If you've been putting off talking to someone about a website or a piece of software because you don't know what to ask for, I'd like to take that worry off the table. You don't need a technical brief. You don't need to know what a database is, or which tools are the "right" ones. That part is my job.
What helps far more is a few notes about how your business actually works. Half a page is plenty. Here's what I'd jot down if I were in your shoes.
Start with what's frustrating
Write down the thing that made you think "there has to be a better way."
Maybe it's the inquiry that got buried in your inbox. Maybe it's copying the same customer details from a form into a spreadsheet, and then again into an invoice. Maybe your website just doesn't explain what you do.
Don't tidy it up. "I spend Sunday night adding up orders by hand" tells me a lot more than "we need an order management system." The frustration is the useful part, because it points straight at where the time is going.
If there are several things, write them all down and put a star next to the one that bothers you most. We probably won't fix everything at once, and that's fine.
Describe how the work happens today
This is the part people skip, and it's the part I find most useful.
Walk through what happens, step by step, from the moment a customer gets in touch to the moment the job is done. Where does the request come in? Who writes it down, and where? What happens next? Where does it sit and wait? What tends to get forgotten?
Write it the way you'd explain it to someone on their first day. A whiteboard, a paper notebook, a group text: all of it counts. Plenty of businesses run on a spreadsheet and a good memory, and there's nothing embarrassing about that. It just helps me see the real shape of the work before anyone talks about building anything.
Note who's involved
Software gets used by people, so it helps to know which people.
Is it just you? You and a partner? Someone who answers the phone, someone out on jobs, a bookkeeper who needs a report at the end of the month?
Don't forget your customers. If they'll fill in a form, book a time or check on an order, they're part of this too. Something that works nicely at a desk can be a real pain on a phone in a parking lot. Knowing who uses it, and where, changes what "good" looks like.
Say what good would look like
You don't need a list of features here. Just finish the sentence "It would be great if…"
It would be great if I could see every job that needs a follow-up in one place. It would be great if customers got a reminder before their appointment without me having to send it. It would be great if people found us online and knew exactly how to get in touch.
That's a perfectly good starting point. It gives us something to measure a first version against, and it keeps the conversation about your business instead of about technology.
List the tools you already use
Write down what you use today, even if it feels like it's held together with tape. Your email, your calendar, your website, your spreadsheets, your accounting software, whatever you use to take payments or send invoices.
Some of those might stay exactly as they are. I'd rather look at what you already have before assuming any of it needs replacing. Depending on how it's built, the right answer might be an improvement, a connection between two systems so information only gets typed once, or something new.
If there's anything you can't change, add that too. A tool your accountant relies on. A busy season when nothing can break. A budget you need to stay inside. Constraints aren't a problem. They help us pick the right first step.
What happens with your notes
Here's how I use all of this. It's the same three steps you'll find on our homepage.
Understand. We start with the real work. We talk it through, your notes do most of the heavy lifting, and I ask questions wherever something isn't clear. No technical brief required.
Define. We agree on what matters. That usually means setting priorities and settling on a useful first version, rather than trying to build everything at once. We agree on the scope before I build anything.
Build. You see it take shape. I share working progress along the way, and you help shape the details. You know the business. I handle the design and development, and we make the decisions together.
Somewhere in that first conversation we also work out whether we're a good fit and agree on a next step. And if it turns out an app you can already buy would do the job, that's worth knowing too.
You don't need it all figured out
If you only get through the first section of this, that's still enough to start. It's fine if you're still working it out. Most of the useful thinking happens in the conversation anyway.
So grab a notebook, write down what's getting in the way, and tell us about your project. A few sentences are enough.