After 13 years building and eventually exiting my creative agency, I’ve learned that most business advice you read online is theoretical. Business coaching and mentorship? That’s different. It’s about real transformation, not just good ideas.
I’ve been on both sides of this equation. As an agency founder, I struggled through every growth challenge you can imagine. From the chaos of rapid scaling to the complexity of preparing for exit, I made every mistake in the book, some of them multiple times. Now, as someone who helps other agency owners navigate these same challenges, I see the patterns clearly.
This guide will show you everything you need to know about business coaching for agencies. Not the generic advice you’ll find elsewhere, but the real-world insights that come from scaling a service business from zero to £220k months and helping others do the same.
What is Business Coaching?
Business coaching is a strategic partnership focused on measurable outcomes. It’s a consultative approach where you address the personal and professional challenges and opportunities you face now and in the future. Business coaching is about creating sustained transformation in how your business operates and grows.
The difference lies in accountability and implementation. A consultant might give you a brilliant strategy document that sits on your shelf. A business coach works with you to implement that strategy, holds you accountable for the results, and adjusts the approach based on what actually works in your specific situation.
At Move at Pace, our methodology is built on real agency scaling experience. We focus on systems, not just strategy. The emphasis is always on sustainable growth, not quick fixes that fall apart six months later. Most importantly, we help you build an exit-ready business from day one, because businesses built for sale are simply better businesses to run.
Business coaching combines three critical elements:
External Perspective: When you’re inside your business every day, it’s impossible to see the forest for the trees. A business coach brings fresh eyes to challenges you’ve been wrestling with for months or years. They can spot patterns and opportunities that are invisible to you.
Proven Frameworks: Rather than reinventing the wheel, business coaching applies tested methodologies to your specific situation. These frameworks have been refined through multiple implementations, so you’re not the guinea pig for untested theories. While a business coach won’t share specific client knowledge, the experience learned working with other business owners is key to giving you the best and most objective advice possible.
Implementation Accountability: This is where most business improvement efforts fail. You know what needs to be done, but the day-to-day demands of running your agency push strategic work aside. A business coach ensures the important work actually gets done. You create a plan and you may go off piste from time to time, but the business coach will ensure you stay on track.
Why traditional business advice fails for agencies is simple: it’s generic. Someone who’s never run an agency, sometimes someone who’s never run a business tries to give you advice that works on paper. But agencies have unique challenges. Client relationship management, project-based revenue, creative talent retention, and scalable service delivery require specific expertise.
The best business coaching for agencies comes from someone who’s actually built and scaled an agency themselves. They understand the difference between theoretical possibility and practical reality. They know what it feels like when every decision flows through you, when profit margins get squeezed by scope creep, and when your best people leave because there’s no clear career progression.
Why Agencies Need Business Coaching
There’s a specific point where every successful agency hits a wall. For most, it’s somewhere between £300k and £500k. I know because I hit that wall myself, and I’ve watched dozens of other agency owners hit it too.
At this point, the systems and approaches that got you to £300k stop working. You can’t just work harder or hire more people. The challenges become fundamentally different, and without the right guidance, many agencies plateau here for years. The owners eventually burn out, cracks show and clients get let down, before leaving.
The Founder Bottleneck
Before implementing what I now call the £50 rule, every decision in my agency came through me. Team member needs new software? Ask Connor. Client wants a small change or a refund? Ask Connor. Printer needs ink? Ask Connor. I’d created a business that couldn’t breathe without me. And the truth is, I probably built it this way unknowingly.
This creates multiple problems. First, decision-making becomes impossibly slow. Your team spends more time waiting for answers than actually working. Second, you become the constraint on growth. The business can only grow as fast as you can make decisions. Third, your team never develops decision-making capabilities because they never get the chance to practice.
The £50 rule changed our business trajectory. Anyone in our business could fix a problem under £50 without asking permission. As confidence grew, we increased the threshold. Soon, department managers were handling strategic decisions that used to escalate to me. The team took ownership, and I could focus on what actually mattered.
Revenue Plateau Despite Effort
This is the most frustrating challenge for agency owners. You’re working harder than ever, but revenue isn’t growing proportionally. Sometimes it’s not growing at all. Worse, profit margins might actually be decreasing because you’re working inefficiently.
