Every engagement starts with a conversation. You don't need to arrive with a fully formed problem. You can usually feel that the business has outgrown how it's run long before you can say exactly where, and that's the right time to talk.
You tell me what's going on: what's changed, what's about to, and where it feels harder than it should. I'll tell you straight whether I can help.
No pitch and no prep. If there isn't a fit, I'll say so, and if I know someone better suited, I'll point you to them.
Before anyone commits to a project, it's worth knowing whether it would clearly pay for itself.
I talk to you and a few of your team, look at the spreadsheets and reports you already use, and see how the work really gets done. Your view and your team's view are often different, and that gap is usually where the answer is.
You get one page: whether it would clearly pay for itself, where the money is, what would confirm it, and where I'd start. Sometimes the answer is no, or that something else needs fixing first. If that's what I think, that's what I'll say.
If you go ahead within 30 days, the £2,500 comes off the project. It's a verdict on your business rather than a quote for mine. You could take it to someone else entirely and it would still be worth what you paid for it.
It runs as a project, typically a day or two a week, with a clear end.
We agree what we're solving. A short written list of the problems worth fixing and what good looks like when they're fixed, signed off before we start.
I spend time with your people. On site, with the people doing the work and with whoever will run it afterwards. Changes stick when people can see what's in it for them.
We work through it in order. The obvious leaks first, by hand before anything is automated, so each step pays off on its own. Along the way it becomes clear who does what and who decides what.
You can see it from another room. A few early warning signs, built from work people are already doing, so you know when something's drifting.
It finishes with a handover. I tell them, they tell me, then they do it while I watch. You end up with something that works without me, run by a named person.
It's priced for the period, against the outcomes we agree, and never by the hour.
Your team needs to know I'm there with your support, especially when something changes how they work.
Conversations rather than reporting, but it does take some of their time.
Within limits we agree, so the work doesn't stall waiting for sign-off.
Agreed early in the project. If there isn't one yet, we work that out first.
Each step is its own decision. The diagnostic is a fixed price. The project is priced once we both know what's worth doing.
Whether the project would clearly pay for itself, where the money is, and what would confirm it. Worth having whether or not you go ahead.
An ops manager runs it. I design it, then hand it over to the person who runs it.
I'll help you work out what the role needs, but finding the person is yours, or your recruiter's.
Your accountant tracks the money moving through the business, accurately and after the fact. I look at how the work gets done and the decisions behind it. We're complementary.
I won't recommend software until I understand what the business needs. The tool comes last, and if your current tools can do the job, I'll use those.
No. Just come ready to tell me what's going on.
Because it's the part that's worth having. A free one can only ever end in "yes, hire me", and everyone knows it. Paying for it buys you an answer that isn't decided in advance, including no.
Then that's the answer, and you've spent £2,500 to avoid a much bigger wrong decision. You keep the page either way.
Often, yes. I design it with them, and they run it. Plenty of good ops managers are running something nobody had time to design.
Some. Mostly conversations, and time with whoever will run it afterwards. I keep the extra work for your team as small as I can, because changes that cost people more effort than they save don't last.
When they're the right answer, yes, and that's something I'm good at. They come after we've proved what's worth automating by doing it by hand, never before.
Yes, the people side needs it. I'm based near Stirling and work mainly across Scotland, with a mix of on-site days and remote work.
A handover to the named person who runs it, with everything documented. It's yours, and it works without me.
We talk about it early. If something isn't landing with your team, the design is wrong, and we change it.