“Alison is like the Hotel Inspector but great personality, very knowledgeable about the business and gets to the problem with a practical solution in a no nonsense way. Her ability to remember details and pick the smallest problem up is amazing.
What I liked about her is her actions and solutions were based on reality and, not like many consultants, who propose recommendations that are pie in the sky and completely devoid of reality. That’s because she comes from years of experience working in the hospitality business, so everything is well grounded.”
Respond to AJ Lakes
I have been in the industry for a long time and we were looking to increase our turnover and occupancy in the accommodation side of our business. Alison was recommended to me from a seasoned industry veteran.
Upon meeting Alison, it was evident she had the knowledge and experience we were looking for and her confidence to deliver guaranteed results was the deal maker.
Our occupancy and revenue increased almost immediately but her complete business knowledge and understanding helped us with our brand, operational standards, cost control, sales and marketing and staff training. I have to say that in just 5 months the increase far exceeded our expectations, for example, our revenue increased by 66%.
Alison immersed herself within our business with a strategic focus and brought operational easy to implement tools to help the team to achieve our goals. So much so, she worked with us to achieve our 5-star gold award and other accolades we are very proud of.
She is a focused and driven individual who is great to bounce ideas off, whilst actively helping in all areas of the business if needed. She has a no-nonsense approach whilst being incredibly understanding of the challenges all businesses face. We have even raised our profile through COVID-19 due to the innovating ideas Alison brought to the table.
Would I recommend Alison? Without a doubt yes, unless of course, it is a competitor of mine. I would highly recommend working with Alison as she is worth the investment, as she provides a return that exceeds beyond your expectations.
Alison is a breath of fresh air in a no doubt crowded field of consultant in tourism and hospitality.
I can fully recommend her. She is very professional certainly knows her stuff and very easy to work with.
She advised on various marketing campaigns and came in when we needed a new set of eyes to look at our business at how it should develop and grow. Her reports are clear and actions very pragmatic and based on reality having worked in the field.
I looked for assistance from Alison at AJ Lakes, through having previously had a different consultant for over a year with no improvement I felt a fresh pair of eyes was needed.
Alison’s experience and knowledge were relevant and through discussion, her confidence helped win my trust.
Prior to working with Alison, I was struggling to see the woods from the trees and needed guidance and help with a sales plan and strategy. We had used a consultant prior to Alison and did not achieve what we were expecting.
After our meeting with Alison, we received a work action plan spread over months that had dated targets and achievable goals with clear responsibilities.
The outcome of working with Alison at AJ Lakes was we had a clear plan and targeted dates. The strategy was easy to action operationally, and results started to appear within weeks.
If you are thinking about working with Alison, be prepared to accept the challenges and advice. We took the do it for ourselves route so don’t expect to have it done for you, but if you follow her actions and advice you will see improvements very quickly.
We have worked with Alison over a couple of years now since Alison left the corporate world and created AJ Lakes.
The support that Alison has given us at The Churchmouse is amazing. She can really nail down into the day-to-day working of everyday business – budgets, strategies, different perspectives.
Alison tells it like it is which is refreshing in the consultancy world. I wouldn’t want to work with anyone else.
I think ‘outside the box’ all the time, but when it comes to analyzing your business strategy, dealing with the short term needs, and addressing future-proofing of the business, Alison is just BRILLIANT. And, although my area is in the creative industries, the same principles apply.
Alison understands the essential business structures for growth and formulates a strategic and logical approach. She is very professional and genuinely cares about your business success and the benefits for you as an individual.
I just wanted to say a big thank you for your recent support. I may have been in the industry for over 30 years but your enthusiasm and up to date knowledge was just what I needed.
It is far too easy to get caught up with the day to day running of a business, each day becoming the same, operating with minimum staff, trying to do it all. You, Alison, came along at exactly the right time. Made me stop and evaluate my priorities and plan for the future.
With your help, our accommodation bookings are looking much more healthy for 2018 / 2019.
I can’t thank you Alison enough and looking forward to our continued working relationship
I was first drawn to Alison as I had heard very good things from friends who had experienced her coaching and I knew that her empathetic style, combined with her extensive real-world business knowledge was just what I needed.
Having had an idea for a new business for some time, I was struggling to clarify exactly what shape it should take, and she took me through the steps to ensure that my business would be viable and successful.
