Initial Discovery Form

Built around your industry.

Choose your industry and we will ask about the things that actually shape your week. Answer openly and we will walk into your first meeting with at least three practical improvements ready to talk through.

About 15 minutes Quick wins at your first meeting Goes straight to the founders

First, what industry are you in?

We will tailor every question that follows to how your kind of business actually runs.

Can't see your industry? Choose Professional Services, it fits almost everyone.

Filling in as Hospitality

01 You and your business

The basics, so we know who we are talking to.

Your name *

Your role

Business name *

Website

Email *

Phone

How long in business?

Team size

Location

02 Who does what

How the business is put together, on paper and in practice.

Business structure

Who sits at the top, and what does each person actually own?Owners, directors, senior managers, and what each looks after day to day, not just on paper.

Where are the gaps in how the business is organised?Jobs nobody officially owns, one person juggling three roles, or decisions that can only happen when you are in the room. "Everything runs through me" is a very common answer.

03 The numbers, broadly

Ballpark answers are fine. This stays between us and shapes what we recommend.

Roughly, your annual turnover

Which way is revenue heading?

Do you know your margins, and where money is made or lost?Gut feel is fine. Plenty of owners only see this clearly at tax time, and saying so helps us.

How predictable is cashflow, and what squeezes it?Seasonal dips, slow payers, big supplier bills, wage weeks. The pattern matters more than the amounts.

04 Where it hurts

The operational problems worth solving. This is where your quick wins come from.

What is working well right now?The things worth protecting. We build around strengths, not just problems.

What are your biggest frustrations or pain points? *The things that slow you down, cost you time or money, or keep you up at night.

If we could fix just three things in how the business runs, what should they be? *Be specific. These three answers usually become the quick wins we bring to our first meeting.

What do these problems cost you, at a guess?Hours a week, dollars a month, lost jobs, missed calls, staff turnover. A rough guess beats a blank.

What prompted you to reach out now?

05 Marketing and lead generation

Where the next customer comes from. We dig here because it is usually home to the fastest wins.

How do new leads and enquiries arrive today? *Referrals, Google, social media, walk-ins, paid ads, repeat customers. Rank them if you can.

What marketing are you actively doing, and who does it?Website, SEO, Google or Meta ads, socials, email, print, sponsorships. "Not much" is a common and useful answer.

Rough monthly marketing spend

Where do your best customers come from?

What happens after a lead comes in?Who responds, how fast, whether anything is tracked, and where leads quietly die.

What have you tried that did not work?Saves us recommending something you have already spent money proving wrong.

06 Your venue and operations

How the doors open, the covers land and the week runs.

What best describes your business?

Walk us through a typical trading week.Covers or customers per week, peak days, seasonality, and how many venues or sites.

How do bookings and enquiries come in, and who handles them?Phone, walk-ins, website, booking platforms, function enquiries. Include what happens after hours.

How do you build rosters, and how well do they match trade?Who writes them, how long they take, and whether labour cost tracking is live or after the fact.

How do you manage stock, ordering and cost of goods?Stocktake frequency, who orders, and where waste or shrinkage shows up.

What does your functions or events pipeline look like?How enquiries are tracked, quoted and followed up, and how many quietly slip through.

How do you handle reviews, loyalty and repeat business?Google reviews, loyalty, email or SMS to past guests, or nothing formal yet.

07 Your platforms and tools

The systems the business runs on today, and how well they get along.

List everything the business runs on. *POS, bookings, functions, rostering, accounting. e.g. Square, Lightspeed, SevenRooms, Now Book It, Deputy, Tanda, Xero. Whiteboards and paper diaries count.

Which of these talk to each other, and which do not?Where data gets re-typed from one system into another, or lives only in someone's head.

Rough monthly software spend

Which tool would you delete tomorrow if you could?

Which system frustrates the team most, and why?

08 AI and automation

No technical knowledge needed, honest answers beat polished ones.

Where is AI showing up in your business already, officially or unofficially?"A couple of us use ChatGPT for emails" absolutely counts. "Nowhere yet" is a perfectly good answer.

