About Christine Nicholson
UK Business Mentor Of The Year 2020
I am Christine Nicholson, award-winning Professional Business Mentor, author and speaker.
working with +£2m turnover business founders who still work in the day to day management of their technology, engineering or product services businesses.
I am proud that my clients have made me UK Business Mentor of the Year 2020. I was a finalist in the National Entrepreneur Awards 2017 – and my client actually won the award – and I’ve appeared on BBC talking about business!
I have received the highest Professional Accreditation as a Business Mentor from the Association of Business Mentors and I am a Court Assistant and Freeman the Company of Entrepreneurs of the City of London.
I’ve been helping businesses for over 30 years – experiencing success and failures, making mistakes along the way and discovering how to avoid them. I built my first business from £0 to £4.5m t/o in less than 15 months. I then helped a client rescue their high-tech engineering company from bankruptcy to an 8-figure exit in 18 months. Along the way I’ve worked with every type of business from software companies to taking over the running of a zoo.
Walking in the founder’s shoes and living to tell the tale enables me to help other business owners become the heroes in their businesses. My clients have always increased turnover, profitability and cash – they’ve made millions and saved themselves thousands in the process.
Better businesses lead to a better world not just for now but for our future. Currently over 50% of businesses do not get sold, leaving business owners closing their doors on a life time of work – making just 1% difference to that number could have a huge positive impact on those businesses, communities and society as a whole.
I believe there is incredible power when GREAT IDEAS meet SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION – I get really excited when I can work with someone who has a great idea and successfully implements the appropriate actions.
What’s it like to work with me?
In a very short period of time you’ll have an actionable road map for:
- working fewer hours,
- less stress and anxiety,
- your business will be worth more,
- you’ll have improved profitability and
- more certainty around your cash flow.
You’ll also have the kind of regular, knowledgeable support you have been missing in your business. Even when I’m not in your business I’m at the end of a phone line whenever you need me.
You’ll quickly create a vision and build a strategic plan that includes every area of your business – not just finance but people, operations and sales. We’ll test your profit potential and look at how we can leverage it to achieve more than you thought possible. You’ll on the path to a healthier, happier business for everyone involved.
More about what drives me:
I’ve written multiple books on running successful businesses – one of which is used by accountants to help their clients understand finance:
- 5 Minute Finance – The Business Owners Guide to Understanding Your Numbers
- What’s Your Profit Score – Your Fast Track to Business Success
- How to BUILD a Unicorn – 5 Steps to a Successful Technology Business
- SELL IT – How to Sell Your Business for a Richer Happier Future (July 2021)
All books are available on Amazon Kindle or in print.
I’ve worked in many different industries and countries and I know what works. Along my journey I’ve worked for 2 royal families, I’ve run a zoo, rescued a charity and dug up the biggest unexploded WW2 bomb found in the UK.
All in an entrepreneurs day’s work, nothing surprises me and I am known for being a safe pair of hands.
I wasn’t born a Business Owner
After a couple of years as a junior clerk in a high street bank, I fulfilled my sense of adventure by joining the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS). By my mid 20’s I knew I was capable of more than my limited school achievement so I studied hard to become a Chartered Management Accountant. Later I satisfied another ambition by getting a Law degree and I have a post-grad qualification in Information Systems.
I’ve seen the impact of failing businesses. I’ve also seen the impact successful businesses have on their communities and society as a whole. Entrepreneurship is all about ideas and gets a lot of coverage – but running businesses, the engine room part of a business, is the poor cousin and gets almost no glory at all. It isn’t taught in schools or universities and leaves many business owners floundering when they should be thriving.
When I was a kid I saw my favourite uncle start a business he had a real passion for and was really good at but his business ultimately failed. It was only later as an adult I really began to understand why that happened and the impact it had on him and his family. If he had had better business insight and knowledge then his business could have been thriving, employing more people and creating wealth for all stakeholders. I believe that business doesn’t have to be complicated, but it’s make it that way because of a lack of knowledge, support and available business education.
What Clients Say about Working with Me:
Christine is a godsend for any business owner/ entrepreneur needing practical commercial guidance and input. She gives her insight with compassion but is also absolutely committed to action and positive momentum. She doesn't shy away from the hard messages but is also incredibly helpful in finding a way forward. She has supported, encouraged and helped me immensely over the last few years. If you are an entrepreneur needing supportive, human, actionable help with your commercials and operating structure look no further.
