Most business owners set revenue goals. “£10k/month by Q3.” “Double revenue this year.” The goal isn’t the problem. The problem is what happens next — which is usually not much, because a number isn’t a plan. A system is.

The Reverse-Engineering Exercise

Start with the number. Say you want £10,000 per month. Now work backwards:

  • At £2,000 per project, you need 5 clients per month.
  • If 1 in 5 leads converts, you need 25 qualified leads.
  • If 1 in 50 people who see your content enquire, you need 1,250 impressions.

Now you have something actionable. Not a goal, but a funnel — and every stage of that funnel is a system with inputs and outputs that you can measure, optimise, and automate.

The Five Systems Every Service Business Needs

Once you map the revenue funnel, the underlying systems become visible. Every service business runs on five of them:

Lead System

How do people find you? Content, referrals, ads, LinkedIn. One channel done properly beats five channels done poorly.

Booking System

How does a lead get on a call? Frictionless. One link, one step, automated confirmation and reminders.

Onboarding System

How does a prospect become a client? Proposal, contract, payment, welcome — all systematised, not ad hoc.

Delivery System

How do you do the work? What’s the standard process? What gets documented? What can be automated?

Retention System

How do clients stay, expand their engagement, or refer you? This is where most businesses leak the most value — and where AI delivers outsized returns.

Each system has one job. Each job has inputs and outputs. When you map it, you can see exactly where the gaps are. And gaps are where revenue leaks — and where AI delivers its highest leverage.

Where AI Fits Into This

AI doesn’t replace systems thinking. It amplifies it. Once you know where your gaps are, you can build automation that actually addresses the problem rather than adding complexity on top of it.

Most businesses don’t have a marketing problem. They have a systems problem. Spending more on ads into a broken funnel just accelerates the leak.

Some of the highest-leverage AI applications by system:

  • Lead system: AI-driven lead scoring that ranks inbound enquiries by conversion probability based on historical patterns.
  • Booking system: Automated follow-up sequences that nurture leads who expressed interest but didn’t book.
  • Delivery system: AI that surfaces relevant client history, past interactions, and key data at the point of need — not after 20 minutes of searching.
  • Retention system: Churn prediction that flags clients showing early disengagement signals, before they leave.

The Diagnostic Question

If you want to know where to start, ask yourself: what’s the weakest system in my business right now? Where do things fall through the gaps? Where does something that should happen automatically not happen?

That’s your entry point. Not the flashiest AI use case. The most painful, consistent bottleneck. Fix the system. Then add intelligence to it. That’s the sequence that compounds.

Map Your Systems in 60 Minutes

The architecture audit is a free, structured conversation that maps your current systems, identifies the gaps, and proposes the infrastructure to close them.

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Available to UK service firms. Remote or Cumbria-based.