Emma Harper - Personal Business Strategist

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Emma Harper - Personal Business Strategist Helping service-based business owners build a business that works around their life, one intentional decision at a time. I'd rather help you think it through.
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I'm an ex-teacher turned business strategist, which means I won't hand you a template.

Every Core Plus lesson I teach is 50 minutes long.People often assume that's about the students. It wasn't. Not at first...
24/10/2026

Every Core Plus lesson I teach is 50 minutes long.

People often assume that's about the students. It wasn't. Not at first.

When I started tutoring, I knew I wanted to work from home. No travelling between students. And I knew that if I stacked hour-long lessons back to back, I'd disappear into the evening and not come out until the girls were long asleep.

So I made the lessons 50 minutes, and built in a deliberate 10-minute break between each one.

Ten minutes to make a cup of tea. To go and say goodnight to the girls. To touch base with my husband. To be a person, not just a tutor, in the middle of a busy evening.

And then I discovered the bit I hadn't planned. Students can only really concentrate for about 45 minutes. By the time they've arrived, settled in and packed up, 50 minutes is actually the perfect session length.

So it works for them too. But that's not where it started. It started with making it work for me and my life.

I think that's a decision a lot of us are scared to make. We assume the business has to be designed around the client first, and we'll fit ourselves in around the edges.

Sometimes, designing it around yourself first turns out to be exactly what the client needed as well.

What's one small thing you could build into your working day, just for you?

Every industry has its bubble.In tuition, there's a way things are "supposed" to be done. Charge by the hour. Pay as you...
22/10/2026

Every industry has its bubble.

In tuition, there's a way things are "supposed" to be done. Charge by the hour. Pay as you go. Travel to the student. Everyone does it, so it must be right.

It's very easy to sit in that bubble and only ever look at what the other tuition businesses are doing. Same pond, same fish, same ideas going round and round.

But some of the best things I've done at Core Plus are the things that don't look like the rest of the tuition world at all. And the more I step outside that bubble, the more I realise how much there is to learn from businesses that look nothing like mine.

Businesses have been around for a very long time. Almost every problem you're facing, someone in another industry has already solved. Cash flow, customer experience, keeping people coming back, building a team.

You don't have to reinvent the wheel. You don't have to start from scratch, and you don't have to go it alone. You just have to be willing to look outside your own pond.

Where do you look for ideas outside your own industry?

I'm going to be honest about something a lot of business owners aren't saying out loud.The cost of living crisis is havi...
20/10/2026

I'm going to be honest about something a lot of business owners aren't saying out loud.

The cost of living crisis is having a real impact on our business.

And it's not just us. Every service-based business owner I've spoken to lately is feeling it too. Different industries, different clients, same story. People are thinking twice before they commit to anything that isn't essential. Enquiries that would once have been a yes are now a "maybe later". Clients who'd normally book without a second thought are pausing.

I completely understand why. Families are having to make hard choices, and that's not something any of us can argue with.

But it's tough when you're the business on the other side of those choices. It's easy to take it personally. To lie awake wondering what you're doing wrong, when actually you're doing the same as you always have and the world around you has shifted.

So if you're feeling it right now, I want you to know you're not on your own. We're all in this together, and there's no shame in saying it's hard.

Talk to other business owners. Be kind to yourself. Look after the clients who are still with you. And don't measure yourself against a year that looked nothing like this one.

Are you feeling it in your business too?

Sunday question.When things go a bit quiet in your business, what's your first instinct? Hold your nerve, or change cour...
18/10/2026

Sunday question.

When things go a bit quiet in your business, what's your first instinct? Hold your nerve, or change course straight away?

Tell me in the comments 👇

A mum asked for one-to-one tuition for her son. It wasn't working, and she didn't know what to do next. Here's what happ...
16/10/2026

A mum asked for one-to-one tuition for her son. It wasn't working, and she didn't know what to do next. Here's what happened when I stood my ground on the problem and stayed flexible on the solution 👉

Knowing your service well enough to challenge what a client asks for isn't being difficult. It's part of what they're paying you for.

