Christine Nicolson

Business Mentor - Business Coaching

Profile

Christine is a multi-award-winning UK business mentor specialising in exit and succession planning. She has authored four successful business books and is a regular keynote speaker on succession and exit planning.

As a businesswoman who has built multi-million turnover businesses over the last 30 years, she has worked with many business owners in all sectors, including taking one from bankruptcy to an eight-figure exit in 18 months. She has even spent time accidentally running a zoo! Her latest book, ‘SELL IT’, helps business owners get their business and themselves ready for the hardest part of the entrepreneur journey: leaving their business in the hands of others.

She sits as a Court Assistant of the Company of Entrepreneurs of the City of London where she leads a co-mentoring project with the Culture Mile, working with amazing and powerfully impactful creatives.

Interview

Can you tell us about your experience of building your first business?
My first ‘grown up’ business (or full-time venture) was a happy accident after undertaking a feasibility study for an investor. The geriatric healthcare sector was finally getting some regulations that stopped care for the elderly being a postcode lottery in the UK and lots of providers were leaving the industry.

The business model was a ‘buy and build’ approach, with investment in the acquired businesses and raising standards by investing in the people. I have no idea that what I was doing was ‘not normal’ and just got on with the expansion as well as running the day-to-day. Once it was stable and had its own momentum, I replaced myself with someone much better than me to be MD – she is still there and the business has been going for 20 years.
What is the most important piece of advice you try to impress upon your clients?
Make sure you have good enough margins to sustain your business. Then get the right people in early enough (I know that is two bits of advice)!

What does this award mean to you?
It is great to be recognised for the difference I make to my clients. Additionally, it is an endorsement that mentoring is a valued and valuable part of a business owner’s toolkit. The old saying “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together” really identifies that you do not have to go it alone; a business mentor will always have walked in your shoes and therefore knows what you are going through.

What motivates you to help your clients achieve business success?
Throughout my working life I have seen really good businesses fail because the business owners did not know what they did not know when, with a little help and support, they could have been living a better life. Helping to make sure that good businesses become great and the business owners do not burn themselves out doing it is a great reward.

Great businesses are good for business owners, employees, local communities and society as a whole. The key thing is to make sure that the wealth that is created in one generation gets effectively passed on rather than fading away. I help business owners to avoid leaving money on the table.