F.O.C.U.S Advise
Your AI strategist, sitting alongside you.
Maria Fethers. Founder, Focus AI Studio. Co-founder, Chelmer Mouldings (est. 2005).
Strategic AI advice for business owners, directors and leadership teams. I work alongside you to streamline how your business runs: finding where time and money are being lost, deciding what to change, and putting the right AI and process improvements in place so they last.
The problem
You know AI could help. The hard part is knowing where.
Most owners I speak to are not short of ideas. They have a long list of things they could try, and no reliable way to tell which two or three would actually improve how the business runs.
Working it out alone usually means tools that do not fit how the business works, subscriptions nobody uses, and hours lost testing things that were never right in the first place.
What is missing is someone on your side of the table who has run real businesses, uses these tools inside their own companies, and helps you decide properly before the money is spent.
What I work through with you
Not how to sell more. How to run better.
This is not sales or growth coaching. It is strategy for the systems and processes behind your business.
- 01
How you run today
Your current systems and processes, seen in person and mapped properly.
- 02
Where AI could help
The places it would streamline the business, and the places it would not.
- 03
What to change first
A clear order of priorities, and permission to leave the rest alone.
- 04
How to embed it
So your team uses it, not just you, and the changes last.
What it means for your business
A business that runs better.
A more streamlined business. Less duplicated work, fewer manual steps, and processes that run the same way every time.
Time back. Your team spends less time on admin and more on the work that earns money.
Money not wasted. Decisions made before you spend, so you avoid tools that do not fit.
Clarity. One clear plan for AI in your business, instead of a list of ideas and no direction.
Someone in your corner. A strategic sounding board for you, from someone who has run businesses for over 20 years and still does.
Changes that stick. Your team is involved throughout, so improvements do not disappear when the block ends.
How it works
It starts in your business.
Every Advise engagement begins with a Discovery day on site. I see your processes from start to finish, the way they really happen, and I set a baseline with you of how long key tasks take today. Everything that follows is built on what I see, not on what can be described on a call.
From there, weekly check-ins keep the momentum, and site visits carry the deeper work. I finish by reviewing what has changed against the baseline set at the start.
This Discovery day is included within your Advise block. It is not the separate £950 F.O.C.U.S Strategy Day service and there is no additional charge for it.
Pricing
Three months, or six.
FOCUSED
F.O.C.U.S Advise, 3 months
The three month block suits owner-led businesses and small leadership teams where decisions sit with one or two people, so changes can be agreed, tested and embedded within a quarter.
- Discovery day on site, including a baseline measure
- A written roadmap, updated as I go
- Weekly 30 minute check-ins
- One half day on site at the midpoint
- Final review against your starting baseline
- Reviews of any tool, supplier or quote before you commit
- WhatsApp or email access between sessions
£4,200
Paid upfront. 2 site visits included.
F.O.C.U.S Advise, 6 months
Best for a larger or cross-functional team, several departments or sites, or multiple connected changes. Choose six months when more people need to be involved and the business needs time to test, adopt and embed improvements properly.
- Discovery day on site, including a baseline measure
- A written roadmap covering the whole business, updated as I go
- Weekly 30 minute check-ins
- One half day on site at the midpoint, including a workshop with your team
- Final review on site, with a team session and a plan for what comes next
- Reviews of any tool, supplier or quote before you commit
- WhatsApp or email access between sessions
£7,200
Half at the start, half at the midpoint. 3 site visits included.
If you start with three months and want to carry on, you can move to six by paying the difference. That decision is always yours, never automatic.
Between sessions
You are not on your own.
Between sessions you can message me by WhatsApp or email whenever something comes up. I reply within one working day, Monday to Friday. Quick questions and decisions are handled there, and anything bigger becomes part of the next session.
Business Brain
Add a Business Brain.
A Business Brain is everything about your business, written down in one place your AI can use: how you work, your people, your prices, your processes, your proof and your rules. It lives in your own AI account, so you own it.
Advise clients can add one at a reduced rate, because much of what it needs is already gathered on your Discovery day.
Business Brain
£995 for Advise clients, £1,595 standalone. One-off, no monthly fee.
Live Business Brain
Everything above, connected to your live documents, CRM and systems so it keeps up as your business changes, with rollout and training. Quoted separately as a build.
Builds
Build work is separate.
Build work is never part of an Advise block. If something worth building comes out of a session, I will scope it and quote it separately, in writing, and it can run alongside your Advise block. You are free to use me or anyone else.
Why me
Lived experience, not theory.
Over 20 years buying, scaling and selling businesses across construction, property, manufacturing and hospitality. I still actively run Chelmer Mouldings, which I co-founded in 2005.
So the conversations I have with clients about pressure, payroll and where the time actually goes are ones I am having in my own companies at the same time. Not remembered from a decade ago, and not read in a book.
Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, Artificial Intelligence Programme 2025. Certified business mentor.
The practical bits
Clear terms, no surprises.
- Site visits are fixed for each block and included within London and the Home Counties. Additional visits can be arranged at an agreed rate.
- Visits are booked in advance so they do not slip to the end of the block.
- Nothing rolls on by default.
- I work with a maximum of five Advise clients at any one time.
Questions
If this sounds like what you need, get in touch.
Tell me a little about the business and I will tell you honestly whether F.O.C.U.S Advise is the right fit, or whether something smaller would serve you better.
Get in touch