The Academy is an educational organisation designed to offer advice, training & support to suitable executives seeking a second career in business consultancy in the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector.

The founders of the Academy believed that there was a real need for a professional service specifically designed to meet the needs of those executives considering a career in SME business consultancy. The service has been specifically designed to equip executives to understand and meet the particular needs of the SME sector.

The aims of the Academy of Business Consultants are to provide specialist advice, training and support specifically designed to meet the needs of those executives considering a career in SME business consultancy. The Academy also seeks constantly to refine its knowledge of the SME sector, the owner manager & the challenges they face.

Operating in its own right the Academy is today the fastest growing consultancy operating exclusively to meet the needs of Britain’s owner-managers in small and medium sized enterprises.

The partners of the Academy of Business Consultants are David Owen & Tony Armstrong.

Following successful careers in major multinationals both men "broke out" from corporate life to forge further success utilising a variety of strategies. Both have worked in the SME sector for many years with experience spanning Management Buy-ins, Management Buy-outs, start-ups, business development, acquisitions & disposals, non-executive & consulting positions.

Both partners have extremely wide business sector experience and combine this with detailed knowledge & qualifications in the area of personality and its role in business relationships, corporate & personal success. These experiences and qualifications have allowed our training programmes to deliver another vital layer of understanding and expertise to our graduates

Both David and Tony maintain a portfolio of business interests and continue to play a hands-on role in delivering the Academy’s support and advice services to owner-managers in addition to designing and delivering our training programmes. In this way The Academy of Business Consultants ensures that its experience is always live and our training programmes constantly evolving as a result.

The Academy Programme is specifically designed to assist the breakout executive better understand themselves and the SME sector and to design his or her own unique marketing positioning & sales strategy as a business advisor in the SME sector.

There are a small number of other organisations offering support & accreditation to aspiring business consultants.

Typically these organisations are polarised into two groups. Some offer straightforward accreditation, have rigorous selection criteria, offer little in the way of training advice and continuing support and charge nominal fees.

The other main group typically has a low entry threshold, offer varying degrees of training and support but can charge very high fees.

The Academy seeks to provide a far deeper understanding of the SME sector and how to go about the process of positioning & marketing a successful consulting business in this sector than any other organisation.

As qualified & practising psychometricians the academy also specialises in selecting & coaching both breakout executives & owners managers in the necessary interpersonal skills necessary for success.

In this way the Academy of Business Consultants uniquely fills the gap between the other two groups.

Either send a current CV and accompanying letter setting out your aspirations to:

Selection & Training, The Academy of Business Consultants LLP, 1 Whitehall, Whitehall Road, Leeds LS1 4HR

or e-mail enquiries@academy-business.com and attach your CV.

We’ll then be in touch and will invite you to an informal get-together with our partners to explore your application further.

Following receipt of your application, our partners will review your career and qualifications in detail. Whilst certain qualifications will give added credibility and effectiveness, our experience shows that a candidate’s actual career path, competencies and behavioural skills are often far more important.

We cover the entire spectrum from planning your breakout from corporate life through to invoicing your first fees.

However, based upon our own detailed experience and success we include many unique aspects that give our graduates a fast and effective start to building and maintaining a loyal client base. These include creating a unique image for your own new consultancy together with the marketing and communications skills to make it stand out. We provide techniques to better understand oneself and the own-manager allowing you to position your proposition in a highly effective manner.

We guide you through the entire process of gaining the best prospects, making that first vital presentation and identifying the owner-manager’s real needs. We take you through the techniques for pricing your proposition and show you the most effective pricing model for you. Our delegates learn how to work successfully with their new clients and how to turn this initial project into a lasting and effective business relationship. We steer delegates away from the many pitfalls and show them how to spot and convert the best opportunities into fruitful relationships that work meaningfully for both consultant and client.

We are constantly looking for new executives to join The Academy of Business Consultants’ own business advisory programme as Associates. However, all of our Associates are self-employed offering their services to The Academy through their own service company. Most combine providing advisory services for The Academy with building or maintaining their own practices.

