who are we?

Georgiana Lisk founded Acorn Business Consultancy to offer practical and pragmatic, hands-on business consulting services to support the self-employed, start-ups, micros and SMEs to achieve their goals.  

She is a Qualified Chartered Accountant (ICAEW) with more than 20 years Post Qualified Experience (PQE) and a firm believer in numbers being at the heart of all businesses. A seasoned business mind with drive and commercial business development acumen, plus operational, financial and sales & marketing experience.  She's also an expert in how to start a business; converting business ideas into profitable businesses for the future.

"I believe a successful business has great people at its heart, and you'll have our best people helping your business grow.  At Acorn, we believe in empowering business owners to "Chase the vision, not the money; the money will end up following you." 

Martin has an extensive hands-on business background across all sizes and types of enterprise, from large Blue Chips to small start-ups and family businesses in manufacturing, retail, travel and services sectors.  

Martin is particularly successful at ‘getting under the skin' of a business very quickly, understanding key operating ratios, growing businesses, and managing change.  He has started several businesses as an owner-entrepreneur, and has led them to steady growth and sales within five years.

He is no stranger to working 100hours a week, so he can understand the issues company owners face, and empathise.

Irene is a Qualified Business and Personal Coach with a keen interest in helping small business owners achieve the successes they strive for. 

Coaching entails working with individuals to find their focus on business ideas, ambition and desires. Working with individuals to set goals, then examine them to identify and overcome obstacles.  Supporting business owners to unleash their potential and make their ambitions and dreams real.

"Starting a new venture can be daunting and sometimes self doubt and fear can get in the way of your progress. Limits exist wherever you place them, why not not place yours behind you?" 

 Kiemia is passionate about design and dedicated to helping businesses find a branding solution they never thought was possible; one that communicates what their business stands for and highlights their beliefs.  

With over 13 years of creative experience, Kiemia will guide you to the solution that works for you. Her forte is developing beautifully engineered branding solutions that stand out amongst others.

"An established brand isn't going to appear with the click of a finger.  It is a journey you go on, one that allows you to figure out what you really want and define what you really need; no need to go on this journey alone."

 Will has over 25 years experience in the design industry with a specialist focus in “Packaging” design – both in structure and graphic communication.

There is a 3 second rule – the time you have to grab the attention of the customer – once they pick up your pack, take them on a journey… 

 
"Retail is a challenging market with so much visual traffic to compete with. Making your product stand out from the crowd on shelf is critical in delivering sales and building your brand."

With a background in customer-focused global organisations, IT solution training and SME business management, Beth has an unquestionable passion for communication.

This passion has developed into a drive to assist businesses to improve their social media and digital marketing with a focus on creativity and brand identity.

Managing all aspects of social media management, Beth supports our clients with their digital marketing plans, campaigns and paid advertising as well as image creation, and day-to-day posting and interactions.

With his tremendous experience providing a vast spectrum of services, Beck will support you in your web presence development, maintenance and expansion.   He specialises in creating stunning and high performing websites that will make your business more profitable, starting from an initial online business set-up consultation.

"Just like Steve Job’s "Stay hungry. Stay foolish" quote from a commencement speech at Stamford University, we strive to deliver an improved version of our services with each step of the journey. Coding, web and software development is not all that straightforward. So we look to understand each case and provide a unique and most optimal solution.” 

Shirley has been a copywriter for 15 years, creating, polishing and proofreading text to help a range of companies promote their work. 

Corporate player, established small business or start-up, everyone needs to get their message across. The right words can make all the difference to a marketing or brand development campaign. 

“Think carefully about what you want to say, but let your personality shine through. We all work better with people when we understand them. Make your position clear and your customers will respond to you.” 

Trevor has over 10 years of hands-on eCommerce experience running his multiple online retailing businesses.

 His expertise lies in multi-channel eCommerce platforms such as Amazon, eBay and Google advertising, as well as international trade.  With his know-how and passion, your brand will quickly increase its online visibility, which will undoubtedly lead to new customers in the UK and worldwide.

"You can't just open a website and expect people to flood in.  If you really want to succeed, you have to offer engaging, succinct (time is precious) and visual content in addition to creating traffic."

 Emma is a qualified Human Resources professional with over 17 years’ experience helping businesses enhance their performance by developing effective people practices.

Emma is passionate about providing growing businesses with the tools to both achieve and exceed their strategic goals by building a culture in which their people thrive.

 “In an evolving business, your people are everything – your key asset that will ultimately determine when and if you succeed. Proactively defining your people approach early on adds real value – after all, you’ll climb quicker and avoid the pitfalls on the way if you’ve charted a route before you set off!” 

With a pragmatic approach (like all of our Consultants), Andrew is always on the lookout for ways to help clients preserve value and harness opportunities for growth.

With almost 30 years' Post Qualified Experience (PQE) and having been a partner at an accountancy firm for 20 of those years, Andrew has amassed substantial expertise across a range of taxes, especially in connection with tax-efficient ways of extracting profit from owner-managed companies and minimising Inheritance Tax; the legal way of course! 

"Be optimistic even if it doesn’t come naturally. It’s easy to dwell on the negative aspects of daily life, and in those times, it helps to think about the positive things in your life which will give you the boost you need to look forward with hope."