Business coaching for owners of established service businesses
Build a business that needs less of you.
Work through the decisions holding you back and build a plan your team can act on. Start with the free seven-question plan, built from Nick Thorpe's Army planning method and a decade running real companies.
"He's helping us move from being busy owner-operators to thinking and acting like true business owners." Stuart Bramley · Trustpilot
Seven questions. One battle plan.
The planner is built on the Combat Estimate, the seven-question method the British Army uses to plan under pressure, adapted for running a business rather than a patrol. Answer the seven questions and you get a clear twelve-month plan for your business, not a generic template.
It is the same discipline Nick uses to run his own companies. The plan sets the mission. What comes after is the operating system that keeps you on it.
Build your free business planWhy owner-led businesses get stuck
The business grows, the team grows, and every decision still lands on your desk. Pricing, hiring, the wording on one social post. Quality drops the moment you step away, because the standard lives in your head and nowhere else. Your team waits rather than acts, because waiting has always been the safe option.
It is a system problem, not a personality problem, and it follows a clear order to fix. That order is what the plan and CoreOS give you.
One system, four ways in
Start with the plan, go deeper as the stakes grow. Every programme is application-only and every fee is published. Coaching only works when the fit is right, and Nick turns people away when it isn't.
01
Momentum
1:1 coaching · £12,000 + VAT a year
Monthly one-to-one coaching with Nick. Strategy, accountability and a straight answer, every month.
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02
The Accelerator
12 months · £8,000 + VAT room, £4,000 + VAT online
The Core Business Accelerator. Twelve months in a capped room or online, every price published. Every seat is vetted.
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03
The Intensive
One day · 1:1 · £2,000 + VAT
A full working day on your business, one to one with Nick. Diagnose, decide, and leave with a 90-day plan.
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04
Retreats
Cornwall · waitlist
Three-day resets on the Cornish coast with a hand-picked room. Small rooms, real work, clear heads.
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Comparing coaches? Here's how to choose one, honestly.
Coached by someone who actually runs businesses
Sixteen years as a British Army officer. Then a decade building 6- and 7-figure companies in property and investment, with the scars to show for it. Nick coaches in the morning and applies the same advice to his own payrolls in the afternoon. No franchise manual, no borrowed slides.
Read the storyThe plan sets the mission. CoreOS installs the operating rhythm.
A plan on its own does not run a business. CoreOS is what Nick installs after it: strategy to decide where you are going, accountability to make sure the work happens, mindset to hold when motivation runs out, and systems to make it run without you. Built from real operating experience, not coaching theory, and used with clients who need better decisions, cleaner numbers, stronger teams and less owner-dependence.
See how CoreOS works“Every session left me with clarity, practical steps, and a renewed sense of direction. I’ve noticed real, tangible changes in my mindset, confidence, and decision-making since starting.”
“Working with Nick has been a game-changer for us. He’s helping us move from being busy owner-operators to thinking and acting like true business owners.”
“I came to him as a tradesman with an ambition to run my own business but no real idea of how to get there. His coaching style is warm, straight-talking and genuinely motivating.”
“Nick has been amazing and a breath of fresh air. He has been mentoring me for the past 3 years and it’s safe to say I am here for the long run. Nick is great at cutting through the noise and giving actionable advice that will push you forward.”
“A very successful, self disciplined and driven leader which shines through in his coaching but is also a very down to earth person who can relate to real life situations and give great advice from his very experienced life.”
Every client review on Trustpilot is five stars, collected on Nick's coaching profile · Read them
Read two client stories: from doing the work to running the business →
As heard and seen in · Paul Lanfear Property & Investor Podcast · Brave Bold Brilliant · Blue Bricks · IS THIS IT? · Business Connect Magazine · The Property Catalyst Club · Listen to the conversations
Who this is for. And who it isn't.
Who it's for
Owners of established UK service businesses, roughly £500k to £2m in turnover, usually with a team. Property and trades are where Nick has the strongest authority, running the same framework in his own companies. He also works with professional services owners in the same band. If the business runs on you and the next level needs decisions you keep putting off, this is the room where those decisions get made. Outside that band but the problem sounds like yours? Ask anyway; fit matters more than the figure.
Who it's not for
Pre-revenue businesses: spend the money on customers first. Anyone wanting motivation without accountability, or a cheerleader rather than straight answers. Nick asks hard questions and expects the actions done. He turns away applicants where the fit is wrong.
Not a business owner? Deciding your next role, or preparing for the interview that gets it?
Nick also coaches experienced professionals one to one on deciding the next role and on getting it. Fixed-scope packages and the same straight answers. No business questions.
Executive career coaching