The problem usually isn’t effort. It’s approach. Most agencies grow reactively. A client refers someone, you take the project. A prospect calls, you scramble to put together a proposal. There’s no systematic approach to client acquisition, pricing, or service delivery.
Without systems, every project becomes a custom solution. Every client relationship is managed differently. Every team member has their own way of doing things. This creates chaos that becomes more expensive to manage as you grow.
Operational Chaos
Lack of documented processes is the hidden killer of agency growth. When everything lives in people’s heads, you can’t scale consistently. New team members take months to become productive. Client service quality varies depending on who’s handling the account. Simple tasks take longer than they should because everyone does them differently.
I learned this the hard way. We hired 12 sales people when we needed 6, simply because we had no systems for productivity and efficiency. Each person was essentially starting from scratch, figuring out their own way to do things that should have been standardised. This caused massive duplication of effort, and undefined roles. In short, it was a straight nightmare.
The solution isn’t just documentation. It’s building systems that people actually use and improve. Process documentation that sits in a folder helps nobody. You need living systems that evolve with your business and become part of your culture. Importantly, your team need to put them into action daily, not just when it’s your focus.
Strategic Drift
Many agencies reach £300k without a clear strategy. They’re successful because they do good work and clients refer others. But referrals alone won’t get you to £1M+. You need intentional positioning, systematic client acquisition, and strategic decision-making about which opportunities to pursue.
Without strategic clarity, you end up saying yes to everything. Project scope expands because you don’t have clear boundaries. You work with clients who aren’t profitable because you don’t have criteria for qualification. You compete on price because you haven’t established clear value differentiation.
Strategic drift is expensive. Every unfocused decision costs you time, money, and opportunity. The agencies that break through to £1M+ have clear strategies that guide every major decision.
The cost of not having guidance is quantifiable. We missed an invoice worth over 15k after a staff member left. Without systems, we hired 12 people when we needed 6. Our first acquisition approach failed because we weren’t exit-ready, which delayed our timeline by 18 months.
These aren’t just financial costs. There’s the opportunity cost of time spent solving problems that have already been solved. There’s the stress cost of making the same mistakes repeatedly. There’s the team cost when talented people leave because they can’t see a clear path forward.
The agencies that scale successfully don’t figure everything out alone. They learn from others who’ve already navigated these challenges. They implement proven systems rather than inventing their own. They get objective perspective when they’re too close to problems to see solutions clearly.
The Business Coaching Process
Effective business coaching for agencies follows a structured approach. It’s not about having random conversations about your business challenges. It’s a systematic process designed to create measurable transformation in specific timeframes. It’s about balancing long term goals with reactive need and keeping you on track at every step of the journey.
Initial Assessment and Goal Setting
The Move at Pace business coaching process starts with a comprehensive business audit. We examine your revenue and profit patterns over the past 24 months, looking for trends that reveal underlying strengths and weaknesses. We analyse your team structure and operational processes to identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies. We review your market positioning to understand competitive advantages and vulnerabilities.
Most importantly, we evaluate exit readiness. Even if you’re not planning to sell soon, building an exit-ready business creates better systems, stronger team capabilities, and more predictable revenue. These improvements make your business more profitable and less stressful to run.
Setting realistic expectations is crucial. Many agency owners want transformation overnight, but sustainable change takes time. We identify 90-day quick wins that create immediate momentum, establish 12-month transformation goals that address fundamental challenges, and develop 3-year exit preparation planning for long-term value creation.
Clear success metrics make everything measurable. Rather than vague goals like “improve profitability,” we establish specific targets: “increase profit margins from 18% to 28% within 12 months through pricing optimisation and operational efficiency improvements.”
Finally, we take into consideration your own personal ambitions. Some people want more money, some want more freedom, some want both. And we believe you can have both, with structure, action and a consistent focus.
Strategic Planning and Implementation
Our approach centres on four pillars that address the core challenges agencies face when scaling from £300k to £1M+:
Revenue Optimisation starts with pricing strategy overhaul. Most agencies undercharge because they’re selling time rather than value. My first logo sold for £150. My last brand projects before exit were £20k each. What changed? I stopped selling time and started selling value. The £150 logo was priced the traditional way: time needed × hourly rate = price. The £20k projects were different. I understood the client’s commercial objectives, demonstrated how our work would increase their revenue, and positioned our service as business transformation, not decoration.
