Business coaching in Birmingham
Birmingham has more than thirty-eight thousand registered businesses, and professional, retail and construction firms are the three largest groups. Coaching is one-to-one, fortnightly and ninety minutes at a time, in four areas: personal, leadership, business and financial.
Retail is a large share of firms.
One in eight Birmingham businesses is in retail. Coaching for a retail owner usually starts with margin by product line, stock and the owner’s hours on the shop floor.
Professional firms are the largest group.
Birmingham has 5,245 professional, scientific and technical firms. For practices and consultancies the work is pricing, utilisation and building managers so the owner is free to lead.
Construction is a smaller share than the UK average.
Under one in ten Birmingham firms is in construction, against one in seven nationally. Contractors here still face the same questions on pricing, cash and site leadership.
Birmingham businesses in numbers
ONS counted 38,605 VAT or PAYE registered businesses in Birmingham in March 2026. 34,365 employ fewer than ten people, which is 89.0%, close to the UK share of 89.1%, and 37,785 (97.9%) employ fewer than fifty. Professional, scientific and technical firms are the largest group with 5,245 businesses (13.6%), followed by retail with 4,695 (12.2%) and construction with 3,795 (9.8%).
Source: ONS, UK business: activity, size and location 2026, published 24 September 2026.
Business support in Birmingham
Business Growth West Midlands is the publicly funded support service, and Birmingham City Council delivers it through the Growth Hub. In July 2025 the West Midlands Combined Authority announced a refocus on high-growth potential businesses. Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce on Hagley Road runs membership and events. Coaching is a paid, one-to-one arrangement focused on the owner, and it works alongside these. UK coaching options compared sets out the routes side by side.
Where do sessions happen?
Sessions for Birmingham owners run by video, fortnightly. Owners who want to meet in person can do so by appointment at the East Finchley office in north London or the Salford office, usually for the first two diagnostic sessions. In person and online cost the same. Everything starts with a free discovery call, and the Performance on Purpose scorecard shows where you sit before it.
Frequently asked questions
Is coaching only for businesses chasing fast growth?
No. Many Birmingham owners want a business that makes a steady profit and takes fewer hours of their week, and that is a legitimate goal for coaching. The Performance on Purpose method asks two questions together: is the business performing, and is that performance serving what you want from it? For some owners the answer is growth. For others it is better margin, a team that runs without them, or a plan to sell in five years. The coaching works to the purpose you set, and the first sessions are spent agreeing it.
I run a shop in Birmingham. Where would coaching start?
With gross margin by product line, stock turn and the hours you spend serving. In most small retail businesses those three explain the cash pressure: lines that sell well but make little, stock that sits on the shelf, and an owner who cannot step away from the till to buy and plan. The work then moves to pricing and range, the staff rota, and whether online sales or a second site would add profit or only turnover. Financial Coaching with Peter Allen suits owners who want to get comfortable with the numbers first.
Can my business partner join the sessions?
Yes. Where a business has two owners, joint sessions are often where the most useful work happens, because the two partners frequently score the business differently. Each partner fills in the scorecards on their own and the sessions work through where the scores differ by more than two points. Roles, decision rights and pay between the partners are covered as well. The programme fee covers the business, and you agree on the discovery call who attends which sessions.
Book a free discovery call for your Birmingham business.
The call with Andy Jackson is free and lasts 30 minutes. You leave with your position on the Performance on Purpose quadrant, your money, time and mind scores, and your top three priorities in writing.