Consultancy
Your week, handed back.
For twenty-one years I have designed websites, built them and automated the busywork around them, since long before AI turned up in every office. These days I help organisations large and small put automation and AI to good use, so their people spend a little less time staring at screens and a good deal more on the work that really needs a person.
Do bring whatever ideas you have, or none at all; fresh ones are part of the job. So is knowing which tools, old or new, will genuinely help, and saying so when the answer is simply a tidier spreadsheet.
At a glance
- For
- Organisations large and small, from a team of one to a multinational
- Covers
- Web design, web development, automation and AI
- Experience
- Twenty-one years of automating, and counting
- Based
- Chepstow, Monmouthshire
- The aim
- More time for the work that needs a person
An ordinary week
Week 43 · October 1985
Where does the week go?
Most of it, quite rightly, goes on work that needs a person. Some of it goes on copying, chasing and pasting that a well-made system would happily do in the background while you get on with your day. Press the key and see what changes.
October 1985Week 43 · 21 to 27 October
Monday 21
- 8.30Copy weekend web orders into the stock sheetAutomated
- 10.00Chase three unpaid invoices, againAutomated
- 11.30Staff meeting
- 2.00Retype the timesheets into payrollAutomated
- 12.30Lunch with the team
- 2.00Show the new starter round, properly
Tuesday 22
- 9.00Answer "where's my order?" emails, 23 timesAutomated
- 10.30Supplier visit
- 1.30Send appointment reminders, one by oneAutomated
- 4.00Update prices on the website by handAutomated
- 9.00Ring a customer back for a proper chat
- 4.00Sketch out the spring range
Wednesday 23
- 9.00Weekly report: copy figures out of four systemsAutomated
- 11.00Rename and file the scanned receiptsAutomated
- 3.00Interview for the Saturday job
- 4.30Key in the paper booking formsAutomated
- 9.00Plan next year, with a proper coffee
- 4.30School pick-up
Thursday 24
- 8.45Match the receipts to the bank statementAutomated
- 10.00Export, tidy and re-import the mailing listAutomated
- 12.00Dentist
- 2.30Copy website enquiries into the customer listAutomated
- 10.00Try that new idea on a real customer
- 2.30Coffee with the new supplier
Friday 25
- 9.00Book next week's deliveries, one by oneAutomated
- 11.00Monthly figures for the boardAutomated
- 1.00Payday
- 3.00Count the stock against the till rollAutomated
- 11.00Thank everyone, in person
- 3.00Knock off early. Home in time for tea
Saturday 26
- 9.00Catch up on the week's emailsAutomated
- 9.00Drive to the coast, windows down
- Then a proper day off
Sunday 27
- 1.00Sunday roast
- 7.00Get ahead on Monday's paperworkAutomated
- An extra hour in bed
- 7.00Feet up
October 1985 · Week 43
Monday 21
- 8.30Copy weekend web orders into the stock sheetAutomated
- 10.00Chase three unpaid invoices, againAutomated
- 11.30Staff meeting
- 2.00Retype the timesheets into payrollAutomated
- 12.30Lunch with the team
- 2.00Show the new starter round, properly
Tuesday 22
- 9.00Answer "where's my order?" emails, 23 timesAutomated
- 10.30Supplier visit
- 1.30Send appointment reminders, one by oneAutomated
- 4.00Update prices on the website by handAutomated
- 9.00Ring a customer back for a proper chat
- 4.00Sketch out the spring range
Wednesday 23
- 9.00Weekly report: copy figures out of four systemsAutomated
- 11.00Rename and file the scanned receiptsAutomated
- 3.00Interview for the Saturday job
- 4.30Key in the paper booking formsAutomated
- 9.00Plan next year, with a proper coffee
- 4.30School pick-up
Thursday 24
- 8.45Match the receipts to the bank statementAutomated
- 10.00Export, tidy and re-import the mailing listAutomated
- 12.00Dentist
- 2.30Copy website enquiries into the customer listAutomated
- 10.00Try that new idea on a real customer
- 2.30Coffee with the new supplier
Friday 25
- 9.00Book next week's deliveries, one by oneAutomated
- 11.00Monthly figures for the boardAutomated
- 1.00Payday
- 3.00Count the stock against the till rollAutomated
- 11.00Thank everyone, in person
- 3.00Knock off early. Home in time for tea
Saturday 26
- 9.00Catch up on the week's emailsAutomated
- 9.00Drive to the coast, windows down
- Then a proper day off
Sunday 27
- 1.00Sunday roast
- 7.00Get ahead on Monday's paperworkAutomated
- An extra hour in bed
- 7.00Feet up
Press again to put it all back.
An example week, and nobody's in particular. Yours will have its own busywork, and its own good things patiently waiting for the time.
What I help with
Web design
Sites people enjoy using, designed around what they came to do and the way your organisation actually speaks.
Web development
Fast, secure and accessible to everyone, built on the newest technology and properly looked after for years.
Automation
The repetitive work between your systems, handled in the background without any fuss: orders, invoices, bookings, reports, and the email you have written the same way four hundred times.
AI, put to good use
Assistants and tools that draft, sort, summarise and answer, set up around your own information, with a sensible human in charge of every decision that matters.
How it goes
A cup of tea and a good look
A free, unhurried conversation about how your week really goes: where the time goes now, and where you would much rather it went.
A plan in plain English
What to hand over to the machines, what to keep wonderfully human, and what it will cost, all written down before anything is built.
Built alongside your team
I build it, try it out with the people who will use it every day, and make sure everyone is comfortable with it before it meets its first Monday morning.
Looked after
It keeps running quietly, and I keep a friendly eye on it, improving it as your organisation grows.
Large and small
For a multinational
Joining up systems across teams, offices and countries, with the care a large organisation rightly expects: security, accessibility, and everyone brought along.
For a small business
The Monday spreadsheet, the invoice chasing and the booking emails, handed over, so you can get back to the work you started the business for in the first place.
I am terribly fond of a good cassette deck, and every bit as fond of the newest tools. At their best they do exactly the same job: they get out of the way, so people can spend their time on each other and on the work they enjoy.