Iain Strachan ActionCoach

Iain Strachan ActionCoach Do you want your business to run better, grow faster? Are you frustrated in your business

I work best at 2am.Not because I'm undisciplined, or because I've optimised my sleep cycle, or because the productivity ...
23/05/2026

I work best at 2am.

Not because I'm undisciplined, or because I've optimised my sleep cycle, or because the productivity book. I work best at 2am because it's quiet, because nobody needs anything from me, because the particular kind of thinking I do best happens when the world has gone to sleep and given me some room.

For some time I thought this was a problem I needed to solve. Now I understand it's just how I'm built, and the business I've built is structured around it.

That shift : from trying to fix yourself to designing around yourself : is one of the most powerful gifts; knowing where your business is going. When the destination is clear, you stop spending energy becoming someone else’s definition of a business owner.
You place that energy in the work. On building something you're proud of, in the hours that suit you, at the pace that's sustainable, in the way that's genuinely yours.

The results don't care what time you made them. The work doesn't know you didn't follow the conventional schedule. And the people whose opinions matter : the ones who care about what you build, not how you built it : will see something real, made by someone who finally stopped apologising for how they work best.

Identify your challenges with the 6 Steps Scorecard:
https://6stepsscorecard.co.uk/iainstrachan/

Picture a business that is built entirely around how you actually work.Not how everyone else thinks a founder is suppose...
22/05/2026

Picture a business that is built entirely around how you actually work.

Not how everyone else thinks a founder is supposed to work, not the template you absorbed from business book or accelerator programmes or allegedly successful business guru. But a business structured around your genuine rhythms : when you think most clearly, how you communicate best, what kind of work lights you up and what kind slowly wears you down..

This is not naïve. It is, in fact, the most strategic thing a founder can do. A business built around someone performing a role they find draining will always underperform a business built around someone operating at their natural best. A man who likes walking will always walk further than the man with a destination.
When you know where you're going, you can design the path. You can build in the space you need. You can create a business that calls on your strengths rather than demanding you patch your weaknesses every single day. You can enjoy the walk

The business you wanted to build when you started : the one that was supposed to create your freedom, not replicate the job you were trying to escape : is still available to you. It just needs setting as a clear destination first.

The good news is that you’re not alone!
Many business owners share the same struggles with their businesses. The first challenge is to identify the challenges at every stage of your business, and then to find guidance on how to address that challenge.
This might be the best 5 minutes you invest in your future, the 6 Steps Scorecard, free and completely reusable!

https://6stepsscorecard.co.uk/iainstrachan/

Ah, the Honeymoon period.Everything is new, everything is interesting, and the energy you bring : that particular intens...
21/05/2026

Ah, the Honeymoon period.

Everything is new, everything is interesting, and the energy you bring : that particular intensity that makes you very good at starting things : is running at full power. You build quickly. You make decisions fast. The business takes shape around you.

Then, somewhere in the second or third year, the novelty fades. This is not a character flaw. It is a sign that you chose the right problem : you engaged with it so completely that you've moved through the initial fascination and arrived somewhere harder and more real.

The difficulty is that most businesses are founded around the owner’s early-stage energy. When that shifts, the business suffers. Decisions get harder and new “shiny objects” grab your attention.

The answer is to build the business as an asset before the novelty fades : to install direction, systems, and team buy-ins that don't depend on your mood to function. A well-formed destination is what makes this possible. The business runs on its own logic. Your intensity built it. The destination sustains it.

Identify the challenges at every stage of your business. This might be the best 5 minutes you invest in your future. The 6 Steps Scorecard, free and reusable:

https://6stepsscorecard.co.uk/iainstrachan/

The Sunday FeelingYou know the one.It arrives somewhere around 6pm on a Sunday. Not dread exactly : you're not afraid of...
20/05/2026

The Sunday Feeling
You know the one.