Sales process systematisation eliminates the feast-or-famine cycle that plagues most agencies. We develop predictable lead generation systems, qualification frameworks that filter out unprofitable prospects, and proposal processes that close higher-value projects consistently.
Operational Excellence focuses on process documentation and team empowerment. But documentation alone isn’t enough. It must be combined with systems that people actually use and improve. I’ve worked with agencies that have beautiful process documents that nobody follows because they weren’t designed for real-world implementation.
The key is building living systems that evolve with your business. We start with repetitive tasks that consume significant time, document the most efficient approaches, and create training materials that help new team members become productive quickly. As one client told me, he records Loom videos of all his business processes, stored forever as training for his team.
Leadership Development addresses the founder bottleneck that constrains growth. This isn’t about generic leadership theory. It’s about practical frameworks that remove you from service delivery, decision-making, and team development that work in agency environments.
The transition from doer to leader is particularly challenging for agency founders. You started the business because you’re good at the work, but scaling requires different skills. We develop systematic approaches to delegation that maintain quality while empowering your team to make decisions independently.
Exit Preparation builds long-term value even if you’re not planning to sell soon. Businesses built for sale are better businesses to run. They have documented systems, predictable revenue, and teams that operate independently. These characteristics make your business more profitable and less stressful whether you sell in 2 years or 20 years. Importantly, it gives you the choice.
Case Study: From £400k Madness to £1.2M Exit-Ready
One client came to us stuck at £400k with 12% profit margins and completely reactive growth. The founder was working 70-hour weeks, team turnover was high, and clients frequently complained about inconsistent service delivery.
Our 6-month intervention focused on systematic transformation:
Month 1-2: Pricing overhaul and service packaging. We moved from hourly billing to value-based project pricing, implemented retention of profit strategies and monitored team capacity. This almost immediately improved margins by 50%.
Month 3-4: Process documentation and team training. We identified the 20 most common tasks and created standard operating procedures that reduced project delivery time by 30%.
Month 5-6: Leadership development and delegation frameworks. The founder reduced his operational involvement from 70% to 30%, focusing instead on strategy and business development.
After 12 months, the results were transformational: 28% profit margins, autonomous operations that didn’t require founder involvement, and genuine acquisition interest. The business had evolved from a job for the founder to a valuable asset that could operate without him.
Key interventions that made the difference included implementing value-based pricing that better reflected the business impact of their work, creating systematic client onboarding that reduced project delays by 40%, developing team leadership capabilities that eliminated the founder bottleneck, and establishing performance measurement systems that identified improvement opportunities continuously.
Ongoing Accountability and Adjustment
The coaching cadence maintains momentum while allowing for reactive corrections. On demand check-ins during implementation phases ensure that strategic work doesn’t get pushed aside by operational demands. Monthly strategic reviews assess progress against goals and identify adjustments needed. Quarterly goal reviews adapt targets based on market changes and business evolution.
Measurement and tracking systems make progress visible. We develop KPI dashboards that highlight the metrics that matter most for your business. Regular progress reporting keeps everyone aligned on priorities and outcomes. Course correction protocols ensure that strategies evolve based on real-world results rather than theoretical assumptions.
Types of Business Coaching for Agencies
Different agencies need different types of coaching support depending on their specific challenges and growth stage. Understanding these distinctions helps you choose the right approach for your situation.
Leadership Coaching
Leadership coaching addresses the personal transformation required when scaling from founder-operator to business leader. This transition is particularly challenging because the skills that make you successful as an individual contributor are different from those required to lead a growing team.
The challenge isn’t just learning new skills. It’s unlearning behaviours that worked when your business was smaller. When you had 5 team members, being involved in every decision might have been necessary. With 25 team members, that same behaviour becomes a constraint on growth.
My approach to leadership coaching is based on practical frameworks rather than abstract theory. We focus on sustainable practices that actually work in the day-to-day reality of running an agency. This includes developing systematic approaches to delegation that maintain quality standards, building communication systems that keep teams aligned without micromanagement, and creating decision-making frameworks that empower others while maintaining strategic control.
Team development emphasis ensures that your leadership growth creates capabilities throughout your organisation. The best agency leaders don’t just become better leaders themselves. They develop other leaders within their business, creating depth and resilience that supports continued growth.
