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Finance

Part Time Finance Director support for SMEs

Coach

Executive coaching for business owners and senior managers

Life

Personal life coaching for change

Bluebiz is a Change Management, People Development and Business Consultancy Company. We focus on helping people to develop and achieve their full potential, and partner with businesses to manage the challenges of change and improve commercial performance.

Jon Nicholls is one of the UK’s leading business and life coaches with over 10 years’ experience of turning around the lives of countless people and businesses, who, like you, no longer want to waste valuable time and resource on things that don’t work.
My philosophy for achieving success is simple – if you want it, you can have it; you just need the purpose, passion and perseverance to succeed.
Jon started Blue Biz with a mission to help people and businesses to deal with complexity and ambiguity that gets in the way of performance and happiness that success brings.

So if you believe that:

  • You or your Business have more potential and could become outstanding?
  • You are blaming your poor performance and outcomes on others or the economy, and know deep down you could do better?
  • You would like to be rewarded fully to justify your efforts?
  • You are concerned that Coaching is just an indulgence and not a great investment?
  • Then you need to call me for a free consultation, why on earth would you want to struggle on knowing that you deserve better. You’ve nothing to lose except your current dissatisfaction.…let me help you to help yourself.

About

Blue Biz Consultancy is all about helping people to manage the change that is all around us, whether in our daily lives or in the business environment. Change can be worrying and stressful, however if reframed, it can also be challenging and create opportunity. So at Blue Biz, I help people to develop and achieve their full potential by creating opportunity to maximize their strengths and to identify and face those things that prevent us from achieving the results and success that we desire.
With a background in Finance, I have well-honed business and Emotional literacy skills with extensive experience in managing and leading businesses and people in executive and team roles.

Do you find yourself:

  • At a crossroads, or believing that deeper and more meaningful success is possible in your life, career or business?
  • Wanting to grow your business, looking to find your niche, leverage your strengths, be a better leader, or simply get far better results?
  • Struggling with stress, confidence, time management, cashflow or just longing for greater effectiveness, clarity, peace, freedom, balance or sense of purpose?
  • Not getting the results you want and looking for the best in professional support to create a plan, grow, move into action and make a genuine breakthrough?
  • Having difficultly managing and controlling your business finances?
  • Having sleepless nights, worrying that your business is not as profitable as it could or should be?

If any of these are true for you, professional coaching with Blue Biz Consultancy is exactly what you need.

Services

My philosophy for achieving success is simple – if you want it, you can have it; you just need the purpose, passion and perseverance to succeed.

Part Time Finance Director support for SMEs

Business owners are often “time poor”. This lack of time is usually because they are tied up with numbers and administration, trying to understand the profit and loss account, balance sheet and cash flow, equipment leasing, financing options, finding business funding and managing internal accounting staff.

Often an external accountant does not offer that much needed proactive advice. Business owners are rarely well versed in critical financial requirements, so more time is sucked into an energy draining process, leaving less time to do what they are really good at – developing and growing the business.

Most businesses recruit an in – house accountant or bookkeeper to take some of the financial burden away from the owner and access “professional” skills to deliver usable financial information. The problem is that many businesses find only frustration, disappointment and exasperation.

Frustration caused by the length of time it takes to finalise the monthly figures. This regularly leaves owners to make business – critical decisions without up to date business information. Disappointment is generated by in – house accountants or bookkeepers that produce the numbers but do little to pro-actively interpret or analyse the results. When turning to the external accountant for pro – active support the disappointment is often increased, as they never seem to get off the fence because they are so divorced from the business that they fail to understand the critical issues being faced. Exasperation occurs where the business owner sees tremendous opportunities to develop the business, but cannot convert this to reality because they remain bogged down in the administration demands of finance and accounting.

The answer, even in a small business, is to recruit a finance director, someone who has been there, seen it and done it, an experienced professional who knows how to finance the business, deal with growth, present meaningful monthly numbers and get the best deals from partner businesses and funders. Sadly such an individual can be expensive, however for a small business a low cost option would be to employ a part time finance director, who would only charge on the basis of days worked – which may be as little as one per month. This outsourced cost will give you a return on investment through better financing costs, improved cash flow, more effective financial planning, management and control.

No two businesses are the same, but some typical services that I provide include:

  • Cash flow management – regular monitoring, saves you sleepless nights!
  • Reviewing accounting controls and processes and minimise the possibility of fraud
  • Interpretation of monthly results and providing commentary to identify the critical issues
  • Business planning – forecasts, financial modelling and strategic guidance
  • Financing your business – bank overdrafts, loans, grants or angel/VC equity
  • Managing relations with 3rd parties: banks, accountants, lawyers, investors
  • Business performance – measuring and achieving objectives and growth
  • Mentoring and overseeing your Finance team – so they are cost effective and fit for purpose
  • Systems and processes – maximising efficiency and use of technology
  • Planning and delivery of a strategy to achieve an acquisition or exit
  • Securing your businesses future during challenging trading conditions

We don’t replace your accountant and we don’t replace your bookkeeper. We are a complimentary service for both and sit logically in between. This support gives you more financial muscle and the capability of greater control over your business.

