A Leicestershire-based transport consultancy has credited a 12-week leadership programme for growing its business by 15% and transforming its productivity.
A S Miles Consulting said the Help to Grow: Management Course at the University of Leicester School of Business was the key for founder Andy Miles to develop the knowledge to scale his business and even put in place succession planning so that he can eventually become chair of his company.
The course was developed and delivered by the network of Small Business Charter accredited business schools and is 90% government funded.
It is designed to fit around existing work and personal commitments, providing business leaders with more than 50 hours of online and in person training including 10 hours of one-to-one mentoring.
Miles said the course helped him in a range of ways, including setting up a second company, A S Miles Support Services, to sell complementary, transport-related services and ramp up the company’s marketing activity.
“I’d hit a wall,” he explained. “I’d got as far as I could with my first-class honours degree in the school of hard knocks but I was getting frustrated with myself because I felt that I didn’t know enough to take the business further.
“I didn’t know what I didn’t know.”
Miles added: “Before the course most of our business came from referrals; we weren’t doing any marketing.
“This was a strength but also a weakness as we hadn’t marketed ourselves or learnt how to do that. The course massively squashed our marketing learning curve.
“We now understand how to target larger companies and how our messaging needs to be tweaked for this audience.
“As a result, we’re winning business with multi-national companies with fleets up to 15,000 vehicles. Previously, we just wouldn’t have been able to get our foot in the door.”
He said the course had also helped the Barlestone-based consultancy consider the next generation of leadership and it had put in place a plan for him to transition to chair in 2029 but remain actively involved to provide support when required.
Flora Hamilton, executive director of the Small Business Charter, said: “Andy embodies the resilience and ambition that drive small business success.
“He faced cross-roads in his journey when he felt stuck, but he found the Help to Grow: Management Course, which gave him the right knowledge and frameworks to transform the future of his business.”
