cloudship.co.uk

The hours you lose to spreadsheets, invoices and chasing. I'll build the thing that does them.

I build small, plain software for small businesses around Bungay and across East Anglia. Fifteen minutes on the phone is free. If there is something worth building, I can usually have it working by lunchtime.

Book fifteen minutes Software surgery, Sunday 20 September

How it works

  1. 1

    Fifteen minutes. Free.

    You describe your week. I tell you what I would build. Sometimes the honest answer is that you should buy something off the shelf, and I will say so.

  2. 2

    Half a day. £300.

    Start at nine, working by lunchtime. On a web address, with your own data in it. It runs free for a month whether or not we go further.

  3. 3

    The build. £2,000 to £10,000.

    Quoted in writing before I start. Then from £39 a month to keep it running, backed up and patched, with someone to call. Most tools are £95 a month.

The kind of thing I mean

  • Orders taken on the phone, then typed into a spreadsheet.
  • A rota that lives in a WhatsApp group.
  • Stock counted on paper, then again on a laptop.
  • Invoices copied from one system into another.
  • Three suppliers' prices checked every morning.
  • A website form that emails you and does nothing else.

If a job is boring and you do it every week, it is probably a program.

Why it costs less than it used to

Writing code is faster

AI tools now do most of the typing. I do the thinking, the checking, and the parts that touch your data.

There is no agency

No account manager, no project manager, no office. You talk to the person who builds it.

Small software is cheap to run

A tool for one business runs on a server that costs a few pounds a month.

Evidence

  1. Dewing Grain, screenshot

    Dewing Grain, Aylsham

    A grain merchant was spending a morning a day reading market reports. Now a program reads them. Six hours a week back.

  2. The Green Dragon, screenshot

    The Green Dragon, Bungay

    My own pub runs on a till system I wrote. I find the rough edges before a client does.

  3. Sarah Brown Cards, screenshot

    Sarah Brown Cards, Bungay

    Needed an online shop, not custom software. I put them on Shopify and said so. Two thousand customers later it still runs.

  4. Yachting Domains, screenshot

    Yachting Domains

    Colin Squire asked for a website on each of several hundred domains. The first 48, with all the DNS, took a morning. There are 389 now.

Also built for

We wanted to update our website and focus on an easier, more adaptable e-commerce setup. James listened to what we needed, was upfront about costs, and was flexible enough to come into the office out of hours to get us set up. You will not find anyone as responsive, reliable and flexible to meet your needs. Highly recommend.
C Brown, Company Director. Sarah Brown Cards
Working with James and cloudship has honestly been a breeze. Whilst having technical difficulties with previous developers James was able to take 2 of my apps under his management and get them to where they need to be and with future development planned. James is straight to come back to me and is a very efficient worker with heaps of experience. Highly recommend!
Henry Dewing, Founder. DueTrade
Cloudship (James) has played a crucial role in the development of Protu's platform. From backend to frontend, his ability to translate complex product ideas into clean, production-ready engineering has been invaluable to our success.
Joe Hodge, Founder. Protu

About

James Pickard

Cloudship is me, James Pickard. I have written software for about twenty years, in London, in Montreal, and now from Bungay, where I also run a pub.

I don't like repetitive work. When I find some, I write a program to do it. I would like to do the same for you.

I work with a few businesses at a time and take on a few new ones each quarter. When a job needs more hands than mine, I bring in developers I have worked with for years.

Some of what I use every day I built for myself: Omni Tend, the till and management system that runs the pub, and the rota and stock tools that sit beside it. They are in the work section, marked as my own.

Fifteen minutes is free.

Tell me about your week. Or bring any tech question to the software surgery, Sunday 20 September.

Book fifteen minutes The software surgery

See what this looks like built.

The work