HOW WE WORK
Straight talking, built in stages, with the founder involved throughout.
Every Ash & Ember project is led by founder Nathan Danson, so the person you first speak to is the person responsible for delivering it. No account managers and no hand-offs.
How a project runs
- Send us a message. A few lines about what’s slowing you down is enough. For more detail, there’s a short questionnaire on the contact page.
- Walk us through the work. We look at the real processes, tools and spreadsheets together, usually on a call, to see how things actually happen rather than how they are written down.
- Agree what to fix first. You receive a plan, a price and a timescale, so you know what you are getting before any work starts.
- Build in usable stages. Each stage is tested with the people who will use it before the next one starts, so nothing arrives as a surprise.
- Hand over and support it. You know how it works, who to call and what happens next. Support and running costs are agreed upfront.
What it costs
Most projects fall somewhere between a couple of thousand pounds and fifty thousand, and take between two weeks and three months. A focused app for a freelancer sits at one end; a full operating system for a growing company sits at the other.
Cost and time
- Typical project: £2,000 to £50,000*
- Timescale: 2 weeks to 3 months*
- After launch: support and running costs available
*Estimates only. Costs and timescales aren’t fixed to these ranges: every project is priced on what it actually needs, with a clear quote before any work starts.
Who we work with
Businesses with clunky, spreadsheet-heavy processes that need fixing but can’t justify a big ERP. Teams that want an expert review of their operations or their AI tools. Freelancers, the self-employed and sports teams who need an app for one job done well. And businesses that want a website that brings in more of the right enquiries.
Most clients are in the UK, Canada is very welcome, and we work remotely with businesses anywhere. Community groups and clubs qualify for discounted rates.
Questions people ask
Do I need to know anything technical?
No. You know your business, and that’s the part we need. Everything is explained in plain English, and you won’t need a technical team to run what we build.
Can you review our processes without building anything?
Yes. A process review looks at how work moves through the business, where the bottlenecks and hidden costs are, and what to fix first. Sometimes the answer is better use of the tools you already have.
Can you work with the tools we already use?
Often, yes. Sometimes the right answer is connecting what you have, sometimes it’s replacing it. That becomes clear once we’ve seen how the business runs.
What if we only need one small thing?
That’s fine. Plenty of projects start with one process and grow from there, and some stay small because that’s all they need to be.
What happens after it goes live?
Ongoing support is available, or just the running costs of keeping it live. Either way it’s agreed upfront, so there are no surprises.
Why not just buy off-the-shelf software?
Sometimes you should, and we’ll tell you if that’s the case. Bespoke makes sense when off-the-shelf tools force you to work around them, or when you’re paying for far more than you use.
Ready to start?
Send a few lines about what you need. Every enquiry goes straight to Nathan, who replies personally.
From one job that needs fixing to the system your whole team works in. Working with clients across the UK, Canada and further afield.