Built inside a working business
A job that took sixty hours a month now takes a ten-minute check each morning.
Schematic animation of work I've built. No client data.
- Before: about 60 hours a month.
- After: a ten-minute check each morning.
What I build.
Three examples, with sample content.
Less admin, a trail for every customer.
Schematic animation of work I've built. No client data.
The customer record sits in the middle, joined to the inbox, the task board, the documents and, not built yet, the signature.
- Customers. Every enquiry lands on one customer record. By hand: Search the inbox, then retype the details. Now: A person opens the customer in one place. One record has everything. Next build: Emails logged to the record automatically.
- Efficiency. Details are entered once. By hand: Copy customer details from the record into the task board. Now: The record and the task board stay in step, both ways.
- Checks. A checklist on file for every customer. By hand: Make the PDF. File it in the folder. Add a note. Now: The customer completes the form. The rest happens by itself. Result: A dated PDF in the customer folder and a note on the record.
- Customers. Every document in one place. By hand: Look through drives and inboxes for the right file. Now: One folder for each customer, and the record points at it. Next build: Link them automatically.
- Efficiency. Nothing falls due unnoticed. By hand: Check the board and chase people. Now: A task due this week lands in the owner's inbox.
- Customers. Agreements built from the record. Planned, not live. By hand: Retype the customer's name, services and fees into a contract.
Every step leaves a trail.
- A checklist on file for every customer.
- Steps tracked, with owners and due dates.
- Documents in one folder for each customer.
- Deadline alerts sent to whoever owns the job.
- Agreements built from the record (planned).
Trained on your team's decisions.
A rough look at how a tool for your team would work, and how it differs from a general one.
A concept, not a client build. Sample content.
- Same enquiry, read two ways. A general tool reads the enquiry on its own: The enquiry asks about a bigger order and mentions the last delivery was late.No view on what your team would act on. This tool reads it with your team's past decisions: Asking for: A bigger order. Needs a person: Late delivery last month. Background: Repeated terms text.
- It starts with decisions you've already made. Learned: Request for a bigger order. Approved in part, with a review date. Complaint with no specific request. Replied with a phone call. Change in who the contact is. Passed to the account manager. Learned from your team's own calls, not from general rules.
- And it keeps learning from every call your team makes. New enquiry: Mentions a move to a new site. Needs a person. Added to what it knows. Similar items are flagged from now on. It suggests. A person decides, and what they decide is what it learns from.
- It learns from your team's decisions. Your team still makes them.
Three ways to get more from your business.
More profit from the same team
Admin taken off people's desks, quotes that cover what the job really costs, and knowing which jobs make money.
Less riding on you
Approvals that don't wait for the owner, knowledge out of one person's head, and systems someone else can run.
Numbers everyone can see
Reporting straight from your own records, so you and your managers agree on where things stand.
I build all three. The Read-Out shows which one is worth the most to you.
I trained as a designer.
Design teaches you that what you're asked for isn't always what's needed. So I start by sitting with the people doing the work and working out the numbers. Then I build the fix with your team, and stay until it runs without me.
I've worked across retail, marketing, fundraising and operations, in businesses and charities. MBA. Based in Christchurch.
I've run compliance, anti-money laundering and privacy for a regulated business, including a regulator audit with AI in the process.
What does 1% of your team's time add up to?
Put in how many people you employ and what they earn on average, then pick how much of their time a tool could free up. The figure is what that's worth each year.
$21,000 a year.
That time only turns into profit if your team puts it into paid work, or it saves you hiring someone. The real figure comes from your business's own records.
Where are you at?
Just bought a business
The Read-Out shows what to do first.
Growing fast
More people on the same systems. Find the jobs worth handing to software before the next hire.
Want it to run without you
Take yourself out of the everyday decisions.
Wherever you're at, start with the Read-Out, a two-week check of where your business is today and where it could get to. If your broker sent you here, this is the place to start.
I find the one change worth the most, build it and prove what it added.
- Days 1 to 14: Find.
- Days 15 to 21: Pick.
- Days 22 to 45: Build.
- Days 46 to 75: Measure.
- Days 76 to 90: Hand over.
Days 1–14
Find
I look at your numbers, your calendar and how your team spends its day.
You get: a four-page report showing where your team's time and money go, with a dollar figure on each.
Days 15–21
Pick
You and your managers pick one job to fix.
You get: a one-page sign-off on what gets built.
Days 22–45
Build
I build the tool with your team, using your own data, usually with AI.
You get: a working tool in your team's hands.
Days 46–75
Measure
It runs for thirty days, and I measure it the same way as on day one.
You get: the time and money saved, in writing.
Days 76–90
Hand over
Your team runs it without me.
You get: someone on your team who looks after it, a one-page how-to, and the Read-Out figures rerun so you can see what changed.
If the saving doesn't show up, I say so in writing. You keep everything that was built.
How we can work together.
Two weeksStart here.
The Read-Out
A two-week check of where your business is today and where it could get to. You and your managers each answer twenty questions on your own. I go through your figures and come back with three: yearly profit today, at the size you're aiming for, and at that size with more profit on each dollar of sales. The gap between them is where the work is.
Ninety days
The Shift
The one change worth the most, built, run for thirty days and handed over to your team. Usually that's admin taken off people's desks. You see what it'll add, and how quickly it pays for itself, before you commit to the build.
One day a week, twelve months
Part-time operations manager
I run the day-to-day operations and lead the changes inside your business. For when you need a senior operations person but aren't ready for a full-time one. We rerun the Read-Out figures at the end of the year, so you can see what it added.
Give me a ring.
There's nothing to fill in first. Email or ring, whatever's easiest. If I can help, I'll tell you straight. If I can't, I'll usually know who can.
hello@regan-hines.com