If we could take one task off your plate entirely in the next 90 days, what should it be?Dream big. This tells us exactly where to look first.

09 Goals and practicalities

So we can tailor the conversation and make the next step easy.

Your top goals for the next 12 months

What would make working with us a clear win for you?For example: "ten hours of my time back a week", "an extra job a month", "a business that runs without me".

Do you have a budget in mind?

How soon are you looking to start?

Who else is involved in the decision?

Preferred contact method and best times

Anything else we should know?

Sending or downloading shares your answers with the Back Bone founders, confidentially, so we can prepare for your session. We will be in touch.

Filling in as Legal

01 You and your business

The basics, so we know who we are talking to.

Your name *

Your role

Business name *

Website

Email *

Phone

How long in business?

Team size

Location

02 Who does what

How the business is put together, on paper and in practice.

Business structure

Who sits at the top, and what does each person actually own?Owners, directors, senior managers, and what each looks after day to day, not just on paper.

03 The numbers, broadly

Ballpark answers are fine. This stays between us and shapes what we recommend.

Roughly, your annual turnover

Which way is revenue heading?

Do you know your margins, and where money is made or lost?Gut feel is fine. Plenty of owners only see this clearly at tax time, and saying so helps us.

How predictable is cashflow, and what squeezes it?Seasonal dips, slow payers, big supplier bills, wage weeks. The pattern matters more than the amounts.

04 Where it hurts

The operational problems worth solving. This is where your quick wins come from.

What is working well right now?The things worth protecting. We build around strengths, not just problems.

What are your biggest frustrations or pain points? *The things that slow you down, cost you time or money, or keep you up at night.

If we could fix just three things in how the business runs, what should they be? *Be specific. These three answers usually become the quick wins we bring to our first meeting.

What do these problems cost you, at a guess?Hours a week, dollars a month, lost jobs, missed calls, staff turnover. A rough guess beats a blank.

What prompted you to reach out now?

05 Marketing and lead generation

Where the next customer comes from. We dig here because it is usually home to the fastest wins.

How do new leads and enquiries arrive today? *Referrals, Google, social media, walk-ins, paid ads, repeat customers. Rank them if you can.

What marketing are you actively doing, and who does it?Website, SEO, Google or Meta ads, socials, email, print, sponsorships. "Not much" is a common and useful answer.

Rough monthly marketing spend

Where do your best customers come from?

What happens after a lead comes in?Who responds, how fast, whether anything is tracked, and where leads quietly die.

What have you tried that did not work?Saves us recommending something you have already spent money proving wrong.

06 Your practice

How matters run, where time leaks, and what protects your clients.

Practice areas

How do you mostly charge?

Walk us through a matter from first enquiry to file open.Intake, conflict check, engagement letter, and how long that usually takes.

Where does unbilled time leak in your practice?Short calls, emails, travel, write-offs at billing time. Most firms lose 10 to 20 percent here.

How much of the week goes into drafting, and how are precedents managed?Letters, agreements, court documents. Are precedents current and easy to find, or scattered?

How do you handle legal research and staying current?

What are your obligations or concerns around confidentiality and AI?Privilege, client confidentiality, professional rules. We design around these from day one.

07 Your platforms and tools

The systems the business runs on today, and how well they get along.

List everything the business runs on. *Practice management, documents, dictation, accounting. e.g. LEAP, Smokeball, Actionstep, NetDocuments, Xero, or Word and a shared drive.

Which of these talk to each other, and which do not?Where data gets re-typed from one system into another, or lives only in someone's head.

Rough monthly software spend

Which tool would you delete tomorrow if you could?

Which system frustrates the team most, and why?

08 AI and automation

No technical knowledge needed, honest answers beat polished ones.

Where is AI showing up in your business already, officially or unofficially?"A couple of us use ChatGPT for emails" absolutely counts. "Nowhere yet" is a perfectly good answer.

If we could take one task off your plate entirely in the next 90 days, what should it be?Dream big. This tells us exactly where to look first.

