Alison Warner

About Alison

Early Life and Career

Alison Warner’s earliest memory of business is sitting beside her father doing his books on a Sunday morning, learning to budget from age six. Her father ran a gardening and hardware shop, and that grounding in practical commerce never left her. After school she rose quickly through operations management, running a fast-food delivery unit at 23 where she mentored an ex-convict delivery driver who secretly taught himself the phone system to impress her. That moment taught her more about managing people than any course. She went on to become Area Manager across 11 stores in North London, then District Manager at a global coffee chain in 2001, growing her HR and resourcing team from 4 to 9 people.

Professional Background

When redundancy hit during the 2008/2009 recession, it became the catalyst for founding Evolve and Grow. Alison took everything she had learned from Fortune 500 operations in the restaurant and hospitality sector and applied it to the trades sector, where she saw business owners with brilliant technical skills but no formal business training. She developed the BUILD system (Business Planning, Understanding Strengths, Implementing Systems, Love Your Customer, Develop and Delegate) and published it in her Amazon #1 bestselling book Build and Grow, with a foreword by Charlie Mullins OBE of Pimlico Plumbers. She has since coached hundreds of trades businesses across plumbing, electrical, glazing, building, air conditioning, gardening, painting, and window cleaning. She won UK’s Best Business Woman 2021, Business Coach of the Year 2020, and Key Person of Influence Pitchfest Winner 2017. She hosts The Evolve and Grow Podcast Show (31 episodes) and is a registered speaker with Stellar Speakers. She partners with Checkatrade, Tradify, Houzz, and Heat Geek and is a regular columnist for Pro Landscaper Magazine.

TrainAR Academy Spotlight

Alison is featured as a Spotlight Creator at TrainAR Academy, where she shares hiring, retention, and people management insights tailored for trades professionals. Her corporate HR background combined with a decade of hands-on trades coaching gives her a unique perspective on the workforce challenges facing UK construction, where the industry has a 70% insolvency rate and the highest suicide rates of any sector.

Personal Values

Alison is a passionate advocate for mental health in construction, citing the statistic that every working day two construction workers take their own life. Her philosophy is simple: a systemised business creates freedom, not restriction. She believes in spotting untapped potential in people, coming off the tools to work on the business, and knowing your numbers. Family holidays to Filey in North Yorkshire keep her grounded.