Business coaching in Harrogate
98% positive rating from our members
Business coaching that means you're not alone
One-to-one business coaching in Harrogate
Keep focused, accountable, and on track to achieve your business and personal goals.
Our members get a monthly one-to-one session with their TAB facilitator and coach.
Tom Morton is our dedicated business coach in Harrogate.
Let us know how to get in touch
Tom will contact you to arrange an introductory chat.
Your business coaches in Harrogate
Start your TAB journey by contacting Tom
Tom is The Alternative Board’s local Facilitator and Coach for the Harrogate region.
The businesses run by his Board members range from £140million turnover to just a few thousand, and from several hundred employees to business owners with no staff at all.
Tom has a significant breadth of commercial experience having worked as a partner in PKF, a leading national and international firm of accountants, for 27 years.
Tom’s client base included a wide variety of sectors and size of business, from a top ten building society to SMEs, and including Government departments and agencies, and AIM companies.
In addition to client work, Tom ran the Leeds office of PKF for over 15 years, involving eight partners and over 80 staff. This involved an in depth understanding of the motivating factors which drive strong-minded people, in order to harness them together as a team.
Tom subsequently served for four years as an elected member of the firm’s National Management Board, a group of seven people with responsibility for strategic planning and direction for a £100m business with 1,700 people.
His other roles have included being President of Leeds Chamber of Commerce & Industry in 2003 – 2005, and being a member of the Council of the University of Leeds for a number of years, latterly as Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee.
Tom graduated in Mathematics at New College, Oxford, in 1972, and qualified as a chartered accountant in 1975.
Tom has many years’ experience in helping clients and colleagues focus on what motivates them and how to achieve it, and this exactly suits his role with The Alternative Board.
TAB Harrogate’s members come from a wide area of North and West Yorkshire, including Harrogate, Wetherby, Knaresborough, Ripon, Thirsk, Boston Spa, Tadcaster, and Easingwold
Discover the benefits of our Harrogate-based coaching
Start with you
Focus on what you want in life and how your business can help get you there.
Increase profitability
Be held accountable to meet your business targets.
Improve decisions
Take control of your decisions through peer support and proven planning tools
Make better time choices
Spend your time well by utilising the experience of others.
Become a better leader
Motivate your people with the guidance of peers and an expert coach.
Plan a successful exit
Get the best result for you with tailored, hands-on support.
Hear from our Harrogate members
I’ve had some good advice from the Board, and my monthly one to one session with Tom is a great opportunity to stand back from the business and formalise my thinking.
Becoming members of TAB has been hugely valuable to our business. Our fellow Board Members are a really good bunch of people for whom we have great respect. The ongoing nature of our relationship with one another has built up a lot of trust and we have been given some useful advice, which we would not have been able to gain easily elsewhere. Tom’s one to one sessions have been vital in helping us to plan the growth of our business, and allowing us to tap into his many years of business experience and contacts.
During the protracted two year process of selling my hotel business, with all its ups and downs, the Board’s support and advice has been invaluable. Their support made me feel that there was a plan and light at the end of the tunnel.
Over 5x
TAB members’ sales growth is 5.5 times national SME average
95%+
95.7% of TAB members said their advisory boards added real value to their business
90%+
90.3% of members said their ability to address personnel and organisational issues has improved since joining TAB
Start your journey with TAB
Get in touch with Tom.
He will contact you to arrange an introductory meeting.
During which, you’ll chat about whether TAB business coaching is right for you and your business.
Attend your first TAB board meeting and coaching session to discover the power of peer support.
There’s no obligation, only an opportunity to find out more.
Tell us more about you
Tom will be in touch to book an introductory chat.
What is business coaching?
A business coach is an expert who supports business leaders to align their business decisions with their personal goals or vision. Rather than simply giving you the answers, our business coaching services equip you with the necessary tools and knowledge to make better decisions and increase business growth.
Tom Morton, our business coach in Harrogate, offers coaching, mentoring, consulting and of course, our peer advisory boards. Not only that, but they provide you access our exclusive strategic planning platform – The Business Builder’s Blueprint.
