I reason in public. I don’t leak in public. Building workable systems for B2B service firms: cash, capacity, evidence & bounded AI. From the engine room.
The Netherlands, Rotterdam
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1/10
I'm Alain.
I work in corporate business development and also run a small technical B2B service business.
One world talks a lot about strategy. The other calls when someone cannot make the night shift.
I need both to understand how businesses actually work.
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I spent this morning building a quiet bookshop that doesn’t exist: rain, warm light, no productivity advice.
Just somewhere to read for ten minutes.
Then the editor ran out of AI credits.
Even imaginary places have production problems.
Would you read here?
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Yesterday I opened a customer-service chat because I needed a person.
The chatbot explained that human support would be available during office hours.
We have now automated the process of telling people automation cannot help them.
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This week I was told a plan I'd written was too woolly.
They were right.
I'd answered every objection before I'd clearly stated the decision.
A useful plan doesn't prove how much thinking went into it.
It helps people choose what happens next.
I'm learning.
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Happy weekend, everyone.
May the sun show up, the food be good, and every “quick question” develop the patience to wait until Monday.
Go do something gloriously unproductive.
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We spent years insisting we would never need two cars.
Then life changed, the van started making noises that sound expensive, and I spent part of this week comparing electric vans, battery sizes and boot space.
A perfectly normal leisure activity, right?
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I spent part of this week turning a complicated plan into one page.
Mostly by removing the parts that made me look clever.
A plan is only useful if people can argue with it, choose something and know what happens next.
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I found a piece I wrote at 18.
It builds romantic tension, introduces fluorescent lighting and a cashier, then reveals the object of desire was half a Dutch rice tart.
Some people journal. I gave pastry a character arc. Shameless.
The writing has aged. The instinct has not.
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I've had jobs that looked healthy in a spreadsheet and left me wondering where the money went.
Then I counted the waiting, travel, rework, urgency and my own time.
Ah. There it was...
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I've had months that looked excellent in the spreadsheet.
Then supplier payments arrived before client cash did.
Revenue is applause.
Cash is oxygen.
Only one gets you to Tuesday. (It's Monday, y'all!)
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I’d love to tell you I spent today on strategy.
Mostly, I’ve been asking where the bloody attachment is so the invoice can exist. 🖇
Small business keeps you grounded.
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I work in both worlds, and the contrast still makes me laugh.
In a large company, an unclear process can survive for months.
In a small business, it calls me at 22:14 with a “quick question.”
🥱
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Which task in your business still ends with you, no matter who officially owns it?
That task is often where the real operating model is hiding, don't you think?
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One of the least scalable things in my business turned out to be me.
Useful in every exception. Terrible as an operating model.
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For a while, my calendar wasn't a calendar.
It was the dashboard, escalation route and company memory.
Highly integrated. Not especially scalable.
How do you run your operations?
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I build systems because I spent too long being the system.
And that, my friends, is tiring!
And not scalable. But mostly tiring.
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1/10
I'm Alain.
I work in corporate business development and also run a small technical B2B service business.
One world talks a lot about strategy. The other calls when someone cannot make the night shift.
I need both to understand how businesses actually work.
10
3
118
9/10
This is for:
Owner-operators. Small technical service firms. Consultants. Commercial and operational people. Entrepreneurs. Heck, even parents. Anyone who has to deliver the work and build the business at the same time.
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8/10
What you will not get here:
No client names. No screenshots from confidential email. No “10x in seven days”. No resentment dressed up as a lesson. No success story with the engine room conveniently cropped out. Of course not. Why would you!?
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