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Small Business Coaching for Owners Who Are Still Doing Every Job

Running a small business means the constraint is usually you: your time, your judgment, and the work you cannot bring yourself to hand over. Marlee is a collaboration and performance OS that measures the motivations behind those choices and coaches you on which ones to change first.
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No credit card required. Trusted by entrepreneurs and small business owners in 194+ countries.
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Trust by Individuals and Teams in 194+ Countries

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194+ countries · 25 years of research · Up to 98% analysis reliability

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Why Small Business Coaching Often Does Not Fit

Most business coaching is built for companies with layers. Delegate to your leadership team, focus on strategy, work on the business rather than in it. Reasonable advice for a company with a leadership team.
In a business of six people, you are the leadership team. You are also doing sales, approving invoices, and covering when someone is sick. The question is not whether to work on the business. It is which two hours this week can possibly be spared for it.
Generic advice also skips the actual obstacle, which is usually not a lack of plan. It is that handing over the part of the work you are best at feels like losing the reason you started.

How Marlee Helps You Build the Business

Marlee starts with the owner, because in a small business almost every constraint routes through one person.
The Marlee Motivational Analysis sits underneath, drawing on 25 years of research and measuring 48 distinct work motivations with up to 98% analysis reliability. Marlee is a collaboration and performance OS, so it shows where your energy goes, what you avoid, and which tasks you should stop doing personally.
From there it gets practical. Which work to hand over first based on what genuinely drains you, what to look for in your next hire, and how to have the conversations you have been putting off with the staff you already have. There is also a wider yardstick: the Founder X-Factor Models, built from 20 years of research into highly successful founders, show you where your blind spots sit compared with people who have walked this road before.
What this looks like day to day:
focus

See where your time is actually going

Understand which motivations pull you toward certain work and away from other work, so you can decide what to delegate on evidence rather than guilt.
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Coaching for the decisions in front of you

A first hire, a difficult customer, a pricing change. Ask Marlee and get guidance built on your data rather than advice written for a larger company.
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Compare yourself with the Founder X-Factor Models

Built on 20 years of research into successful founders and business builders. See where your motivations match theirs, and the blind spots to watch as you grow.
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What Changes for the Business

In a small business the owner's patterns become the company's patterns very quickly. Changing them is the highest-return move available.

A clearer view of where the business is going

Deciding what the business should and should not take on gets easier once you can see what drives your choices.

Work you can finally hand over

Understanding why you hold onto certain tasks is what makes it possible to stop, and it is usually the constraint on growth.

A more sustainable business

Self-understanding changes how owners handle the challenges that would otherwise grind them down.

Confident decision-making

Owners build decision-making frameworks that match their strengths and what the business needs next.
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What You Get Without Paying a Consultant

No retainer and no discovery process. Every expense in a small business has to justify itself, and this one starts at nothing.
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Measure where your energy goes

You answer a science-backed questionnaire and get your Marlee Motivational Analysis: 48 measured work motivations, the work that energizes you, and the work you have been avoiding for months.

Understand the staff you already have

Your staff connect in the Marlee app and complete their own questions. In a business this size, knowing what each person needs makes a disproportionate difference to how the whole thing runs.

Advice without an hourly rate

Put it to Marlee: what to hire for first, or why you cannot let go of a particular part of the work. The answer draws on your measured motivations.

No consultant to engage

Account setup is quick. No discovery phase, no scoping call, no proposal. Insights arrive immediately.

How Marlee Is Different from a Business Consultant

A consultant gives you a plan and an invoice. Marlee gives you a read on why you keep not executing the last one.

Sized for a business like yours

Most business coaching assumes a leadership layer to delegate to. This starts from the fact that you are the leadership layer.

Your business, not a case study

Rather than generic business frameworks, guidance is built from your measured motivations and the handful of people you employ.

Start alone, add staff later

Begin on your own and bring your team in when it is useful. Nothing needs to be rolled out to anyone.

No retainer, no consulting fee

Nothing to commit to and no credit card. Create an account and start seeing insights today.

Find out which of your patterns limit the business

Get started free and find out which of your own patterns are limiting the business. Nothing to configure.
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Research and Evidence

The Marlee Motivational Analysis draws on 25 years of research into leadership motivation and organizational performance, one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind. Marlee's small business coaching programs are built on that same foundation, developed by founder Michelle Duval from her research and practice as a pioneer of professional coaching.
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Can Entrepreneurial Success be predicted?

Marlee benchmarked the motivations of successful entrepreneurs and business builders to test whether entrepreneurial achievement can be predicted from how people are motivated.
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What are the superpowers of ADHD at work?

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Explore Marlee's research studies

Trusted by Successful Entrepreneurs

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My co-founder and I would have conversations and come away with completely different viewpoints of what was discussed. Marlee provided us with valuable insights into our behavior, communication styles and blind spots, allowing us to understand each other much better.

Renee Welsh

Co-Founder and CEO, Booking Boss
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Marlee has been crucial for our teams, we have a debrief for all new team formations. It gives us direction for team compositions, hiring and conflict resolutions. There are so many 'AHA' moments.

Reshmi Buthello

VP of People & Culture
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Frequently Asked Questions

Ready to stop being the bottleneck?

In a small business, the owner's patterns are the company's patterns. Create your free Marlee account and start seeing yours.
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Work

ConnectMotivateCollaborateDevelopHireBe Hired

Product

Motivational AnalysisCoach MarleeHuman Coaching

Solutions

High Growth CompaniesEnterpriseVCs & AcceleratorsUniversitiesTalent AcquisitionOnboardingUnlocking High Performance in ICsHigh Performance TeamsTalent DevelopmentLeadership DevelopmentTeam CommunicationCulture & AI TransformationHybrid Work & Return to OfficeResolving ConflictCase Studies

Resources

BlogHow To MarleeAbout UsFAQsMedia CenterResearch StudiesPersonality TypesContributorsContact UsMotivational Analysis

Company

PricingMichelle DuvalOur TeamCoach & People Leader TrainingEthical CommitmentsVulnerability Disclosure ProgramContributor GuidelinesPrivacy PolicyTerms & Conditions

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