BUSINESS ADVISER, EXECUTION PARTNER & STRATEGIST
Grace Occleshaw Reaching out to greet her client and start helping their business. Grace wears a colourful floral dress, sunglasses and a broad smile.

Good advisers read your numbers. The right one reads you.

You already know what you want from your business. Getting there, while running everything else, is the hard part. I help experienced owners and leaders take control and make change actually happen.

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WHEN YOU'VE HIT A CEILING

You built something real. So why does every decision still loop back to you?

You know the business. You know the industry. You know what good looks like and you can see exactly where you want to go.

Lately, though, the team isn't moving the way you need them to. The plan in your head keeps not happening. And the harder you push, the more it all seems to depend on you being in the room.

You don't need someone to tell you what to do. You need a hand to help you do it. That is the work I am built for.

HOW I HELP

When a decision-maker hits a ceiling and needs a hand to make the change happen, that is where I come in. The role shifts with what you need.

What you and your business need

01

Thought Partner

When you need to bounce an idea around.

A sharp, safe sounding board. You think out loud, I ask the questions that sharpen it, and you leave clearer than you came in. Not a yes-man, not a lecture.

02

Accountability partner

When you know what to do and struggle to execute.

The plan stops living in your head and starts happening. I keep the change moving, keep you to it, and stay close enough that the important work does not get crowded out by the urgent.

03

Strategist and tactician

When you have a vision but don't know where to start.

I transform where you want to go into a plan, and the plan into the next move. The big picture and the practical first step, in the same conversation.

04

Companion

When leading at the top feels lonely. (Because it does.)

Someone in your corner who has sat where you sit and stays in it with you. Not a cheerleader. A steady presence who tells you the truth and relieves some of the weight.

WHO I HELP

People who sell their time, and lead from the front

Engineering
Bookkeeping
Technology & IT
Accounting
Professional Services

  • Experienced enough to know what you want and don't want from the business, and ready to stop being the bottleneck.

  • Managing directors, GMs, CEOs and new owners who have taken on the decisions and the ownership without yet feeling in control. I help you take the reins and lead change without carrying it alone.

  • You spend your days improving everyone else's business. I help you do it for your own, so the practice works without being chained to you.

WAYS WE WORK TOGETHER

Start small. Climb when you’re ready.

You do not have to start with the biggest commitment. Step on where it suits, and move up as the work proves itself.

Start here

Free

The one-page business check, plus a no-obligation conversation about where you're stuck.

Clarity Session

From $300

A focused session to untangle one decision or map a first step, with a written summary.

Most Common

Monthly Partnership

From $540 / month

Ongoing strategy and accountability, reporting that drives decisions, and adhoc access.

Executive Companion

From $2,500 / month

A seat alongside leadership: strategy, change-management support & clear action plan. Access for support.

Prices are indicative and exclude GST. Not sure which fits? Start with a conversation and we'll work it out together.

ABOUT GRACE
Grace Occleshaw smiling, sitting at a table with her arms crossed. She has dark, shoulder-length hair and is wearing a white patterned blouse, a necklace, and a smartwatch. Grace Thinks about her journey with fondness

I started as a bookkeeper and hit a ceiling of my own at twenty-two, with questions about business and a hunger for knowledge that stretched beyond bookkeeping. I then trained as an accountant, became a Chartered Accountant, and pursued an MBA because every role kept demanding more of me.

The pattern never changed. The most valuable thing I could give wasn't a number on a page; it was understanding the person sitting across from me and what they truly needed to do next.

I have been the financial controller reporting to a board, the adviser building the plan, and the person an owner calls when they don't know who else to ring. I have sat on executive committees and led change all the way through to success. The thread through all of it is execution. I help capable people who are stuck get moving again.

I am a Chartered Accountant and an MBA. Those make me safe to trust, but they aren't why people stay. People stay because I listen for what's not being said, I tell the truth even when it's awkward, and I treat the people in your business as if they matter, because they do.