Sales and Revenue Coaching
Moving beyond reactive client acquisition requires fundamental changes in how you approach business development. Instead of waiting for referrals and responding to random enquiries, successful agencies build systematic inbound and outbound sales processes that fills their pipeline consistently. They develop qualification frameworks that help them focus on profitable opportunities, and they create proposal processes that close higher-value projects at better margins.
Sales and revenue coaching transforms reactive growth into systematic revenue generation. This starts with strategic pricing that reflects the true value of your work rather than just the time required to complete it. Value-based pricing isn’t just charging more for the same work. It’s positioning your services in terms of business outcomes rather than deliverables.
The transformation in my own business illustrates this perfectly. The £150 logo was a transaction – a sticker at best, not a brand of value. The £20k projects were different because I understood the client’s commercial objectives, demonstrated how our work would increase their revenue, and spoke as an entrepreneur would, not like a designer.
Sales process systematisation eliminates the feast-or-famine cycle. We develop predictable lead generation that fills your pipeline consistently, qualification frameworks that help you focus on profitable opportunities, and proposal processes that close higher-value projects at better margins.
Client retention strategies often provide the highest ROI because selling more to existing clients is more profitable than acquiring new ones. We help you identify expansion opportunities within your current client base and develop systematic approaches to account growth.
Operational Efficiency Coaching
Operational efficiency coaching builds systems that scale without proportional increases in complexity or cost. The goal isn’t just to document your current processes. It’s to design operations that become more efficient as your business grows.
Process documentation and improvement starts with identifying the tasks that consume the most time and creating standardised approaches that reduce variability and errors. But documentation alone isn’t sufficient. You need systems that people actually use and continuously improve.
Team empowerment strategies ensure that operational efficiency doesn’t depend entirely on founder involvement. The £50 rule was transformational for our business because it taught me that empowerment beats control every single time. Your team wants to solve problems. They just need permission to do it.
Quality control implementation maintains standards while allowing for autonomous operation. This requires systematic approaches to training, clear performance expectations, and feedback systems that identify improvement opportunities without creating micromanagement.
Technology integration supports operational efficiency without creating unnecessary complexity. The best technology solutions solve specific problems rather than trying to automate everything. We help you identify where technology adds genuine value and implement solutions that your team will actually use.
Exit Planning Coaching
Exit planning coaching builds long-term value regardless of your timeline for selling. Businesses built for sale are better businesses to run because they have the systems, team capabilities, and financial predictability that buyers value.
Building for sale from day one means creating documentation that allows the business to operate without you, developing revenue streams that aren’t dependent on your personal relationships, establishing team capabilities that provide depth and resilience, and maintaining financial records that clearly demonstrate growth and profitability.
My own exit experience taught me that preparation makes all the difference. We built our business to be sold from day one. Not because we wanted to sell immediately, but because businesses built for sale are more profitable and better to run. When we were approached for acquisition, we weren’t actively for sale, but we were ready.
That readiness allowed our business to sell and because of it, we could negotiate from a position of strength. We had documented systems, predictable revenue, and a team that could operate without us. We extracted maximum value because we’d been preparing for years, not months.
Valuation improvement strategies focus on the factors that buyers actually care about: predictable revenue, systematic operations, strong team capabilities, and clear growth opportunities. These same factors make your business more profitable and less stressful to run today.
Due diligence preparation ensures that when the time comes, your business can withstand detailed scrutiny from potential buyers. This includes financial record keeping that tells a clear story, legal documentation that protects value, and operational systems that demonstrate scalability.
Choosing the Right Business Coach
Selecting the right business coach is one of the most important decisions you’ll make for your agency’s growth. The wrong choice can cost you time, money, and opportunity. The right choice can accelerate your growth by years and save you from expensive mistakes.
Essential Qualifications
Relevant industry experience is non-negotiable. Business coaching that works for retail or manufacturing businesses often fails for agencies because our challenges are fundamentally different. Agency-specific challenges like managing creative talent, delivering consistent project outcomes, and building scalable service offerings demand specialised expertise that generic business coaches simply don’t possess.
Look for coaches who have actually built and scaled agencies themselves. There’s a massive difference between understanding agency challenges theoretically and having lived through them personally. Someone who’s never managed a creative team or dealt with scope creep can’t provide the nuanced guidance you need.
