Get technology working for your business, without having to become the tech person.

If you're running a growing business of around 20–100 people, I take ownership of the technology decisions that keep landing back on you.

If you're running a smaller business yourself, I work with you to hand recurring admin to AI, so you get more of your week back for the work that needs you.

Because otherwise technology becomes another job.

For Growing Businesses For Smaller Businesses

Charley Southon at her desk, laptop and notebook in front of her

Which sounds more like you?

Running a growing business of 20–100 people?

Tech decisions, off your desk.

You've got people doing the work, but the bigger decisions still come back to you.

I take ownership of the technology direction, the decisions and the structure around them.

See For Growing Businesses →

Running a smaller business yourself?

Recurring admin, off your plate.

You're still doing the notes, proposals, research and follow-ups yourself.

I work with you to set AI up around your business and hand over the recurring jobs eating your week.

See The Admin Handover →

I'm Charley

Charley Southon at her laptop, notebook and mug on the table in front of her

For 23 years I co-founded and ran rascal Systems, a tech and data business serving all the major UK grocers.

I started with a politics degree and no clue what good IT looked like.

I built the team from nothing to 53 people and carried the risk at the board table. I know how technology decisions in owner-led businesses actually get made.

A lot of what I know came from making the wrong calls first.

I hired someone whose CV was perfect when my gut was telling me something wasn't right.
I kept suppliers years past the point they were any good because changing felt like more work than staying.
And I once decided a problem wasn't urgent. By the time we fixed it, we'd lost the client.

That was the expensive bit.

Now I know what to look for.

What I help with

In a growing business, technology rarely sits neatly in one place.

There are suppliers you're not sure you're getting enough from.
Systems that have accumulated as the business grew.
Spend nobody has looked at properly for a while.
A team doing the work, but still sending the decisions back up to you.
And now AI has joined the list of things you're apparently supposed to have a plan for.

I look across the technology, the people around it and the money going into it, work out what actually needs your attention, and take ownership of the decisions that shouldn't still be landing on you.

How I work

I won't fill your diary with meetings to justify a fee, and I won't stretch a decision across three workshops when it needed one honest conversation.
I lead the decisions and put the structure around them. I don't run projects, firefight or manage your people day to day.
When specialist work is needed, I'll bring in people I trust or work alongside the people you've already got. I stay responsible for the direction and the decisions.
And you'll get a straight answer about what I don't know. There will be things I have to go away and check, and I'd rather say so than guess in front of you.

I work myself out of the middle of things, on purpose.

For growing businesses

When the technology decisions keep coming back to you

If you've grown to roughly 20–100 people and the technology decisions still keep coming back to you, that's my main work.

I start with the Tech Clarity Map so we can see what's actually going on before either of us commits to something bigger.

From there, I can stay as your retained tech leader if that's what the business needs.

Book a 30-minute call

Where do you fit?

Your business has grown to roughly 20–100 people

Technology decisions are still reaching you and you need somebody senior to own them.

See For Growing Businesses →

You're running a smaller business yourself

You want to hand recurring admin to AI and get more of your week back, but bringing somebody like me in on retainer would make no sense.

See The Admin Handover →