I can get a bit internally focused and lose perspective on the potential of the business. I realised I needed some outside help, to get me out of the rut and see the potential again. I've had a series of sessions with Christine. Through them she's given me the kick up the arse I needed, and helped me see and understand the great options in front of me. As well as work out which to focus on.
Christine has given me so much support, encouragement and the resources in order to help me get on my path to building my dream business. Together we tore everything apart and went back to basics. I hadn’t realised where I had gone wrong and this exercise was incredibly challenging (and emotional) but hugely productive. I now have incredibly clear goals and strategies in place and am now finally moving down the path to success.
Knowing that Christine is there for us, gives us so much reassurance. The best thing about working with Christine is knowing that you will always receive, necessary and unfiltered feedback. She could motivate a sloth and supports the implementation of new ideas to ensure you get it done.
My business and my mindset have been transformed after just 6 months of working with Christine. Running a business can at times be lonely, confusing and frustrating. Her knowledge and experience have helped guide me through important decisions, to grow both my business and my profit margin. The best thing is having someone to always bring me back to reality, and help me focus on my end goal.
Christine is much more than just a very experienced business advisor who is always generous with her time and advice. She cuts to the chase quickly, wasting no time in identifying the real issues at the heart of your business challenges. Her vast experience, working in many different industries, means she will help you to find solutions that are just right for your business. She doesn’t make those decisions for you but guides you along the right path to move your business forward.
Christine has made a huge impact on my life for the better! Her blunt and honest advice has helped us progress much further in business than could possibly be expected!
Christine was a major player and instrumental to resolving a number of the companies financial and business issues. She also has a great understanding of finance and also other aspects of the business and demonstrated excellent problem solving abilities across a number of areas. Basically if you have a business problem - just ask Christine.
Christine made an immediate and very positive impact on the business where we worked together. Her positivity and determination to get the job done infused our team and became integral to the culture. Her store of experience and keen perception allow her to analyse situations in an insightful manner, guiding a business to make high quality decisions when it matters the most. Christine possesses exceptional professional skills, combined with a positive, energetic outlook on life that benefits everybody fortunate enough to work with her.
Christine is very much what you see is what you get. She is very straightforward in her thinking and her training. I found her very easy to approach and talk things through when I wasn't sure of a new change. She was always easy with her encouragement and made me feel I could accomplish more.
Working with Christine has been an excellent opportunity to witness her insight and tenacious drive for business transformation. Her eye for detail and ability to challenge the status quo in sometimes difficult circumstances, has enabled tough business decisions being made for the right reasons. It was always reassuring to be able to fall back on her depth of knowledge, knowing that any advice would be provided as straight talking, heartfelt, yet diplomatic.
Not only is Christine approachable with a great positive outlook, but she is also very capable of parachuting in and seeing what operational and strategic changes need to be made to help a business survive financially. She has amassed several years worth of experience in a number of sectors now and has thus proven her own ability to adapt but also offers clients a wealth of knowledge of different systems and processes, with a view on what works and sometimes more importantly what doesn't.
Besides Christine's excellent strategic thinking and commercial acumen, I most valued her practical, well thought through ideas and recommendations. Christine gets to good solutions to issues quickly and communicates her ideas clearly and concisely.
Working with both operations and finance, Christine built relationships and put the company on a firmer footing for future growth. One of Christine's greatest strengths was to understand and build solutions that were practical, business focussed but also considerate.
Christine is worth her weight in transformation gold. Her unassuming nature mixed with her obvious depth of experience and insight allow her to help you create the changes needed in your business in a way that will challenge you without the internal resistance that significant change can kick up. Christine's guidance beautifully and fundamentally assisting me in making some of the toughest business decisions I had ever made, her calm but tough stance firmly guided me in the right direction. Christine listens well, reads subtext very well and will raise issues you maybe ignoring while recommending a path forward. I have found her insight simply invaluable.
Working with Christine on a challenging project in the Middle East meant I saw her perform under pressure - always energetic, full of enthusiasm and with a high level of integrity, she always conducted herself in the most professional manner. Balancing commercial deadlines with the need for cultural sensitivity, she always managed to extract the best outcomes using diplomacy, engaging her wide business experience and mentoring other members of the team to achieve their potential.
I have been fortuitous enough to have worked with Christine on an incredibly sensitive project a few years back. The drive, pragmatism, genuine care and personal affection that Christine has for everyone she engages is inspirational. I rarely write recommendations but did not hesitate when asked (it wouldn't have happened otherwise!).
