Five reasons businesses call us

After enough first calls, the reasons people book them sort themselves into five. The words change; the problems do not. Here they are in the order we hear them, with what we actually do about each one.

1. “We need to sell online and don’t know where to start.”

The temptation is to buy a website. The mistake is to buy one with no thought for what happens after someone visits it. We build online stores with the follow-up system designed in from the first day — email capture, automated sequences, retargeting — because a store without a funnel is a brochure. This is our e-commerce development and marketing automation service, and the automation is the part that matters.

2. “We’re on Amazon or Walmart and we’re stuck.”

Stuck usually means one of four things: listings that do not convert, a Brand Registry or account health problem, PPC that spends without ranking, or a product that was never going to work. We have run into all four. Marketplace growth is where we spend most of our time, and it is the least glamorous work we sell.

3. “We’re paying for ads and nothing is converting.”

Almost always, the ad is not the problem. The ad did its job — it got a click. What happened after the click is where the money went. Paid ads management, for us, starts with the landing page and the follow-up, and only then goes back to the ad account.

4. “We have a product idea and no supply chain.”

Sourcing is a brand decision disguised as a logistics one. Margin, minimum order, lead time and quality control decide whether the brand can exist at all. We have launched products from factory to first sale and we know which corners cannot be cut.

5. “We’re starting a business and need someone who has done it.”

Startup and business advisory, from people who run businesses rather than only advise on them. Not a framework — a conversation with someone who made the same decision recently.

What the first fifteen minutes are like

You describe where the business is. We ask questions until we understand the actual problem, which is often not the one in the booking note. Then we tell you what we would do if it were ours — including, sometimes, that you do not need us yet, or that the thing you asked about is not the thing that is costing you money.

No packages, no pressure, no proposal until we both think there is a reason for one.