It arrives somewhere around 6pm on a Sunday. Not dread exactly : you're not afraid of the week. You built the business yourself; you can handle the week. It's something quieter and harder to name. A vague sense that you've forgotten something important, or that the things you're about to spend five days doing aren't quite the right things, that this isn’t the life you planned for.

It's not burnout. It's more like the absence of a destination.

Vague direction produces this feeling every time, and no amount of productivity tools touch it because the problem isn't your system : it's doubt in your mind, the nagging concern that your just not doing the right stuff.
Where is this going? Not just this week; the whole damn operation.

When you answer that question with enough specificity that you actually feel the answer : when the destination is written down and real and yours : Sunday evening changes character. The week ahead has a shape and form. The work has real meaning for you.

Direction is not a luxury. It's the foundation everything else is built on.

You’re not alone. Use the 6 Steps Scorecard to identify your challenges, free and reusable:

https://6stepsscorecard.co.uk/iainstrachan/

Follow if Sunday evenings feel like this more often than they should.

Most founders know when they should say no.They know the project doesn't fit. They know the client isn't right. They kno...
19/05/2026

Most founders know when they should say no.

They know the project doesn't fit. They know the client isn't right. They know this meeting is going to cost them three hours they don't have and produce something they don’t they need. And they say yes anyway, because no might offend. When the request comes from someone we like or someone who would benefit from our support, or who may benefit us.

The reframe that changed this for me was simple: stop making it personal. Let the plan make the decision.

When someone brings a request that doesn't fit the direction, the answer isn't "I don't want to do this" : it's "it’s not in the plan right now." The destination becomes the reason. It's not about the person in front of you. It's about the direction you've already committed to. That's not an affront : it's honesty. You've chosen a direction, and this isn't it.

What a clear destination gives you, beyond strategy, is a boundary with a reason. And a boundary with a reason is one you can actually hold.

The good news is that you’re not alone!
Many business owners share the same struggles with their businesses. The first challenge is to identify the challenges at every stage of your business, and then to find guidance on how to address that challenge.
This might be the best 5 minutes you invest in your future, the 6 Steps Scorecard, free and completely reusable!

https://6stepsscorecard.co.uk/iainstrachan/

When the Business Didn't Need MeI recall the moment of clarity, the power of genuinely understanding the power of sharin...
18/05/2026

When the Business Didn't Need Me

I recall the moment of clarity, the power of genuinely understanding the power of sharing your goals and aspirations with the team. The moment I realised that this business could continue to run and grow without me in it

When the goals were no longer just a PowerPoint presentation, but a real open discussion, listening my teams’ perspective, building it into the plan, building their ambitions into my business plan.
Building business goals that resonated with every member of the team. Hard goals (written and widely communicated) and soft goals: the culture and lifestyle.

And the moment it hit home.
When a Manager steps into the office to describe the changes she wants to make, which are completely in line with the direction of travel that we all agreed upon. We were suddenly class leading, we were a hive mind, a team playing to the same goal

That's what a destination does, eventually. It makes the business more than just you.

The good news is that you’re not alone!
Many business owners share the same struggles with their businesses. The first challenge is to identify the challenges at every stage of your business, and then to find guidance on how to address that challenge.
This might be the best 5 minutes you invest in your future, the 6 Steps Scorecard, free and completely reusable!

https://6stepsscorecard.co.uk/iainstrachan/

Imagine starting the week already knowing exactly what you need to achieve, in order to move your business forward.Not a...
17/05/2026

Imagine starting the week already knowing exactly what you need to achieve, in order to move your business forward.

Not a vague intention. Not a list of tasks you’re prepared to let yourself get away without doing. A genuine sense of direction that sits underneath everything — steady, clear, non-negotiable.

You open your laptop and the first question isn't "what do I tackle first?" You already know. What that matters most is obvious. The work that doesn't fit the goal is easy to decline, easy to delegate, easy to let go of without guilt, because the destination is already driving you.

Somewhere in the middle of the week, you look up and realise you've spent most of it doing the work you actually built this business to do. The deep work. The “Working on the Business” work. The work that feels like you.

