Jeff Shrimpton: Are You a Coach Without Realising It?

Jeff Shrimpton spent 15 years managing nightclubs, overseeing teams of more than 50 people and generating £2 million a year for other businesses. He had built a successful career, but something was missing. After years of frustration, he decided it was time to build a business of his own.

What followed was an unexpected journey from marketing and events into business coaching, eventually leading him to join ActionCOACH UK and discover a career that combined his commercial experience with his passion for helping others succeed.

From nightclub management to business ownership

Jeff’s career began in nightclub management on the south coast, where he was responsible for running large venues and managing substantial teams. Despite his experience and the results he delivered, he reached a point where he wanted greater control over his working life.

Alongside his wife, Lucy, he established a business in the performing arts sector. The company soon evolved into a marketing and events agency, working with well known brands including Sainsbury’s, Tesco, National Express, Panasonic, Ted Baker, Hyundai and the Red Bull F1 team.

The business was successful, but Jeff began to question whether it was giving him the working life he wanted.

“I realised I was never actually part of these wonderful events that I loved. I was just stuck behind a computer screen,” he explained.

Jeff decided to find a buyer for the business and explore what might come next.

During the sale, he established an online marketing consultancy to generate an income while he considered his next move. His work focused on lead generation, helping business owners attract new customers through online marketing.

It quickly became apparent that many of his clients had a problem beyond marketing. They were generating leads but lacked the sales processes, systems and frameworks needed to convert those opportunities into business.

Jeff began helping them address these issues, advising them on how to improve their sales processes and overall business performance.

Without initially recognising it, he was already doing much of the work of a business coach.

Discovering a career in business coaching

Jeff had never seriously considered becoming a business coach. In fact, an earlier experience at a Tony Robbins seminar had left him with a negative impression of the coaching profession.

Yet his work with business owners was changing his perspective. He enjoyed helping people identify problems, challenge their assumptions and find practical ways to improve their businesses.

He began to see that coaching could offer a more fulfilling career, allowing him to draw on his own commercial experience while making a meaningful difference to other people's lives.

There was one important consideration. If he was going to pursue business coaching as a full time career, he wanted the right training, proven processes and support behind him.

Around the same time, Jeff was exploring the possibility of buying another business. An email from a business broker introduced him to the ActionCOACH UK franchise opportunity.

The timing was remarkable. Jeff had been thinking about whether the franchise might suit him, and when he raised the subject with Lucy, he discovered that she had independently been considering the same possibility for him.

He contacted ActionCOACH UK, spoke to the team and attended a Discovery Day to learn more about becoming a business coach.

His decision came quickly.

“Truthfully, I would have signed the contract by 11am that day. It just seemed right for me.”

From his first enquiry to arriving in Las Vegas for his initial training in September 2015, the entire process took around five or six weeks.

Building the foundations for a new career

Jeff’s initial training introduced him to the skills, knowledge and practical processes needed to establish himself as a business coach with ActionCOACH UK.

He compared the experience to standing in a wind tunnel, with information coming at him from every direction. The ten days demanded concentration and commitment, but they also helped him begin to see himself differently.

He was no longer simply a business owner with experience to share. He was learning how to become a professional business coach.

The training brought together ten people from different backgrounds and parts of the world. Although Jeff initially wondered whether such different personalities would work well together, the group quickly developed a strong connection and continued to keep in touch.

The experience also gave him the confidence to put his learning into practice.

After attending the UK franchise conference in Grantham in October 2015, Jeff launched his ActionCOACH UK business in Southampton the following Monday.

He was determined to tackle his biggest fears from the outset. During his training, he had committed to visiting local businesses and introducing himself, so that was exactly what he did.

Cold calling was outside his comfort zone, but he understood that building a successful coaching business would require him to develop new skills and put himself in situations that challenged him.

He also knew he would not have to work everything out alone. ActionCOACH UK provided sales techniques, structured processes and support from the wider franchise team to help him build momentum.

Within seven working days of launching, Jeff had secured his first client.

He followed the sales process he had learned during training and recognised that the conversation was progressing well when the prospective client began asking the buying questions he had been taught to expect.

It was a significant moment. The training was already proving its value, and Jeff was beginning to see how the systems behind the franchise could help him turn his experience into a viable business.

Growing a coaching business with the right support

In his early months, Jeff combined one to one coaching with group coaching and seminars to build his client base.

He made use of the ActionCOACH UK Client Generation Centre, which helped arrange diagnostic meetings with prospective clients. He also benefited from guidance during sales meetings, including support from Jon Asquith, who helped him develop his approach and improve his ability to convert opportunities.

These resources gave Jeff practical ways to generate business while he continued to develop his confidence and skills.

He also partnered with online marketing company Luv4 Marketing to promote seminars and attract business owners who could benefit from coaching.