09 Goals and practicalities

So we can tailor the conversation and make the next step easy.

Your top goals for the next 12 months

What would make working with us a clear win for you?For example: "ten hours of my time back a week", "an extra job a month", "a business that runs without me".

Do you have a budget in mind?

How soon are you looking to start?

Who else is involved in the decision?

Preferred contact method and best times

Anything else we should know?

Sending or downloading shares your answers with the Back Bone founders, confidentially, so we can prepare for your session. We will be in touch.

Filling in as Accounting

01 You and your business

The basics, so we know who we are talking to.

Your name *

Your role

Business name *

Website

Email *

Phone

How long in business?

Team size

Location

02 Who does what

How the business is put together, on paper and in practice.

Business structure

Who sits at the top, and what does each person actually own?Owners, directors, senior managers, and what each looks after day to day, not just on paper.

03 The numbers, broadly

Ballpark answers are fine. This stays between us and shapes what we recommend.

Roughly, your annual turnover

Which way is revenue heading?

Do you know your margins, and where money is made or lost?Gut feel is fine. Plenty of owners only see this clearly at tax time, and saying so helps us.

How predictable is cashflow, and what squeezes it?Seasonal dips, slow payers, big supplier bills, wage weeks. The pattern matters more than the amounts.

04 Where it hurts

The operational problems worth solving. This is where your quick wins come from.

What is working well right now?The things worth protecting. We build around strengths, not just problems.

What are your biggest frustrations or pain points? *The things that slow you down, cost you time or money, or keep you up at night.

If we could fix just three things in how the business runs, what should they be? *Be specific. These three answers usually become the quick wins we bring to our first meeting.

What do these problems cost you, at a guess?Hours a week, dollars a month, lost jobs, missed calls, staff turnover. A rough guess beats a blank.

What prompted you to reach out now?

05 Marketing and lead generation

Where the next customer comes from. We dig here because it is usually home to the fastest wins.

How do new leads and enquiries arrive today? *Referrals, Google, social media, walk-ins, paid ads, repeat customers. Rank them if you can.

What marketing are you actively doing, and who does it?Website, SEO, Google or Meta ads, socials, email, print, sponsorships. "Not much" is a common and useful answer.

Rough monthly marketing spend

Where do your best customers come from?

What happens after a lead comes in?Who responds, how fast, whether anything is tracked, and where leads quietly die.

What have you tried that did not work?Saves us recommending something you have already spent money proving wrong.

06 Your firm

The service mix, the crunch, and where the manual hours go.

What is your service mix today, and where do you want it to be?Compliance vs advisory vs bookkeeping. Rough percentages are perfect.

Roughly how many clients?

Partners and staff split

What does BAS and EOFY crunch look like for the team?Overtime, bottlenecks, lodgement deadlines, the jobs that always run late.

Where does the most manual time go?Chasing client documents, coding, workpapers, data entry, rework.

How do you price, and where does scope creep hurt?Fixed fee, hourly, value pricing. The jobs that always blow the budget.

How do you manage workflow and job status across the firm?Practice management software, spreadsheets, or the partners' heads.

What is your ambition on advisory services?Cashflow forecasting, virtual CFO, management reporting, or simply not the goal.

07 Your platforms and tools

The systems the business runs on today, and how well they get along.

List everything the business runs on. *Ledger, practice management, workpapers, document collection. e.g. Xero, MYOB, XPM, FYI, Karbon, Dext, and the spreadsheets in between.

Which of these talk to each other, and which do not?Where data gets re-typed from one system into another, or lives only in someone's head.

Rough monthly software spend

Which tool would you delete tomorrow if you could?

Which system frustrates the team most, and why?

08 AI and automation

No technical knowledge needed, honest answers beat polished ones.

Where is AI showing up in your business already, officially or unofficially?"A couple of us use ChatGPT for emails" absolutely counts. "Nowhere yet" is a perfectly good answer.

If we could take one task off your plate entirely in the next 90 days, what should it be?Dream big. This tells us exactly where to look first.

