The hidden cost nobody tracks
Ask most SME owners "how many hours a week do you spend on admin?" and they'll say "a few hours." Track it for a week and the real number is usually 10–15 hours across the team. Time spent on:
- Updating the CRM after a call
- Copy-pasting lead data from a form to a spreadsheet to an email
- Sending the same onboarding pack to every new client
- Generating invoices from time-tracker data
- Compiling weekly reports from 3 different tools
- Reminding customers about appointments, reviews, follow-ups
None of it is hard. It's just repetitive. And "a junior should be doing it" misses the point — you shouldn't need a junior for work a script can do in 2 seconds.
What we actually automate
These are real examples of automations we've scoped for UK small businesses. Most take 1–3 weeks to build and pay back within 60 days.
Client onboarding
New client signs a contract → welcome email sent → onboarding questionnaire triggered → answers synced to project management tool → kickoff call auto-scheduled → internal team notified in Slack. What used to take 90 minutes of manual setup happens in 30 seconds.
Invoicing & payments
Time-tracker entries → aggregated by client → invoice generated in Xero/QuickBooks → sent on the 1st of the month → chase email at day 14 and day 28 → payment matched automatically when received. Especially powerful for agencies, freelancers, consultancies.
Lead nurture handoff
Cold lead from LinkedIn → added to nurture sequence → AI scores engagement over 30 days → moves to "sales-ready" when scoring threshold hit → assigned to a rep with a ready-made briefing doc. Your salespeople only touch leads that are actually ready.
Review & referral requests
Project marked complete in project management tool → wait 3 days → automated review request sent with Google review link → if positive review received, automated referral ask 2 weeks later. Compounds your organic growth without you remembering to ask.
Data reconciliation
CRM doesn't sync cleanly to your accounting tool? Your spreadsheet-of-truth goes stale? We build nightly reconciliation flows that match records across systems and flag anomalies. Kills a category of data-entry errors for good.
AI-powered document generation
Proposals, contracts, briefs, case studies — generated from structured inputs using Claude or GPT-4. Branded PDFs out the other side in 30 seconds instead of 30 minutes of formatting.
How the project works
- Free discovery call (30 min). We map your current processes and identify the 3–5 biggest time sinks.
- Proposed scope. Written scope document with specific automations, tools, timeline, and price. Usually delivered within 48 hours of the call.
- Build phase. 1–4 weeks depending on scope. We build in your accounts (n8n, Zapier), not ours — you own everything from day one.
- Testing with you. You test with real data. We iterate until each flow is bulletproof.
- Handover + docs. You get a written runbook for each automation. Retainer available if you want us to monitor and improve.
Pricing
Workflow projects are bespoke because every business is different, but here's what to expect:
- Small project (1–2 automations, 1–2 weeks): £1,500–£2,500
- Medium project (3–5 automations, 2–4 weeks): £2,500–£5,000
- Complex project (multi-system, heavy AI integration): £5,000+
- Existing bundle clients (Starter / Growth / Premium): 20% off any project
- Ongoing retainer: optional, £500–£1,500/month for monitoring, improvements, new automations
All prices exclude VAT. Scope and price locked in writing before any work starts.
What we use under the hood
- n8n — our default automation engine. Open-source, self-hostable, AI-native.
- Zapier / Make — for simpler flows with off-the-shelf integrations
- Claude & GPT-4 — when the automation needs judgement or unstructured text processing
- Your existing tools — we integrate into what you already use. Rarely recommend replacing a working tool.