Question 1

How do we start?

Accepted Answer

Plan a project at /brief: pick what you are building, answer a dozen quick questions, and you get your brief written up with an indicative price band in about three minutes. Or book the free AI audit, a 30-minute conversation about where AI actually fits your business. Either way, nothing is built until you have a detailed scope and a fixed quote in writing.

Question 2

Where are you based, and do you work outside Essex?

Accepted Answer

Essex, United Kingdom. Most of our clients are in Essex and Greater London, and we work across the UK and Ireland. Reviews and check-ins happen over video, and we visit when it helps.

Question 3

What does the free AI audit involve?

Accepted Answer

A 30-minute, no-obligation conversation about how your business runs today: where time goes, what gets retyped, what nobody has a clear view of. You leave with an honest answer on whether bespoke tooling would pay for itself, and if it would not, we say so.

Question 4

Is the price in the brief a quote?

Accepted Answer

No. It is an indicative band from the published pricing tiers so you know roughly what things cost before you invest more time. The quote itself comes after scoping, is fixed, and is agreed in writing before any work begins.

Question 5

How long does a typical project take?

Accepted Answer

A brand website takes 2-4 weeks. A custom business tool takes 4-8 weeks. A full SaaS platform takes 8-16 weeks. We give you a firm timeline before we start.

Question 6

What happens after launch?

Accepted Answer

We don't disappear after delivery. Every project includes a handover with documentation. For ongoing work, we offer monthly retainers starting at £1,500/mo.

Question 7

Do I own the code?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Everything we build is yours. Full source code, deployed to your infrastructure, under your accounts. No vendor lock-in.

Question 8

Can you work with our existing systems?

Accepted Answer

Absolutely. We integrate with Notion, Google Sheets, Stripe, Xero, Slack, HubSpot, and most APIs. If your system has an API, we can connect to it.

Question 9

What if I need changes after delivery?

Accepted Answer

Minor tweaks within the revision rounds are included. For larger changes, we'll scope and quote transparently. Retainer clients get priority access and discounted rates.

Question 10

Is bespoke more expensive than off-the-shelf?

Accepted Answer

Upfront, yes. But off-the-shelf tools charge monthly fees that compound over time, and you're always compromising on fit. Bespoke tools pay for themselves through efficiency gains, and you own the asset forever.

Question 11

Why do you publish your pricing when others don’t?

Accepted Answer

Because we believe you should know what things cost before you invest your time. Most agencies hide pricing so they can tailor the number to what they think you’ll pay. We’d rather be upfront. Our published tiers reflect genuine project scopes. If your project falls neatly into a tier, you’ll know the cost in five minutes. If it’s more complex, we’ll scope it in detail and give you a fixed quote - still before any work begins. No surprises either way.

Question 12

How does bespoke compare to using Zapier, Make.com, or similar automation platforms?

Accepted Answer

Automation platforms are genuinely useful for simple, repetitive tasks - connecting your form submissions to your email tool, syncing data between two apps, triggering notifications. If that’s all you need, they’re a great choice and we’d tell you to stick with them. Where they fall short is when your workflows get complex. Multi-step logic with conditional branches, custom user interfaces, data processing that goes beyond basic mapping, or anything customer-facing that needs to look and feel professional. At that point, automation platforms become fragile, expensive at scale (per-task pricing adds up), and limited by what the platform allows. Bespoke software doesn’t have those constraints. You get exactly the logic, interface, and integrations your business needs - written in production-grade code, owned by you, and built to scale.

Question 13

Isn’t bespoke more expensive?

Accepted Answer

Upfront, yes - a bespoke build starts from £2,500 compared to free or low-cost SaaS trials. Over two years, the picture changes. SaaS subscriptions compound (£100/month across a few tools is £2,400/year). Automation platforms charge per task at scale. And none of them do exactly what you need, which costs you time. Bespoke is an investment that pays for itself in efficiency, ownership, and zero subscription creep.

Question 14

How long does it take?

Accepted Answer

Most projects take 2–16 weeks depending on complexity. A focused tool or landing page can launch in 2–4 weeks. A full CRM or dashboard is typically 4–8 weeks. Large-scale platforms with multiple integrations take 8–16 weeks. We scope every project in detail before starting so there are no surprises.

Question 15

What if I already use automation platforms or CRM tools?

Accepted Answer

That’s fine - we’re not here to rip out what’s working. If your current tools genuinely serve you well, we’ll tell you. Where bespoke makes sense is when those tools are holding you back: when you’re spending hours on workarounds, when you need features they don’t offer, or when you’ve outgrown what they can do. We can also build alongside your existing stack and integrate with it.

Question 16

Do I need technical knowledge?

Accepted Answer

Not at all. We handle everything from design to deployment. You bring the knowledge of your business - how your workflows run, what frustrates your team, where time gets wasted. We translate that into software. You’ll be involved in reviews and feedback, but you won’t need to write a line of code or understand any technical jargon.

Question 17

What is AI engineering, in plain English?

Accepted Answer

ChatGPT is a very capable assistant you talk to. AI engineering is putting that kind of capability inside a tool your business runs every day, so it reads your enquiries, scores your deliveries or forecasts your Saturday without anyone typing a prompt. The engineering is what makes it reliable, affordable and yours.

Question 18

Isn’t this just using ChatGPT?

Accepted Answer

Using a model is the easy part. Engineering is everything around it: which model, how you know it is right, what it costs at scale, and how it improves. Without that, you have a demo, not a tool.

Question 19

Do we need our own AI model?

Accepted Answer

Almost never. We build on the best available models and put the engineering into how they are used. We don’t train or fine-tune models, and we’ll tell you if your problem genuinely needs that.

Question 20

What does it cost to run?

Accepted Answer

Usually pence a day at small-business volumes, because we route to the cheapest model that passes the tests and cap daily spend. We show you the real number from production, not an estimate.

Questions, answered

Getting started

Cost and ownership

Bespoke or off the shelf

AI, in plain English

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