboration, we create and implement a strategy that works for them, their team, and their customers to ensure they get the results they really want.