I grew up in Scotland. My first real job, while I was still at university in Edinburgh, was being the only IT person for a 25-person building firm spread across five construction sites. Directors, accountants, surveyors, all needing things to just work. I didn't know it then, but that's the job I do now.
Then came twenty years in networks and cybersecurity, across the UK, the US and Australia. Most of it came down to one question: why is this going through all of that when it could go straight there? Find what doesn't need to be there, take it out, and everything runs faster and calmer.
In 2020 I started building a rental business. It grew to more than 150 houses, and somewhere along the way it started running me. Every system, every spreadsheet and every decision came back to me. I was building something for my family and getting less time with them. I know how heavy that gets, and how lonely, because from the outside nobody really sees it.
My business partner says when he wants to go faster, he pedals harder. I look for a different gear.
Then other owners started asking me to look at their businesses. A travel concierge juggling twelve apps. A consultant who couldn't explain what he did. A property business with data everywhere. Every time, the real problem wasn't the technology. It was one person carrying the whole thing on their own.
That's why I do this. I don't think a business should cost you your family, your health or your headspace. If I can help an owner get home for dinner with a clearer head, and a business that's still growing, that's a good day's work.