Business coaching in Leeds
Leeds has close to thirty thousand registered businesses, and professional firms are the largest group. Coaching is one-to-one, fortnightly and ninety minutes at a time, in four areas: personal, leadership, business and financial.
Professional firms are one in six businesses.
Leeds has 4,865 professional, scientific and technical firms. For consultancies, practices and agencies the coaching work is pricing, utilisation and the owner’s own billable hours.
More firms here have grown past micro size.
The share of Leeds businesses with fewer than ten staff is lower than the UK average. Growing firms need a management layer, and Leadership Coaching works on building it.
Construction is the second largest group.
Contractors and trades in Leeds face the same pressures as anywhere: pricing, stage payments and keeping good site staff. Coaching starts with what each job earns.
Leeds businesses in numbers
ONS counted 29,830 VAT or PAYE registered businesses in Leeds in March 2026. 25,985 employ fewer than ten people, which is 87.1% against 89.1% for the UK, and 29,020 (97.3%) employ fewer than fifty. Professional, scientific and technical firms are the largest group with 4,865 businesses (16.3%), followed by construction with 3,850 (12.9%).
Source: ONS, UK business: activity, size and location 2026, published 24 September 2026.
Business support in Leeds
Leeds City Council’s business growth page points owners to Leeds Chamber, the Manufacturing Growth Programme and AD:VENTURE. Leeds Chamber is part of the West & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce. These are the routes for funding, specialist advice and networking. Coaching is a paid, regular, one-to-one arrangement focused on the owner, and the two work alongside each other. UK coaching options compared sets out the routes side by side.
Where do sessions happen?
Sessions for Leeds owners run by video, fortnightly. Owners who want to meet in person can do so by appointment at 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
Does coaching by video work as well as meeting in person?
For most owners it works better over a year, for a practical reason: a ninety-minute video session at a fixed time is easy to protect, and a journey across the Pennines is the first thing to go in a busy week. Coaching fails on cancelled sessions more often than on anything else. The sessions use a shared screen for the scorecards, the numbers and the ninety-day plan, so nothing is lost. Leeds clients who want to meet in person can come to Salford for the first two sessions, when the business is mapped out.
I own a manufacturing business in Leeds. Can coaching help?
Yes. Manufacturing owners often have a strong grip on production and a weaker one on the numbers that sit around it: margin by product or customer, overhead recovery and the cash tied up in stock and work in progress. Business Coaching and Financial Coaching work on those, and Leadership Coaching works on the supervisors and managers who run the shop floor. The council’s business growth page also points to the Manufacturing Growth Programme, which is worth checking for funded specialist help alongside coaching.
What happens after the discovery call?
If you decide to go ahead, the first two sessions are diagnostic. They map the business, score you on the Performance on Purpose quadrant and the three freedoms, and agree three priorities for the first ninety days, each with a measure and a date. Sessions then run fortnightly for ninety minutes, with a short check on progress in between. At ninety days the scores are taken again and compared with the first set. Every programme is monthly, and the fees are published on the programmes page.
Book a free discovery call for your Leeds 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.