Where agencies lose time

Agencies rarely struggle with the creative work. The time goes on everything around it:

  • knowing whether a job is making money while it’s still running, not at month end;
  • chasing invoices, with the same reminder going to good payers and slow ones;
  • status updates, timesheets and handovers written up more than once;
  • founders who should be visible in the market but never find the time to write.

We start with the business problem, not the technology. Sometimes the answer is an AI agent. Sometimes it’s a dashboard, an approval step or a decision not to automate at all.

What we’ve built for agencies

A growing creative agency wanted to know, day by day, whether each job was making money. Six months of trying, in-house and with outside finance help, hadn’t produced it. We connected its financial and operational data, including its accounting platform, and built a dashboard that shows profitability for every live job, every day. A job drifting over budget now shows up while there’s still time to pull it back; several have been, recovering around £3,000 of margin each. Read the job profitability case study.

The same agency was losing the best part of a week each month to chasing payments by hand. We grouped customers by how they actually pay and let routine follow-up run on each group’s own timing. Chasing now takes about an hour a week, and customers pay in about a third of the time they used to. Disputed and sensitive accounts stay with a person. Read the collections case study.

For a marketing business, we built a way for the founders to publish in their own voice without starting from a blank page. They still approve every post. Read the founder content case study.

What we won’t automate

Creative judgement, client relationships and pricing calls stay with people. Every Blueprint ends with a written list of what not to automate, and in an agency that list is usually long. The aim is more of your team’s time on the work clients pay for.

How an engagement works

Before anything else, there’s a thirty-minute conversation with a founder. If a Blueprint isn’t the right next step, we’ll say so.

Blueprint · one month

We spend a month inside your workflows and systems and identify where AI would move a number you already care about. You leave with an operating plan you own, whether or not we build it, including a written list of what not to automate.

Build · at least six months

We build the system the Blueprint calls for, connected to the tools you already use, with approvals, spend caps and a log of every action from day one.

Embed · ongoing

Training, an operating rhythm, clear ownership and regular reviews, until your team runs and improves the system without us.

Read the full detail on Blueprint, Build and Embed.

Who you’ll work with

The founders, Trent Peek and Richard Ardis, scope and lead every engagement. Richard spent two decades in advertising, branding and broadcast media, finishing as Managing Director at Global, so agency economics are familiar ground. We’re based in Nottingham and work with agencies across the UK, on site and remotely.

Common questions

Do you work with creative and marketing agencies?

Yes. Two of our published case studies come from one creative agency: daily job profitability and automated invoice chasing. We work with owner-led agencies across the UK, typically with 5 to 50 staff.

Will AI replace our creative team?

That isn't what we build. We take on the admin around the creative work, such as job reporting, invoice chasing and status updates, so your team spends more of its time on the work clients pay for. Creative decisions stay with people.

Which systems do you connect to?

The ones you already use. For the agency in our case studies, that included its accounting platform. The Blueprint maps your tools and data before anything is built.

What does it cost?

The first step is a one-month Blueprint at a fixed fee, set out on our AI strategy consulting page. Build and Embed are scoped from what the Blueprint finds, and you can stop after any step.

What happens in the first conversation?

Thirty minutes with a founder about what keeps costing your agency time. If a Blueprint isn’t the right next step, we’ll say so and tell you what is.

Talk to us

If you run a creative or marketing agency and something in how it runs keeps costing time, book thirty minutes with a founder.