The personal nature of our Academy training programmes gives our partners the ideal opportunity to work with participants in an intensive and rigorous process allowing them to identify those executives that match our demanding profile.

Are you a Chairman or Managing Director or a head of function at board level? Do you have grey hairs, broad business experience, the ability to achieve instant credibility coupled with a strong desire to use these skills to help the country’s SME owner managers?

Do you have empathy and the ability to relate easily with others? Do you have at least two days a week to devote to working with us? Do you know the difference between a coach and a mentor? Are you prepared to learn and use a new approach?

If the answer to these questions is yes, we ought to be talking now about the first steps to joining The Academy of Business Consultants’ training programme. We are actively seeking new associates in many parts of the country and plan to fill these vacancies through our own graduates.

Within the Academy we have a strong ethos built around certain values and beliefs that all of our Associates ascribe to. We also have a clear in-house methodology that, whilst it is based around your own skill set and is not prescriptive, does provide a framework we have found to be successful; our methods do need to be learnt and our training programme provides the basis for this.

When you join the Academy of Business Consultants’ Programme you gain access to a growing network where members can exchange opportunities, discuss business issues and find out the latest management thinking in order to keep their skills up to date.

We also have links with a number of organisations that specialise in providing personalised telemarketing & other services for the independent consultant.

This programme will help you decide whether you have the skills and personality to work as a consultant in the SME sector. We will help you assess and reduce the risks of working for yourself. If you assume that for most potential career changes you need to allow at least 6 months to assess whether the move is successful, this programme will significantly reduce the time required to make that judgement and significantly increase the value to you. It could save you the equivalent of 6 months income.

It is our understanding that fees should be able to be claimed as a legitimate business expense of your new venture and the vat reclaimed once you have registered. However, you should seek the guidance of your own financial advisor in relation to your specific situation.

The Academy does not believe that the income guarantee schemes offered by some other organisations are of realistic benefit to the new consultant. Such schemes are often hedged around with onerous and unrealistic conditions and require a commission to be paid on work the consultant invoices.

The aim of the Academy is to provide specialised training in the areas of positioning and marketing the new consulting venture. We believe that this offers the aspiring consultant a far better opportunity for success.

The Academy has links with a number of organisations that specialise in providing personalised telemarketing services for the independent consultant. We believe that these organisations offer a highly cost effective solution to those consultants not wishing to carry out this vital part of the sales process themselves. However, we have found that many of the most successful consultants do not wish to subcontract any part of their work.

However, if you are interested and are selected to join The Academy’s own programme working as a self-employed advisor you will never need to make a cold call again to work with us. We provide all of our Associates with introductions to existing clients.

Obtaining the best fit between personal behavioural preferences & the requirements of any career path is desirable if the maximum in performance and personal satisfaction is to be achieved. The executive who has a thorough understanding of him or herself and a broad understanding of the behaviour of others is far better equipped to identify and satisfy the needs of others. These are vital skills for the successful business consultant over and above whatever qualifications, experiences & other competencies they might possess.

‘Vires per Scientiam” translates as ‘Strength through knowledge”

In Latin scientiam had a broader meaning of knowledge in general rather than the narrower, modern meaning of science.

We believe that, whatever your objective, having access to the appropriate knowledge will provide the strength to succeed.

Very much so – the historical interpretation of the meaning of the colours & symbols of our crest are:

• Saltire (St. Andrews Cross): Resolution
• Fleur-de-lis: Purity, light
• Arm embowed in amour: person with qualities of leadership
• Bishop’s mitre: authority
• Open book: manifestation & learning
• Boar: bravery, fights to the death
• Ostrich plumes: willing obedience to our sovereign

We believe that these qualities aptly express the beliefs & sentiments that we, at The Academy of Business Consultants, hold dear in our personal & business lives. They are also a fusion of the individual family crests of the Owen & Armstrong families.