Free tools, plain answers and our thinking.
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Free tools
All toolsStarting a business checklist
What to register, what it costs and when it is due, for the UK, US and EU, each step linked to its official source.
Open the tool →Free toolThe Plan B test
Pick one supplier, system or service you depend on. Five questions tell you how exposed you are and the smallest sensible next step.
Open the tool →Free toolAI readiness check
Nine quick questions on the task, the data, the owner and the outcome. Find out whether to pilot now or do the groundwork first.
Open the tool →Free toolManual process cost calculator
Put a number on one repetitive job: the hours it takes each year, what that time costs, and whether changing it could pay back.
Open the tool →Free toolBuild, buy or connect calculator
Compare buying software, building it, or connecting what you already have, over three and five years, using the quotes in front of you.
Open the tool →Free toolBreak-even and runway calculator
How many sales a month cover your costs, and, if you are not there yet, how long the money in the bank will last.
Open the tool →Free toolProcess review checklist and worksheet
Eight steps to review one process yourself, with a worksheet to map each step, who does it, where it waits and what to fix first.
Open the tool →Glossary
Browse the glossaryPlain-English definitions of the terms founders and owners meet most, each with an example, the UK, US and EU differences where they matter, and an official source.
Companies House and legal
Marketing and search
Technology and AI
Guides
All insightsStrategy
- The price of having no Plan B
- You did not lose to a competitor. You lost to nobody.
- The Companies House deadline everyone is quoting is not in the law
- The business passed every test except a week without its founder
- The customer who bought the company without buying it
- The first ten customers: where new businesses get stuck
Operations and delivery
- The report was right. Nothing happened.
- The work is late because everybody is busy
- The project is nearly finished. It has been for a year.
- Your customer has a second job. You gave it to them.
- What is a fractional project manager, and does your business need one?
- What a business process review actually finds
Technology and AI
- Most people who look you up will never reach your website
- How many businesses actually use AI? What the 2026 data says
- If nobody learns the easy work, who will do the hard work?
- The most automatable job in Britain is the one writing this
- Quantum computing meets AI: a plain-English guide to what’s real, and what to do now
- Is your business AI-ready? A grounded checklist