Jake Smolarek

Jake Smolarek

Business Coach & Entrepreneur

Strategic coaching for founders, business owners, CEOs and senior leaders.

Featured in The Times, Business Insider & Yahoo Finance

27k+ hours spent coaching
18+ years of coaching experience
1600+ happy clients
177+ testimonials

as featured in

For Founders Who Carry the Weight of the Business

A large part of my job is helping clients make better decisions. Sometimes the right answer is already somewhere in front of them. The problem is that when you are inside a business every day, surrounded by the same people, the same numbers and the same problems, it becomes very easy to miss what somebody from the outside can see in ten minutes.

I ask a lot of questions. I notice patterns quickly, and I pay attention when something does not quite add up. Quite often, the problem a client brings into the room is not the problem we end up working on. We keep pulling at the thread until we find what is actually going on.

And I will tell you what I think. If you are making a bad decision, I will tell you. If you are wasting time on something that does not matter, I will tell you. If somebody in your business is in the wrong seat, we will talk about it. And if the bottleneck turns out to be you, I am not going to pretend it is somebody else.

Quite often, the answer is less complicated than it first appears. Make the decision. Have the difficult conversation. Put the right person in the right seat. Stop spending six months trying to rescue something you already know is not working. A lot can change when you stop circling the problem and deal with it.

I have spent more than 22 years building businesses myself, so I care about what happens in the real world after our conversation. I want you to make better decisions, avoid mistakes that did not need to happen and spend more of your time on the things that genuinely require you. I want stronger people around you and a business that does not need your fingerprints on every decision before anything can move.

Success Stories

Real Clients. Real Success. Real Results.
From feeling stuck professionally to landing a role far beyond what he expected. This is Egis’s story:

“Within the first couple of months of coaching, I achieved several incredible outcomes. I found an amazing, well-paid job, far beyond what I had expected, all with Jake’s support. I also entered a happy relationship, moved into the flat I had always dreamed of, started travelling the world, and gained a deeper understanding of myself. The journey has been truly transformative.” 

Egis — Business Change Manager at London’s Leading Law Firm

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The Operating System for Winning

Jake Smolarek, business coach and entrepreneur based London UK

Over the years, I’ve developed a number of frameworks that I use repeatedly with clients. They give us a way to take a complicated situation apart, see what actually matters and decide what happens next.

I like frameworks for one reason: they make complicated things easier to see. A framework earns its place if it helps us make a better decision faster. If it doesn’t, I bin it. Sometimes the best tool in the room is still a whiteboard and one uncomfortable question.

The sequence I come back to most is:

Learn → Practice → Master → Become a F*cking Legend

There is an order to becoming good at almost anything. Learn the fundamentals. Practise them until they become reliable. Master them. Then you have earned the right to improvise.

Three other frameworks I use a lot are:

Vision GPS gives us direction when too many things are competing for attention. We define where you are actually trying to get to, what matters now and what can wait. It also gives us a simple filter for decisions: does this move you closer or not?

The 10–80–10 Rule:

Starting something is usually exciting. Finishing it feels good. The difficult part is everything in between. The middle 80% is repetitive, occasionally boring and full of opportunities to stop. This framework is about staying with the process long enough for the work to compound.

No 0% Days:

No 0% Days is exactly what it sounds like. On a good day, you may make a lot of progress. On a bad day, you make less. The rule is that you still move. I have used this principle for years because consistency solves more problems than occasional bursts of motivation.

These frameworks have developed through years of coaching and running businesses. If you want to know more about where they came from, read the full story of Jake Smolarek.

The Coaching Library of Alexandria

I have spent years building the coaching library below. Each guide goes deep into a specific area of coaching and is available to read in full.

I don’t write short articles just to have something new to publish. If I cover a subject, I want to cover it properly. Some of these guides are longer than books. That is deliberate. Pick the one that is relevant to the problem in front of you and use whatever helps.

Business Coaching: What Is Business Coaching: The No-BS Operating System for CEOs and Founders (55,000+ words)

Executive Coaching: What Is Executive Coaching: The No-BS Operating System for Leaders at the Top (31,000+ words)

Accountability Coaching: What is Accountability Coaching: The No-Excuse Operating System for High Performers (52,000+ words)

High Performance Coaching: What Is High Performance Coaching: The System for Relentless Execution and Engineered Results (46,000+ words)

Team Performance Coaching: What Is Team Coaching: The Operating System for High-Stakes Teams (65,000+ words)

Coaching For Coaches, Be a World-Class Coach: The Coaching Architect: How to Be a World-Class Coach, Engineering Human Systems (80,000+ words)

My Clients Say

Before my coaching sessions with Jake, I was in a terrible position. My relationship was in a bad state, my feelings and sense of self-worth were very low, and I was barely able to stay emotionally stable. I hated my job and my whole life. However, since working with Jake, I’ve become much stronger; my self-belief has gone through the roof, and I know how valuable I am. I have found a company I love to work for, and my relationships with others are much more profound and exciting.