09 Goals and practicalities

So we can tailor the conversation and make the next step easy.

Your top goals for the next 12 months

What would make working with us a clear win for you?For example: "ten hours of my time back a week", "an extra job a month", "a business that runs without me".

Do you have a budget in mind?

How soon are you looking to start?

Who else is involved in the decision?

Preferred contact method and best times

Anything else we should know?

Sending or downloading shares your answers with the Back Bone founders, confidentially, so we can prepare for your session. We will be in touch.

Filling in as Building

01 You and your business

The basics, so we know who we are talking to.

Your name *

Your role

Business name *

Website

Email *

Phone

How long in business?

Team size

Location

02 Who does what

How the business is put together, on paper and in practice.

Business structure

Who sits at the top, and what does each person actually own?Owners, directors, senior managers, and what each looks after day to day, not just on paper.

03 The numbers, broadly

Ballpark answers are fine. This stays between us and shapes what we recommend.

Roughly, your annual turnover

Which way is revenue heading?

Do you know your margins, and where money is made or lost?Gut feel is fine. Plenty of owners only see this clearly at tax time, and saying so helps us.

How predictable is cashflow, and what squeezes it?Seasonal dips, slow payers, big supplier bills, wage weeks. The pattern matters more than the amounts.

04 Where it hurts

The operational problems worth solving. This is where your quick wins come from.

What is working well right now?The things worth protecting. We build around strengths, not just problems.

What are your biggest frustrations or pain points? *The things that slow you down, cost you time or money, or keep you up at night.

If we could fix just three things in how the business runs, what should they be? *Be specific. These three answers usually become the quick wins we bring to our first meeting.

What do these problems cost you, at a guess?Hours a week, dollars a month, lost jobs, missed calls, staff turnover. A rough guess beats a blank.

What prompted you to reach out now?

05 Marketing and lead generation

Where the next customer comes from. We dig here because it is usually home to the fastest wins.

How do new leads and enquiries arrive today? *Referrals, Google, social media, walk-ins, paid ads, repeat customers. Rank them if you can.

What marketing are you actively doing, and who does it?Website, SEO, Google or Meta ads, socials, email, print, sponsorships. "Not much" is a common and useful answer.

Rough monthly marketing spend

Where do your best customers come from?

What happens after a lead comes in?Who responds, how fast, whether anything is tracked, and where leads quietly die.

What have you tried that did not work?Saves us recommending something you have already spent money proving wrong.

06 Your projects and pipeline

From quote to final claim, and everything that slips in between.

What kind of work?

Typical project value

Jobs running at once

Walk us through how a quote gets done today.Who measures and estimates, how long a quote takes, and your rough win rate.

How are variations captured and charged?Paper, texts, verbal on site. Uncaptured variations are usually the biggest leak in a building business.

How do you schedule trades and handle delays?Whiteboard, phone calls, software. What happens when one trade slips a week.

How do progress claims and invoicing run, and how is cashflow?Who raises claims, how fast they go out, and how long clients take to pay.

How do you handle safety and compliance paperwork?SWMS, inductions, certificates, site photos. Where it all lives and who chases it.

07 Your platforms and tools

The systems the business runs on today, and how well they get along.

List everything the business runs on. *Estimating, job management, scheduling, safety, accounting. e.g. Buildertrend, simPRO, Tradify, Procore, HammerTech, Xero, or spreadsheets and a ute dashboard.

Which of these talk to each other, and which do not?Where data gets re-typed from one system into another, or lives only in someone's head.

Rough monthly software spend

Which tool would you delete tomorrow if you could?

Which system frustrates the team most, and why?

08 AI and automation

No technical knowledge needed, honest answers beat polished ones.

Where is AI showing up in your business already, officially or unofficially?"A couple of us use ChatGPT for emails" absolutely counts. "Nowhere yet" is a perfectly good answer.

If we could take one task off your plate entirely in the next 90 days, what should it be?Dream big. This tells us exactly where to look first.

09 Goals and practicalities

So we can tailor the conversation and make the next step easy.

