Articles

Trades - builders, plumbers, electricians

• Are you a builder, plumber, or electrician who's sent a quote and heard nothing back? It's rarely the price. It's that nobody chased it.
• Are you a tradesperson who's missed a "does anyone know a good..." post in a local group? Someone's asking for a recommendation right now. Did you see it?

Clinics, practices, bookings

• Are you running a clinic or practice where missed appointments quietly cost you every week? It's not the empty slot. It's the empty slot plus the phone call.
• Do you run a business built on bookings, where every no-show is money straight out the door? More reminders isn't the fix. Watching for change is.

Offices - solicitors, accountants, estate agents, professional services, web design businesses

• Are you a solicitor whose new client files stall on ID that never quite arrives? The retainer's agreed. The file sits open on an ID chase.
• Are you an accountant or advisor who spends deadline season chasing paperwork instead of doing the actual work? Deadline season is mostly chasing, not working.
• Are you an estate agent who dreads the chain going quiet after the offer's accepted? The chain goes quiet, and your buyer starts ringing you.
• Does your business need more business? Find out by using competitor analysis and market trends. Understand your competitors and your customers first.
• Are you a web designer or a design agency fearing AI is coming for your business? It's coming for the busywork, not the craft.
• Are you sitting on a customer or contact list you haven't properly looked through in years? Why a decade-old list beats a cold-call list every time.
• How much time do you waste chasing and updating invoice payments? Unpaid admin, just to get paid for work you already did.
• Do you run the admin for a small business, answering the same five questions every week? Hours, area, price - the same handful, on repeat.
• Do you run a small business whose website and social pages have gone quiet again? It's rarely a lack of things to say.

Shops and stock

• Are you a retailer or wholesaler guessing what to reorder, and getting it wrong either way? Short or overstocked. Gut feeling rarely gets it right.

Any business

• Are you a business owner whose calendar and inbox feel like a full-time job before the real work even starts? One clear update a day beats a stream of pings.
• The enquiry that dies Most local businesses don't have a traffic problem. They have an enquiry nobody answers in time.
• An old customer list Clean the list, skip the dead numbers, let a human talk to people who are still there.

AI - what it is, how to use it

• What is AI, actually? What ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini actually do, why agents beat chatbots, and whether it's hype.
• Five prompts to try today Copy-paste. Five minutes. No sign-up.
• A free AI course. Not a lead capture. No sign-up, no email collected, nothing sold at the end. Here's why it's actually free.

How I work

• GIGO: garbage in, garbage out The 1981 rule that still runs this consultancy.
• A chatbot is a glorified search bar I built one. Users found it condescending. I pulled it.
• A bespoke platform in six weeks Mined from a real, shipped build. Outcome and process only - no names, no code.
• How you waste money on tokens Cheap models for grunt work, paid models for the bit that matters.
• Inside Hermes One office, several specialist models, a human always signing off.
• Does this need new software? Most of the time, no. It plugs into what you already use - or stands alone.