Our automation engagements follow four stages: free 30-minute discovery call, paid 1-2-week audit (£3-6K) with a written roadmap, 4-12-week build phase (£15-50K), and an optional ongoing retainer. Fixed-fee at every stage, tool-agnostic, with measurable ROI as the success criterion.
Our four-stage process
- Discovery call (30 minutes, free) — We listen. You describe where the friction is. We tell you whether we're the right fit (sometimes we aren't — we'll say so).
- Paid audit (1-2 weeks, £3-6K) — We sit with your team, document the top 10 workflows, score each for automation ROI, and deliver a written roadmap. Yours to keep, regardless.
- Build phase (4-12 weeks, £15-50K) — We implement the top 3-5 automations from the roadmap, integrate the systems, train your team. Weekly demos so you see progress.
- Retainer (optional, £1-3K/month) — Ongoing optimisation, new automations as your business changes, team support.
Why fixed-fee, not hourly
Hourly rates incentivise drag. Fixed-fee aligns us — the faster we deliver, the better for both of us. Every stage has a defined scope and a defined fee. If the scope changes, we agree a change-order before we touch anything.
What you get at each stage
- Discovery — A go/no-go. No deliverable. No fee.
- Audit — A 15-25 page roadmap document, prioritised list of automations with ROI scoring, and recommended tooling.
- Build — Working automations in production, integration tests, runbooks, team training.
- Retainer — Monthly check-in, dashboard, slack support, optimisation work.
Frequently asked questions
Can I just buy the audit and build internally?+
Yes. Roughly 1 in 4 audits don't lead to a build engagement — clients either build it themselves, decide the priorities are different, or postpone. The audit is yours regardless.
What if our priorities change mid-build?+
We re-scope. Most builds run a 4-week increment cycle, so you can pause or pivot at the increment boundary without sunk cost.