Your top goals for the next 12 months

What would make working with us a clear win for you?For example: "ten hours of my time back a week", "an extra job a month", "a business that runs without me".

Do you have a budget in mind?

How soon are you looking to start?

Who else is involved in the decision?

Preferred contact method and best times

Anything else we should know?

Sending or downloading shares your answers with the Back Bone founders, confidentially, so we can prepare for your session. We will be in touch.

Filling in as Pharmacy

01 You and your business

The basics, so we know who we are talking to.

Your name *

Your role

Business name *

Website

Email *

Phone

How long in business?

Team size

Location

02 Who does what

How the business is put together, on paper and in practice.

Business structure

Who sits at the top, and what does each person actually own?Owners, directors, senior managers, and what each looks after day to day, not just on paper.

03 The numbers, broadly

Ballpark answers are fine. This stays between us and shapes what we recommend.

Roughly, your annual turnover

Which way is revenue heading?

Do you know your margins, and where money is made or lost?Gut feel is fine. Plenty of owners only see this clearly at tax time, and saying so helps us.

How predictable is cashflow, and what squeezes it?Seasonal dips, slow payers, big supplier bills, wage weeks. The pattern matters more than the amounts.

04 Where it hurts

The operational problems worth solving. This is where your quick wins come from.

What is working well right now?The things worth protecting. We build around strengths, not just problems.

What are your biggest frustrations or pain points? *The things that slow you down, cost you time or money, or keep you up at night.

If we could fix just three things in how the business runs, what should they be? *Be specific. These three answers usually become the quick wins we bring to our first meeting.

What do these problems cost you, at a guess?Hours a week, dollars a month, lost jobs, missed calls, staff turnover. A rough guess beats a blank.

What prompted you to reach out now?

05 Marketing and lead generation

Where the next customer comes from. We dig here because it is usually home to the fastest wins.

How do new leads and enquiries arrive today? *Referrals, Google, social media, walk-ins, paid ads, repeat customers. Rank them if you can.

What marketing are you actively doing, and who does it?Website, SEO, Google or Meta ads, socials, email, print, sponsorships. "Not much" is a common and useful answer.

Rough monthly marketing spend

Where do your best customers come from?

What happens after a lead comes in?Who responds, how fast, whether anything is tracked, and where leads quietly die.

What have you tried that did not work?Saves us recommending something you have already spent money proving wrong.

06 Your pharmacy

Dispensary, retail and the compliance load in between.

Number of pharmacies

Scripts per day, roughly

What does dispensary workload look like at peak?Queues, wait times, phone interruptions, owing scripts.

How do you manage stock, ordering and expiry?Who orders, how often, dead stock, out-of-stocks and returns.

Which professional services do you offer, and which actually pay their way?Vaccinations, Webster packs, MedsChecks, sleep clinics, compounding.

How is front-of-shop retail performing?Categories that move, layout, and whether the team has selling conversations.

How do you stay in touch with patients?Script reminders, loyalty program, SMS or app, or nothing formal yet.

How do you keep on top of compliance?QCPP, S8 registers, staff training records, and who owns each.

07 Your platforms and tools

The systems the business runs on today, and how well they get along.

List everything the business runs on. *Dispense, POS, ordering, rosters, accounting. e.g. Fred, Z Dispense, Minfos, Deputy, Xero, and what they do not talk to.

Which of these talk to each other, and which do not?Where data gets re-typed from one system into another, or lives only in someone's head.

Rough monthly software spend

Which tool would you delete tomorrow if you could?

Which system frustrates the team most, and why?

08 AI and automation

No technical knowledge needed, honest answers beat polished ones.

Where is AI showing up in your business already, officially or unofficially?"A couple of us use ChatGPT for emails" absolutely counts. "Nowhere yet" is a perfectly good answer.

If we could take one task off your plate entirely in the next 90 days, what should it be?Dream big. This tells us exactly where to look first.

09 Goals and practicalities

So we can tailor the conversation and make the next step easy.

