Enabling owner-managed businesses to realise their potential, so that they have more time, more money and more fun.

Since working with Alan and the team at Mustard, I feel that I am now running a business, as opposed to running with a business. There is more structure to how I work and how the business operates. The sessions with Mustard really help to step away from the day-to-day of the business and think strategically. It’s been a pleasure having Mustard on board, long may it continue!! - Huw David, MD Bright Collie

“A big thanks to Alan and Mustard for helping me improve the effectiveness of my agency. The Mustard team worked with me and my management team to identify all key areas of the business and then prioritise them to make sure we were always working on things that could help us get to our goals quicker. We saw good growth after engaging Mustard and it has helped me perform a lot stronger as a business leader and decision maker.” - Gareth Morgan

Our business has highly benefited from working with Alan Jones from Mustard. Whilst we felt Mazuma was performing well we did need to polish some areas of the business in order to create more value. With Alan’s skills and guidance using the tools provided by Mustard we managed to do this in a short space of time. I would not hesitate in recommending Mustard to others! - Sophie Hughes, Co-Founder and Operations Director.

Working with Alan over the past 10 months has been a massive breath of fresh air to both me as a business owner and to my business as a whole. He has helped me put structure in place for all departments which has already had a very positive effect. Alan has also helped me make key decisions within my business that previously I had buried my head on, Alan's vast experience in making businesses successful has been key to helping me drive my business forward. - Andrew Nicolson, MD

Helen asks questions which challenge the way I think about the business, and I am doing more of the things that I enjoy. I have learnt to recognise the value that I add to customers’ businesses personally and that this is value that they are happy to pay for. I am really excited about the future and what the next year will bring, and we are already on course to beat what I thought was a challenging budget. - Chris Connor, Managing Director

Working with Mustard has been fantastic for our business. It’s very easy to become complacent when you have been running a business for many years. Having a trusted adviser to be accountable to was absolutely invaluable. Working with an expert outside of your own business is also a fantastic way to shed new light on old challenges – using Mustard we were able to work through old and new challenges with the benefit of a fresh set of eyes. We are now ready for the next stage of our expansion and have undoubtedly got there faster by using Mustard. - Lucy Cohen, Mazuma Co-Founder and Commercial Director

I think it’s a great idea to engage with Mustard. You need to be very open, very transparent with them and you’ve got to be ready to be accountable. You certainly got to be ready to be challenged. You need to be aspirational. You need to want to grow your business, and however good you are you need to understand that there is always improvements to be made. We courted them to see what they were about because initially we were looking at using them for our customers, and in doing so we realised that we could benefit directly ourselves.Subsequent to that we have introduced them to a number of our own clients, and we have a number of mutual clients with Mustard as well. So yes, definitely happy not just to endorse them but to recommend them to anybody. - Stephen Griffiths, Managing Director DWA Accountants

We engaged with Mustard because we were going through a growth period, and to create more structure for the management team. We had high expectations from Mustard, however they over-delivered by far. So since we have been working with Mustard over the last 18 months, the business has grown by a million pounds in revenue. We looked at as an annual cost for the business, and could we improve the business by that much every year. I think that if you look at it from that perspective, I’d say that 100 times we have achieved that. I would absolutely recommend Mustard. - Jay Ball, MD DataKom Ltd

- What our clients say about us

Mustard has brought value to the business and we are making money for a change. We’ve got a clear view about where we are going and how we are going to do it. Being a managing director of a company is a bit of a lonely place in terms of decision making and control, so to have somebody like Alan of Mustard to advise, when you need it, is a big help. Certainly, having this sort of backup has de-stressed the situation and made it more enjoyable. I would recommend Mustard, but I am not going to, because I need them to work for me. - Malcolm Pearce, MD Customised Sheet Metal Ltd

When I came across the opportunity to combine my passion for coaching with my broad business experience it was a match made in heaven. As a result of working with Mustard I have become more confident in my abilities as a business adviser and the value of the experience I already had. I have become more focused on what my offer is and my target market. It has helped me to become more successful. If you are thinking of joining Mustard, and if seeing people develop is what drives you – then go for it! - Helen Phillips, Mustard Adviser

Having run a successful employment law practice for 15 years, if I’m honest I was rather sceptical about what benefit Alan Jones and Mustard Advisers would bring to my business. What I hadn’t appreciated of course, was the obvious, that I didn’t know what I didn’t know! It is so easy running a small busy business to get sucked into the everyday running and operations of it, that you fail to see the bigger picture. With the help of Alan, together with his expertise and vision I was able to take a step back, look at the business in a different light, evaluate everything that we did and address some fundamental issues, some of which had always been nagging at me but never addressed. The changes have really made a difference. Ranging from the day to day issues, increased profitability and perhaps most fundamentally it brought back the pleasure of running a business. All of this was done with Alan’s constructive support, insight, a huge breadth of knowledge and his trademark humour! You’ve probably already worked out. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Alan and Mustard Advisers! - Roger Davies, MD P4B Law

The work that we have undertaken over the last 12 months with Mustard has been instrumental in setting the foundations for the next stage of our growth plans. Working with Mustard has added a strategic board member, helping us to define our priorities and set out clear pathways to success, as well as identifying and remediating against weak points and risks within the business. Alan’s input and value-add to the business is now more important than ever and I feel reassured to have him as part of the team as we continue onwards with our ambitious plans. - Mike Parfitt, Founder and CEO

We’re pleased to have worked with Alan and the team at Mustard Advisers to support the growth and structure of our business. There were some fundamental business principles and processes missing from the way we operated, things that we couldn’t possibly spot with our heads focussed on delivering value for our clients. The Mustard Diagnostic, paired with Alan’s industry experience, was a key driving force for identifying our strengths and weaknesses and concentrating our time on the most valuable areas of improvement. - Scott Jones, MD Illustrate Digital

We aren’t getting any younger or fitter and we wanted to have a succession plan to hand over the baton to ensure that the legacy that we had created was carried forward and we have exactly that with a very strong management team of Chairman Alan Jones, MD Keith David, Technical Director Owain Watkins, On Site Manager Jeremy Donovan, Operations Director Katrina Massie and Production Manager Derryl Watkins. We would like to thank Mustard Advisers for planning the MBO, getting us into the position financially and structurally to be able to achieve it. You learn a lot going through this process and were delighted that Mustard Advisers had the experience, knowledge and acumen to guide all of us through it in such a harmonious and unified fashion. - Malcolm Pearce, Founder