Most business owners I meet have accepted a quiet belief. Long hours are normal.Firefighting is part of the job.Carrying it all is just what leadership looks like. It’s almost seen as proof you care that you need people to see Read more
Below £5m? The Constraint Isn’t Your Market. I work with scientific manufacturing, general manufacturing, joinery and cabinetmaking, property development, hot tub retail, HVAC engineers, classic car restoration, aerospace, training organisations and engineering firms. Different sectors. Different products. Different technical challenges. Read more
You Have a Design Problem. When I sit with business owners in the £1m–£5m range, I tend to hear variations of the same frustrations. They sound different on the surface, but they usually fall into five broad areas. And they Read more
Most business owners don’t wake up one day and decide to build a stressful business. It happens gradually. What started as being involved becomes being relied upon.What started as oversight becomes control.What started as pride becomes pressure. And before you Read more
Most business owners don’t ignore problems. In fact, it’s usually the opposite. When something isn’t working properly, they lean in. They stay closer. They work harder. They take more on themselves until they’re sure it’s fixed. That instinct is understandable Read more
There’s a point in many businesses that doesn’t get talked about very much. It’s not the startup phase.It’s not crisis.And it’s not failure. It’s the point where the business is working… but it is just harder than it should be. Read more
I have a lot of conversations with business owners who, on paper, are doing fine. The business is trading.There’s work coming in.The team looks capable. And yet, privately, they’ll say something like: “I don’t know why this feels so hard.” Read more
I hear business owners say it all the time: “I don’t really want to grow much more.” On the surface, that sounds perfectly reasonable. Sensible, even. Not everyone wants a bigger business, more people, more responsibility. And to be clear, Read more
Have you set any New Year’s resolutions that would actually make your life better? Not the vague ones. Not the recycled promises. I mean the kind that would genuinely change how you feel about your work, your time, your health, Read more
The Most Important Work You’ll Do This Christmas As this year draws to a close and as this is my last article until January, I want to take a moment to wish you a genuinely Merry Christmas and a Happy Read more