For business owners
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, good or bad, and help you work on the ones that matter most.
This Is for You If
- You built a good business, and it was a steeper learning curve than you expected
- 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
- You know what the issues are. Knowing hasn't fixed them
- You're maxed out. There's no more of your time to put in
- You've got a team, and you're still the one every question comes to
- Sales are up, and you couldn't say for sure what profit last month made
- You're very good at the work. Running the business around it takes skills your training didn't cover
- You want profit, and a business that's good for the people around it
“I know there's issues within my business. The fact that I knew them, I thought that was all I needed to know to fix them.”
What You've Probably Tried
Most owners I meet have tried some of these. Each is good at what it's for. None is built to find what's specific to your business.
- Your accountant
- They hold your numbers and you need them. For most owners the accountant is the only outside view, and the work is tax and compliance. Deciding what to do with the numbers is a different job, and I work alongside your accountant on it.
- A coaching program
- A good one gives you the shared problems, accountability and a room of peers. I ran 10 of them, so I know what a program does well. It doesn't give you one person looking at your numbers every month, and the person coaching you may never have run a business like yours.
- A course on one part of the business
- Sales, or marketing, or systems. Useful if that part is the problem. It usually isn't the only one.
- A system in a binder
- Structure helps. A binder doesn't run the business, and it can't tell you which of its 40 things to do first.
- Working harder, on your own
- It's how you built it, and it worked. The problems left now are the ones you can't see from inside. More hours don't make them easier to see, and nobody argues with you before a costly decision.
“I'd watched my parents go from business coach to business coach, losing thousands, tens of thousands of dollars, time and time again … not all business coaches are the same.”
The Small Things
When a business goes from good to great, it's rarely one big change. It's a lot of small things adding up: a price that hasn't moved in three years, a job that always runs over, a meeting nobody needs, a customer who costs more than they pay.
Small things left alone drain profit and time.
They're hard to see from inside, and the problem is rarely where it shows up. Low margins can be a market problem. A cash problem can be a team problem.
So I look closely. Your numbers, your people, the way work moves through the business, and the life you want around it. I find the small things and sort them into the few 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.
Finding yours is the work.
“Narrowing down onto the 1%ers that make a difference day in, day out.”
What Working Together Looks Like
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Start a conversation
Tell me about the business and what you want from it. If I think I can help, I'll say so.
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I look closely
Every conversation is built around your business: your numbers, your people, the way work moves through it, and the life you want around it.
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We work on the few things that matter
We decide together what to work on first, and we do it together.
What you can count on
- 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.
I'm an engineer with an MBA. I spent 8 years in operations before I advised anyone. Site inductions are standard for me, and I'm as at home in boots on your floor as across a boardroom table. In 15 years I've worked with more than 1000 businesses, in trades, manufacturing, health, professional services, retail and agtech.
“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.”
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.
“Every month I check the numbers … make little tweaks … pull this lever or that lever, to make sure that the business is still on the right track.”
Owners in Their Own Words
Two owners talk about working together.
Meet Mandy
I look for the small things that make a good business great
The Shop Floor and the Boardroom
I worked in operations at manufacturing plants and mines before I advised anyone. Now I also sit on a board. I know how a decision looks from both ends.
The Numbers and the People
I read a balance sheet and a team with the same attention. Problems often show up in the numbers but start somewhere else, like the team.
Patterns and Detail
After more than 1000 businesses, I've seen most patterns before. I still look at the small things in yours as if I haven't.
Growth and a Life
Growth that needs 80-hour weeks costs you more than it gives. I want your business to grow and you to have time for the rest of your life.
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.
It Starts With a Conversation
I work with a small number of owners at a time, so every business gets my full attention. Tell me about yours.
Start a Conversation