Innovate SME exists to do one thing: go into owner-managed businesses, work out what's holding them back, and fix it — practically, without jargon, and without walking away once the advice has been given.
Most consultancy is theory and reports. Someone spends a week observing, hands over a document, sends an invoice, and leaves. The business is no different the following Monday.
I work the other way round. I come in, learn how the business actually operates — where the time goes, where the money leaks, what everyone already knows is broken — and then I implement the changes myself. The right software. The documented processes. The training that makes it stick. Not recommendations for someone else to act on; actual change you can see working.
I can work this way because I've done it for real. I'm not an adviser who has only ever advised — I'm an operator who has run and turned around businesses, across very different sectors, often several at once. I know what it's like to be the owner who's become the bottleneck, to make decisions without a clear financial picture, to watch costs creep up while there's no time to step back and fix any of it. That's the perspective I bring: someone who has been in the chair, not just observed it.
The approach is the same whatever the sector, because the underlying problems are the same. I understand the business properly first, identify a clear and prioritised plan focused on what will make the biggest practical difference, implement the changes directly, and then stabilise — making sure the new way of working holds rather than drifting back to old habits.
No jargon, no guru language, no dependency. The goal is always a business that runs better without me, not one that needs me indefinitely.
Running entirely on manual processes — moved onto purpose-built software with digital stock management, in-house payroll and documented HR procedures, at a fraction of the previous cost.
A 50+ property residential and commercial portfolio run on paper and goodwill — fully digitised with structured tenancy management, proper financial oversight and significantly reduced external fees.
A used vehicle dealership, loss-making with no reporting or strategy — turned around to its best-ever trading period with a defined buying strategy and clear direction.
Built from nothing to over 600 orders a week across website, Amazon and eBay — run efficiently by a small team, then sold as a going concern.
If your business is running on manual processes, leaning too heavily on outside help, or hard to get a clear financial picture of — that's exactly the kind of work I do.
If any of this sounds familiar, let's talk. go@innovates.me
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