Successful scaling experience means they’ve navigated the specific challenges you’re facing. Anyone can coach small business fundamentals, but the £300k to £1M+ transition requires someone who understands the complexity of this growth stage.
Exit or acquisition knowledge is valuable even if you’re not planning to sell soon. Coaches who’ve been through the exit process understand how to build systematic value, and that knowledge improves your business regardless of your timeline.
Current market understanding ensures that advice reflects today’s realities rather than outdated approaches. The agency landscape evolves rapidly, and coaching advice must account for current competitive dynamics, client expectations, and market opportunities.
Proven Methodology
Look for coaches with systematic approaches to transformation rather than ad hoc advice. Proven methodologies have been tested with multiple clients and refined based on real-world results. You want frameworks that work consistently, not experimental approaches where you’re the guinea pig.
Measurable outcomes focus separates effective coaches from those who provide general business therapy. Your coach should be able to articulate specific results they’ve achieved with similar clients and explain how those outcomes were measured.
Documented success stories provide evidence of capability and approach. Ask for detailed case studies that show the client’s initial state, the intervention process, and the specific results achieved. Generic testimonials aren’t sufficient.
Ongoing development and learning demonstrates a commitment to improving their coaching capability. The best coaches continuously refine their approaches based on new insights and changing market conditions.
Red Flags to Avoid
Generic business advice is the most common red flag. If a coach’s approach could apply to any type of business, it’s probably not specific enough for agency challenges. You need someone who understands the nuances of client work, project delivery, and creative team management.
No agency-specific experience means they’ll be learning about your industry while you’re paying for coaching. This is expensive education for both of you, and you’ll likely encounter problems they haven’t seen before.
Unrealistic promises or timelines should trigger immediate scepticism. Sustainable business transformation takes time, and anyone promising overnight results either doesn’t understand the complexity involved or isn’t being honest about what’s possible.
Poor communication or availability creates frustration and reduces coaching effectiveness. Your coach should be responsive, clear in their communication, and available when you need support during implementation.
Lack of measurable outcomes suggests a coaching approach that’s more about feeling good than creating results. Business coaching should produce quantifiable improvements in your business metrics.
Questions to Ask Potential Coaches
“What agencies have you personally built or scaled?” This question separates real experience from theoretical knowledge. Look for specific examples and ask follow-up questions about the challenges they encountered and how they overcame them.
“Can you share specific results from similar clients?” Request detailed case studies with metrics and timelines. Generic success stories aren’t sufficient. You want evidence of their ability to create transformation in businesses similar to yours.
“How do you measure success in our engagement?” Their answer should include specific metrics, measurement methods, and realistic timelines. Vague responses suggest an unstructured approach.
“What’s your approach to accountability and challenge?” Effective coaching requires both support and challenge. Your coach should push you to implement difficult changes while providing support during the process.
“How do you stay current with agency market trends?” The agency landscape evolves rapidly, and your coach’s advice should reflect current realities rather than outdated practices.
Understanding Investment Levels
Business coaching investment ranges vary significantly based on the level of support and transformation required:
Entry-level options include growth programmes and workshops that provide foundational knowledge at lower price points. These work well for basic business education but offer limited personalisation and accountability.
Mid-level coaching typically involves monthly one-to-one sessions focused on specific challenges or goals. This provides more personalised guidance while remaining affordable for most growing agencies.
Premium coaching includes intensive transformation programmes with weekly sessions, detailed implementation support, and comprehensive business analysis. This level of investment makes sense when you’re committed to significant change and growth.
Enterprise-level coaching provides board advisory services and strategic consulting for larger agencies or those preparing for major transactions like acquisitions or mergers.
ROI expectations should be realistic but substantial. Typical returns range from 5-15x the coaching investment, but this depends on your starting point, implementation commitment, and market conditions. The timeline for seeing results varies, but you should expect some improvements within 90 days and significant transformation within 12-18 months.
Getting Started with Business Coaching
Taking the first step towards business coaching requires preparation, commitment, and realistic expectations. The most successful coaching engagements begin with clear understanding of what you want to achieve and honest assessment of your readiness for change.
Preparation Steps
Honest self-assessment is the foundation of effective coaching. You need clear understanding of your current business state, including financial performance, operational efficiency, team capabilities, and market position. This assessment should be brutally honest about both strengths and weaknesses.