Executive Coaching for business owners and senior managers

Einstein defined madness as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. And yet that’s exactly what we all tend to do, time after time, without realising it.

We all rely on past experiences and thinking to influence our decision making, which means that without outside intervention, no matter how original we believe our thinking to be, we are just re- using the same values and prejudices.
The job is all about taking decisions, frequently “on the hoof” and almost always under pressure and who do we turn to for advice?

Our staff and colleagues?
Our Bank Manager or Accountant?
OurSpouse?
Our friends in the local pub?

And how expert or independent are they? How often are they just reflecting what they think we want to hear? In a session with your Business Coach you will immediately realise that you are seeing things from a different perspective; you are truly pulling pack, pausing for breath and able to evaluate and decide, confident that decisions you make are the best that you possible can, given the time and circumstances.

The experience for clients is like having a Mentor (acting as a guide to set big achievable goals), Manager (setting strategies, deadlines and monitoring progress), Personal trainer (someone to keep you focused and goal driven) and Coach (someone who will see things objectively so as to improve performance)…all rolled into one.

Clients find that the coaching process re-energises, empowers and motivates, stress levels fall, vision is clear and control is taken over time; indeed coaching is a learning experience that results in positive, lasting change.

Personal life coaching for change

Life Coaching draws from a number of disciplines, including psychology, NLP, counselling, and sports coaching. The Life Coach uses these and other techniques to support clients and help them move forward and achieve success.

Life is a time limited experience. The clock is ticking and one thing is for sure – the time gets spent whether you enjoy it or not. Time is our most valuable commodity. The question is – how do you spend yours?

Working with me as your Life Coach involves focusing, creating and working on present and future possibilities; rather than on past experiences, or any previous mistakes. We’ll start from today, take it from here and move forward.

During the coaching sessions I work with you on a one to one and face to face basis. My approach is friendly, relaxed, and rooted in common sense. I provide support, guidance, structure, and accountability. Each coaching session builds on the progress made in the last, creating an accumulative effect and constantly building momentum and making progress until we achieve your aims.

As a Life Coach I’m a good listener. I take the time to hear where you’re coming from. I want to understand things from your point of view so I am best placed to be able to help. I am always honest, but at the same time sensitive, constructive and non-judgmental. People hire a Life Coach for many different reasons.

So contact me today if you want to do any of the following:

 Achieve a goal or ambition?

  • Reduce the amount of stress in your life?
  • Create more time, and get organized?
  • Improve you or your team’s communication skills?
  • Clear the clutter that holds you back?
  • Change or improve your career prospects?
  • Improve your health, wellbeing and fitness?
  • Increase self-confidence or self-esteem?
  • Improve the balance between work/home life?
  • Change the direction of your life?

Profile

A little bit about me
and my previous work

I started Blue Biz Consultancy in 2006 following a long career in Finance, working at senior level in a number of blue chip corporates in the UK and USA. I wanted to make a difference to SME’s by helping them to grow their business using techniques learned from larger organisations. However my experience told me that one of the main thing that prevented organisations from growing was their ability to know what they are good at and to use this knowledge to focus resources appropriately. But more than this there was also something around communication that tended to dilute the passion and energy that business owners and senior staff had for their organisation, which was somehow lost in translation to others.

Jon Nicholls

So here is where the coaching and mentoring comes in, I experienced as a business manager and leader, times where organisational culture, prejudices and fear prevented change taking place. But rather than ignore it, I made it my job to understand these barriers and to find ways to overcome them. I gained an MBA in 2005, studied NLP, coaching, mentoring and teaching techniques to equip me to help others overcome these critical barriers to success.
I never stop learning and really enjoy the challenges thrown up by business leaders in their endeavours to maximise personal and organisational effectiveness. As a Life Coach I’m a good listener, I take the time to hear what is important to people and sense their energy and passion. I want to understand things from their point of view so I am best placed to be able to help. I am always honest, but at the same time sensitive, constructive and non-judgmental.

My Strengths

  • Significant experience in developing people to maximise individual, team and organisational performance
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
  • Self motivated and inspirational leader and trainer in management & leadership skills
  • Strategic leader and input into business analysis and decision making
  • Transformational change and project management specialist, including organisational, systems and cultural transformations during stages of growth
  • Ability to work effectively within any type of organisation and at all levels

My Qualifications

  • Qualified coach (ICF)
  • NLP practitioner
  • Chartered Management Accountant (CIMA, CGMA)
  • MBA (with distinctions)
  • Teaching for Adults (level3)
  • Project management – Prince 2 practitioner

Contact

Current Offer

Discount of 40% on coaching packages, available for business clients.

Get in touch

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