Have you ever had to tell a client that what they asked for wasn't what they needed?

Half term is nearly here and the to-do list is growing. Before you try to do it all, run it through these three question...
14/10/2026

Half term is nearly here and the to-do list is growing. Before you try to do it all, run it through these three questions 👉

Which one would free up the most time for you?

A couple of weeks ago I told you September had been quieter than usual at Core Plus.Enquiries were coming in, but they w...
12/10/2026

A couple of weeks ago I told you September had been quieter than usual at Core Plus.

Enquiries were coming in, but they weren't converting. Calls booked, then no-shows. Follow-ups sent, then nothing.

Here's the update.

The enquiries are still coming in. And now they're turning into a steady flow of discovery calls.

Did I panic in September and change everything to make that happen? Absolutely not.

I held fire.

I reflected, I watched, and I waited to see whether this was an ‘us’ problem or something bigger going on outside the business.

Because when things go quiet, the instinct is to react fast. New offer. New marketing. New everything. And when we react that quickly, we've already decided it's our fault.

Sometimes it is. But sometimes external factors are playing a much bigger part than we want to admit, and the only way to tell the difference is to give it a little time.

Waiting isn't doing nothing. It's gathering the information you need to make the right change, instead of the fast one.

When things go quiet in your business, is your instinct to react straight away or to wait and watch?

Tonight is the Class Business Awards, and this year I was one of the judges. I won't be in the room, but I'm cheering on...
10/10/2026

Tonight is the Class Business Awards, and this year I was one of the judges. I won't be in the room, but I'm cheering on every finalist.

If you've ever thought about entering an award and talked yourself out of it, this one's for you 👉

Which one would help you most?

September was quieter than usual at Core Plus this year.Not in enquiries. We've still had plenty of those. But they just...
08/10/2026

September was quieter than usual at Core Plus this year.

Not in enquiries. We've still had plenty of those. But they just haven't been converting. Calls booked, then no-shows. Follow-ups sent, then no reply. We've been ghosted a lot more than usual.

And I'll be honest, it knocked my mindset more than I expected. When that happens, it's very easy to jump straight to "What am I doing wrong?"

But when I actually stepped back and looked at it properly, a lot of what's going on sits outside the business altogether. Families are feeling the cost of living crisis. Budgets are tighter, and people are thinking twice before committing. Schools aren't sharing information the way they used to. None of that is something I can fix.

So rather than spinning on the bits I can't change, I've pressed pause and asked a different question: what can I actually do?

For us, that means looking at what happens between someone enquiring and someone saying yes, looking at our marketing with fresh eyes, and trying something new. Not panicking. Not throwing everything out. Just being honest that what worked last September might not be what works this one.

A quieter month isn't a verdict on your business. Sometimes it's just information.

If things have felt slower for you too, what's one thing within your control you could try differently this month?

I've done a lot of events this year. Oxfordshire to Manchester, Newcastle, London. Trains, early starts, late nights.And...
06/10/2026

I've done a lot of events this year. Oxfordshire to Manchester, Newcastle, London. Trains, early starts, late nights.

And when I've walked away from some of them and asked myself honestly what the impact on my business was there hasn't really been one.

Not because I didn't implement anything. Because the event didn't give me something relevant to where my business was, or it wasn't what I needed in that moment.

Some days I think I'd have been better off staying at home. Spending the time on my marketing. Talking to clients. Or, honestly, resting.

I'm not anti-event. I know the value of them, and some real nuggets have come out of rooms I've been in. But I've started asking a different question before I book.

Am I going because this is what my business needs right now? Or am I going because everyone else is, and I don't want to miss out?

Because FOMO is very good at dressing up as opportunity.

Looking at everyone else's business and thinking you should be doing that too. Saying yes to every event, every course, every new thing. That isn't strategy. It's reacting.

Sometimes the most strategic thing you can do is focus on your own business. Literally just yours.

How do you decide which events are worth your time?

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Banbury

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+447356043900

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