Jenni Morgan: From a Successful Corporate Career to Building Her Own

Jenni Morgan found a business opportunity that aligned with her values, strengths and ambitions for the future.

After 15 years with Mars Incorporated and experience across multiple business functions, Jenni Morgan knew she wanted a career where she could help people and businesses reach their potential. When she discovered ActionCOACH UK, she found more than a new professional challenge. She found an opportunity to build a coaching business of her own, develop a team and create a better work-life balance.

Discovering the Power of Coaching

Jenni's career began on a fast-track graduate scheme at Mars Incorporated, where she was introduced to coaching as a style of line management. The experience made a lasting impression and helped shape her approach to leadership and business.

Over the next 15 years, she worked across the company's business functions, gaining a broad understanding of how large organisations operate. Along the way, she also discovered that finding the right career meant understanding where her own strengths could make the greatest difference.

“I'd always felt a pull to support young people who were struggling in school. I strongly believe that a good education can improve your chances in life. I was keen to help those kids make something of themselves by teaching them mathematics. I soon realised I wasn't the right fit for a school environment and my skills were going to be better used elsewhere, but this wasn't the first time I'd learned something valuable about myself.

“When I first went to university, I'd chosen to study chemical engineering, which took me to a work placement in the oil industry. I was put in front of a computer in an office on my own and felt the huge void of human interaction. It had been a nerve-wracking realisation at the time that I'd chosen the wrong degree, but it gave me the opportunity to think again about my career.

“I decided to move into manufacturing instead, which soon led to me winning one of fewer than 20 places on Mars Incorporated's graduate scheme, from a pool of thousands of applicants.”

Her experiences taught Jenni that her strengths lay in working with people, coaching, marketing and understanding how different parts of a business fit together.

Finding a New Direction

After leaving the corporate world for a period, Jenni explored her interest in education by tutoring students. Although she discovered that a school environment wasn't the right fit, the experience helped her understand where she could have a greater impact.

While living in London with her husband, Henry, an opportunity arose through a former Mars colleague. A company needed someone to implement marketing recommendations that had emerged from a consulting project. Jenni established her own consultancy so the company could pay her for the work, marking the beginning of her entrepreneurial journey.

For the first time, she was working with smaller organisations, including start-ups and a charity. It was her work with the charity that brought her back to coaching in a particularly meaningful way.

Rather than coaching every member of the team individually, Jenni coached one person who could then share the learning with colleagues. The approach helped the charity make better use of its resources while spreading valuable skills throughout the organisation.

“I had the third major realisation of my career that coaching was my opportunity to make a difference, the impact I hadn't been able to effect in education.”

This was an important turning point. Jenni had discovered a way to combine her business expertise with her desire to help people grow.

A New Challenge in Yorkshire

London was beginning to lose its appeal for Jenni and Henry, and they decided to move to Yorkshire to be closer to family.

Without an established network of business contacts in Wakefield, Jenni initially returned to marketing. She secured a role as Head of Global Marketing for a software company specialising in educational learning needs.

It was her first experience of working within a small or medium-sized enterprise, and the environment gave her a new perspective on business growth.

“Each department of the business was in close proximity to marketing, and I found myself wanting to share advice that could support the growth of the company in each of those departments. I knew I had to set myself a new challenge outside of this role and so, 18 months later, I decided to take some time off to regroup.”

By spring 2018, Jenni was ready to define what she wanted from her next career move. She created a list of the things that mattered most to her, considering her interests, skills and values. She also knew that professional development and continued learning needed to be part of her future.

“I thought I could find a job where I could help companies grow by coaching them. After extensive research, it turned out there weren't any jobs that did that. I would have to make my own job.”

Discovering ActionCOACH UK

Jenni had previously registered with a franchise search website, although she had largely ignored the daily emails advertising different opportunities. Then, just as she finished putting together her career wish list, she decided to open one.

The opportunity was with ActionCOACH.

It seemed to offer the coaching career she wanted, but Jenni wasn't prepared to make a decision without thorough research. She investigated similar franchises, shortlisted one other option alongside ActionCOACH and registered for their discovery days.

In June 2018, she travelled to Leicestershire to attend the ActionCOACH discovery day. There, she learnt about a new opportunity that would shape the direction of her business.

“Ian Christelow, the UK co-founder, entered the room to greet us with news hot off the press. He told us they had a new Firm Builder licence with access to exclusive territories, and we would be the first new franchise partners to choose between this and the pre-existing single-operator franchise.

“I now had the option of becoming the business growth coach I had considered as my new job prospect or investing to build a firm of business growth coaches. For me, it wasn't a tricky decision. Why wouldn't I choose to grow a successful business when I would be coaching my clients to do exactly that?”

After discussing the opportunity with Henry, Jenni decided to become the first new franchise partner to sign up for the exclusive territory Firm Builder licence.

The couple explored funding options with NatWest before deciding to use a pension-led funding arrangement. With her decision made, Jenni was ready to begin training at ActionCOACH University.

Launching ActionCOACH Wakefield

September 2018 was a busy month. Jenni completed her pre-training reading before spending a week learning from experienced members of the ActionCOACH UK team.

