Business Advisor and Mentor

From a Good Business to a Great One

Private, one-on-one advice and mentoring for owners of established businesses. I find the small things adding up in your business and help you work on the ones that matter most.

Engineer and MBA. 15 years working with more than 1000 businesses. Board member at Zondii.

Start a Conversation How I Work

Some of the businesses I have worked with

  • Birth Beat
  • Moss Environmental
  • Quantal Bioscience
  • Zondii
  • Stringybark Ecological
  • Southwell Property
  • CRT
  • PRD
  • University of New England
  • Level Electrical and Air
  • Duffy's Automotive
  • North West Blinds and Awnings
  • Insignia Company
  • SMART Region Incubator
  1. Know what last month made
  2. Stop being the one every question comes to
  3. Get your time back

Which One Is You?

Business owners

You built a good business and it runs on you

See the owners page Founders

You raised the money and now have to grow into it

See the founders page Incubators, accelerators, investors, regional bodies

You want the Entrepreneurs Leverage Program for your founders

See the programs page Boards

You need a director who brings experience, wisdom and pattern recognition

See the boards page

Good, and Harder Than It Should Be

You built a good business. You can feel it could be great, and you can't quite say what's in the way. Most owners I meet tell me one of these three things.

  1. It got harder as it grew, not easier.

    It can't be run by feel any more, and nobody's whole job is the money or the operations. So every decision still comes through you.

  2. You know what the issues are.

    You've known for a while. Knowing hasn't fixed them, and more hours don't make them easier to see.

  3. You're maxed out.

    Sales are up, and you couldn't say for sure what profit last month made. The last week off came with your phone.

Your business is too big to run by feel, and not yet big enough to pay for the help a larger company has. That is the gap I work in.

Mandy Walker

I've been inside the machine.

I'm Mandy. I'm an engineer with an MBA. Before I advised anyone I spent 8 years in operations at manufacturing plants, a processing facility and a mine. In a plant, small things decide the result, and hard work later in the process doesn't fix a setting that's wrong. I still look at businesses that way.

In 15 years I've worked with more than 1000 businesses, in trades, manufacturing, health, professional services, retail and agtech. I notice the small things most advisors walk past, and I often spend an unreasonable amount of time on the ones that matter most. Sometimes the answer is the business model itself. I have changed a client's business model more than once, and the strategy that follows works because it starts from how their business actually runs.

More about me

At a glance

Who I work with
Owners of established businesses, in any industry.
How
One-on-one, with me.
Where
Based in regional NSW. Working with owners across Australia.
Track record
15 years. More than 1000 businesses across trades, manufacturing, health, professional services, retail, science and tech, and agtech.
Training
Bachelor of Engineering (Materials), First Class Honours, University of Wollongong. MBA, Australian Institute of Business.
Before advising
Operations roles at Ford, Cargill and North Parkes Mines.
Boards and universities
Board member, Zondii. Expert in Residence, University of New England SMART Region Incubator.

How It Works

  1. Start a conversation

    Tell me about the business and what you want from it.

  2. I look closely

    Your numbers, your people, the way work moves through the business, and the life you want around it. The problem is rarely where it shows up.

  3. We work on the few things that matter

    We decide together what to work on first, and we do it together.

Start a Conversation

What You Can Count On

  • For owners, it's one-on-one, with me. No program, no handover to someone junior, no template.
  • I say what I see.
  • The decisions stay yours.
  • I work with a small number of owners at a time, so your business gets my full attention.

A great business is usually a lot of small things adding up.

Finding yours is the work.

What Clients Say

Business owner

“She doesn't dictate what I need to do … she has a really good knack to draw out what needs to happen in my business, and it really does feel like it comes from within myself.”

Laser Electrical, now Level Electrical + Air
Founder

“She's taught me so much about the numbers and what they mean … every month I check the numbers … make little tweaks … pull this lever or that lever.”

Moss Environmental

What Another Year Costs

Another year of the same hours. The issues you already know about, still there. Half of Australian owners have thought about closing or selling, most of them 8 to 10 years in (BizCover, 2026).

The issues are fixable. Start with the small ones.

Together, We'll

Find what's holding you back
You know what to fix this quarter, and what to leave alone.
Price for what your work is worth
You charge what the work is worth, and more sales mean more profit.
Know your numbers
You read your own numbers every month, and you know what they mean. You see what's moving and what to change.
Put the right people in
Someone owns the floor. You check a few numbers each week to see it's on course, and you stop being the person every question goes to.
Build a buffer
Cash in the bank for the quiet quarter, so you can see a slow month coming.
Plan what comes next
Growth, succession or sale. You know what each would take, and you choose.
Get your time back
You take the week away and the phone stays quiet.