Quick personal announcement, for anyone who's followed this page or knows me from around Chesham: I've launched a second thing alongside Markus IT Support. It's called OptimisedLead, and it's an AI advisory for local business owners. Here's what it is and, more importantly, why.
Business first, thirty years of it, tech second
I've been coding since I was a kid, on a ZX81, long before any of this AI wave existed. But the bigger part of my background isn't technical — it's thirty-odd years actually running and advising businesses. Door-to-door sales and telesales early on. Corporate stretches at Microsoft, Applix, and Salesforce. Building a UK sales team from nothing at an agency called Selling People, then running offshore operations at real scale — up to 8,000 agents worldwide — at Ellery Communications. Website and lead-generation consultancy, a CRM I built myself, a spell in venture capital. The full version is on the OptimisedLead About page if you want it.
Alongside all of that, I've genuinely loved tech the whole way through — not as a hobby I picked up recently because AI got trendy, but hands-on, current practice with exactly what these tools can and can't do today.
The gap I kept noticing
Talking to customers here, and to people in the local business groups I'm part of, the same thing keeps coming up: nobody knows who to actually trust for AI advice. It's either hype merchants selling a chatbot as the answer to everything, or jargon nobody's translated into "what does this actually do for my business." Most owners I talk to are switched-on, successful people who just haven't had anyone give them a straight, plain-English read on where AI genuinely helps and where it's a waste of money.
What I'm actually doing about it
OptimisedLead starts with your business, not with a product. No chatbot pitch — I built one for this business, actually, and pulled it a while later because it did more harm than good. That's a whole story in itself: why I don't recommend chatbots, straight from the mistake.
The actual offer is simple: a free chat first, no pitch. If it's worth going further, a Working Diagnosis — a proper look at your actual bottlenecks, based on your real working day, for £199 (refunded off your first invoice if you engage me afterwards). You walk away with a written report and one small, ready-to-use AI tool, whether you go further or not.
One free slot, right now, for someone I'd actually see
Since this is going out to people I already know or who know Markus IT Support, here's a direct one: I'm currently offering one full Working Diagnosis free, for one local business that's genuinely sceptical of AI or doesn't really get what it means for them. In exchange, I write up the honest, public story of how it goes. Full details and how to apply here — if that's you, or someone you know, get in touch.
Follow along
I'll keep running Markus IT Support exactly as before — nothing here changes. OptimisedLead is the place I'll be writing honestly about what's actually working with AI for small businesses, and what isn't, the same way I've tried to run this site.