SmartStart

Find out what your business is really costing you.

Free, practical guides for small businesses in Berkshire and the Thames Valley. Get quotes out the same day, chase invoices without losing your evenings, and stop the business depending on you for everything.

Start with the free guidesGet the SmartStart Pack

The guides are free and complete. No sign-up, no email address.

Start here

Most owners already know something is not right. They just cannot name it. Start here.

  • How long does it take you to get a quote out, and does it happen the same day?
  • If you were away for a week, would quoting stop?
  • Who answers the phone when you cannot?
  • How do your expenses get logged, honestly?
  • What are you still doing at nine in the evening that you were doing at nine in the morning?
  • What work do you turn down because you have not got the capacity to bid for it?

If any of those made you wince, start with the guide that matches it.

Free guides

Start without us

Five guides, written for the job rather than the tool. No sign-up.

  1. 01

    Turning a meeting into actions that actually happen

    The quickest win in this whole set. You could have it working before lunch.

  2. 02

    Getting a quote out the same day

    How to stop quoting at nine at night, without hiring anyone.

  3. 03

    Bidding for work you currently turn down

    There is public sector work you could do. Here is how to stop the paperwork stopping you.

  4. 04

    Chasing invoices without it eating your week

    The money is already yours. Getting it in should not cost you a day a month.

  5. 05

    Getting what is in your head written down before someone leaves

    Every small business has one person who knows how something really works. That is fine, until it is not.

All five guides

Two ways to start

Do it yourself, or have it set up for you

Both routes get you to the same place. The difference is how quickly.

Do it yourself

Freeno email needed

Follow the guides. They are complete and written for the job, not the tool, so you can do all of it yourself.

Read the guides

The SmartStart Pack

£499 + VATper business, set up and working

The five capabilities from the guides, installed on your own systems and working. Versioned and kept up to date. Training on your own live work rather than on examples.

You are buying working tools, not a report.

Start with a free discovery

Learn to use it

Learn it properly, in a week

An eight hour course spread across a week, so nobody loses a working day. One hour to get set up, two teaching sessions, and lab time where you use the tools on your own live jobs rather than on a sample.

You bring a real quote, a real tender or a real backlog. The aim is that you leave with it finished.

Fifteen places per cohort.

About the course

£499 + VAT

per person, classroom

Free discovery

A free discovery before we set anything up

  1. 01

    Answer four quick questions so we know a little before we speak.

  2. 02

    A thirty minute conversation. A real one, with a person. We work through where your time and money actually go, and where the business depends too heavily on you.

  3. 03

    You get a short written summary. The three things worth fixing first, roughly what each is worth, and what fixing it involves.

Answer four quick questions and leave your details. Then pick a time for your free thirty minute call in our calendar.

In your own words. This is the most useful answer on the form.

What do you already use?

Tick any that apply.

Who we are

Based in Reading, working across the Thames Valley

SmartStart is built by someone who has spent twenty-six years fixing this sort of thing.

We use AI to do the repeatable work, which is why the Pack costs what it does. What we do not do is sell you software you do not need. If a problem is fixed by changing how something is done rather than by buying anything, the summary says so.

We are a Microsoft ISV Success Partner and a Claude Partner Network Certified partner.

SmartGenie Ltd. Reading, Berkshire. Microsoft ISV Success Partner and Claude Partner Network Certified partner. Company number 16205473.