Emily Hodge

I’m a business coach and advisor at The Henley Coaching Partnership working with established SME founders who’ve built something real and are ready to take it further.

My own path changed significantly when I left the NHS at 30 after a cancer diagnosis. That experience is part of why I work the way I do: directly, honestly, and with a genuine understanding that time and energy are finite. Freedom and quality of life aren’t abstract goals to me. I know what it means to have them taken away, and what it takes to rebuild.

At The Henley Coaching Partnership, we’re not traditional coaches. We’re experienced business professionals who coach. We know when to ask questions and when to give direction. I shift between coach, advisor and mentor depending on what’s needed, bringing commercial knowledge and honest opinion alongside proven coaching practice.

I work with founder-led businesses, typically £1M to £50M turnover with 5 to 50 people, who’ve found their market but hit a ceiling. They’re still too involved in delivery. The team isn’t ready for the next stage. Everything still relies on them. They know they’re the bottleneck and they’re ready to change that. Many are co-founded businesses and some are family firms, where having an independent, trusted voice matters as much as the commercial advice.

We work on the business and the founder together, because the two are inseparable. Commercial discipline, revenue and pricing. Operational structure, systems and delivery. Leadership, people and decision-making. All tailored to the individual, never a formula.

The goal is to help founders move from reactive to intentional. From doing everything to leading effectively. From being stuck in the business to building something genuinely valuable.

What that looks like in practice:

– A mental health service that acquired a residential unit as part of their growth plans

– A co-founded female firm doubled their profit margin in 18 months through better pricing, smarter billing, and clearer boundaries

– A financial services founder acquired a business asset that changed their valuation and their confidence

– A design studio that nearly doubled their turnover through confident business development conversations

Most clients work with us for three to five years, because as the business grows, the challenges shift and so does the nature of our support

I also speak and run workshops on business growth, exit planning, and leadership.