Your top goals for the next 12 months

What would make working with us a clear win for you?For example: "ten hours of my time back a week", "an extra job a month", "a business that runs without me".

Do you have a budget in mind?

How soon are you looking to start?

Who else is involved in the decision?

Preferred contact method and best times

Anything else we should know?

Sending or downloading shares your answers with the Back Bone founders, confidentially, so we can prepare for your session. We will be in touch.

Filling in as Real Estate

01 You and your business

The basics, so we know who we are talking to.

Your name *

Your role

Business name *

Website

Email *

Phone

How long in business?

Team size

Location

02 Who does what

How the business is put together, on paper and in practice.

Business structure

Who sits at the top, and what does each person actually own?Owners, directors, senior managers, and what each looks after day to day, not just on paper.

03 The numbers, broadly

Ballpark answers are fine. This stays between us and shapes what we recommend.

Roughly, your annual turnover

Which way is revenue heading?

Do you know your margins, and where money is made or lost?Gut feel is fine. Plenty of owners only see this clearly at tax time, and saying so helps us.

How predictable is cashflow, and what squeezes it?Seasonal dips, slow payers, big supplier bills, wage weeks. The pattern matters more than the amounts.

04 Where it hurts

The operational problems worth solving. This is where your quick wins come from.

What is working well right now?The things worth protecting. We build around strengths, not just problems.

What are your biggest frustrations or pain points? *The things that slow you down, cost you time or money, or keep you up at night.

If we could fix just three things in how the business runs, what should they be? *Be specific. These three answers usually become the quick wins we bring to our first meeting.

What do these problems cost you, at a guess?Hours a week, dollars a month, lost jobs, missed calls, staff turnover. A rough guess beats a blank.

What prompted you to reach out now?

05 Marketing and lead generation

Where the next customer comes from. We dig here because it is usually home to the fastest wins.

How do new leads and enquiries arrive today? *Referrals, Google, social media, walk-ins, paid ads, repeat customers. Rank them if you can.

What marketing are you actively doing, and who does it?Website, SEO, Google or Meta ads, socials, email, print, sponsorships. "Not much" is a common and useful answer.

Rough monthly marketing spend

Where do your best customers come from?

What happens after a lead comes in?Who responds, how fast, whether anything is tracked, and where leads quietly die.

What have you tried that did not work?Saves us recommending something you have already spent money proving wrong.

06 Your agency

Listings, landlords and the database in between.

What side of the business?

Team size, agents and PMs

Properties under management

Where do listings and leads come from, and how fast do you respond?Portals, database, referrals, appraisals. Speed to lead usually decides who wins.

Walk us through appraisal to listing.How appraisals are booked, prepared, presented and followed up, and your conversion rate.

What eats your property managers' week?Maintenance, arrears, routine inspections, owner queries, tribunal prep.

How do you keep vendors and owners informed?Vendor reports, owner updates, and how long they take to produce each week.

How do you work your database between transactions?Anniversary touches, market updates, past buyer nurture, or mostly untouched.

07 Your platforms and tools

The systems the business runs on today, and how well they get along.

List everything the business runs on. *CRM, PM software, portals, inspections, trust accounting. e.g. Agentbox, VaultRE, PropertyMe, PropertyTree, Console, Inspection Express.

Which of these talk to each other, and which do not?Where data gets re-typed from one system into another, or lives only in someone's head.

Rough monthly software spend

Which tool would you delete tomorrow if you could?

Which system frustrates the team most, and why?

08 AI and automation

No technical knowledge needed, honest answers beat polished ones.

Where is AI showing up in your business already, officially or unofficially?"A couple of us use ChatGPT for emails" absolutely counts. "Nowhere yet" is a perfectly good answer.

If we could take one task off your plate entirely in the next 90 days, what should it be?Dream big. This tells us exactly where to look first.

09 Goals and practicalities

So we can tailor the conversation and make the next step easy.

Your top goals for the next 12 months

What would make working with us a clear win for you?For example: "ten hours of my time back a week", "an extra job a month", "a business that runs without me".

Do you have a budget in mind?