One seminar resulted in a new one to one client and five group coaching clients. Jeff began measuring the performance of his marketing activity, including the cost of generating leads, so he could understand which activities were delivering results.

His experience demonstrated how a background in business, marketing and sales could provide a useful foundation for a career in coaching, particularly when combined with the training, systems and support available through ActionCOACH UK.

For someone considering the franchise, it is an important part of the opportunity: you can bring your existing strengths into the business while developing the skills and processes needed to become an effective coach.

Helping business owners achieve more than they thought possible

For Jeff, the real reward of business coaching quickly became clear. It was seeing the difference his work made to his clients.

One client had left school at 14 and gone on to build a business with £2 million in turnover. Together, they established clear goals at the beginning of the year, and the client achieved them within just 45 days.

Their longer term ambition was to grow the business to £10 million in turnover over five years.

For Jeff, the satisfaction came from helping another business owner recognise what was possible and then supporting them to make it happen.

He explained that once he was earning enough to cover his family's bills, his motivation shifted towards the progress and achievements of his clients.

That sense of purpose is central to his approach to coaching. His own experience of running businesses helps him understand the pressures that owners face, while his role as a coach allows him to help them find better ways forward.

Another client had been working between 80 and 90 hours a week and had lost his marriage. His business had become so dependent on him that it was difficult to imagine stepping away.

Over time, their coaching sessions began to produce a different outcome. At a later meeting, the client told Jeff that he had taken time away from the business to see friends and was pleased to discover that everything had continued to run without him.

For Jeff, that was genuine progress. The client was beginning to regain control of his time and build a business that did not rely on his constant presence.

These experiences reinforced why he had chosen coaching as a career. Business success is about more than turnover and profit. It can also give business owners greater freedom, stronger relationships and the opportunity to enjoy the life they have worked hard to build.

Jeff particularly enjoys helping clients challenge the limiting beliefs that can prevent them from moving forward.

He sees his role as helping business owners recognise the possibilities beyond their current assumptions, then work towards achieving them.

The value of joining an established franchise

Starting a business can be challenging, especially when entering a profession that is new to you. Jeff's experience highlighted the value of joining a franchise with established systems, practical training and a network of people who understand the journey.

He spoke positively about the ActionCOACH UK franchise support team, describing them as creative and inspirational. He valued being able to draw on the structures and processes developed for franchise partners, rather than having to create everything independently.

He also highlighted the additional coaching support available to new franchise partners, including one to one guidance from an experienced master coach while they work towards building their client income.

For Jeff, this combination of independence and support was important. He could build his own business, establish relationships with clients and develop his own coaching style, while benefiting from the experience and resources of a wider organisation.

The franchise also gave him a framework for developing the commercial side of his business. From lead generation and sales conversations to seminars and group coaching, he had practical methods to follow as he built his client base.

His early results gave him confidence to set increasingly ambitious goals for himself and his business.

A new mindset and bigger ambitions

Before joining ActionCOACH UK, Jeff had not necessarily imagined himself becoming wealthy or achieving the level of success he now believed was possible.

Building his coaching business had changed his outlook. He was setting financial targets, thinking about future investments and considering how his commercial knowledge could help him create further opportunities.

His ambitions extended beyond his own business. He wanted to use what he learned to invest in other businesses and help them grow, creating opportunities for his family while contributing to the success of other business owners.

Family remained an important part of his motivation. Jeff and Lucy both ran businesses, and they wanted to teach their children the value of working towards goals and earning the things they wanted.

For Jeff, building a successful business was about creating more choice for himself and his family, while helping other people do the same.

That perspective shaped the way he worked with clients. He wanted coaching to be engaging, enjoyable and grounded in a genuine interest in the people he supported.

He understood how lonely business ownership could feel and how easily an owner could become their own biggest obstacle. Having experienced the pressures of running businesses himself, he wanted his clients to have the support and perspective they needed to move forward.

Could business coaching be the right career for you?

Jeff's journey into business coaching was not the result of a lifelong plan to become a coach. It developed through his experience of running businesses, working with clients and recognising that he enjoyed helping other people improve their performance.

His story illustrates how skills developed in one career can provide a foundation for another. Experience in leadership, sales, marketing, operations or business ownership can all be valuable when working with business owners.

The key is being willing to learn, follow a proven approach and develop the skills required to help clients achieve meaningful results.

Through ActionCOACH UK, Jeff found a way to combine his commercial background with a career focused on helping others build better businesses and better lives.

His ambition was summed up in his personal mission: to help business owners achieve more than they thought possible, creating successful businesses that run smoothly and lives filled with greater freedom, enjoyment and opportunity.

For those who have spent years building experience, leading teams or running their own businesses, business coaching may be a career worth exploring.

You may already have many of the skills needed to get started. The next step is discovering how you could put them to work in a new way.

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