That's not a fantasy. That's what a clear destination feels like.

It doesn't remove the hard days. But it does change their shape. Instead of hard and directionless, they may just be hard — and hard you were built to handle.

The good news is that you’re not alone!
Many business owners share the same struggles with their businesses. The first challenge is to identify the challenges at every stage of your business, and then to find guidance on how to address that challenge.
So, the best 5 minutes you invest in your future, the 6 Steps Scorecard, free and completely reusable!

https://conta.cc/4nyzWvp

There was a version of this : when you first started : where the work felt different.You were building something meaning...
17/05/2026

There was a version of this : when you first started : where the work felt different.

You were building something meaningful and real. The hours disappeared because you were genuinely in your flow, not just fighting today’s fire. That state : fully absorbed, completely present, producing something you were proud of : was why you went out on your own in the first place.

At some point, the business grew bigger than that feeling. The deep work got lost in the noise of the day-to-day. The time filled up with everything else : the exhausting imperatives of running a business.

This what a clear destination can restore: the flow back into your true, deep work.
When you know where the business is going, you can see exactly which work moves it there. And you can see, just as clearly, which work doesn't : which means it can be delegated, automated, or dropped without guilt.

The deep work comes back. Not as a reward for getting everything else done. As the whole reason for doing it in the first place.
The good news is that you’re not alone!
Many business owners share the same struggles with their businesses. The first challenge is to identify the challenges at every stage of your business, and then to find guidance on how to address that challenge.
This might be the best 5 minutes you invest in your future, the 6 Steps Scorecard, free and completely reusable!

https://6stepsscorecard.co.uk/iainstrachan/

The quiet question in the back of your mind.Underneath the meetings and the momentum and the metrics, there's a question...
16/05/2026

The quiet question in the back of your mind.

Underneath the meetings and the momentum and the metrics, there's a question many founders never say out loud: is this actually going anywhere? Not "is the business growing" : that’s something you can measure. But the deeper version. The one that you ask yourself on a Sunday evening or on a long drive home after a week that looked successful but felt but now you just feel drained and right back where you started.

Is this going somewhere I actually want to be?

Vague destinations, the end game undefined; your brain never gets to rest. Your mind keeps scanning, keeps questioning, keeps running the loop. The work continues, but the reason seems to have lost in the busy-ness (how I hate that mashed up word)

The answer isn't to work harder, or to think more positively. The answer is in the question.
Define the goal.
Properly. In writing. With enough specificity that your brain finally believes it.

Define the destination : exit, independence, a business that runs without you : and the mystery evapourates.

The quiet that follows that is worth more than almost anything.

The good news is that you’re not alone! Take 5 minutes to identify your challenges with the 6 Steps Scorecard.

https://6stepsscorecard.co.uk/iainstrachan/

Somewhere along the way, you became a Jack-of-All-TradesThe always-available founder. The one who answers at 11pm, who t...
15/05/2026

Somewhere along the way, you became a Jack-of-All-Trades

The always-available founder. The one who answers at 11pm, who takes the call even when the call doesn't deserve to be taken, who sits in meetings that drain them because that’s what you believe business owners do. You built something from nothing, and somehow the reward was more obligation.

The exhausting part isn't the work. It’s the stuff that you never wanted to do in the first place. The version of "professional" that was designed by someone else, for someone else, and handed to you as though it were simply what success looks like.

It isn't.

When you define where your business is actually going : what you're building it toward, and what kind of life it's supposed to create : you stop fitting yourself to someone else’s mould. You start building the mould around you. The calls you take become choices. The boundaries you set have a reason behind them. You can be you.

You’re a specialist. Specialise. A Jack-of-All-Trades is a master of none.

The good news is that you’re not alone!
Many business owners share the same struggles with their businesses. The first challenge is to identify the challenges at every stage of your business, and then to find guidance on how to address that challenge.
This might be the best 5 minutes you invest in your future, the 6 Steps Scorecard, free and completely reusable!

https://6stepsscorecard.co.uk/iainstrachan/

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