You've got the idea. I've got two decades of building, financing and running real businesses — and the time you haven't. From raising the finance to opening the doors, and for as long as you need me after that.
The free advice, the coaches, the consultants — they hand you a plan and send you off to do the hard part on your own. That's exactly where most good ideas stall. I work the other way round: I get stuck in alongside you and do the work — company setup, raising the finance, sourcing the suppliers, finding the premises, opening the doors — until it's trading.
You don't need a pep talk or another course. You need someone who has actually built businesses to roll up their sleeves next to you and get yours off the ground.
You've built before — you just haven't got the hours for the next one. I'm the experienced pair of hands that takes it on with you, no hand-holding required.
We meet — face to face if we can — to talk the idea through and, just as important, to get the measure of each other. We'll be working closely, so it matters that we click. No charge, no obligation.
Usually a day and a half: a full day pulling the idea apart and pressure-testing it, plus the initial concept plan I write up for you afterwards — your roadmap to first trading. You leave with a real plan, not a feeling.
Company setup, raising the finance, suppliers, premises, hiring, opening the doors. The whole idea: I work at a reduced day rate — averaging around £350 — and take a share of what we build, the terms agreed between us up front, so my reward is tied to your success, not run up by the day.
I stay involved for as long as you need me after the doors are open — not just up to first trade. Your success is the point, and mine's tied to it.
I scaled the Drunken Duck Inn, and founded and scaled the Punch Bowl at Crosthwaite. I started Barngates Brewery way back in 1997, one of the first of the new-wave micro-breweries. And more recently I founded one of the best independent aesthetics clinics in the North West, here in Windermere, and built and scaled a £1m franchise in Liverpool One.
I've also worked across construction, property and financial advisory consultancy — so I know how the money, the bricks and the build actually fit together.
I've raised the money, signed the leases, sorted the suppliers, hired the people and opened the doors — more than once. That's what I bring: not a framework, but the scars and the know-how of someone who's been there.
I do this because there's nothing I enjoy more than helping not-so-ordinary people turn the next big idea into something successful. Anyone who sets out to launch a business is no ordinary person — and I know the sacrifice it takes. I'm just as happy working alongside an experienced operator who's simply short on time. No ego either way. I put my own reward on the line, and I only win when you do.
Tell me what you're thinking. If it's a fit, we'll book a planning day and get going.
Based in the Lake District, working with founders throughout the UK.