Advisers of the Month: UK's top 10 small business advisers (2024)

Congratulations to our Advisers of the Month for December, the Enterprise Nation Adviser Awards 2024 winners.

Now in its eighth year, the awards, in association with Constant Contact, celebrates the unsung heroes whose professional advice behind the scenes has helped shape the future of some of the UK's most successful small businesses, helping them with everything from strategy to overseas trade.

The ceremony, held at The Shard in London, saw 10 advisers across a range of disciplines, chosen by their peers in a poll that saw more than 4,000 votes cast for 50 finalists.

1. Business strategy: Kathy Ennis, founder of LittlePiggy

Founder of LittlePiggy, Kathy has been a business owner for over 25 years and now uses that knowledge to help people start and grow their businesses and achieve more sales. She's developed a 360° approach for her work with clients, focusing on four key areas of business – money, marketing, management and mindset.

How can you support small businesses? 

I started my first business 25 years ago and soon realised I had absolutely no idea about what I was doing. It wasn't until I invested in working with a business mentor, who showed me how to be more strategic in my approach, that things started to change for the better!

I now specialise in working as a business mentor for solopreneurs who, if they are to have a truly successful business, have to be strategic in their approach. If they're not, business will always be a struggle and they won't achieve the success they deserve.

Why did you become an Enterprise Nation Local Leader?

I started looking after Norfolk, and it's now expanded into Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. I've been an advocate for Enterprise Nation and everything it does since the beginning. It is one of the most innovative and supportive business organisations we've got in the UK. When you get involved, all they want is your success, and I wanted to be part of that as well.

I want to be involved with Enterprise Nation as an organisation because it has small business at its heart. As a business mentor, my specialism is working with solo business owners. Often they're the ones who need extra support because they're doing it on their own.

Enterprise Nation is a place where they can actually get support, advice and meet other business people who can help them grow.

What do you love about being an adviser?

It allows me to work with businesses that I wouldn't have the opportunity to work with in the normal course of events. Enterprise Nation puts me in front of people that I wouldn't normally reach.

I live in Norfolk, but last year with Google Digital Garage, I worked with people who were in Sheffield and in the Midlands. It gets you out and about and allows you to meet other businesses.

2. Digital marketing: Emma Goode, founder of 24 fingers

Emma is the founder of 24 fingers, which helps entrepreneurs grow their businesses and brands through digital marketing, including social media, SEO, content marketing and lead generation.

What is the top issue people come to you for support?

Small business owners nowadays are told that they've got to be doing everything 24/7 on all the platforms and it's just too much.

They've got all the content in the world, but need to know how to implement it in a way that's authentic to them. I teach marketing skills in a plain English way, no tech mumbo jumbo to make everything really impactful.

At the end of the day, all you want is to see results from your hard work.

Your top tip for small business owners who are feeling overwhelmed?

• Dial it back. Choose one platform that you really enjoy and are confident on. Do that well before moving on to your next

• Understand your purpose. What's your objective? Don't just post for the sake of it

• Make sure the quality is good. If you're concerned about the quality of your post or the image isn't quite right, review it. It's better to post something that's really impactful and going to resonate with your audience, rather than just chucking something up that won't land

3. Marketing strategy: Laura Cioffi, founder of Vertis Media

Laura brings over 20 years of expertise in digital marketing strategy, planning and execution. As founder of VertisMedia, a digital media agency, and Thriize, a content amplification platform, Laura and her team offer a variety of services to help clients thrive digitally.

Your top tip for someone who wants to start their own business?

Go on social media because a majority of time is spent on social media platforms. We are talking about eight hours per day for Gen Z, which goes down to four to five hours for the rest.

Don't be scared, and just make videos with your phone.

Why did you become an Enterprise Nation adviser?

I really love teaching, especially working with entrepreneurs or people starting up. I started up myself probably 20 years ago with an e-commerce website. That's where I learnt everything about digital marketing.

If I can help others, I am happy with that.

4. Sales: Leisa Pickles, founder of Find me the Leads

Leisa is the chief go-getter at Find me the Leads. She helps food and drink brands get their products into more places and in front of more people. Leisa has an extensive background in sales within the food and drink industry and has spent 15 years working for Mars, driving in-store execution within grocery, specifically Asda, Morrisons and the Coop.

What's the biggest misconception about sales and your industry?

I do this thing where I capture a lot of negative words that people post about sales on social media. Some of the words that are associated with it are 'sleazy', 'pushy' and 'it gives me the ick'.

But as small business owners, we should always be selling ourselves and our businesses because if we don't, who is?

Why did you become a Help to Grow mentor? What is it about helping people that you enjoy?

I have been mentoring unofficially for quite a long time. It wasn't until the Help to Grow programme came to be that I realised that actually, this is something that I wanted to make official.

