Project-shaped business consultancy from Phil Martin MBA — 13+ years inside the UK home care software industry, hundreds of agencies sold to and supported through implementation, with the analytical toolkit you'd expect from an MBA. One full day, a two-week diagnostic, or a multi-week project with a written deliverable. No retainer, no minimum term — pick the format, run it, take the work product to your board.
Owner-led practice based in Worcester, working with leadership teams across the West Midlands and UK-wide. Specialism: turning deep sector-vendor experience — 13+ years inside UK home care software — into project-shaped consultancy that actually moves the business.
Same MBA-grade thinking and operator-grounded experience. They differ in depth, duration, and the kind of deliverable you want at the end.
Each format is calendar-bound — max 4 active Diagnostic Sprints + Consultancy Projects in flight at any time. Advisory Days scheduled in clusters once per quarter. Waitlist when full.
These are the topics where the combination of MBA discipline and 13+ years inside UK home care software — implementations, support, sales across hundreds of agencies — produces sharper answers than either credential alone. If your question lives here, we're the right fit. If it doesn't, we'll say so.
The lever most SMEs leave 15–30% margin on. Van Westendorp price-sensitivity, willingness-to-pay research, tier design, packaging, the whole revenue model questioned from first principles. Standalone Pricing Strategy Sprints also available — see our dedicated pricing strategy page.
Rota, eMAR, fulfilment, scheduling, intake — the operational machinery that decides whether the strategy actually delivers. Audited by someone who's been in the operational chair, not the McKinsey chair.
For people-heavy sectors (home care, hospitality, trades), recruitment IS the growth model. Cost-per-hire, retention curves, employer-brand strategy, the maths behind referral schemes that actually work.
The model that shows where the business actually makes money. Stress-tested under realistic scenarios. Used to decide what to fund and what to kill — not as a fundraising prop.
How to make your business buyable. What buyers ask. What due diligence destroys. Pre-LOI prep, data-room build, the financial narrative an acquirer needs to see — and when to start (hint: years before you think).
New geography, new vertical, new product line. The honest TAM/SAM/SOM read. The competitive landscape mapped properly. The go/no-go criteria written down before you're emotionally committed.
A common question. The honest answer depends on what you actually need. For the full five-question framework with costs compared, read the decision guide.
You have a specific question to answer or piece of work to ship. You want a defined start, a defined end, and a deliverable you can take to the board. You don't want an ongoing commitment yet — you want to test the working relationship.
You want an ongoing strategic partner sitting alongside the leadership team. You're prepared to commit to a 6 or 12 month minimum. You want the cumulative compounding of strategy that's built up cycle on cycle, not delivered as a one-off report.
The blocker isn't strategy — it's execution. You have the plan, but it stalls between the board and the team. Installing the 90-day operating system is the unblocker. Method, software, coaching until it sticks.
An Advisory Day or Diagnostic Sprint is the lowest-risk way to find out whether the working relationship is the right one. If it is, Consultancy Projects and Strategic Advisory commonly follow. If it isn't, you got the deliverable and we both moved on cleanly.
Most consultancies are one or the other. The combination is rarer — and more useful when the deliverable has to survive contact with how your business actually runs on Monday morning.
Porter, Christensen, Jobs-to-be-Done, Blue Ocean, cost-volume-profit, sensitivity modelling — the analytical toolkit applied to your problem, not name-dropped in a deck.
Phil spent 13+ years inside the UK home care software industry — selling, supporting and implementing for hundreds of domiciliary agencies — before founding Psychemeta and building three SaaS products. He's seen what works and what doesn't across a wide cross-section of UK agencies, not just inside one. Advice survives contact with reality.
The Principal does the work. You're not buying a team of associates who do the analysis while a partner manages the relationship. One named lead from kickoff to deliverable.
Maximum 4 active Diagnostic Sprints and Consultancy Projects at once. Advisory Days clustered quarterly. When full, waitlist only. Quality is bounded by attention — attention is bounded by client count.
Start with the Business Discovery questionnaire to set context, or email the Principal directly with the question you want answered. We'll come back with a format recommendation, a proposed start date, and an honest read on whether the fit is right.
Strategic Advisory is a recurring relationship — monthly retainer or fractional executive, 6 to 12 month commitment. Business Consultancy is project-shaped — defined scope, defined deliverable, defined end. Pick Consultancy when you have a specific question to answer or piece of work to ship; pick Advisory when you want an ongoing strategic partner.
Yes — fully. Financial models, audits, strategy docs, decision papers, recommendations, frameworks — all transferred to you on delivery. No IP held back. No surprise rights claims. You can take what we produce to your board, your auditors, your investors, or your next advisor.
Email the Principal directly. The six areas listed are where Phil has the strongest operator-grounded credentials, but the practice has also delivered work on brand strategy, board prep, leadership transitions, product portfolio decisions, and recruitment design. If it isn't a fit, we'll say so honestly and recommend someone better placed.
Yes — many clients do. The Diagnostic Sprint commonly becomes a Consultancy Project once the audit identifies what needs building. The Consultancy Project commonly transitions into Strategic Advisory once the work is shipped and the client wants ongoing partnership. We do not require it. The original engagement closes cleanly with full deliverables before any extension.
Hybrid by default. Advisory Day is preferentially on-site for UK clients (Worcester base, travel within UK included in the day rate). Diagnostic Sprint and Consultancy Project are mostly remote with one or two on-site sessions for kickoff and final readout. Pure remote available on request.
We don't do regulated financial services, defence, gambling, or sectors where Phil's sector experience genuinely doesn't translate. Strongest fit sectors: home care and domiciliary, hospitality and food service, trades and home services, professional services, B2B SaaS, recruitment, multi-site SME operations.
2–3 week deep audit on a single defined area (pricing, operations, recruitment economics, financial position, market positioning, or M&A readiness) followed by a written report typically 15–25 pages. The report contains: current-state diagnosis, comparative benchmarks where relevant, 4–7 prioritised recommendations with effort and impact estimates, and a suggested 90-day execution plan. Followed by a 90-minute readout call with leadership.