If you need someone to combine a detailed knowledge of how profitable businesses are run with an inspiring and positive approach (you’ll not find a better cheerleader for you and your business), then I would highly recommend Alison.
Alison is without a doubt a clear and focused, experienced professional. Alison was referred to us to help us increase our business, and when we met her she asked what our vision, goals, and objectives were. She is straight to the point and wastes no time in getting you on the pathway to your goals and objectives.
We are a holiday park business with activities, and we were wanting to grow. However, Alison saw further potential and asked us about a further venture we hadn’t thought about which opened our business to a whole new level. We discussed our future goal further and we have to say Alison held our hands every step of our way.
We cannot thank Alison enough for her sincere support, guidance and taking our business to another level which increased our revenue, profit and footfall.
We are sorry not to say who we are but we have competitors who question all the time how we had the success we have and we do not want them to have access to Alison.
We had just come out of a massive change in the Charity, with staff changes, change of Charity name, new management team, start of a new 3 years plan. We knew of Alison and her excellent reputation for a while. When the opportunity came up, we knew we wanted Alison to work with us.
We recognised that we needed to change the way the Charity functioned and looked. As an established Charity in the area, we were to a large part still not widely known, and we had the ambition to grow into visible premises and offer a lot more services.
Alison was pivotal to launching our new LPA service and during the build-up to our charity ball. Alison shone a light on the areas of finances we need to focus on and provided a comprehensive working action plan which has brought focus for us on what we need to do to keep our business on track to meeting our goals.
We are extremely pleased with the success of Alison’s action plan as this has helped us make a success of having our own hub which was trialled just before Christmas and post lockdown will continue moving into the full launch of having our own hub.
We recommend that you don’t hesitate if you have the opportunity to work with Alison. Alison quickly gets to the root of your concerns/problems/dilemmas, she will discuss what your ambitions are and will set you on a clear way for you to get there.
Alison is the best there is.
Her deep industry experience and knowledge means she sees exactly what areas of your business need help. You might think there are lots of business consultants who can do what Alison does…I’m here to respectively tell you there isn’t!
You’re letting your business and future customers down by not working with Alison, she will turn it around – guaranteed!
I felt I needed someone outside the business to help me to see objectively what actions needed to happen to grow the business and move it forwards.
I initially met Alison through a scheme she was involved in, but when I needed to revisit my action plan I requested Alison personally as I found her to be very insightful, clear on her advice and extremely supportive of my business.
I was struggling to focus on the actions which would grow my business as I was too engrossed working in it rather than on it. I had tried to make action plans by myself but found I didn’t have anyone I was accountable to, so my goals tended to be unmet.
Alison met with me to see where I needed to make changes to the business and what actions should be prioritised. I made a vision board which was then translated into a clear action plan. On each visit, I was able to report back successes.
I became more business-like, always thinking of how different opportunities could benefit the business. I have now gone from a small yearly loss to profit for the first time and I have now actually paid myself a wage! This has impacted positively upon my family life too.
I would highly recommend working with Alison. She will look in detail at your business, your personal and professional goals and work with you to help you achieve them. Alison is dedicated to helping you realise your dreams and her optimism is contagious!
Even as an experienced operator, Alison’s insight and experience within the hospitality sector helped me to re-evaluate my business, identify the strengths & weaknesses and then work together on practical solutions that sit within the constraints of my business.
Her no-nonsense approach means that each session was focused and productive, leaving me motivated and invigorated to achieve the requirements to deliver more success within my business.
Alison’s approach not only focuses on the business, but also identifies what the individual wants from the business, meaning a more structured way of working and ultimately a better work/life balance which in turn leads to more success in the business.
I wholeheartedly recommend any operator to work with Alison at AJ Lakes, as the focus and attention she brings is guaranteed to deliver results both personally and professionally.
Alison Magee-Barker provides expertise, strategic advice and practical actions that add to the profit of any business.
She has helped me to 1) better understand the value that my business offers 2) set the mission of my business 3) rationalise our target customer.
We achieved all of those in the short time that Alison worked with us.
Before then I’d mulled these over and procrastinated for too long. Alison has been a great support and gets actions done quickly and represents very good value for money.
Alison’s unique brand of clear direction will improve a business, improve a team and improve an individual!