I wanted to make that one-to-one relationship an official thing. That is what I love, working one-on-one with mentees to really help them achieve their full potential.

5. People: Lola Adeleye, managing partner of GMB Consultancies

Lola Adeleye, managing partner and lead consultant at Orpington-based GBM Consultancies, helps businesses and marginalised female founders unlock their growth potential.

What made you start your own business?

For the last 15 to 20 years, I have been a programme manager across multiple projects and different continents. Within project management, we talk about people, processes and technology.

However, with all programmes, it was always about the processes and technology, never about the people. I felt I needed to do something about that.

True leadership is not about being in charge; it's about taking care of those in our charge. It's about seeing the unseen, creating opportunities and paving the way for others to thrive.

What would your advice be for someone who wants to follow in your footsteps?

I'll say do it. Today is the beginning of the rest of your life, so don't waste another moment.

6. Finance and accounting: Hatty Fawcett, founder of Focused for Business

Hatty, founder of Focused For Business, is on a mission to make it faster and fairer for start-up founders and business owners to raise equity investment, particularly when they are doing so for the first or second time.

Her team run the Funding Accelerator programme, which has raised over £22 million for businesses that have graduated from it, over £10 million of which was raised in the last 12 months.

How did it feel to go out on your own?

It's been a big journey. I've now run two businesses of my own. The first one was a roller coaster, but I loved it so I decided to do it again. It's still a roller coaster. Every day you learn something new and that's why I love it. You never stop learning.

What were your client's reactions to the latest budget?

It's really tough and I'm not denying that, but I have confidence in our small businesses.

Lots of things are pressuring small businesses, but also, small businesses, start-ups and entrepreneurial people are so creative and resilient. They have a way of finding, finding a way through things.

7. Social impact and sustainability: Ruby Ellis, founder of The Nonprofit Design Studio

With The Nonprofit Design Studio, Ruby hopes to bridge the gap, match-making nonprofits with donors and grant funders, so charities can focus on helping the world while The Nonprofit Design Studio handles the design side of things.

What is the most rewarding thing about running your business?

It is definitely being able to help so many nonprofits and charities. Being able to help charities translate their message in order to make the most impact without charging them a penny is always rewarding. It's great to see the impact and change that it has on those communities.

What's the most common issue charities come to you with?

The first thing is there's no funding. Nobody funds websites or branding. They just don't see it as something that's needed.

But in 2024, it's so important the way you're perceived online. The way you're perceived does affect whether you get volunteers, funding, or the opportunities you get within your council. So, being able to help them present themselves online properly in a way that sets them up for the long run definitely is an issue that we are helping fix.

8. PR and content: Lucy Werner, founder of Hype Yourself

Lucy is the author of Hype Yourself and Brand Yourself and the creator of Hype Yourself on Substack, a top 50 global business newsletter.

With over a decade of experience helping entrepreneurs and creatives build their brands, she's passionate about making promotion easy and fun. She believes in the power of newsletters to build personal brands and generate revenue while balancing the demands of motherhood and solopreneurship.

How has Enterprise Nation helped in your business journey? 

This feels very cyclical. When I started my enterprise 10 years ago, I didn't know about Enterprise Nation. I wish I'd known about it and the support that it gave.

I started to dabble maybe in 2018-2019, when I was writing my book and the Enterprise Nation team gave me so much support.

Emma Jones even gave me a quote for the book. It feels so nice. I'm on my adviser journey 10 years later and still doing work with Enterprise Nation.

9. Legal: Gareth Buckley, director of The Insolvency Company

Gareth has worked in the industry for 20 years and was operations director for a large insolvency practice. After interacting with many ill-advised clients, he was inspired to qualify as an IP and advise clients himself.

How can you support small businesses? 

I work in insolvency, so I help people prevent mistakes that could happen and common pitfalls they could face that could cause some problems later on. Having conversations early with me makes things easier in the future.

What would you say is the biggest misconception about your industry?

The biggest misconception probably is that we work for the creditors. When people and companies go into insolvency, we work for them. We're trying to help everybody. We're trying to help business owners get back into business. It's just that communication is key.

10. International trade: Chris Dunn, founder of Chris Dunn Consulting

Chris has been developing businesses in the UK and internationally for over 35 years. From personal experience, he knows what it's like to start with nothing but an idea and build it into a successful company. With Chris Dunn Consulting, he helps other businesses change and grow.

What brought about the decision to start your own business?

It was a long time ago. I was nearly 50 and it came out of a merger between two large companies and I thought the time was right to actually set up. I had some money from a payout and thought why not?

Why did you become a Help to Grow mentor? What do you enjoy about it?

The Help to Grow mentoring was completely altruistic. I volunteered to help others; small business people coming from a very big business world.

It was really nice to get down to the nuts and bolts and I've enjoyed every bit of it.

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