We don't sell tools, we solve problems
In May our homepage named Notion, Airtable and Zapier on every service card. The next day we took them out. The tools are good, but naming them answered a question no client had asked us.
What a business owner is looking for
People who run a small business think things like "I'm copying orders from an email into a spreadsheet again" or "I can't tell which client owes me money without opening three places". They want that hour back, and to stop making the same mistake.
If the first thing they see is a product name, the conversation changes subject. We stop talking about their lost hour and start debating whether Airtable suits them better than Notion. That conversation is easier for the consultant and does little for the client.
A proposal tied to a brand ages with it
Today's fashionable software won't be the same in three years. The problems will: information spread across too many places, tasks someone does by hand every week, the number that exists but nobody sees in time. If our proposal is built around the problem, it still holds when the tool changes.
The best tool is usually the one you already have
Often the business already pays for something that would solve the problem if someone set it up properly: the email, the spreadsheet, the invoicing software. Starting with a new tool adds a subscription, time to learn it and one more place to look for things. So we work with what your team already uses, and only suggest something new when what's there can't do the job.
Sometimes you don't need technology at all. A template, or deciding who handles what, fixes more than any automation.
How we start
Before we talk about any software, we sit with the team and watch how the work moves: what gets copied twice, where people wait, what gets forgotten. That gives us a short list of problems ranked by what they cost. Then we decide how to solve each one, and the tool gets picked at the end.
A test for any consultant
If, in the first meeting, they talk about the product before asking how you work, be wary. You should leave a good first meeting able to explain your own problem better than when you walked in.
Got a task that eats hours every week? Tell us about it and we'll tell you, with no commitment, whether it's worth solving and how.