Frequently asked questions
Working with Peter
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Both. Coaching draws out your own answers. Advice is me telling you what I’d do, and what’s worked before. Most owners need a mix of the two, depending on the problem, so I don’t make you choose.
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UK engineering, manufacturing and technical businesses, usually 11 to 100 people and £1m to £15m turnover, where the owner is still heavily involved. If you’re outside that, I would still love to hear your story.
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No. It can be one session on one problem, or ongoing support that runs month to month. There are no 12-month tie-ins.
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Ongoing support is usually two 90-minute sessions a month, in person or on video. A one-off session is a single, longer working session with written actions afterwards.
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Both. Turnaround and fractional work put me in the business: on site, with the team, in front of customers. It’s always for a fixed period with a defined finish line and a handover. Open-ended placements are not good for me, you or the business.
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Fixed prices, agreed upfront and paid in advance. We’ll agree the price before any work starts.
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In the North East of England, just outside of Newcastle upon Tyne. I work in person across the North East and by video or on site anywhere else in the UK.
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Yes. Say it’s urgent on the contact form and I’ll get back to you as a priority. If there’s a chance the business can’t pay its debts, you may need to consider legal advice and a licensed insolvency practitioner. I’ll tell you straight if that’s where you are, and introduce you to one.
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Senior help for part of the week, for a fixed period, aimed at one goal. That might be winning new customers, steadying the business, or covering a key role while you recruit. For example: two days a week for three months, then a handover.
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It’s a free, three-minute assessment of your business across vision (destination), velocity (route) and value (paving). You get a BOSS score, your current business level from 1 to 5, and the change likely to make the biggest difference. You can book a call with me straight from your results, and I’ll send a few follow-up emails with ideas based on your score. No obligation, no hard sell, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
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Yes, always. You only get the value if you can be completely open, and that only works if nothing leaves the room. I’m happy to sign an NDA.
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No. I sold my shareholding in September 2026 and have no ongoing role.
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Yes. If a sale is your destination, we work on making the business worth more and less dependent on you, so it’s ready when you are. When it’s time to go to market, I’ll introduce you to corporate finance advisers I trust. Businesses that don’t rely on the owner sell for more.
Questions you’re probably asking yourself
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Both. I started as an apprentice engineer, spent over ten years designing, programming and commissioning machinery control systems on factory floors, then owned and ran four specialist engineering businesses. I know what a late delivery, a failed audit, a customer who needs it yesterday and a poorly member of the team does to your week.
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You probably could. There is enough free content available. An outside view gets you there faster. Someone who has already made the expensive mistakes can stop you making them too. I learnt that as an owner, and it’s the reason Roman Roads exists.
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If you haven’t, that’s the first thing we work on. The early work is usually taking things off your plate, not adding to it.
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No. If I think you’re wrong, I’ll say so and explain why. The decision is still yours: your business, your destination.
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Most owners leave the first session with something they can act on that week. Bigger shifts, like margins, team habits and how much comes back to you, take months. I won’t promise you a number. If nothing has moved after three months, we should both be asking why.
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We’ll both know quickly. We agree what success looks like at the start and check progress against it. Support runs month to month, so you’re never tied into something that isn’t working.
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Not as an instruction. The decisions stay yours: your business, your destination. My first job is asking the questions that get you to a clear decision. When it helps, I’ll tell you what I’d do, what’s worked before, and why.
Questions owners ask about their business
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Usually because some of the work is losing money, and being busy hides it. Look at margin by customer and by job, not just the total. In most businesses a handful of customers or job types drag the rest down. Reprice them, change the terms, or let them go.
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Check the margin on each one, then the time and attention each one takes. The customer who pays least and demands most is often one of your biggest. High turnover doesn’t make a customer a good one.
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Agree who decides what, and write it down. Owners become the bottleneck because nobody knows where their own authority ends, so everything gets escalated to be safe. Set clear limits, let people decide within them, and don’t take the decision back when they get it slightly wrong.
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Usually because it has never been clear what they’re allowed to decide, so waiting feels like the safe option. Clear expectations and regular follow-up change that faster than any amount of chasing.
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Price on the value to the customer and the risk you’re carrying, not on what you think a competitor charges. Know your real cost to deliver, including your own time, and track the margin on every quote you win. If you win every quote, you’re too cheap.
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Because you pay for labour and materials long before the customer pays you, and growth widens that gap. Know what’s coming in and going out week by week, tighten payment terms, use stage payments on bigger jobs, and don’t let growth outrun your cash.
In short:
Who: owners of UK engineering, manufacturing and technical businesses, usually 11 to 100 people
What: coaching and advisory, turnaround, fractional and interim support, board advisory and commercial due diligence
How: one-off sessions for short-term goals or ongoing support for sustainable positive change
Cost: fixed prices agreed upfront, paid in advance, month to month
Where to start: the free three-minute scorecard, or a 30-minute call