About Patrick
For more than a decade, I’ve helped founders build thriving businesses and sustain their growth as their customers, teams and ambitions evolve.
Photography
At 15, I started what became a successful photography business. I loved making the images, but I also had to find clients, understand what they wanted and explain why they should choose me.
The business questions became more interesting than the photography. In a competitive creative field, talent was expected. Understanding customers and knowing how to reach them made it possible to grow.
At 21, I moved into marketing consultancy. I wanted to help other people build a business around their abilities, using what I had learned about the customer, the offer and the work of finding clients.
Photography taught me to look beyond the obvious.
Photo: Patrick Self
Working remotely
In my twenties, I spent a year in Vancouver and two years in London while continuing to run the business remotely. It let me keep working with clients and make room for life somewhere new.
I’ve stayed involved with clients through years of growth: advising on where to invest, shaping new offers and building the marketing to support them.
I’ve worked across the arts, healthcare, nutrition, academia, executive coaching, SaaS and mining. The work has ranged from launching books to helping people turn specialist expertise into a business.
What keeps me interested
01 / The customer
I enjoy helping clients see where their knowledge or skill could make a bigger difference to someone else. When we understand that, the offer becomes more useful, the marketing more persuasive and the business more rewarding.
02 / The owner
A business is part of its owner’s life. I want to understand what growth would make possible: a team with more responsibility, time for other interests, or the satisfaction of seeing good work reach further.
03 / The craft
I still have a photographer’s eye. I notice when a line of copy or a design detail is getting in the way, and I enjoy working it through until the finished piece feels like the business at its best.
Long relationships
Many of my client relationships last five years or more, with each new piece of work building on an understanding of the business and its customers.
Almost every business I’ve helped build from scratch is still thriving today.
For years, repeat work and client introductions kept me busy before I had a consultancy website of my own. I value that trust. It leaves room for honest conversations, ambitious ideas and the occasional change of mind.
Explore working together
A longer view of what a business can become.
Photo: Patrick Self
A complimentary 30-minute conversation
Bring the questions, plans or possibilities on your mind. No presentation or formal brief needed.
We’ll spend 30 minutes on your plans, the questions you’re weighing up and where my input could be useful. It’s a chance to get a feel for working together.
If I can help, I’ll suggest a first piece of work and send a proposal with the scope, deliverables and fee. Take your time deciding; ongoing support is optional.