How soon are you looking to start?

Who else is involved in the decision?

Preferred contact method and best times

Anything else we should know?

Sending or downloading shares your answers with the Back Bone founders, confidentially, so we can prepare for your session. We will be in touch.

Filling in as Marketing

01 You and your business

The basics, so we know who we are talking to.

Your name *

Your role

Business name *

Website

Email *

Phone

How long in business?

Team size

Location

02 Who does what

How the business is put together, on paper and in practice.

Business structure

Who sits at the top, and what does each person actually own?Owners, directors, senior managers, and what each looks after day to day, not just on paper.

03 The numbers, broadly

Ballpark answers are fine. This stays between us and shapes what we recommend.

Roughly, your annual turnover

Which way is revenue heading?

Do you know your margins, and where money is made or lost?Gut feel is fine. Plenty of owners only see this clearly at tax time, and saying so helps us.

How predictable is cashflow, and what squeezes it?Seasonal dips, slow payers, big supplier bills, wage weeks. The pattern matters more than the amounts.

04 Where it hurts

The operational problems worth solving. This is where your quick wins come from.

What is working well right now?The things worth protecting. We build around strengths, not just problems.

What are your biggest frustrations or pain points? *The things that slow you down, cost you time or money, or keep you up at night.

If we could fix just three things in how the business runs, what should they be? *Be specific. These three answers usually become the quick wins we bring to our first meeting.

What do these problems cost you, at a guess?Hours a week, dollars a month, lost jobs, missed calls, staff turnover. A rough guess beats a blank.

What prompted you to reach out now?

05 Marketing and lead generation

Where the next customer comes from. We dig here because it is usually home to the fastest wins.

How do new leads and enquiries arrive today? *Referrals, Google, social media, walk-ins, paid ads, repeat customers. Rank them if you can.

What marketing are you actively doing, and who does it?Website, SEO, Google or Meta ads, socials, email, print, sponsorships. "Not much" is a common and useful answer.

Rough monthly marketing spend

Where do your best customers come from?

What happens after a lead comes in?Who responds, how fast, whether anything is tracked, and where leads quietly die.

What have you tried that did not work?Saves us recommending something you have already spent money proving wrong.

06 Your agency

Where delivery bottlenecks, margins leak and reporting eats the month.

What services do you sell, and what is the revenue split?e.g. socials, SEO, ads, web builds, brand. Retainer vs project.

Active clients

Team size, including freelancers

Where does delivery bottleneck?Content production, approvals, design, dev, reporting. The thing that always runs late.

How long does client reporting take each month, and who does it?Per client and in total. This is usually the fastest win inside an agency.

How does new business come in, and what does a proposal take to produce?Referrals, inbound, outbound, close rate, and the hours behind each proposal.

Where does scope creep hit your margins?The little extras, endless revision rounds, out-of-scope requests nobody bills.

07 Your platforms and tools

The systems the business runs on today, and how well they get along.

List everything the business runs on. *PM, creative, reporting, CRM, finance. e.g. Asana, ClickUp, Adobe CC, Canva, Looker Studio, HubSpot, Xero, and the spreadsheets holding it together.

Which of these talk to each other, and which do not?Where data gets re-typed from one system into another, or lives only in someone's head.

Rough monthly software spend

Which tool would you delete tomorrow if you could?

Which system frustrates the team most, and why?

08 AI and automation

No technical knowledge needed, honest answers beat polished ones.

Where is AI showing up in your business already, officially or unofficially?"A couple of us use ChatGPT for emails" absolutely counts. "Nowhere yet" is a perfectly good answer.

If we could take one task off your plate entirely in the next 90 days, what should it be?Dream big. This tells us exactly where to look first.

09 Goals and practicalities

So we can tailor the conversation and make the next step easy.

Your top goals for the next 12 months

What would make working with us a clear win for you?For example: "ten hours of my time back a week", "an extra job a month", "a business that runs without me".

Do you have a budget in mind?

How soon are you looking to start?

Who else is involved in the decision?

