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Pragmatic SME Focus Accelerator

Build internal capability while resolving one or two recurring business issues that are creating disproportionate drag.

When the same bottleneck, handover problem, delivery issue or margin leak keeps returning, developing a team member alone may not resolve the conditions causing it.

This pathway combines the two-year Business Apprenticeship with six months of focused coaching and advisory support. The apprentice develops broader business understanding and practical capability, while the business works on the priority constraints that keep pulling founders and senior leaders back into the detail.

The two components serve different purposes: the Apprenticeship develops the person; the Focus Accelerator helps the business investigate the recurring issue, test proportionate changes and embed what works.

Two connected programmes, with different roles

The Business Apprenticeship develops your emerging team member’s capability over two years.

The six-month Focus Accelerator supports the business’s leaders to investigate and resolve one or two priority complexity issues.

The work can inform each other where relevant, but each programme has its own scope, participation requirements and commitments.

What your investment includes for the Business Apprenticeship:

Sponsor and apprentice onboarding and alignment: Establish the business context, development priorities and a meaningful starting responsibility.

A two-year, 12-module applied programme: Build broader business understanding, commercial judgement, operational capability and systems thinking across four stages of development.

Learning connected to real business work: Apply learning to relevant responsibilities, decisions, projects and challenges inside your organisation.

Sponsor support for business alignment: Connect the apprentice’s development to the enterprise’s priorities and the work they are growing into.

An Apprentice Portal: Track progress, practical application and outcomes as learning develops into useful contribution.

Sponsor participation: Take part in relevant sessions and practical discussions so the business and apprentice build shared understanding.

What the business’s leaders need to commit, for the Business Apprenticeship:

An apprentice prepared to participate: The emerging team member needs the motivation and capacity to engage with learning, apply it to real work and reflect on their progress.

A named sponsor: A founder, manager or senior operator provides holistic business context, mentoring, regular feedback and appropriate decision boundaries.

Meaningful work: Provide a real responsibility, recurring process or bounded project through which the apprentice can learn and contribute.

Protected application time: Make room for learning to be used, reviewed and improved—not continually displaced by urgent day-to-day demands.

A two-year commitment: Enrolment covers both years of the programme. Payment is split into annual instalments, with the second-year invoice emailed before Year 2 begins. No automatic payment is taken.

The two-year capability journey

A structured progression from understanding the business to taking on meaningful responsibility. With real work, mentoring and feedback throughout.

Prepare & Start Well

Align the sponsor and apprentice around the business context, development priorities and a meaningful first responsibility. Agree how mentoring, feedback and practical application will work.

Year 1 — Understand the business

Build a working understanding of how the business creates value, how its key building blocks connect and what the financial numbers are saying.

Develop the judgement to investigate business questions and bring back useful answers.

Year 1 — Contribute with confidence

Develop marketing, sales and communication skills, alongside legal and ESG awareness.

Apply these skills to customer and stakeholder work, while learning to recognise risks and when specialist advice is needed.

Year 2 — Take ownership of useful work

Build leadership, improvement and digital capability through smaller projects and recurring processes.

Develop greater independence, with clear expectations, appropriate decision boundaries and sensible escalation.

Months 10–12 — Fourth connected cycle

Bring resilience, systems thinking and execution skills together.

Learn to connect priorities, people and day-to-day work, contribute to business decisions and help carry meaningful responsibility.

Bring the learning together

After the core modules, complete a final Business Impact Project focused on a meaningful business priority.

Demonstrate how the learning has been applied, what contribution has been made and what needs to continue or improve.

Responsibility grows through demonstrated capability—not simply because a module has been completed.

What your investment includes for the Pragmatic Focus Accelerator:

Six months of structured business coaching and advisory to resolve one or two complexity issues creating the most drag.

You have chosen a focused, done-with-you improvement programme for a live business problem that has not stayed fixed on its own.

The Focus Accelerator helps you clarify the priority issue, understand the conditions sustaining it, test practical changes and embed a more reliable way of working—without disrupting the rest of the business unnecessarily.

A clear priority boundary: Define the one or two issues worth addressing first, the impact they are creating and what “better” needs to look like.

One or two focused 90-day SCALE cycles: Work through a practical cycle to simplify the view, clarify what is connected, assess evidence, leverage proportionate change and embed what works.

A shared view of the conditions creating the drag: Make the relevant decisions, handovers, information, roles, value flow and operating conditions visible—so the team can address more than the symptom.

Structured coaching and advisory through live business work: Work alongside Ash as you make decisions, test changes and deal with real operating pressure.

A practical change that holds: Embed the relevant ownership, routines, information, capability and leadership reinforcement so the improvement does not depend on constant founder rescue.

