Notes on getting
the week back.
Practical writing on AI, systems, and the hours businesses lose to admin. Written by the founder, from a live sales floor. A new post most weeks.
I stopped writing long emails to customers — and started getting replies
Long, detailed update messages that nobody read. Here’s what happened when I cut the word count by two-thirds.
The deal I kept chasing that had already gone through
I spent three days chasing a lender for an update on a deal they’d already approved. I only found out because the customer wrote to say thank you. Here’s what that taught me about chasing the wrong things.
The email I missed that cost me a deal (and the simple system that fixed it)
A lender replied. I didn't see it for four days. By then the customer was gone. Here's the honest story of losing a commission to my own inbox, and the boring system that stopped it happening again.
When the lender goes quiet — how to keep the customer warm
Application submitted, customer keen, then silence from the lender. Not a no, not a yes — just nothing. How to manage the wait without losing the deal you already earned.
The deal that went quiet: why follow-ups fail and what actually works
The deals that never close aren't the ones you lost. They're the ones you forgot to follow up on. What I've learned about building a system that catches the quiet ones.
You bought the AI tool. Why isn't anyone using it?
Every week another business owner tells me they bought a tool and nobody touched it after day one. The tool wasn't the problem. The rollout was.
ChatGPT vs a custom AI tool: which does your business need?
When is a ChatGPT subscription enough, and when do you need a custom AI tool built around your business? An honest comparison with no jargon and no upsell.
Will AI replace account managers? An honest answer from a sales floor
The honest answer to whether AI replaces account managers and salespeople: what it takes over, what it can't, and how the best people use it to out-perform everyone else.
The cheap-AI trap: when free tools quietly cost you more
Free and cheap AI tools are everywhere, and sometimes they're exactly right. Here's how to spot when “free” is quietly costing your business more than a paid tool would.
Automating admin without breaking compliance: a guide for regulated firms
How regulated firms — especially in finance — can automate the admin that eats their week without letting AI near the decisions the regulator expects a human to own.
Speed-to-lead: how AI helps you answer customers first
Most deals aren't lost on price. They're lost to whoever replied first. Here's how AI fixes the slowest, most expensive gap in your sales process.
AI voice agents for inbound calls: ready, or hype?
AI voice agents that answer the phone are having a moment. Here's where they genuinely work, where they lose you customers, and how to try one without risking your reputation.
AI for car finance brokers in 2026: where it actually helps
A working broker's honest guide to AI in car finance: the jobs it genuinely speeds up, the ones it shouldn't touch, and how to adopt it without betting the business.
AI agents are everywhere in 2026. Here's what one actually does for a small business
The plain-English version: what an AI agent really is, where it earns its place on a small team, and where it's the wrong tool. Written by a founder who builds these systems and works a sales floor daily.
AI automation for small UK businesses: what's actually worth building in 2026
Most of the time your team loses isn't lost to hard work. It's lost to the same five drags, and each one has a different answer. Here's which ones software genuinely fixes, and which ones it won't.