Tina Patel – Lawyer

When I began working with Mr Smolarek, the business was under considerable strain. Too many decisions were coming back to me, and several key roles were not working as they should. He helped me look at the organisation with much greater clarity. We made some difficult changes, strengthened the structure and put better people in the right positions. Within a quarter, margins had doubled.
UPDATE: I first worked with Mr Smolarek in 2020 and continued for over five years. He still visits our London headquarters periodically to offer an independent perspective.

Daniel Williams – Director & Co-owner

When I started coaching with Jake, I was in the darkest depths of my relationship, my business, and my entire life. I was a walking shadow, and I couldn’t see any light at the end of the tunnel… However, Jake helped me to turn everything around and put me on the right track. His coaching helped me to change how I can see the world. The impact it has had on my business and personal life is priceless. His business ideas are so easy to implement and at the same time very powerful!

Ben C. – Business owner (Surname withheld for privacy)

Jake’s work as a business coach has had a tremendous impact on both my business and my life. Working with him helped me focus on my vision, goals and the actions that actually mattered. In just a few months, I made more progress than I had in the previous five years. I became much clearer about what I wanted and far more decisive about what needed to happen next.

Neil Coker – Founder and CEO

The only thing I can say is a huge thank you, Jake! I already had the right tools in place to create a good income, but Jake added a few missing pieces to my plan and helped me grow my coaching business much faster. In just a few weeks, he helped me see what I was missing, make better decisions, and improve how I was positioning and developing the business. It wasn’t always easy, but it was worth it.

Denise Green – Peak Performance Coach

Jake helped me change my life when I felt lost. I decided to work with him because I wanted to change my career path. With his genuine personality and sense of humour, I instantly connected with him. He helped me find my new way, and I am now doing what I always wanted to do, but wasn’t brave enough to try. Jake believed in me when I doubted every action and feeling I had. He pushed me to my limits, so I had to break them, and to my surprise, I did.

Tom Bayliss – Writer and editor

Working with Jake changed the way I thought about my business and the decisions I was making. Even after the first few sessions, I could see things more clearly and approach problems differently. He helped me improve my sales and communication, challenged some of the assumptions that were holding me back and pointed out opportunities I had not considered. Over time, I became more productive, made better decisions and had more freedom in how I ran the business.

Phillip Larsen – CEO

I had a good job and was earning well, but I wanted to build something of my own. I found Jake online, booked an initial consultation and told him I had no idea what that business should be. Through our conversations, I became interested in online advertising. Jake encouraged me to take it seriously and helped me turn it into a business.
UPDATE 2026: Seven years later, I still run the agency full-time. I deliberately kept it small and specialised, working with freelancers and focusing mainly on advertising for cleaning businesses across London and other UK cities.

Magda Kowalczuk – Agency Owner

By the time I was introduced to Jake, I had already built a successful fashion business, but I was carrying too much of it myself. The company was growing, the pressure was increasing, and I had very few people around me who truly understood what it meant to run a business.
Jake helped me think more clearly, challenge my assumptions and make better decisions. Over time, the business became larger, more profitable and far less dependent on me.
UPDATE: I first worked with Jake in 2019. In 2026, I sold the business in a lower nine-figure deal and began considering what I wanted to build next.

Barbara Johnson – Fashion Entrepreneur

I started working with Jake in 2020 when I was 22 and trying to turn my fitness work into a proper business. He helped me understand the commercial side, including sales, branding, marketing and positioning. Within about six months, I was earning £10,000-£14,000 a month and had built a six-figure business. Jake gave me structure, challenged my thinking and helped me focus on what actually moved the business forward. His guidance made a real difference in how quickly I progressed.
UPDATE: By the second quarter of 2026, I had grown the business to eight figures in annual revenue.

Rakesh Patel – Fitness Entrepreneur

Jake, thank you. You genuinely changed my life for the better. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I was really moving forward and doing what I had always wanted to do. You helped me believe that I could make it happen, and then actually start doing it. That confidence carried into my business as well. I started making clearer decisions, taking opportunities more seriously and building with much more purpose than before.

