I've been the client. I know what goes wrong.
Fifteen years running technology inside retail businesses, latterly as IT Director of a recommerce group.
£120m+ group turnover at World of Books as IT Director
Why I work on my own
I take on a small number of clients and do the work myself.
I have sat on the buying side of a lot of agency relationships. The pattern that frustrated me was consistent: the person who understood the problem in the sales meeting was never the person who did the work, and by the third month I was explaining my own business back to a junior developer.
So the arrangement here is deliberately narrow. I take on a small number of clients, I do the work myself, and when I am not the right person I say so on the first call rather than three weeks into a discovery phase.
The trade is that I cannot scale. If you need eight people on a project next month, this is not the right fit, and I will usually know who is.
How I'm different from a typical agency or developer
The same frustrations come up on almost every first call with a founder, CMO or director. This is what I do about each of them.
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You explain the business, and the developers build something else.
I turn what the business needs into a brief developers can build from, and I check the work against it.
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You can't tell whether a quote is fair.
I tell you what's missing, what's padded and what's genuinely hard. I take no commission from any platform, agency or app.
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The person who sold you the project is not the person doing it.
You deal with me from the first call to handover. I scope the work and I do it.
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Updates full of jargon that you cannot act on.
Plain English, and one number agreed up front that the work is measured against. Conversion, speed, hours saved.
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Suppliers who miss the mark, and nobody tells them.
I call it when a partner's work is not good enough, and I do it in a way that keeps them working with you.
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Projects that drift, and cost more than anyone agreed.
Work ships in stages that stand on their own, so you can stop at the end of any of them.
My background
Eleven years at World of Books, from website manager to IT Director, then consulting and building Audio Trader.
- 2023 to now
Consultant, and co-founder of Audio Trader
Technology lead, fractional or on site, for retailers including Andertons, Monk and Rendezvous Cinema. Alongside it, co-founder and director of Audio Trader, a music gear recommerce business built on a pricing platform I wrote. That work is the case studies on this site.
- 2011 to 2022
Website Manager through to IT Director, World of Books
Launched the direct channel from nothing and grew it to over half of a £120m group’s turnover. Replatformed to a headless stack in three months, co-founded Ziffit, built a technology team of 75, and took the group through two private equity sales.
The practical details
The questions that come up on every first call.
- Based
- Worthing, West Sussex. Client sites across the south east in person, anywhere in the UK otherwise.
- Typical client
- Online retailer turning over £5k to £50m, usually with a small internal team.
- Commitments
- No commission from any platform, agency or app. If I recommend something, it is because it is right, not because it pays.
- Availability
- Usually two to four weeks out for new work, sooner for an audit or a second opinion.
Want to talk it through?
Twenty minutes, no charge. You will get a straight answer on whether I can help.