Free Book · By Philip Martin MBA

The whole MBA. Plain English. No £30k tuition.

236 pages. Marketing, Sales, Operations, Finance, Project Management, HR, Strategy, Sustainability, Innovation, Change Management — plus the 1:90 Planning method. Written by an operator who did 15+ years in business before the MBA, so every framework arrives with the scars of having tried it for real.

  • 10 chapters · 4 parts · 1 complete business toolkit
  • Free PDF in exchange for joining the Psychemeta newsletter
  • Paperback and Kindle also available on Amazon UK (paid)
  • Unsubscribe anytime — you keep the book either way
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MBA Essentials by Philip Martin MBA — book cover First Edition · 236 pages · 2025

A plain-English MBA from an operator, not an academic.

Phil completed his MBA at Wrexham University after 15+ years building and running businesses. The book is everything he wished someone had explained to him before he started — minus the academic padding and the £30k price tag.

What's inside

Ten chapters that cover every MBA discipline.

Read cover-to-cover, dip in by chapter, or keep it on the desk as a reference. Each chapter stands on its own.

Part I · Growing Your Business

1. Marketing

Finding and keeping customers. Segmentation, positioning, funnels, brand — minus the buzzwords.

Part I · Growing Your Business

2. Sales

Closing the deal. Discovery, demo, objection handling, follow-up — the stuff books usually skip.

Part II · Running Your Business

3. Operations

Getting things done. Process design, capacity, quality, the practical stuff that decides whether you ship.

Part II · Running Your Business

4. Finance

Understanding the numbers. P&L, cash flow, unit economics — explained as if we're sat across a table.

Part II · Running Your Business

5. Project Management

Delivering on time. Scope, schedule, risk, governance — without becoming a Gantt-chart fundamentalist.

Part III · Leading Your Business

6. HR — Building Your Team

Hiring, performance, culture, the conversations most managers avoid until they can't.

Part III · Leading Your Business

7. Strategy

Winning in the market. Porter, Blue Ocean, JTBD — the actual frameworks, applied to your business.

Part IV · Future-Proofing

8. Sustainability

Doing well by doing good. ESG without the eyeroll. Why this is now a strategic discipline, not a CSR side-quest.

Part IV · Future-Proofing

9. Innovation

Creating the future. How established businesses actually innovate — and how most kill it accidentally.

Part IV · Future-Proofing

10. Change Management

Making it happen. The bit that decides whether the strategy lands or sits in a deck on someone's drive.

Bonus chapter

One More Thing — 1:90 Planning

The 90-day execution method Phil uses inside every Psychemeta engagement. Strategy that ships, not strategy that sits in a deck.

About the author

Written by an operator who did the MBA late.

Most business books are written either by academics who've never run a business or by founders who've never studied one. This one is by someone who did 15 years of the first, then the second, then got frustrated enough to write it down.

15+ years in the sector first

Phil spent more than fifteen years inside UK home care software and adjacent creative-sector work — selling, supporting, building, leading teams — before sitting his first MBA module. That order matters: the frameworks landed against real experience, not as theory.

MBA second

Wrexham University MBA, completed mid-career. What struck Phil wasn't how much there was to learn — it was how straightforward most of it was when explained properly.

Prefer print or Kindle?

Same book. Paperback and Kindle on Amazon UK.

If you'd rather have it on the bookshelf or in your Kindle library, both editions are available on Amazon. They have a cover price because Amazon takes their cut and print isn't free — the PDF on this page stays free as long as you join the newsletter.

Buy paperback / Kindle on Amazon UK → Or grab the free PDF
FAQ

Honest answers

Is the book actually free?

Yes. No payment, no card details, no trial period. In exchange for joining the Psychemeta newsletter, you get the full 236-page PDF. Unsubscribe anytime — you keep the book.

Who is this actually for?

Aspiring leaders, entrepreneurs, career changers, and anyone curious about how business actually works. Phil wrote it so you don't need any prior business knowledge to pick it up.

What's in the newsletter?

One or two short, useful emails per month. Operator-grade business thinking, lessons from running the SaaS products under Psychemeta, and anything else worth your time. Unsubscribe link in every email.

Can I share the book?

Yes — and the most useful way to share it is to send people the signup link, not the PDF directly. That way they get their own copy, join the newsletter, and we know who's reading.

Quick copy-paste-friendly link to share with friends, colleagues or your network:

https://psychemeta.com/mba-essentials.html

If you want the paperback or Kindle, the Amazon edition is the easiest gift.

Why did Phil write this?

He'd spent 15+ years building businesses before doing his MBA at Wrexham University. What struck him most wasn't how much he learned — it was how straightforward most of it was when explained properly. The frustration that this knowledge sits behind £30k programmes became this book.

Is there a paperback or Kindle version?

Yes — both are on Amazon. Buy the paperback or Kindle edition on Amazon UK →. Those have a cover price because Amazon takes their cut and print isn't free. The PDF on this page stays free in exchange for your newsletter signup — same content, your choice of format.