Why should Harrogate-based business owners consider coaching?
There are 22,000 businesses in Harrogate, and many of their owners will have considered coaching for the follow reasons:
- Planning and strategy
Business coaches are often more beneficial in areas of strategic planning. A key difference between a business coach and consultant is that a consultant will often focus on one specific area such as succession planning, whereas a coach will guide owners to strategically plan their business in its entirety.
2. Developing your skills as a business owner
Most business owners can identify specific skills they could improve upon. Could you be a better communicator? A better negotiator? A business coach can help you work in specific areas, developing skills that will help you succeed not only in this current business but in whatever venture you take on in the future.
3. Accountability
It is often easy as a business owner not to be held accountable to anyone. This means that you never face the consequences of failing to complete actions. In contrast, a business coach will hold you accountable to ensure that you and your business are always moving forward.
4. New ideas and approaches
Because a business coach doesn’t work in your company, they will be distanced from most of your opportunities and challenges. This means they can provide an outside perspective with new ideas, strategies and approaches.
5. Learning from others’ experience
Often, business coaches are previous business owners or have worked for big corporates and in business for a long time. Over the years, they will have experienced many common and unique business issues. This means that when you approach them with an issue, they’ll more than likely have an experience they can draw on to guide you through it. This isn’t just the case with business coaches. There is lots that business owners can learn from each other too.
6. Your personal development
Business coaches also often take on a business mentoring role. This is where they focus on you, the business owner, on a person. In coaching sessions, they can be available to listen to any emotional needs or concerns you have. Or they can enable you to ensure your business is working for your personal life. In fact, there are a few ways that business coaching and mentoring is good for your personal development.
7. Support – You’re not alone
Another great benefit of business coaching is the support they it gives. A business coach can help you combat the loneliness of entrepreneurship. They can be your sounding board, your go-to listener and your trusted advisor.
8. Business growth
And ultimately, a benefit of a business coach is that they can help you achieve business growth. By providing business owners with all the benefits mentioned above, business coaches can sometimes be the ticket to streamlining processes and increasing profitability.
What business coaching is not
A business coach is not the following:
- The solution
Getting a business coach does not mean that all your business challenges will be solved through those coaching sessions. The coach is there to guide you through and empower you with the right tools and knowledge to help you find those solutions. Inevitably, challenges will also come your way, but a coach is there to hold your hand through them.
- Life coaching
A business coach is not there to get involved in your personal life and aspirations but will consider how your personal goals might line up to your business ambitions.
- Counselling
Counsellors are specifically trained in dealing with specific personal problems such as mental health or family relationships. A business coach is not trained to deal with these issues and therefore should not be expected to address them.
- Consultancy
A consultant focuses on a particular area of expertise and projects in those areas such as a marketing consultant or finance consultant. They seek to fix specific problems within a business, a business coach however, provides more generalised advice and insights. At TAB, we do sometimes provide consultancy services as each of our coaches have their own niche areas of expertise.
Why TAB business coaching in Harrogate?
98.9% of our members said it adds real value to their business. Here's the reasons to consider TAB:
- Our UK business coaches have experience
All our facilitators, like Tom in Harrogate, are seasoned business professionals with at least ten years’ experience as a business owner or in senior leadership. They come from a range of different backgrounds and sectors, but they all have one thing in common – the desire to help local business owners lead better lives and run stronger businesses.
- Coaching tailored to you and your business
Many business coaches have specific processes they take their clients through. Whilst we have a structure at TAB, the coaching sessions are tailored to your needs and what you need at any given time. So, although there is a difference between business coaching and consultancy, your TAB coach can sometimes fall into both these roles if required.
- Works alongside our advisory boards
Our business coaching is so powerful because of its combination with our business advisory boards. These bring together business owners and leaders from non-competing sectors in a group setting – like a board of directors. As part of a monthly TAB Board meeting, each member helps one another identify opportunities and solve the challenges they each face in their businesses. This means, in a way, you get several business coaches in a TAB membership.
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