Software built for small businesses in Liverpool
I build simple software that does the job your spreadsheets and email chains do now, only faster and without the mistakes. For small businesses across the Liverpool City Region.
No charge for the first chat, the process review or the proposal. You only pay for the build.
Signs you’ve got one of these
Still running the business on Excel, an old database and email? Somewhere in your business there’s a job that gets done by hand, every week, because that’s how it’s always been done. Someone types figures from one system into another. Someone gathers information from three different websites into one spreadsheet. Someone chases leads or bookings by email and keeps track of them in a document only they understand. Somewhere there’s an old Access database or a paper form that nobody dares touch.
It works, mostly. But it’s slow, it depends on one or two people, and it’s the first thing to fall behind when you get busy.
Or maybe you’ve already bought software to solve the problem. You pay for it every month, per user, and your team uses about a tenth of it. The rest is features you’ll never need, and a bill that goes up every year.
Most small businesses I speak to have one of these problems. Many have both.
Quotes and reports that took a day go out the same morning. Information is typed in once, and it’s right. Your staff stop being data-entry clerks and go back to the work you hired them for. And the tool is yours: no monthly licence, no per-user fee, and nobody else deciding which features you get.
Job sheets, quotes, bookings, stock and customer records in a simple system built for the job, without the copy-and-paste, the broken formulas, or the one person who knows how it works.
A system that matches how you actually sell and deliver (what the trade calls a CRM), a dashboard that puts the whole business on one screen, or a place where your customers can see their own jobs and invoices without ringing you.
iPhone and Android, for logging jobs and photos on site, or for customers to book, order and check progress.
Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace and most modern systems, connected so the information flows on its own.
Not sure which of these you need? Most people aren’t. Working that out is what the free process review is for.
Then
Not long ago, custom software meant hiring an agency with a team of developers, project managers and account managers, and a bill to match. That put it out of reach for most small businesses, which is why so many end up on spreadsheets or paying for platforms that don’t quite fit.
Now
That’s changed. I use AI tools to do the slow, repetitive parts of building software, which means one experienced developer can now build in a few months what used to take a whole team years, at a fraction of the cost. The software is just as much yours and just as solid. It’s simply become affordable for a company with ten staff rather than a thousand.
People often ask how much bespoke software costs. The honest answer is that it depends entirely on the job, which is why the proposal is free: you’ll know the price before you commit to anything.
No charge
You tell me about the job that’s eating your time. Half an hour, in person or on the phone.
Time with the people who actually do the work, and the spreadsheets, forms and systems they use. This is the most important step.
A plain-English description of what I’d build, what it would change, and what it would cost. A fixed price or a tight range, agreed before any work starts.
Fixed price
I build it, you see it as it takes shape, and we adjust it together so it fits the way you work. Most builds take a few months rather than years.
Sixty days of support to fix anything that comes up are included, and I’m still down the road after that.
Reporting on how residents of a new development would travel to work meant gathering data from Google Maps, Ordnance Survey and live traffic sources for up to a hundred routes, and compiling it all by hand into a spreadsheet. I built them a tool that does the gathering and compiling for them.
A smart bird-box camera system I founded and built from the ground up: the software on the camera itself, the cloud infrastructure behind it, and the app customers use to watch their nests. A complete product, designed, built and run in-house, and the same approach I bring to every business tool.
A reporting tool for brands advertising inside the Nest Box Live app, showing reach, clicks and performance over time, with every creative and placement in one place.
Ropewalk Software is me, Jamie. It’s a one-person custom software development company in Liverpool, so when you get in touch you speak to the person who’ll sit with your staff, design the system and build it. And when you ring afterwards, you get the person who built it, not a support desk.
For almost a decade I’ve been building software for my own company, Nest Box Live, from the apps our customers use to the dashboards I run the business on. Along the way I noticed the firms around me were still doing by hand what I’d automated for myself years ago, and that’s what Ropewalk Software is for.
I’m based in Liverpool and I’d rather come to your office than send you a questionnaire. Watching how a job is really done, with the people who do it, is where the good solutions come from. If there’s something in your business you’ve ever looked at and thought “there must be a better way”, there almost certainly is. Get in touch and I’ll come and take a look.
Something else on your mind? Ask me.
Before you get in touch
No. Most people just know something takes too long. Working out what to build is part of the free process review.
Every tool is different, so I don’t publish a price list. You’ll get a fixed price, or a tight range, in writing before any work starts, and the first chat, the process review and the proposal cost nothing.
Most builds take a few months rather than years. You’ll get a timescale alongside the price in the proposal, so you know both before you commit.
Less than you’d think. A half-hour chat to start, a visit to watch how the job is done now, and a few short sessions to look at the tool as it takes shape. The people who do the work see it early, so there are no surprises at the end.
If an off-the-shelf product does what you need at a price you’re happy with, use it. Bespoke makes sense when you’re paying for far more than you use, bending your business to fit the software, or still filling the gaps with spreadsheets.
Yes. That’s exactly who it’s for. If you have more than around a hundred staff, you probably already have an in-house team; if you have fewer, this is for you.
Once it’s built
You do. There’s no licence fee and no ongoing charge from me to keep using it. It can run on your own accounts, so you’re fully in control, or I can host it for you; if it runs in the cloud there’s a small hosting cost, usually a few pounds a month, paid directly to the hosting company.
You’re not tied to me. You own the software, it can run on your own accounts, and it’s written and documented so that another developer could pick it up if they ever needed to. Day to day, I’m local and easy to get hold of.
Your data stays yours. The software can run on accounts you control, in UK-based hosting, with backups, and I don’t share or reuse anything I see while working with you. If your business has specific requirements, such as client confidentiality rules, we’ll cover them in the process review.
Yes. It’s yours, so it can grow with the business. I can add to it as you need, and because you own it, so can anyone else.
That’s the point of building it around how they already work. They’re involved from the first visit, they see the tool as it takes shape, and I make sure everyone’s comfortable with it before I leave. It should feel like the old way, minus the bits that wasted their time.
Usually, yes. Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace and most modern systems can be connected so you’re not re-typing anything.
Sixty days of support to fix anything that comes up are included after go-live, and I’m local, so I’m easy to get hold of after that too.
Send me a few lines about the process that’s taking up your team’s time, and I’ll come back to you to arrange a chat. No obligation, no sales pitch, no charge until we agree on something to build.
I read every message myself and I’ll come back to you within one working day.
Or if you’d rather, .
Ropewalk Software: bespoke software and business process automation for businesses across Liverpool, Wirral, Sefton, Knowsley, St Helens and Halton. I’ll come to you.