A website that doesn’t explain what you do
If a customer has to work it out for themselves, most won’t bother.
Business advice. No theatre.
Your business isn’t broken. It’s just doing stupid things.
I’m Ross — The Grumpy Business Consultant. I help UK small businesses find what’s wasting time or money, fix it, and make the business easier to run.
Plain EnglishPractical fixesSmall-business friendlyNo 80-slide decks
Stupid things businesses do.
Small problems become expensive problems.
I find the friction, work out what matters, and fix the sensible bits first. No transformation programme required.
Admin you should not be doing manually
Copying, pasting, chasing and retyping the same information is not a process.
Enquiries with no reliable follow-up
A lead came in. Then everybody assumed somebody else was dealing with it.
Software that creates more work than it removes
More subscriptions, more logins, more places for information to disappear.
An offer customers have to decode
If it takes twenty minutes to explain what you sell, the offer needs work.
A process nobody can explain
‘We’ve always done it this way’ is not a particularly strong business case.
The general idea
Less mess. Fewer steps. Clear ownership.
If a process needs a map, three spreadsheets and somebody’s memory to keep it alive, it can probably be simpler.
What I fix
I find what’s wasting time or money. Then we fix it.
One problem or the whole operation. Websites, systems, customer journeys, admin and automation.
Business MOT
I review how customers find you, how work moves through the business and where time or money is leaking. Then I tell you what I’d change first.
Customer journey
I tighten up the path from first enquiry to booking, payment, follow-up and repeat business. Fewer gaps. Fewer dropped balls.
Systems & automation
Forms, CRM, email, reminders and handovers. Automate the repetitive bits. Leave the human bits human.
Website & online presence
Make it clear what you do, who it is for and what somebody should do next. Your website should earn its keep.
How it works
Three steps. Because six would be annoying.
- 1
Show me the problem.
Tell me what’s happening, what’s getting in the way and what you’ve already tried.
- 2
I tell you what matters.
You get a clear view of what I’d fix first, what can wait and what is not worth spending money on.
- 3
We fix it.
I can make the changes, work with whoever already supports you, or give you a practical plan to run with.
No invented urgency. No unnecessary retainer. No “synergy workshops”.
About
I’m Ross. I fix the bits of small businesses that waste time, lose customers or make work harder than it needs to be.
I’ve spent years working across customers, technology, websites, systems and day-to-day business operations. That makes me useful when the problem sits somewhere between business, technology and “why are we still doing this manually?”
The grumpy bit is a filter. I don’t make simple things sound complicated, sell giant transformation projects or recommend new software just because it exists.
“If there’s a sensible way to make the business easier to run, that’s the bit I care about.”
Right, then.
What’s not working?
Tell me the problem. I’ll tell you whether I can help and what I think the next sensible step is.
Working with UK small businesses and sole traders