The programme covered the practical elements of building a coaching business, with sessions led by experts including long-standing franchise partner Andrew Kureishy, who shared real-life coaching examples, and sales specialist Jon Asquith from ActionCOACH's client generation centre.

Jenni returned home ready to turn her plans into reality.

“With all the practical nuts and bolts in place, I was ready to launch my new business into space. All the planets had aligned to bring me to this point, the start of something big.

“In October 2018, ActionCOACH Wakefield was going to take everything I'd made of myself so far and up the game so I could be the best I could possibly be.”

Jenni spent four weeks building a list of prospects through networking, direct outreach and direct mail campaigns. Her first six-step seminar attracted 30 attendees, with her own coach's coach, James Vincent, presenting part of the session alongside her.

The seminar was a confidence boost and produced encouraging early results. Jenni booked 12 follow-up appointments, which led to one group coaching client and one one-to-one coaching client. Another attendee went on to invest in one-to-one coaching six months later, after Jenni had stayed in touch.

The business had launched, and Jenni was beginning to build the foundations for sustainable growth.

Growing a Team and Supporting More Businesses

Like many business owners, Jenni faced new challenges when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived. Continued support from ActionCOACH UK, alongside the development of her own team, helped her and her clients navigate the uncertainty.

As the firm developed, Jenni began to focus not only on acquiring clients but also on building the team and structure needed to grow the business.

“One key progression has been bringing in an employee business coach. Alex joined us in July 2021 and has been brilliant. He loved the training and really gets our philosophy. We're now up to 40 clients. With our client portfolio growing by 25% in 2021 and with Alex now on board, we're expecting that growth trajectory to continue.”

Jenni also reorganised the firm's structure to prepare for further expansion. A management team of three took responsibility for key areas of the business: marketing and sales, operations, and finance.

At the time of the original interview, the plan was to recruit another business coach in 2022, followed by two more the following year. These plans reflected Jenni's ambition to extend the firm's reach and help significantly more businesses throughout the territory.

For Jenni, building a firm rather than working solely as an individual coach was an important part of the original vision. She wanted to create an organisation that could grow, develop talent and deliver coaching to a wider community of business owners.

Creating a Better Work-Life Balance

Jenni and Henry had moved to Yorkshire to enjoy a better balance between their professional and personal lives. Building ActionCOACH Wakefield has helped Jenni create the flexibility to enjoy more time with family and friends while continuing to grow her business.

“If you speak to a few ActionCOACH franchise partners, you'll find they all grow their businesses at different rates due to personal goals and motivators, so you don't have to be exactly like me. I put in extra hours at the start, but now you'll hardly ever see me working on a weekend.”

The couple have bought a holiday house in Lincolnshire, where they enjoy the peace and quiet, long walks and time outdoors with their dog. Discovering scuba diving on holiday has added another shared interest, alongside regular ski trips and time spent with family and friends locally.

Jenni particularly values the opportunity to spend more time with her nephew, something she believes would have been much harder if they had stayed in London.

Her experience highlights an important point about business ownership: success can look different for everyone. For Jenni, it means growing a coaching firm while maintaining the freedom to enjoy the life she and Henry wanted.

A Business That Reflects Her Values

Beyond the commercial opportunity, Jenni has found that the ActionCOACH culture aligns closely with the values she identified when planning her next career move in spring 2018.

“What’s really important to me is that I've found a career which ticks everything on my list and more. ActionCOACH's 14 Points of Culture overlap with the values I wrote down back in spring 2018. They're not just a list of phrases. You see them walking and talking every time you meet a franchise partner from any part of the world or catch up with someone from the franchise support team.”

Jenni also values the fact that coaching and development are part of her own business journey, not just the service she provides to clients.

“I can go out to a networking event or speak to a prospect truly knowing that ActionCOACH works because I have my own coach who has been instrumental in supporting the growth of my business.”

That support gives her confidence in the approach she shares with clients. She understands first-hand the value of having someone to challenge her thinking, help her set goals and support her continued development.

Reflecting on her early days in the network, Jenni remembers a moment that captured how much the opportunity meant to her.

“At my first ActionCOACH Christmas party, I explained to Ian, the man who gave me that first opportunity to build my own coaching firm, that I felt like I had come home because ActionCOACH feels like a family.”

When the Planets Align

Jenni Morgan's journey to ActionCOACH Wakefield brought together the experiences, skills and values she had developed throughout her career. From corporate leadership and marketing to consultancy and coaching, each step helped her understand the kind of work she wanted to do and the difference she wanted to make.

By choosing the Firm Builder route, she created the opportunity not only to coach business owners herself, but also to build a team and grow a business with a wider impact.

Her story is a reminder that the right career opportunity does not always arrive in the form of a traditional job. Sometimes, it means building something of your own, with the right support, a clear purpose and the ambition to help others succeed.

Could You Build a Business That Reflects Your Values?

If you're looking for a new challenge that combines business growth, personal development and the opportunity to make a difference, discover how an ActionCOACH UK franchise could help you turn your experience into a business of your own.

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