Strategy for an owner-led business is a small number of decisions: which offers to grow, which customers to be known for, what you can say that competitors cannot, what to fix first, and how much capacity there is to fill. We make those decisions with you, write them down, and attach a number and an owner to each
The strategy is usually fine. It fails between the document and the Monday morning
A target with no owner and no date is a hope. Each of the six decisions gets both.
Visibility, reviews and offer pages first; paid only where the numbers justify it. The order is most of the strategy.
Plans that ignore space, stock, staff hours and response time produce waiting lists and refunds.
One document, one page per decision, yours to run without us if you prefer
What you are known for, stated so a customer and an AI engine can repeat it. One sentence per priority offer.
How many enquiries become sales today, and what each stage must reach for the plan to pay. The plan’s scoreboard.
What to fix before anything is bought, and the order in which channels earn their budget.
The four commercial numbers, the day-90 targets, who owns each action, and the weekly and monthly cadence.
Sports nutrition brand, UK
Discount codes were permanently available through affiliates, while free delivery started at £30, giving customers little reason to build a larger basket. We reduced blanket discounting, introduced goal-based bundles and moved the free-delivery threshold to £45.
Average order value increased from £38.60 to £44.00 over four months. Conversion fell 2%, while revenue per visitor increased 9%.
Premium tea brand, UK
The store offered free delivery at a threshold below the typical multi-product basket and promoted single-item discounts heavily. We raised the free-delivery threshold, introduced tasting bundles and added subscription options for repeat-purchase products.
Average order value increased 12% over four months. Order volume declined 2%, while total online revenue increased 9%.
Boutique hotel group, three properties, Dublin
Generic search campaigns sent almost every visitor to the homepage, whether they were searching for family rooms, weekend stays or spa breaks. We separated campaigns by intent, built matching landing pages and shifted budget towards search terms producing completed bookings.
Cost per direct booking fell from €61 to €45 over five months. Direct bookings from paid search increased 18%.
What is changing in the markets we work in, and where strategy tends to break
SoftwareThe famous 70% strategy failure rate is folklore. What research actually shows is sharper: plans die in the gap between the people who wrote them and the people who must run them.
HotelsBase commission is the smallest part of what a marketplace booking costs. The full stack, the cancellation gap, and where rate parity is now unenforceable.
ClinicsThe rules that govern clinic marketing in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the US and Turkey, what they forbid, and the informational assets every one of them permits.
Key shifts, emerging trends and what they mean for business
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