Ten years ago, Katie Byron was a full-time speech and language therapist at a Derbyshire school. During this time, she spent weekends and evenings working from her spare room in a bid to get her own business off the ground. 

Today, that business (Let’s Verbalise) employs 22 people, has helped hundreds of children and young people from across the region, and has recently opened a second clinic due to growing demand.  

The company initially offered speech and language therapy but has now added occupational therapy and autism and ADHD assessments to its services.  

It’s the outcome Katie and her Co-Director, Hannah McDiarmid, always dreamed of, but building the business has not been without its challenges. 

“It feels like we haven’t stopped for ten years, both in a work capacity and in our own lives. In that time, we’ve both got married, both had children, both renovated a house, and somehow managed to build a business, with no previous experience!” 

Joining Help to Grow: Management

As the business has grown, so have the responsibilities. So, when Katie heard about the Help to Grow: Management Course at Sheffield Hallam University, she was keen to find out more. 

By the time she joined the course in September 2025, Let’s Verbalise had 18 staff and turnover had grown from approximately £23,000 in 2016 to around £785,000 in 2025. This growth came from working with schools, local authorities, and the NHS, as well as individual families. With no formal business or leadership training, Katie wanted reassurance that she was growing Let’s Verbalise and its culture in the right way.  

Building confidence

For Katie, joining Help to Grow: Management was a way to gain confidence that the business was heading in the right direction, with the proper structures in place.

The business frameworks not only validated what Katie was doing but also gave her new ideas on strategy and planning.  

“I’d never heard of the Ansoff Matrix before, but I found it so helpful. In fact, we’ve just used it at our leadership away day. We showed the team all the different ways we could look at growing, and everyone’s been very excited about it. 

“What I’ve taken away from the course is that, yes, we were doing what we needed to do, but we can now do it so much better, in a much more organised way.”  

Creating a strategy has enabled Katie and Hannah to begin looking at expanding services into new areas. 

Establishing the right culture

The course also helped reinforce the importance of a strong team culture and the role that a clear mission, vision, and values play in this. 

“We looked really closely at the culture in the team and what we stand for, and that now feeds into everything, right from the start of our recruitment and onboarding process. 

“We looked at the mission, vision, and values again in the away day too. We wanted the team to play a role in defining it, so they feel they have some ownership over it. That will hopefully free Hannah and I up to start stepping away from some of the day-to-day so that we can focus on some of those other boxes on the Ansoff matrix.” 

This improved communication with staff has been one of the biggest changes in the business since Katie completed the course. 

“We learnt a lot about how you talk about change and how to present it in a positive way. Whereas previously we might have just sort of said ‘oh this is happening’ and then wondered why everyone was not as excited about it as us. We’re now much more aware of how to take people along with us. 

“The away day was the first time I really noticed the change. We used to feel like we had to do the ‘Katie and Hannah show,’ and we’d just be presenting to everybody for eight hours. This time, people were coming to us beforehand and saying, ‘Can I present something on this?’ or ‘Is there a bit of time for me to talk about this?’ It was brilliant. Everybody was pumped.”  

The value of a mentor

Communication was also a key theme of the 1-2-1 business mentoring sessions that Katie received as part of the course. Time spent with the Help to Grow: Management mentor helped her navigate tricky conversations with staff, including having to make their first redundancy. 

“It was the first point in the history of the whole business that somebody wasn’t the right fit, and my mentor really helped us through that. Because she was a neutral voice, she helped me separate the emotion from the facts and to see that sometimes we do have to make those hard decisions for the greater good of the company.” 

Katie also found great comfort in the peer support element of the course, talking to and learning from the other business leaders taking part. 

“Sometimes running a business can feel quite lonely, and you feel like you’re the only one who’s going through it, so speaking to lots of different people in different roles was brilliant. 

“I know there are different business networking events in Sheffield that I could probably have gone along to but, when I was in the trenches, I didn’t afford myself the time to do it. 

“I’ve definitely made helpful connections on the course, and the business school has been very generous with their support. We get invited to different events that they're putting on, and it feels like we’re part of a new community.”  

Impact

Four new team members

New clinic premises

Since Katie finished the course in November, the business has continued to grow, with a further four staff joining, expanding their service offering. A second clinic site is also being set up in Rotherham, which will enable them to work more easily with clients from across the region. 

Future plans include expanding the service into even more areas, including Derbyshire and Hull, and offering their services to adult clients too. 

Katie has no doubt that a large part of this growth is attributable to Help to Grow: Management. 

“I’ve taken so much from the course and will rave about it to anyone who will listen! We’ve got the best knowledge of finances and business structure that we’ve ever had, and it’s definitely been one of the most helpful things we’ve done for our business to date.” 

Find out how the Help to Grow: Management Course can further your business here.  

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