Jonathan & Nichola - Co-Founders
We’re Jonathan & Nichola - founders of BISONBIZ® and partners in both life and business.
We created BISONBIZ® to help SME owners escape the trap of Key Person Dependency (KPD), de-risk their business, increase value, and exit on their terms - because it’s a challenge we’ve faced first-hand, and one we’re passionate about helping others overcome.
Between us, we bring deep experience from international regulators, financial services, corporate transformation, leadership, and entrepreneurship. We’ve seen inside businesses at every stage - and the pattern is clear: when a business is too reliant on its founder, a key team member, or a single system, growth stalls. It becomes vulnerable.
We’re building BISONBIZ® to change that - using practical, founder-first tools like our Business Liberation Scorecard™, and Successor Readiness Questionnaire™ and leveraging the globally trusted Value Builder System™, which we deliver as an accredited advisor. These aren’t theory. They’re the same systems we use to strengthen our own ventures.
We know what it takes to build something meaningful while raising a family, navigating risk, and working toward freedom. Whether from our garden, campervan, home office, or a mountainside in Austria - our mission stays the same: to help founders build a business that can grow, scale, and thrive - even when they step away.
If you're ready to reduce your business’s dependencies, de-risk and build real, transferable value - we’d love to walk that journey with you.
🧩 What We Do
At BISONBIZ®, we help SME founders strengthen the foundations of their businesses - so they can grow, scale, and step away with confidence.
Key-person dependency is the silent saboteur of scalability, morale, and enterprise value. Whether it’s reliance on a single team member, client, supplier, or undocumented system - it erodes resilience from the ground up. We help founders reduce it across every layer—so your business can grow, adapt, and eventually thrive without you.
Our approach blends enterprise-grade strategic thinking, visual frameworks, strategic scorecards, and founder coaching.
The mission? To build businesses that are valuable, resilient, and designed for freedom.
Because the best businesses aren’t just built to perform. They’re built to last.
🧨 Why KPD is the Silent Killer of SME Success
Too many small and mid-sized businesses are overly reliant on a single person, system, client, or supplier. This silent risk limits growth, burns out teams, scares off investors - and kills exit value!!
Key Person Dependency (KPD) shows up in many forms:
- The founder who can’t take a break
- The one team member who “knows everything”
- The tech system only one person understands
- The over-reliance on one big client or supplier
If your business can’t run without them (or you) - it’s not resilient.
It’s not scalable. It's not sellable and It's not secure.
We’re here to help you change that - without the expensive consultants.
📈 Our Approach: Tools Built for Founders
We created our APEX™ Framework to help businesses move from reactive to resilient - our FREE diagnostic tools are designed to help you in the ASSESS phase, with additional paid tools in the Plan, Execute and eXcel phases:
- Assess: Map key dependencies, risk hotspots and performance against the key drivers of company value
- Plan: Create actionable priorities for change
- Execute: Implement appropriate tools, systems, and support
- eXcel: Build momentum and freedom through data-led improvement and ongoing monitoring of Key Performance Indicators and Key Risk Indicators
And it’s all built on our guiding principle: SEDAR™ - Strengthen Every Driver, Achieve Resilience.
This philosophy focuses on long-term strength, adaptability, and true value creation - not just firefighting today’s problems, and underpins everything we do.
🦬 Why ‘BISONBIZ’?
The Symbolism Behind ‘BISONBIZ’
The name ‘BISONBIZ’ reflects the power and adaptability of the Bison, an animal renowned for its ability to thrive in the harshest conditions. Therefore BISONBIZ® stands for strength, endurance, and resilience in business.
Dual Meaning
The name can be broken into ‘Bis-On-Biz’ as a nod to our role in providing B2B services that empower small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to succeed.
Our Philosophy: SEDAR™
At the heart of BISONBIZ® is our guiding philosophy: SEDAR (Strengthen Every Driver, Achieve Resilience™). This philosophy underpins everything we do, emphasising the importance of the parallel qualities of Strength, Endurance, Determination, Adaptability, and Resilience. These qualities allow businesses to navigate challenges, unlock opportunities, and achieve sustainable growth.
🌍 Sustainability & How We Work
We believe in sustainable success - for businesses, families, and the planet.
Our business is a remote-first operation, intentionally lean, and designed around strong values: clarity, freedom, and flexibility.
We encourage clients to build in sustainability too - with resilient systems, ethical practices, and long-term value that doesn’t burn people out.
🚀 Ready to Build a Business That Runs Without You?
Start with our Business Liberation Scorecard™ or take the Value Builder Assessment™ - powerful tools designed to uncover your biggest dependencies, and how you score against the key drivers of company value - putting you on the path to greater freedom and value.
Let’s turn your business into your greatest asset — not your biggest liability.