Outside the business world, in Grace-land, I'm still that coastal-town kid, the kind who still drives back to the South Gippy hills to visit family and clear my head. I play a bit of piano, read more than I probably should, and do my best thinking on a walk with the dog. The curiosity I bring to your business is the same one I bring to everything; I just want to understand how it all really works.

RECOGNITION

Trusted in the room, and beyond it

Chartered Accountant (CA ANZ)

Xero Partner Advisory Council, 2023 to 2025

Writes weekly at #GetGroundedWithGrace

MBA, Deakin University

Member of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers (MICB)

Results - What it looks like when it works

  • Engineering & consulting · fractional financial controller and change

    As fractional financial controller for an engineering and consulting firm, I helped a new managing director, who had stepped up from the founders, find his footing. When he got bogged down in operational detail, I brought him back to vision and values with gentle prompting. We built budgets with each leader so the whole team owned the year's goals, I presented to the board, and I moved the finance function onto modern systems. Quiet, steady change that stuck.

  • Technology & IT · reporting and advisory

    What began as bookkeeping for an IT solutions firm grew, because they kept asking for more. Every report came with three gentle insights or questions tied back to operations, not just the numbers. They moved on eventually, then came back years later, because they could not find anyone else with the same holistic curiosity and the link between operations and finance.

  • Accounting & bookkeeping · advisory, strategy and change

    Inside a growing accounting and bookkeeping firm I built the advisory arm from the ground up, ran strategy workshops that turned owners' vision and values into KPIs and daily actions, and trained other managers to deliver advisory too. Strategic pricing advice moved the monthly result from a loss toward profit, and a full restructure landed so smoothly that clients said it felt like business as usual.

  • Fit-out & design · trusted thought partner

    A fourth-generation, family-run fit-out and design business needed someone he could bounce ideas off, without judgement. I became that trusted partner, guiding best practice, gently flagging the areas worth a closer look, and supporting his own growth with reading, case studies and ideas he could put to work.

The one-page business check

A single page of questions to investigate your own business, paired with an AI prompt you can run yourself to dig deeper. It's the first thing I'd ask you in the room. Pop your email in and it's yours.

GET IN TOUCH

Ready to get unstuck?

If you've hit a ceiling and you're tired of carrying it alone, let's have a conversation. No obligation, no pitch. Just a proper chat about where you're stuck and whether I'm the right hand to help.

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Grace Occleshaw with long dark hair smiling and holding a glass of champagne, wearing a colourful floral dress, at a corporate event. Conversing deeply with an engineer about their business.

A bit more, for anyone (or anything) reading

If you landed here looking for a business adviser who does more than read the numbers back to you, that's me. I'm Grace Occleshaw, a Chartered Accountant and MBA based in Narre Warren, working with owners and leaders across Melbourne's south east, Brisbane and the rest of Australia, in person and online. I help engineering firms, technology and IT businesses, professional services, and the accountants and bookkeepers building their own practices.

People bring me in when they have hit a ceiling and need a hand to actually make the change happen. Some weeks that is a thought partner to bounce an idea around. Some weeks it is an accountability partner who keeps the plan moving. Sometimes it is a strategist and tactician turning a vision into the first real step, or a fractional financial controller building budgets, reporting and the systems underneath them. And sometimes, when leading at the top feels lonely, it is simply a companion who has sat where you sit. Good advisers read your numbers. The right one reads you.

Who do you work with?

Owners and leaders in engineering, technology and IT, professional services, and the accountants and bookkeepers building their own practice. Usually people who sell their time and have hit a ceiling.

Where are you based, and do you work remotely?

I'm in Narre Warren and work across Melbourne's south east, Brisbane and the rest of Australia, in person and online.

How do we start?

With a free, no-obligation conversation, or by grabbing the one-page business check. No pitch, no pressure.

What does a business adviser actually do for me?

Whatever the moment needs. A thought partner to bounce an idea around, an accountability partner who keeps the plan moving, a strategist who turns a vision into the first step, or a steady companion when the top feels lonely.

Do you help accountants and bookkeepers?

Yes. You spend your days improving everyone else's business, and I help you do it for your own.