Work out what your business needs before anyone builds anything
Most owners buy the software first and hope it fixes things. It rarely does. Discover is where we map how your business really runs, decide what your system has to do, and give you a blueprint you can build from with confidence.
Free 30-minute Clarity Call. No obligation.
The problem
You have probably bought software nobody uses
Let's be honest. Most business owners I meet have already been here. A new CRM, a project tool, or an expensive subscription that promised to sort everything out. Six months later the team is back on spreadsheets and the new system sits there costing money every month.
It wasn't the software's fault. Nobody worked out what the business needed before it was bought.
If you run a small team, everything still lives in your head and you are the one holding it together. If you run a bigger one, you can't see what is happening across the business, so you can't forecast it. Either way, adding a tool on top of that doesn't fix it. It just makes the confusion faster.
Why it happens
Strategy, then process, then systems
In my first book, Remarkable Business Growth, I wrote about the three things that stop most businesses growing: no clear strategy, no defined process, and no system to run it.
The order matters.
- Strategy decides what your business needs.
- Process decides how the work should flow.
- Systems make it happen every day, without you holding it all together.
Most owners start at the end. They go straight to the system, and everything gets built on guesswork. Discover is where we start at the beginning, so every part of your system is there for a reason.
What I have seen
Skip the thinking and you pay for it later
Recently I walked away from a project after three weeks. No paid discovery had been done. Four people in the business all wanted something different, the deadline was impossible, and finished work kept being rewritten. There was nothing agreed to fall back on, because nobody had done the thinking first.
Compare that with a client where we did it properly. Ten discovery meetings. Nine department heads interviewed. Around eighty opportunities found and scored for their impact on the business. When it came to building, nobody was guessing, and every team knew what the system would do for them.
The difference wasn't the software. It was the work done before it.
What happens in Discover
Four things we do with you
Discovery meetings
We sit down with you and your senior people and look at how the business really runs, department by department. How enquiries and data come in. How each team spends an average day. Where opportunities slip through the gaps. What you need to see on a dashboard to run the business with confidence.
Use case meetings
Then we go team by team. We play each team's own problems back to them, and they tell us in their own words how they will use the system day to day. This is where adoption is won. When your team has described how they will work, nobody can say later that the system doesn't fit.
Mapping how things work now, and how they need to work
We map where your data sits today, how it flows, and where it breaks. Then we map how it needs to flow so your team stops re-keying, chasing, and hunting for information.
Must haves, Should haves, Could haves, and Won't haves
Every meeting ends with you sorting your own list. Must haves go into the first version of your system, and it doesn't go live without them. Should haves come next. Could haves are the dream system. Won't haves are named out loud, so they are a decision rather than a disappointment later.
This is how we keep your project focused and stop it growing into something expensive that nobody asked for.
What you leave with
Everything you need to build with confidence
A blueprint of your system. What it needs to do, for whom, and in what order.
Your prioritised list. Must haves, Should haves, Could haves, and Won't haves, agreed by you and your team.
A proof of concept document. Detailed enough for our systems architects to build from without coming back to ask you the same questions again.
A weekly action note throughout, so you always know where things stand.
A working proof of concept, set up by our systems architects from your discovery and included in the fee. You see your own business running in a live system, with your teams, your processes, and your dashboards, before you decide on the next step. Not a blank trial account you have to work out for yourself.
Investment
A fixed fee, based on the size of your business
You know the full cost before we start. It's a fixed fee, paid monthly over the length of the work. It doesn't go up if we find more to talk about, and nobody is under pressure to rush.
5 to 9 staff
- How long it takes
- Four sessions over one month
- Fixed fee
- £2,995
10 to 24 staff
- How long it takes
- Two months
- Fixed fee
- £5,990, paid as £2,995 a month
25 to 50 staff
- How long it takes
- Three months
- Fixed fee
- £8,985, paid as £2,995 a month
Over 50 staff
- How long it takes
- Scoped with you
- Fixed fee
- On application
All prices exclude VAT.
If new scope comes up during Discover, we agree it with you as a separate decision. It never appears as a surprise on an invoice.
Where Discover fits
The first of four stages
Discover is where every client starts. There's no shortcut straight into building, because a system built without this stage is built on sand.
Our promise
We will tell you if you do not need us
We are a Zoho partner, and we tell you that before we recommend anything. If Discover shows that Zoho isn't right for your business, we will say so and point you somewhere better. If it shows you need far less than you thought, we will tell you that too.
The tool always comes last. Your business comes first.
FAQ
Questions owners ask
- Can we skip Discover and go straight to building the system?
- No. Every client starts with Discover. A system built without it is built on guesswork, and guesswork is how businesses end up with expensive software nobody uses. Discover is what makes everything after it work.
- How long does Discover take?
- It depends on the size of your business. Four sessions over one month for five to nine staff. Two months for 10 to 24 staff. Three months for 25 to 50 staff. Larger businesses are scoped individually.
- How much does it cost?
- A fixed fee, paid monthly: £2,995 for five to nine staff, £5,990 for 10 to 24 staff, and £8,985 for 25 to 50 staff. Over 50 staff is quoted after a Clarity Call. All prices exclude VAT.
- Why a fixed fee rather than a monthly rate?
- Because you should know the full cost before you start. A fixed fee means nobody is tempted to rush the thinking or drag it out. If extra scope comes up, we agree it with you separately.
- Who in my business needs to be involved?
- You and your senior people for the discovery meetings. Then each team that will use the system joins its own use case meeting. That's deliberate. The people who will use the system every day help shape it, and that's what gets them using it.
- Are you tied to one piece of software?
- We are a Zoho partner and we tell you that up front. If Zoho isn't the right fit for your business, we will say so and point you elsewhere. Discover is about what your business needs, not about which tool we sell.
- What happens at the end of Discover?
- You get your blueprint, your prioritised list, and a proof of concept document. Our systems architects then walk you through a working proof of concept built around your business, and that's included in the Discover fee. If you want to go ahead, we move into Implement, where we build your full system from the blueprint.
- What if I decide not to go ahead after Discover?
- You keep the strategy and the discovery blueprint. They are yours to use as you choose. Most owners find that work valuable on its own, because for the first time they can see exactly how their business runs and what it needs.
- Does the Discover fee come off the price of the next stage?
- No. Each stage is priced on its own, because each one is a separate piece of work that builds on the last. Implement is priced from what your blueprint shows needs building, so you know exactly what you are paying for. Your Zoho software licences are separate again, paid monthly, and we show you those costs before you commit to anything.
- We have fewer than five staff. Is Discover right for us?
- Probably not yet. Our work starts at five staff, because below that the investment rarely pays back. A free Clarity Call is a good place to start, and we will tell you honestly where the biggest gaps are today.
- Do I need to know anything about AI or automation first?
- No. That's our job. Discover starts with how your business works today. Where automation and AI can save time or make you money, we will show you, in plain English, and in order of impact.
Start with a conversation
If I was sat opposite you right now, I would ask you one question: what would your business look like if it didn't depend on you holding it together? Book a free 30-minute Clarity Call. We will talk through where things are now, whether Discover is the right next step, and which size band fits your business.
Free 30-minute Clarity Call. No obligation. All prices exclude VAT.