And We Do This: Digital Marketing & Automation

22/09/2026

Fancy a proper conversation instead of another networking event?

The Scottish Borders Business Collective is back on Wednesday 30th September, 7:30pm to 9pm in Kelso.

I started this because I got tired of the usual networking format, standing around with a drink, trying to remember someone's name for the third time, waiting for your turn to "sell."

Business owners deserve a better space to actually think and connect without being pitched to, so that's what SBBC is built around.

I'll be there myself. Numbers are kept deliberately small to keep it relaxed, so if you're thinking about it, don't leave it too late.

Tickets are £10 (plus booking fee):

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/scottish-borders-business-collective-september-2026-meetup-tickets-2000143139974

21/09/2026

Most founders measure success by how needed they are. The ones who actually break free measure it by how little they're needed.

For years I wore the first version like a badge. Clients wanted me on every call. Every quote went through me. Every fix waited until I got to it. It felt like proof I mattered.

It wasn't. It was proof the business only worked when I was in the room.

I've been building these systems for other businesses for over 25 years. Last month I sat the HighLevel Certified Admin exam (following years of being a Keap Certified Partner), not because I needed to prove I could do the work, but because if I'm going to tell clients their business shouldn't depend on them, mine can't depend on me either.

That's the real measure. Not "am I good at this." You already know you are. It's "does this still run when I'm not the one doing it."

Founder Glue is what builds up quietly in between: the tasks, decisions and knowledge that only live in your head. Nobody chooses it on purpose. One quick favour, one "just send it to me," one exception at a time, and a year later the whole thing is held together by you.

Being needed feels good, right up until you try to take a week off, or grow past the size one person can hold together.

The businesses that actually scale aren't run by the most talented founder in the room. They're run by the founder who built themselves out of the room, on purpose.

By the way, if you want to see how much Founder Glue is currently holding your business together, there's a free 4-minute test:

Take The Thirty Days Away Test to see whether your business could survive thirty days without you. Get an overall score, category breakdowns, and clear insight into where your business starts leaking without your day-to-day involvement.

16/09/2026

I'll let you in on a secret: most good advice fails because there's nowhere in the business for it to live, not because the client wasn't listening.

If you're a business coach, consultant or adviser, you'll know this meeting. You spot the problem. You explain it clearly. The client nods, agrees, maybe even writes it down. Three months later you're having the same conversation, almost word for word.

It's tempting to think the client just didn't have the discipline to follow through. Usually, that's not it.

"Follow up your quotes within 48 hours" is great advice. But if the quotes live in three inboxes and the owner's head, there's no place for that advice to land. So it gets remembered for a week, then quietly forgotten, and nobody's really to blame.

You can see the problem clearly. You just don't want to become the person who builds the fix, and you shouldn't have to. That's not your job, and taking it on can cost you the advisory relationship you've worked hard to build.

So the useful question to ask a client isn't "why haven't you done it?" It's "where in the business would this actually happen, and who would notice if it didn't?"

If there's no answer, that's the real finding.

08/09/2026

26 years of doing this, and the same mistake still shows up in almost every business I look at.

Here's how it usually plays out. A business buys a shiny new software, usually a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. They get all excited because it remembers every customer, every quote, every follow-up, so nobody has to hold it all in their head. Fabulous.

Then someone spends a weekend loading in contacts, and they're off to the races - happy days.

But, six months later, half the team's still working from a spreadsheet because nobody actually agreed on what happens after a lead comes in.

The software tool isn't the problem. It's doing exactly what it was built to do. What's missing is the map - the clear journey a client takes from first enquiry to invoice paid to referring others and coming back for more. There's no clarity on who owns each step, and what "done" looks like at each handoff.

Buy the software first, and you're automating a process that doesn't exist yet. Map the client journey first, and the software becomes obvious, because you already know what it needs to do.

If your team's working around it instead of through it, that's not a training problem. It's usually this.

By the way, if you want to see how founder-dependent your business really is right now, there's a free 4-minute test:

https://quiz.clientjourneysystems.com/260908

31/08/2026

Most experts think being indispensable is a compliment. The top 1% treat it as a warning sign.

It sounds like a compliment when a client says "I only trust you with this." It sounds like a compliment when nobody else on the team can answer a query the way you can. It sounds like a compliment when the whole thing quietly depends on you being around.

It isn't one. It's a description of a business with a single point of failure, and the point of failure is you.

I know this because my own version of it used to be three umpteen browser tabs and a folder called "Admin 2024." Nothing was broken. Everything was just routing back through me, because that's what happens when the systems around good work haven't kept pace with the work itself.

The uncomfortable question isn't "am I good at what I do?" You already know you are. The question is what happens to your business in the thirty days after you stop being the one who answers.

