- Understand and improve the real commercial picture of their company
- Design the next version of the business – structurally and financially
- Execute that next stage with a trusted strategic partner alongside them
The result is growth that is deliberate, profitable and sustainable - not reactive, exhausting or misaligned. We typically build long-standing advisory relationships spanning multiple chapters of a founder’s career.
The firm is intentionally solo-delivered.
When you engage The Honest Business Advisory™, you work directly with May - in every diagnostic, strategy build and advisory partnership.
This is not delegated consulting.
It is embedded strategic counsel.
The Honest Business Advisory™ is a boutique strategy and advisory firm founded and led by May James.
About The Honest Business Advisory™
The philosophy behind the firm is simple:
Over‑Resourced Women Change the World.
When women have more money, time and capacity than they need, they make deep rooted lasting impact and fund what matters. We design businesses that leave you proudly over-resourced.
Business Exists to Expand Your Life.
Your company should increase your freedom and options – not just your responsibility. If the business doesn’t work for the founder, it does not work. Growth is not the goal. Alignment, profit and longevity are.
Leadership Sets the Ceiling
Most female founders never realise their true potential, we are on a mission to change that.
The business rarely outgrows the founder’s standards, decisions and self‑concept.
The 4-3-1 Method™ Enables Sustained Change
The 4-3-1 Method™ is our proprietary burnout-prevention and sustainability framework, providing a much needed solution to chronic illness, mental health, modern life demands and neurodivergent living to founders and their teams. One spacious week every month is a design principle for lasting success, profit and legacy building.
Depth Beats Volume
A small number of deliberate, well-executed strategic shifts will outperform constant activity.
We optimise for structural improvement - not surface-level growth tactics.
These aren’t nice to haves. They’re the lens we bring to every engagement and recommendation.
Our Philosophy
I help you see the real economics and constraints of your business, decide what the next chapter should be, and then sit beside you while you build it.
For some people that includes transitioning to a 3 week working month.
We talk in commercial strategy, numbers, constraints, decisions and leadership - with your actual life and happiness considered within it all.
That looks like:
Commercial Reality Diagnostic – a focused audit experience to understand why your current model isn’t performing as it could be (demand, offers, funnels, margins) and what to change immediately to shift results
Next Chapter Strategy Day – an in-depth strategic design engagement to restructure offers, pricing, revenue levers, capacity and working rhythm for the next 12–24 months.
1:1 Strategic Partnership – a six‑month consulting and advisory engagement for established founders who want to scale sustainably whilst directly taking home more money in the next 12 months
1:1 Private Advisory - bespoke strategic counsel for seven-figure founders actively scaling and refining - designed around the realities of their company.
What we actually do together
We believe that great businesses are built
through intelligent strategy and thoughtful design.
We’re known for decisively cutting through the noise,
identifying the real constraints and solving problems fast.
She is a multi-award-winning consultant, keynote speaker and podcast host with a track record of helping SMEs around the world improve margins, sharpen positioning and scale intelligently.
May blends rigorous strategic thinking with calm, direct counsel.
She is known for:
- Identifying structural constraints quickly
- Simplifying complex commercial realities
- Challenging founders to raise their standards
- Designing businesses that are profitable and personally sustainable
She has built and scaled businesses while navigating chronic illness, and operates her own company using the 4-3-1 Method™ - taking one week off every month and working four focused days per week.
Her belief is simple: Your business should serve your life - not override it.
When May is not working she enjoys being with her family, drinking Champagne and dancing in her kitchen with a gorgeous candle burning.
About May