Romario Ramirez – Business owner, Speaker & Artist

Jake is a great coach. Our conversations challenged the way I was looking at several problems and reminded me that there is always more to learn. He is very observant, experienced and good at seeing what may be difficult to notice when you are too close to a situation. I am genuinely grateful for the support and perspective he gave us during a difficult period. I can see why business coaching suits him so well.

Steven P. – COO of a large corporation (Surname withheld for privacy)

When I started working with Jake, the business was doing around £6 million in turnover, but too much still depended on me. Jake helped me see that I had become the bottleneck and pushed me to change the way I was running the company. We improved delegation, brought in the right support and put better systems around the business. Once I stepped back from things I should not have been doing, the company grew into eight figures. Jake helped me see what needed to change and held me to it.

Michael Chadwick – Founder

At a certain level, it becomes difficult to get completely honest feedback. Jake gave me that. He challenged some of my assumptions, said things others around me were unlikely to say and helped me look at several decisions more clearly. What I valued most was the directness. There was no need to impress me or agree with me. The conversations helped me sharpen my thinking, delegate better and make cleaner decisions.

Oscar A. – Founder & CEO (Surname withheld for privacy)

Jake coached and mentored me through the early stages of my online business. He gave me confidence, helped me understand what I needed to do and supported me while I built my online fashion company. His guidance made a real difference in those early years, especially when I was still learning how to think about the business and make decisions with more confidence.
UPDATE: I started working with Jake in 2017. Now in 2026, the business is generating more than $40 million in annual turnover.

Jane Ho – Online Entrepreneur

I can highly recommend Jake Smolarek as a business coach. He must be one of the best in the business. He helped me take my business to the next level and become much clearer about the decisions I needed to make. I did not always like what Jake had to say, but he is tough, fair and very direct. Looking back, some of the things I least wanted to hear were exactly what I needed. He helped me see what I was missing and approach the business with much more clarity.

Susan Mason – Business Owner

I worked with Jake for more than 5 years. When we started, I was still employed and building my business from scratch. He helped me make the decisions I needed to make, including leaving my job and going full-time with the business. Over the years, I grew the company from zero to around £2 million in turnover. Jake was there through every stage, helping me with decisions and growth. He was always direct, and I knew I would get his real opinion. Working with him made a huge difference to me and the business. I would highly recommend him to any serious business owner.

Paul Jackson – Business Owner

Jake challenged the way I was looking at the business and pushed me to make a few decisions I had been avoiding for too long. Some were uncomfortable, but they changed the way we led the company and how the business was structured. Within less than twelve months, turnover grew from around £80 million to £140 million. Jake has a very good eye for what is actually getting in the way and is not afraid to say it.

Sean McKenzie – Founder and CEO

Jake is a fantastic business coach who gets to the heart of the problem very quickly. He helped me take some drastic steps (they were needed!), which made a huge difference to both my business and family life. In practical terms, I now work less, earn roughly twice what I used to and have considerably more time with my kids. What I like about Jake is that he can be straightforward when needed. He is not afraid to ask difficult questions when the situation calls for them. An outstanding return on investment. Thank you, Jake. See you again soon.

Peter Barnes – Entrepreneur

Jake is one of those people I call “my people”. He was the business coach I needed when I was trying to get clear on what I wanted to build and how to move forward. His feedback helped me clarify my objectives and build a very profitable online business. He challenged me when I needed it and gave me practical tools I still use in both business and life. I am in a much better place today because of the work we did together. Thank you, Jake.

Robert Yau – Online Entrepreneur

Don’t Take My Word For It. Read the Receipts

I’m often the only person in my clients’ lives who will tell them the brutal, unfiltered truth. Because once you’re in the arena, as a founder, an executive, or a high-stakes professional, the honest feedback stops.

The examples below show what that standard has looked like in practice.

The £140M Scale-Up: How Three Brutal Decisions Changed Everything

We unlocked this growth by killing vanity projects, restructuring the leadership calendar, and deploying a hyper-focused execution strategy.

The £500k Board Role at 60: Turning Redundancy into an Endgame

More often than not, age is not a ceiling, but indecision is. We reframed the game and turned one conversation into a board-level offer worth over £500k.

The £238k Google Offer: Engineering a High-Stakes Career Change

We worked on her market positioning, clarified the target and focused the search around the opportunities actually worth pursuing.

The 6-Figure Business at 22: From Lockdown PT to £10k/Month

Lockdown. Zero leverage. We built a brand, pricing power, and a simple offer stack. The result: a six-figure run-rate at 23.

And these are just a handful of examples from the 1,600+ clients I’ve coached over 18 years.

Experienced Business Coach - Jake Smolarek sitting at the desk looking at the camera

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