A coach and a mentor, and I'm always clear which. Most of the time I coach: I ask questions and challenge your thinking, because the best answers about your business are usually yours. Where my experience adds something, I mentor. Where you need a reference point, I bring what the evidence says good looks like. I'm not a consultant: I don't do the work for you or hand you a report.

Yes, because I don't rely on my experience alone. The SMARTer System has proven practice behind every key area. Where my experience runs out, that practice takes over, and where both run out, I help you bring in the right specialist. I always tell you which you are getting.

Every business is different, but businesses that sell expertise run on much the same economics: a limited amount of expert time, how much of it gets paid for, what it is priced at, where the next piece of work comes from, and how much depends on a few people. The SMARTer System is a map, not a template, and your business decides the journey.

That's fine. The SMARTer System covers ten key areas, including leadership, delivery, people, finance and systems. We work on whichever areas matter most to you.

No. Managing directors and members of the leadership team are welcome, and the SMARTer Business Review and Programme can include them. Where the business pays for a manager, we agree up front what the business will be told and what stays private.

On the Programme, plan on two to four hours a week, including our sessions. Mentoring takes less. The real work happens in your business between sessions, and it is designed around the time a busy owner actually has.

You shouldn't throw it away. Relationships and referrals are usually a business's best source of work. The aim is to make them deliberate rather than accidental, so the business is less exposed when a key client leaves or a referrer retires.

Clearer priorities usually come early, often from the first review. By day 90 of the Programme you should see measured progress against your goals. Lasting change takes months. If the business needs rescuing in the next few weeks, I'm not the right person, and a turnaround specialist or your accountant is a better first call.

No, and I'd be wary of anyone who says yes. What I can do is make it low risk to find out. The Business Review has a value guarantee: if you don't think it was worth the fee, you don't pay it. The Programme has a 90-day exit: if you are not seeing progress, you can stop with no further fees.

The ten key areas review and the Discovery Call are free. A SMARTer Business Review is from £750, the SMARTer Programme from £1,500 a month for six months, and SMARTer Mentoring from £400 a month. No VAT is charged, and I confirm the price in a short written agreement before we start. The Services page has the detail.

The SMARTer System is designed for businesses with a turnover of £500K to £10M, usually with ten to fifty people. Below that, the owner usually still does most things personally; above it, the business usually needs a different kind of support.

I help you think about it, and the answer comes from a specialist. Where advice has legal, regulatory or financial consequences, I help you choose the right person, brief them and test their advice. You contract with them directly, and I don't take referral fees.

Practice that the evidence genuinely supports. I use the word sparingly. Most of what I bring is described honestly as established or widely used practice, and I tell you how strong the evidence is and where it comes from.

Thirty years in frontline commercial roles with companies like Oracle, Infor and Lawson, three businesses of my own, an ILM Level 5 Certificate in Coaching and Mentoring, membership of the Association of Business Mentors, approved mentor status on Help to Grow, and EMCC accreditation in progress, with regular professional supervision.

Yes, and it is written into our agreement. I work to the Global Code of Ethics, signed by the ABM and the EMCC. The one exception is professional supervision, where cases are discussed without names.

Yes. The tools, practice cards and plans we use are yours to keep using in your own business.

All sessions are on Zoom and last 90 minutes. Between sessions you test changes in the business, and we review what happened next time.

Forty-five minutes to an hour, over Zoom. You tell me about the business and what you want it to achieve, I ask questions and tell you honestly what I see, and then we both decide. No pitch, no pressure, and you'll leave with something useful either way.