Consulting
For the work that's bigger than one build.
Some problems aren't one system. Several processes at once, more than one existing system to connect, or a decision that has to be made before anything is built. That's consulting: scoped as its own piece of work and priced in writing before it starts. It begins the way everything we do begins — Groundwork: a proper look at how you work, then a written plan. £500, credited against the work.
When it's consulting — and when it isn't.
Three shapes of problem. If yours is one of these, this is the door.
- 01
Several processes at once
Quoting, scheduling, invoicing and reporting need looking at together, because changing one changes the others. Fixing them one at a time, in the wrong order, is how a business ends up with five tools and no picture.
- 02
More than one system already in place
An accounts package, a job-management tool, a shared inbox, a spreadsheet nobody admits to. The work is getting them to agree with each other before anything new goes in — and deciding what should be retired.
- 03
A decision before a build
Whether to buy, build or leave alone. Which of three tools. Whether the process is worth automating at all. Sometimes the right answer is two pages of reasoning and no build, and we will tell you so.
If it's one job in one business — the quoting, the chasing, the admin — that isn't consulting. That's Legwork: £3,000 to set up and £250 a month for a sole trader or two of you, up to £6,500 and £500 a month for six to ten — and quicker to get to.
How it runs.
- 01
Groundwork
One real week of the business, walked end to end. On site or online, whichever suits how you work. £500, and it comes off the diagnostic.
- 02
Scope, in writing
What we would do, in what order, what each piece costs, and what we would leave alone. Dates go here, not on this page, because they depend on what we find. You agree it before anything starts.
- 03
The work
Built or advised in the open: you see it as it takes shape. Nothing goes live without your sign-off and our Chief Information Security Officer's.
- 04
Handover
Everything in your business's name, your people shown how to run it, our access removed. Written up so the next person can pick it up without us.
What you're left with.
Consulting that ends in a slide deck hasn't ended. What we leave behind is meant to be used without us.
- A written account of how your business runs and where the hours go — useful whether or not we build anything
- Whatever we built, on accounts in your name, on an instance of your own
- The decisions, with the reasoning behind them, so they still hold when we have gone
- People on your team who can run it, and a document for the ones who join later
What it costs.
Groundwork is £500 and comes off the diagnostic. The diagnostic is fixed-price: £6,500 for one site, £9,500 for an organisation of up to 250 people, from £14,500 above that. A set scope, a set timeline, named people and a written roadmap with a first-year value against every recommendation — so you aren't signing an open cheque to find out whether there's anything worth doing.
What follows is fixed-scope, not a day rate: a ten-day implementation sprint is £15,000, and programmes start at £25,000. We keep our fee for anything we recommend to a tenth of the value it should return in its first year, or less. If the honest answer after Groundwork is that a single build would do it, we'll say so — and it will cost less. All prices exclude VAT at 20%.
What the written quote contains
- The scope — what's in, and what we'd leave alone
- A fixed price for each piece, so you can take some and not others
- The dates, set after we've looked rather than before
- Who touches what, and what's in your name from day one
- What happens at handover, and what it costs to change your mind
Doing this badly is worse than not doing it at all.
A system that fires off the wrong thing to a customer, or a decision made on a demo rather than your real week, costs more than the problem did. So anything that reaches your customers is either a template you approved once or a message that waited for a person, our access to your accounts ends when the work does, and anything we build is signed off by our Chief Information Security Officer before it goes live. If Groundwork says it isn't worth it for you yet, we'll say so.
Tell us what you'd want to change.
Twenty minutes on the phone, a plain answer on whether it's consulting, Legwork or nothing from us — and Groundwork if it looks like a fit.
Book a 20-minute call