Personal readiness for change is equally important. Business coaching requires significant time investment and implementation of changes that might feel uncomfortable initially. If you’re not prepared to challenge existing approaches and implement new systems, coaching will be less effective.
Resource availability confirmation ensures that you can commit the time and money required for transformation. Coaching isn’t just the time spent in sessions. It’s the implementation work between sessions that creates results. Make sure you have the capacity to execute recommendations.
Commitment level determination affects the scope and timeline of your coaching engagement. Partial commitment produces partial results. The agencies that achieve dramatic transformation are those fully committed to implementing systematic changes.
Goal clarification provides direction for your coaching engagement. Rather than vague objectives like “grow the business,” establish specific outcomes: “increase revenue from £400k to £750k within 18 months while improving profit margins from 20% to 30%.”
Timeline establishment creates urgency and enables measurement. Without clear timelines, strategic work gets pushed aside by operational demands. Establish realistic but ambitious timelines for achieving your goals.
Success metric identification makes progress measurable. Choose metrics that reflect real business improvement rather than vanity measures. Revenue, profit margins, team productivity, and client satisfaction are more meaningful than followers or website traffic.
Risk tolerance assessment helps establish the pace and aggressiveness of changes. Some business improvements require short-term disruption for long-term gain. Understanding your risk tolerance helps design an appropriate transformation approach.
Setting Realistic Expectations
Business coaching can achieve systematic business transformation, but this takes time and consistent implementation. Measurable performance improvement typically begins within 90 days but significant transformation requires 12-18 months of consistent effort.
Sustainable growth implementation requires changing fundamental business operations rather than just working harder. This means new systems, different processes, and evolved team capabilities. These changes create lasting improvement but require patience during implementation.
Exit readiness development builds long-term value regardless of your timeline for selling. Even if you’re not planning to exit soon, building an exit-ready business creates better systems, stronger team capabilities, and more predictable revenue.
What coaching cannot do is replace hard work and commitment. No coach can implement changes for you or create success without your effort. Coaching provides guidance, frameworks, and accountability, but you must do the work.
Coaching cannot guarantee specific outcomes because business success depends on many factors beyond the coaching relationship. Market conditions, competitive dynamics, and execution quality all affect results. However, coaching significantly improves your probability of success.
Coaching cannot solve problems without implementation. The best strategies in the world are worthless without execution. Your commitment to implementing recommendations determines the value you receive from coaching.
Finally, coaching cannot create success without effort. Building a successful agency requires sustained effort over time. Coaching makes that effort more effective and efficient, but it doesn’t eliminate the need for hard work.
Next Steps with Move at Pace
Our discovery process begins with an initial consultation call where we discuss your specific challenges, goals, and timeline. This conversation helps determine whether our approach aligns with your needs and objectives.
Business assessment completion provides detailed analysis of your current state and identifies the highest-impact improvement opportunities. This assessment examines your financial performance, operational efficiency, team capabilities, and market positioning.
Business coaching programme recommendation follows analysis of your assessment results. We match our programme options to your specific situation, goals, and resources. This ensures that you invest in the level of support that will create the best results for your business.
Engagement structure finalisation establishes clear expectations for our working relationship, including session frequency, communication methods, implementation support, and success measurement.
The transformation journey begins with quick wins that create immediate momentum while building foundation for longer-term systematic changes. This approach ensures that you see results quickly while establishing sustainable improvement processes.
Whether you’re stuck at £300k and ready to break through to the next level, or you’re already past £500k but want to build systematic value for eventual exit, business coaching can accelerate your journey and help you avoid expensive mistakes.
Successful agency growth rarely happens in isolation. The most effective founders surround themselves with experienced advisors who’ve already navigated similar challenges. They learn from others who’ve already navigated these challenges, implement proven systems rather than inventing their own, and get objective perspective when they’re too close to problems to see solutions clearly.
Your agency has tremendous potential. With the right guidance, systematic approach, and commitment to implementation, you can achieve the growth and freedom that drew you to entrepreneurship in the first place.
Ready to discuss how business coaching could transform your agency? Book a discovery consultation to explore your specific challenges and opportunities. We’ll assess your current situation, identify the highest-impact improvements, and determine whether our approach aligns with your goals.
The conversation is free, but the insights could be transformational.