Global Top 50 Woman In Accounting ‒ Exclusive Interview With Christine Nicholson
I am Christine Nicholson, an author, speaker and award-winning Professional Business Mentor who works with multi-million turnover business owners of technology, engineering or product/services businesses.
I'm UK Business Mentor of the Year 2021 and a Global Top 50 Woman in Accounting. I've appeared on BBC talking about business!
christine@christinenicholson.co.uk
0333 567 8011
Christine Nicholson, Business Mentor
Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better.
My name is Christine Nicholson, and I am a keen adventure hiker and gardener. My adventure hikes have taken me from Western Sahara to the wild parts of the Great Wall of China, with Chile and Easter Island and the Rockie Mountains already booked for the next 6 months. I’m blessed to be able to work remotely and mix work with getting out in nature. I also grow all my own vegetables and fruit in a very small garden back at home in the Chiltern Hills of the UK.
What is your business name and how do you help your clients?
I’m a multi award winning business mentor, which means I help client achieve their full potential. My business is Nicholson Hall Advisory Limited and as well as business mentoring I am an expert at Exit and Succession Planning for businesses. Basically, I help business owners get out of the day-to-day of their business and make their businesses worth more and easier to sell or exit on better terms for them and their teams.
What kind of audience do you target your business towards?
Most of my clients are engineers who’ve invented something and used that invention to create their businesses. I have a lot of client who are in technoloclientsgy, engineering or manufacturing. But my own background covers everything from being in the military to running a zoo in the middle of the desert to running medical care facilities.
I work with business owners of established businesses who are typically in their 40’s or older and looking to improve the capital value of their business with a view to making it more resilient.
Who inspires you to be the best that you can be?
I’ve been mentored since I was 9, and had mentors throughout my life. Each one has inspired a different element of my development as a professional and a human being. They have been true superheroes. Whenever I get into a challenging situation I always ask “What would any of my mentors do?” ‒ the answer is usually quick to appear.
If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be and why?
Business mentoring is currently the wild west in terms of professional development. Anyone can call themselves a mentor. I champion professional standards and development in mentoring ‒ and would love to see more professionalism, minimum standards and an ethical framework for mentors to work within. It’s the beginning of a long road but I am positive and hopefully for the future.
Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.
When I was qualifying as an accountant, I quickly realised that whilst I enjoyed studying I did not want to become an accountant in the traditional sense. I worked for 2 men (a fantastic Finance Director called Andrew Willson, and a Company Secretary called Tim McClure) who showed me a different route to fully utilise my education and gave me the opportunity to explore how to run a business. It opened up a world of alternative opportunities and resulted in me starting my first “grown-up” business in health care. It also allowed me to recognise my entrepreneurial spirit.
