Weekly Business Growth Newsletter

"Everyone's talking about AI replacing jobs. Here's what happened when I spent a year building a boutique digital agency with AI as a genuine partner - not the hype, not the doom, just the reality of what worked and what didn't."

"Most dashboards show you what you want to hear. Here's how to build one that shows you what you need to know - the capacity metrics that reveal whether your business can actually handle growth, and the vanity metrics you should stop checking."

"Most agencies scale by hiring more people and hoping quality survives. Here's why 'just take more clients' is dangerous, how capacity validation works in practice, and why event-based milestones beat arbitrary timelines. This is how you grow a boutique agency without breaking what made it work."

"Restaurant kitchens don't wing it during service - everything is prepped before the first order arrives. Here's how I apply mise en place protocols to client delivery, why I call it The Monday Service, and why this systematic approach only works when you're serving 30 clients maximum, not 300."

"AI is stateless, so every session starts from zero - and documentation doesn't enforce behaviour because it just sits there hoping to be read. Here's how I built The Palantir: 542 wiki pages of systematic intelligence that give AI complete operational consciousness in one command. This is the memory prosthetic for superhuman collaboration."

"Last week I told you AI can't provide strategic direction. But here's what I discovered: the right metaphors prevent AI from drifting into generic corporate-speak. The Palantír, The Conductor, The Monday Service - this isn't whimsy. It's infrastructure for thought."

"Last week I promised to tell you why SQLite is probably enough for your business. Short answer: it handles 304 database tables, complete financial tracking, and a boutique client roster without breaking a sweat. But here's what nobody's talking about while selling AI as magic..."

"Everyone chases cutting-edge frameworks that AI has never seen. I'm building with Django/SQLite/Astro/Tailwind—boring technology that AI knows deeply. That's the competitive advantage nobody sees coming."

"I went back through hundreds of Git commits last week to analyse what I was asking Claude Code six months ago vs what I ask now. The evolution surprised me when I saw it. Six months ago: detailed technical specifications. Today: recognisable patterns with verbal flourish. 'Build a HubSpot Lite lead pipeline' delivers more than 50 functional requirements ever could..."

"Last week someone asked what tech stack powers the £49 websites. When I told them - Astro, Tailwind, standard HTML - they looked disappointed. No Next.js? No microservices? No bleeding edge framework? Just... boring, proven technology that AI tools have seen ten thousand times before..."

"About a month ago, Nick Bastock from the good2great programme recommended Carlos contact me. Escudero Auto needed a website - their one.com site was aging badly. What happened next proves everything about platform liberation..."

"I just published every single website improvement I've made since August. In public. For anyone to see. Including the mistakes, the fixes, and the 'why didn't you do that properly the first time?' moments. Most agencies would rather eat glass..."

"The platform that got me to £1,294 MRR needs architectural changes to reach £15k MRR. Not because it doesn't work - because it works too well. Here's how I'm implementing service layer architecture for 10x growth..."

"Most agencies spend £50-100k on platform development and get half-finished systems. We spent £5.33/day and built something extraordinary..."

"After 26 years in this game, I've learned that building a real business is exactly like completing The Legend of Zelda - every level you unlock makes the next challenge not just possible, but inevitable."

"I was sending beautiful SEO reports that clients never read. The dashboard had impressive graphs. The metrics looked professional..."

"Three years ago, I had a problem. Every week brought another 'game-changing' tool..."

"Why everything in SEO starts with the RIGHT 20 keywords. Plus: How Carlos at Escudero Auto is transforming his business with just 10 focused keywords, the service tier framework that scales perfectly, and why most agencies are targeting the wrong keywords entirely."

"Why AI agents are just reading glasses (not different brains). Plus: From 600 scattered files to 10 strategic documents, Atlantic Rubber's 8,595 monthly search opportunity, and the Swiss Army knife problem costing you thousands."

"From prompt engineering to real results..."

"SPECIAL EDITION: The £509/month I was burning on tools is now building actual results..."

"Agencies are panicking. Here's why..."

"A 30-year-old garden furniture company sold 13% MORE in 2024 and lost £1.2 million doing it. Here's what went wrong - and what it means for any business selling physical products."