A clearer next priority : Finish with a practical view of what has changed, what needs protecting and what the next useful improvement should be.

What you need to commit for the Pragmatic SME Focus Accelerator:

The Focus Accelerator is designed for leaders who can protect time for one structured working session each month and make practical progress between sessions.

You will need to bring the relevant business context, make timely decisions, involve the right people where needed and follow through on the actions agreed. Practical support is available between sessions as the work unfolds.

Plan for: one working session per month, plus approximately 2–4 hours per month for preparation, decisions and follow-through around the priority issue.

Between-session support is provided through agreed communication channels to help the work keep moving. It does not include unlimited on-demand consulting or emergency-response support.

Six-month rhythm for the Pragmatic SME Focus Accelerator

Prepare & Start Well

Complete the Programme Start Process, establish the priority boundary and prepare the first 90-day SCALE cycle.

Months 1–3 — First focused cycle

Simplify the view, clarify what is connected, assess enough evidence, test a proportionate intervention and embed what works.

Months 4–6 — Second cycle or embedding

Address the next priority issue where appropriate, or strengthen the ownership, routines and capability that make the first change hold.

Your investment:

Initial bundle payment — €7,430, excluding taxes

This comprises:

• Business Apprenticeship Year 1 — €4,980

• Six-month Focus Accelerator — €2,450

All component prices exclude taxes.

The Business Apprenticeship is a two-year commitment. Year 2 is invoiced separately before the second year begins. No automatic payment is taken.

The Focus Accelerator runs for six months. Its delivery period is separate from the two-year Apprenticeship journey.

Need help before completing payment?

Email ash@pragmaticpeople.co with your question.

Initial bundle payment

Prices exclude taxes.

This payment covers Apprenticeship Year 1 and the six-month Focus Accelerator. Apprenticeship Year 2 is invoiced separately.

Payment is followed by a sponsor, apprentice and business suitability assessment before acceptance into the Apprenticeship.

What happens next:

Complete your initial bundle payment securely through Stripe.
Receive the next steps for the sponsor, apprentice and business suitability assessment.
Complete the assessment so we can confirm acceptance into the Apprenticeship.
Agree the onboarding arrangements and practical start dates for both programmes.
Establish the apprentice’s development priorities and the business’s initial Focus Accelerator priority.

The right fit

comes first

After payment, we assess sponsor, apprentice and business fit before confirming acceptance into Pilot 2.

We check that:

• The apprentice is willing and able to engage with the learning, apply it to real work and receive feedback.

• A named sponsor can provide business context, mentoring, regular feedback and appropriate decision boundaries.

• The business can provide meaningful work, relevant information and protected time for learning and practical application.

• The programme matches the business’s development needs and expectations.

The apprentice does not need to arrive with all the answers. We are assessing whether the conditions for useful learning and contribution are in place—not whether their capability is already fully developed.

Where a gap can reasonably be resolved, we will discuss the changes needed before confirming acceptance.

If we do not accept your Apprenticeship application following the initial suitability assessment, we will refund the Apprenticeship component of your bundle payment in full. No Year 2 Apprenticeship payment will be due.

You may choose whether to continue with the Focus Accelerator. Before you decide, we will confirm its price and any adjustment to your remaining payment.

Knowledge Transfer Guarantee

If your Business Apprentice leaves before completing the first year, you may nominate another suitable team member to continue the programme at no additional programme fee.

Where practical, the replacement can catch up on the learning completed to date and join the current cohort. If joining the current cohort is no longer practical, they may start again with a future cohort at no additional programme fee.

This helps protect your business’s learning investment and supports continued capability-building if the original apprentice leaves.

Replacement participation is subject to assessment, reasonable timing, available cohort places and confirmation that the proposed participant is suitable for the programme and that the business can provide appropriate sponsor support. Any catch-up plan will be agreed based on the stage of the programme and the learner’s starting point.

First-Session Confidence Guarantee:

Join the Focus Accelerator and attend your first working session. If, within seven days of that session, you decide the Accelerator is not right for you, email ash@pragmaticpeople.co and we will refund 100% of the Focus Accelerator component fee.

All we ask is that you attend ready to engage, share the essential starting context and give the process a fair opportunity to begin.

This guarantee applies only to the Focus Accelerator component of this bundle. It does not refund or cancel the Business Apprenticeship, which has its own suitability and Knowledge Transfer terms.

Choose with confidence:

If the Accelerator Programme Start Process shows that the Scale Blueprint is clearly more appropriate, you may transfer the full Focus Accelerator component fee towards it.

We will confirm the additional amount payable before you decide. You can choose to upgrade and pay the difference, or remain in the Focus Accelerator.

Your Business Apprenticeship place and payment arrangements remain unchanged.