Northbound Consulting
Operations consultancy · Surrey, London and the South East
Your business has outgrown ‘the founder knows everything.’
I help founder-led businesses with 10 to 75 people find what is slowing them down, agree a plan, and fix it. Start with a fixed-price Health Check for £695.
90 min
Leadership diagnostic
10 areas
Scored across the business
/100
Business Health Score
1–2 weeks
To a written report
Sound familiar?
Growth has outrun the systems.
Everything runs through you
Decisions and know-how sit with one or two people. When they step away, things stall.
Nothing is written down
Processes live in people’s heads. New starters learn by asking around.
Reporting you can’t rely on
You find out how the month went after it is over, and the numbers don’t always agree.
Old habits, bigger team
What worked at 5 people and at 20 has stopped working at 40.
Hiring a senior operator, buying more software or working longer hours treats the symptom. The gap is between how the business is meant to run and how it actually runs. That gap is what I find and close.
Operations consulting services
One starting point. Two ways to go from there.
Everyone starts with the Health Check. You get a complete report either way, and you decide what happens next.
01 · Start here
Business Health Check
£695
Fixed price · 1–2 weeks
A structured review of how the business really runs, and a written report you can show your leadership team.
- A Business Health Score across ten areas
- Staff interviews to check the view from the top
- A Business Blueprint report with risks, quick wins and a roadmap
- Fixes you can start within 30 days
- No follow-on commitment
02 · Fix it
Improvement Sprint
£4,500
Fixed price · 4 weeks
For businesses that want the priority fixes done, without an ongoing relationship.
- Half-day leadership workshop to agree an owned plan
- Quick wins implemented
- Key processes documented
- Risk register and improvement backlog set up
- Team trained on any new tools
03 · Keep it fixed
Improvement Partner
£2,150 / month
Ongoing · 30 days’ notice
For businesses that want me to keep driving the roadmap and catch drift early.
- Monthly review of progress and the improvement backlog
- Quarterly roadmap refresh
- Ongoing leadership support and decision help
- Cancel with 30 days’ notice
How it works
SCALE™: five phases, in order.
Nothing is implemented until it has been diagnosed and agreed. That keeps the advice specific to your business.
S
Scan
A 90-minute diagnostic and short staff interviews show how the business really runs.
C
Clarify
Findings become a written Business Blueprint: risks, quick wins, roadmap and estimated return.
A
Align
A half-day workshop turns the report into a plan with a named owner for every action.
L
Launch
Quick wins go live, key processes get documented and your team is trained on the changes.
E
Evolve
Monthly and quarterly reviews keep the improvements on track.
The Health Check covers Scan and Clarify. The Sprint adds Align and Launch. The Partner retainer carries on into Evolve.
Who you would work with
About Ben Saxon
Northbound Consulting is an operations consultancy for founder-led businesses in the UK, run by me, Ben Saxon. In my day job I lead delivery across a portfolio of around 20 software products with a team of five, inside enterprise digital transformation programmes. Much of that work is finding out why things run slower and messier than they should, then fixing it properly.
Northbound Consulting takes the same approach to smaller businesses that would not otherwise get it. You work with me directly, from the first call to the last review.
Based in Surrey. Working with businesses across London, Surrey and the South East.
FAQ
Questions people ask before booking
What is a Business Health Check?
A Business Health Check is a fixed-price diagnostic for £695. It starts with a 90-minute session with the founder or leadership team, plus short interviews with two or three staff. I score the business across ten areas, from leadership and finance to operations and customer experience, and combine them into a Business Health Score out of 100. You receive a written Business Blueprint report with risks, quick wins and a roadmap, usually within one to two weeks.
Who is this for?
Founder-led and owner-managed UK businesses with roughly 10 to 75 employees. It suits businesses where decisions and know-how sit with one or two people, processes are not written down and reporting is unreliable, but which are still too small to justify a full-time senior operations hire.
How much does operations consulting cost?
The Business Health Check is £695, fixed. The Improvement Sprint is £4,500, fixed, over four weeks. The Improvement Partner retainer is £2,150 a month with 30 days’ notice. Everyone starts with the Health Check, and you decide what happens next.
What is the SCALE™ framework?
SCALE™ is the five-phase method behind every engagement: Scan, Clarify, Align, Launch and Evolve. Scan and Clarify diagnose the business and produce the written report. Align turns the report into a plan with a named owner for every action. Launch puts the fixes in place. Evolve keeps them on track with monthly and quarterly reviews.
What do I get if I stop after the Health Check?
A complete, standalone report you can act on yourself. Nothing is held back to force a further sale. If you want help with the fixes, the Improvement Sprint or the Improvement Partner retainer picks up from the same report, so you do not repeat any work you have already paid for.
How is this different from hiring an operations manager or a large consultancy?
A full-time senior operations hire is a big commitment for a business of this size, and a large consultancy can be costly and generic. This is a structured, fixed-price starting point, so you can judge the quality of the work before committing to anything bigger.
Where do you work?
I am based in Surrey and work mainly with businesses in London, Surrey and the South East of England.
How do I get started?
Book a free 20-minute call by emailing ben.saxon@northboundconsulting.co.uk. We look at where things stand and whether a Health Check is worth doing.
Contact
Talk it through.
Leave a few details and I’ll come back to you to set up a free 20-minute call. No pitch — we’ll look at where things stand and whether it’s worth doing a Health Check.
Prefer email? ben.saxon@northboundconsulting.co.uk
© 2026 Northbound Consulting · Operations consultancy for founder-led businesses · Surrey, UK · SCALE™ Business Improvement Framework