Preferred contact method and best times

Anything else we should know?

Sending or downloading shares your answers with the Back Bone founders, confidentially, so we can prepare for your session. We will be in touch.

Filling in as Professional Services

01 You and your business

The basics, so we know who we are talking to.

Your name *

Your role

Business name *

Website

Email *

Phone

How long in business?

Team size

Location

02 Who does what

How the business is put together, on paper and in practice.

Business structure

Who sits at the top, and what does each person actually own?Owners, directors, senior managers, and what each looks after day to day, not just on paper.

03 The numbers, broadly

Ballpark answers are fine. This stays between us and shapes what we recommend.

Roughly, your annual turnover

Which way is revenue heading?

Do you know your margins, and where money is made or lost?Gut feel is fine. Plenty of owners only see this clearly at tax time, and saying so helps us.

How predictable is cashflow, and what squeezes it?Seasonal dips, slow payers, big supplier bills, wage weeks. The pattern matters more than the amounts.

04 Where it hurts

The operational problems worth solving. This is where your quick wins come from.

What is working well right now?The things worth protecting. We build around strengths, not just problems.

What are your biggest frustrations or pain points? *The things that slow you down, cost you time or money, or keep you up at night.

If we could fix just three things in how the business runs, what should they be? *Be specific. These three answers usually become the quick wins we bring to our first meeting.

What do these problems cost you, at a guess?Hours a week, dollars a month, lost jobs, missed calls, staff turnover. A rough guess beats a blank.

What prompted you to reach out now?

05 Marketing and lead generation

Where the next customer comes from. We dig here because it is usually home to the fastest wins.

How do new leads and enquiries arrive today? *Referrals, Google, social media, walk-ins, paid ads, repeat customers. Rank them if you can.

What marketing are you actively doing, and who does it?Website, SEO, Google or Meta ads, socials, email, print, sponsorships. "Not much" is a common and useful answer.

Rough monthly marketing spend

Where do your best customers come from?

What happens after a lead comes in?Who responds, how fast, whether anything is tracked, and where leads quietly die.

What have you tried that did not work?Saves us recommending something you have already spent money proving wrong.

06 Your practice

How the work is won, delivered and billed.

What do you do, and who do you do it for?Your services and your typical client, in plain English.

How do you charge?

Walk us through winning a new client.Enquiry, proposal, negotiation, sign-off, and how long each stage takes.

Which documents or deliverables do you produce over and over?Proposals, reports, contracts, presentations. The 80 percent that repeats.

Where does admin eat into delivery time?Scheduling, invoicing, chasing approvals, status updates, meeting notes.

Is there a ceiling on your capacity right now?Utilisation, hiring, the point where more clients would break things.

07 Your platforms and tools

The systems the business runs on today, and how well they get along.

List everything the business runs on. *CRM, project tools, documents, accounting. e.g. HubSpot, Asana, SharePoint, Xero, and the spreadsheets in between.

Which of these talk to each other, and which do not?Where data gets re-typed from one system into another, or lives only in someone's head.

Rough monthly software spend

Which tool would you delete tomorrow if you could?

Which system frustrates the team most, and why?

08 AI and automation

No technical knowledge needed, honest answers beat polished ones.

Where is AI showing up in your business already, officially or unofficially?"A couple of us use ChatGPT for emails" absolutely counts. "Nowhere yet" is a perfectly good answer.

If we could take one task off your plate entirely in the next 90 days, what should it be?Dream big. This tells us exactly where to look first.

09 Goals and practicalities

So we can tailor the conversation and make the next step easy.

Your top goals for the next 12 months

What would make working with us a clear win for you?For example: "ten hours of my time back a week", "an extra job a month", "a business that runs without me".

Do you have a budget in mind?

How soon are you looking to start?

Who else is involved in the decision?

Preferred contact method and best times

Anything else we should know?

Sending or downloading shares your answers with the Back Bone founders, confidentially, so we can prepare for your session. We will be in touch.

Thank you. That is exactly what we needed.

Your answers are with us, and we will come to your session with real thinking already done.