Most people never ask it. The ones who do usually don't love the honest answer the first time round.

Could your business survive thirty days without you? Take the test and find out:

Take The Thirty Days Away Test to see whether your business could survive thirty days without you. Get an overall score, category breakdowns, and clear insight into where your business starts leaking without your day-to-day involvement.

17/08/2026

Here's a test worth running on your own business. Not next month, not when things calm down. Today.

If you didn't turn up, would it run? Not "would it survive a week," would it actually run. Enquiries followed up. Clients checked in on. The things that only happen because you personally remember to do them.

For most people I talk to, the honest answer is somewhere between "sort of" and "not really." And that's not a confession; it's just information. It tells you exactly where your business is still running on you rather than running on its own.

Most people find this out the hard way, on a Monday they didn't choose, for reasons that weren't planned. Better to find out on purpose.

If you want a proper answer rather than a gut feeling, there's a free four-minute test that scores exactly this. Link in the comments.

11/08/2026

Most experts I speak to who are running their own business think they've got a marketing problem.

"Andrew, I need more leads"

"I need to be more visible."

"I've heard I need a better funnel (whatever that is) for bringing people in."

Stop the press, but nine times out of ten, that's not actually it. The enquiries are coming in fine. It's what happens after that's the problem.

The follow-up that only happens when you remember to do it. The onboarding that's brilliant when you're the one running it and patchy when you're not. The client who quietly drifts because nobody had a reason to check in - farewell...thanks for dropping by.

That's not a marketing problem...that's a journey problem. And it's a much better problem to have, because it means you're not short of interest; you're short of a system that catches what your attention already can't.

More marketing on top of a leaky journey just means more things slipping through the same gaps, faster.

By the way, I write about this kind of thing most weeks in the Savvy Freedom Dispatch on LinkedIn. If you want it in your inbox, the sign-up's in the comments.

10/08/2026

I've been quiet for a while. Not the accidental kind of quiet, the deliberate kind.

Here's what I've been looking at: how many expert-led businesses run entirely on the person who started them. Not on a system, not on a team, not on anything that would still work if that person had the flu for a fortnight. On memory, relationships, and one person's ability to hold it all in their head and keep moving.

I've come to call that Founder Glue. It's the thing holding the business together when nothing else is, and it feels completely normal because it's always been that way. It's also, quietly, a risk.

So that's what I'll be talking about here from now on. Not services, not offers, just this one idea and what it actually costs the people carrying it. If any of that sounds familiar, you're exactly who I'm writing for.

By the way, if you're curious whether your own business is more founder-dependent than you'd like to admit, there's a free 4-minute test for that. Link in the comments.

28/07/2026

July’s Scottish Borders Business Collective meetup is tomorrow evening at Cafe U in Kelso, and there are still a few tickets available for anyone who would like to join us.

This month, we’ll be welcoming our local MP, John Lamont, for an informal chat with local business owners.

It’s a chance to ask questions, raise concerns, and talk about some of the things affecting businesses here in the Borders, whether that’s costs, recruitment, rural challenges, town centres, transport, digital connectivity, support for small businesses, or anything else that’s on your mind.

As always, this isn’t about awkward networking, pitching, or standing around wondering whether it’s too early to leave without looking rude. It’s a relaxed room of local business owners having proper conversations.

The meetup is tomorrow evening (Wednesday) at Cafe U in Kelso.

If you’d like to come along, grab your ticket - link is in the first comment...

26/06/2026

"The website's fine. It just doesn't bring anyone in."

I've looked at hundreds - actually, probably thousands - of small business websites. The owner nearly always says the same thing. "The site's fine, we're just not getting many enquiries off it."

Ah, but here's the bit they don't see.

A first-time visitor gives you about 7 seconds. In that time they're asking four key questions without realising it.

- What do you actually do?
- Is this for someone like me?
- Why should I care?
- And what do I do next?

Think about how you look at websites yourself. You do that yourself, don't you?

Thing is, most sites answer none of them. You'll have seen it yourself...

The homepage opens with a welcome, a bit about the team, maybe a lovely photo of the building or (my favourite) their vans. It's all about them. Nothing that tells a stranger, fast, that they're in the right place...(unless they're looking to buy vans or buildings).

So they leave...and here's the part that stings. You never find out they were there. No bounced email, no awkward call, nothing. Just a quiet visitor who decided, in 7 seconds, that it wasn't for them.

That's not a website traffic problem - it's a clarity problem.

But, the good news is that clarity is fixable in an afternoon. 🥳🎉

Get four things at the very top, before anyone scrolls: what you do, who it's for, why it matters, and one obvious thing to do next. One button, not five.

Your site doesn't need to be clever...it needs to be obvious.