About Sally Marshall
Sally Marshall Group is built around the work of Sally Marshall: a Kent-based business coach, magazine publisher, and former Parliamentary professional. The group runs three strands of work that all come from the same principle. Small businesses need practical support and reliable peer connections more than they need motivational rhetoric. The 1:1 coaching, the bimonthly Steer Your Business magazine, and the funded social-enterprise programmes are all built around that.
Before the coaching
Sally spent the earlier part of her career as a Business Manager in the House of Commons, where she held senior roles supporting Members of Parliament across multiple constituencies. That work involved tightly-coordinated diary management, constituency casework, policy support, and stakeholder relations — fast-paced, high-accountability, and notably good for building an unusually broad professional network.
The Parliamentary years also taught her something else, less obvious from the outside: how to navigate organisations where every decision is political. Most SME owners eventually face their version of this — partnerships where co-founders disagree, family businesses with generational tensions, scaling teams where loyalty and competence don't always sit in the same place. The skills that worked in Parliament — listening to all sides, identifying the actual constraints, finding the move that everyone can live with — translate surprisingly well to coaching SME owners through those moments.
Why the magazine
Sally founded Steer Your Business Magazine in 2020, during a period when SME owners were dealing with significant disruption (pandemic, Brexit transition, supply-chain instability) and needed information they could trust. The thinking behind it was simple: most digital business content is too short, too time-sensitive, and too algorithmically chosen to be useful for the long-term decisions SME owners actually make. A printed bimonthly magazine, written specifically for SME owners, lasts on the desk and gets re-read — which matters more for strategic content than for breaking news.
Six years in, the magazine has subscribers across the UK and a few abroad. It's not the biggest SME publication in the country (and isn't trying to be), but it's the one Sally would want delivered to her own desk.
Approach to coaching
Three things you should know about how Sally works:
- The agenda is the client's. Coaching sessions don't have a pre-set curriculum. Each session opens with "what do you want to work on today" and follows where the client takes it. The work between sessions — homework, frameworks, action items — comes out of the conversation, not from a template.
- Practical over inspirational. If you're looking for someone to deliver a TED-talk-style motivational coaching style, this is the wrong service. The work is structured, specific, and focused on decisions you'll actually have to make in the next 90 days.
- Honest disagreement is expected. Sally will push back. The point of paying for an outside coach is to get a view that isn't filtered through your team, your family, or your own emotional investment. If you want a coach who'll always validate your gut, the coaching arrangement won't work well.
The funded programmes
Sally has been delivering business support to UK social enterprises and charities through national funded programmes since 2021. The work is funded by the programme partner (so free at the point of delivery to the recipient organisation) and follows the same coaching format as paid clients — 1:1 sessions, peer support cohorts, and practical homework. The social-enterprise sector matters to her personally; the programme work is some of the most rewarding she does.
Recognition and appearances
- Featured on the Women In Business Big Show (2023, 2024)
- Speaker at multiple Kent and Sussex SME networking events
- LinkedIn Top Voice in Small Business (2022)
- Regular contributor to UK SME industry roundtables and panel discussions
Outside work
Sally is based in Sandgate / Ashford with her family. Two grown-up children, both in their own lines of work. Most weekends involve some combination of walking on the Kent Downs, garden-tending, and the kind of slow Saturday morning that the rest of the week makes feel earned.
Get in touch
The fastest way to reach Sally is by email at [email protected]. For coaching enquiries, she'll suggest a free 30-minute conversation. For magazine subscriptions or advertising, she'll point you at the right resource. For funded-programme enquiries, she'll talk through eligibility and connect you with the national programme partner if it looks like a fit.