About

I'm Francesca McGarey, a sustainable marketing consultant and fractional CMO with 20 years of experience helping founders build businesses that work commercially and humanly.

Not just on paper, but in the messy reality of limited time, fluctuating energy, and real responsibility.

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Where this began:

My career started in advertising, fashion and the art world, a decade of learning how brands earn attention, build desire, and make people feel something before a single word of copy is written.

From there I moved into Google's Creative Lab, where the standard for turning bold ideas into living, breathing experiences was set very high. It's where I learned that great marketing is never about noise, it’s about trust, depth and safety.

But the longer I spent inside the machinery of it; the campaigns, the launches, the relentless optimisation, the more I couldn't ignore what I was seeing. Founders and marketers burning through themselves to hit targets. Customers being nudged, pressured, and retargeted into buying things they didn't really want. Everyone's nervous system quietly fraying at the edges.

It didn't feel like a coincidence. The fragmentation people feel - in their attention, their mental health, their relationship with consumption - is connected to the way most marketing is built, designed to override the pause, to manufacture urgency, and to sell first and ask questions never.

I have no interest in that, I never did.

In 2015, I founded Marketing for Small Businesses UK because I kept seeing something I couldn't unsee: brilliant founders building genuinely good things, running themselves into the ground trying to market them, doing everything on instinct and adrenaline, posting more, planning less, burning quietly (or often loudly) from the inside out.

The person creating the product matters as much as the product itself. Their capacity, their steadiness, their ability to think clearly, these aren't soft concerns. They're the foundation everything else rests on. And the people on the receiving end of that marketing? Their nervous systems are paying attention too. They feel the difference between a brand that genuinely wants to help them and one that just wants the sale.

Good marketing should reduce pressure, not create more of it. For the person building the business, and for the people they're trying to reach.

That's what I've spent the last decade building, a calmer way. A way of marketing that holds a business together without asking the person running it to override their life to make it work.

Since 2015:

My work has spanned working with solo founders, small teams, and scaling businesses. Always with the same focus: clarity, streamlined marketing systems, and long-term value.

What I believe:

• Marketing is not manipulation:

  It’s a long term relationship, safety, generosity and clarity. When it's done well, it feels like a conversation, not a chase.

• Sustainability is the strategy:

  a marketing system that only works when you're at full capacity isn't a system, it's a liability. I build around your real life: your seasons, your energy, your pace.

• Clarity before content:

  Most small business owners don't need more content. They need a clearer signal. Strategy first, always — then the content has somewhere to go.

• Small businesses deserve strategic brilliance:

  The same rigour and human-centred thinking that shapes world-class brands shouldn't be reserved for companies with big budgets. I bring that thinking to businesses with heart.

• Championing women led businesses, purpose driven founders, and teams who care about the wellbeing of the people they serve. Because when your audience feels truly seen, everything shifts; conversion, loyalty, advocacy, and trust.

Who i work with:

I work with small businesses at different stages of growth, and meet them differently depending on where they are.

Some are early in their journey.
Some are growing steadily.
Some are established and navigating complexity.

What they share is intention.

They care about the work they put into the world.
They care about their customers’ experience, and they care about building something that lasts.

How I work with people:

My support is structured as a deliberate journey, so you can access the right level of thinking at the right time, without committing to more than you need.

01 Practical tools and audits

For solopreneurs and small teams who want clarity without handing everything over. The Seasonal Marketing Reset and Sustainable Sales & Marketing Audit are designed to cut through the noise and give you a grounded starting point, at your pace, and on your terms.

02 The Sustainable Marketing OS

My flagship self-study operating system. Eight modules that take you from scattered to systematic, a complete marketing operating system built for micro-business owners who want consistency without the chaos. Not a course, but infrastructure you can implement into your business immediately.

03 Strategy sessions and advisory

For established businesses navigating complexity, growth, or change. At this level, I act as a senior strategic partner, CMO-level thinking and oversight, applied directly to your situation. This is where I do some of my best work.

My approach:

Our work sits at the intersection of strategy, experience, and care.

We blend:

• Commercial thinking with emotional intelligence

• Systems design with human insight

• Technology and AI with ethics and restraint

We pay close attention to how a brand feels to interact with.
How it welcomes.
How it communicates.
How it respects people’s time, attention, and nervous system.

Because that’s where trust is built, and in this economy, trust is what sustains growth.

Why this matters:

The world doesn’t need louder marketing, it needs better decisions.

Marketing that is considerate.
Experiences that are intuitive.
Systems that support people instead of draining them.

Whether you’re just starting to shape your business, or you’re leading something more established, my role is the same:

To help you to build marketing that creates profit without losing people, purpose, or planet.

Commercially, emotionally, and sustainably.

A note on fit:

I don’t try to be everything to everyone. Some people are best served by my tools, some by strategic projects, others by advisory support, and sometimes the right answer is “not yet”. I’m always honest about what will serve you and your business best.