Where to start with AI in your business

For Australian businesses who know AI should be working for them.

  • Above A$2M a year in revenue
  • Work that runs through inboxes, spreadsheets and copy-paste
Systems Diagnostic 6 min

In six minutes: what your current work costs you, how we estimate what automating each piece would return, why we build first whatever pays back the most, and what the first step costs.

Book a 20-minute call or read it all on this page

At the moment we're taking on only four diagnostics a month.

Where the week goes, and what it costs you

One person's week, an hour to a block

Re-keying, chasing, building the same report, sorting the inbox. Move the slider to match your own week.
10 h
A$65
What that costs every year A$32,500 500 hours a year, paid for at your rate.

Hours a week × loaded hourly rate × 50 working weeks, in AUD. Arithmetic on your own numbers. Run yours.

Four ways an automation pays back

Automated value× Utilisation= Effective value

Worked examples on an example business, not a client. In your diagnostic, every input comes from your own records and interviews.

1Savings per automation

Timesheets into invoices

TodayAn administrator spends 8 hours a week typing timesheets into invoices, and each of your 14 staff spends 20 minutes a week chasing and correcting their hours.

AutomatedApproved hours draft straight into the invoice. Your staff put the time they spent chasing into billable work. The administrator's hours don't move to billable work, so they count as nothing.

AdministratorA$16,560

8 hours × 46 weeks = 368 hours, at A$45 an hour

StaffA$20,393

14 people × 20 minutes × 46 weeks = 215 hours, at A$95 an hour

Automated valueA$36,953

Every hour the automation replaces

Utilisation55%

Only the staff hours go to billable work: A$20,393 of the A$36,953.

Effective valueA$20,393

2Increased capacity

Client deliverables in three-quarters of the time

TodayEach client deliverable, a report for example, takes 80 hours and is worth A$40,000. You deliver 20 a year: A$800,000, and all the hours your team has.

AutomatedWith AI support, each one takes 60 hours, 75% of the time. The same 1,600 hours now produce about 27 a year, so you have about A$1.07 million of capacity to sell, not A$800,000.

Extra capacityA$266,667

6.7 more deliverables a year × A$40,000

Automated valueA$106,667

The margin on that extra work, at 40%

Utilisation100%

Assuming your marketing brings in the extra work.

Effective valueA$106,667

3Achieved value

Outreach every week, not every month

TodayA campaign takes the best part of two days to put together by hand, so it goes out once a month, whenever someone finds the time. Each one brings in about A$10,000 of sales.

AutomatedIt now goes out every week: 48 campaigns a year, where you could only manage 12. The value is in the 36 you never had time to send.

Extra salesA$360,000

36 extra campaigns × A$10,000 of sales each

Automated valueA$144,000

The margin on those sales, at 40%

Utilisation70%

Four times the campaigns may be more work than you can take on. Assuming you can take on 70% of it.

Effective valueA$100,800

4Increased efficacy

Fewer jobs that need rework

TodayYou deliver 40 jobs a year. On each one there is a 10% chance something is missed, and the rework costs on average A$30,000. Across the year, that is A$120,000 you can expect to lose.

AutomatedEvery job is checked against the same list before it goes out, and the chance of rework falls to 3%, across every job you deliver.

Expected loss todayA$120,000

40 jobs × 10% × A$30,000

Expected reduction in loss from automationA$84,000

40 jobs × 7 points (10% down to 3%) × A$30,000

Automated valueA$84,000
Utilisation100%

Rework that never happens is money that stays in the business. Nothing has to be sold to convert it.

Effective valueA$84,000

How Zeroth works

1Diagnose

Two weeks

The Systems Diagnostic. Ten business days from the workshop to the Review, whatever the size of your business.

  1. Day 1
    The workshop

    An Education session on what AI can and can't do, then the Diagnostic Workshop maps how your business runs. In person in one day, or online over days 1 and 2.

  2. Days 2–7
    Interviews

    One-on-one with the principal and the owner of each shortlisted workflow, usually 3 to 6 people.

  3. Day 8
    The Diagnostics Report

    What each workflow costs today, the estimated return on each automation, and a price on every build. Sent 48 hours before the Review.

  4. Day 10
    The Diagnostics Review

    90 minutes. Order the build, order part of it, or keep the report and stop, owing nothing further.

2Deliver

Go-live date in your delivery engagement

We build the automations or solutions that produce the greatest ROI.

Your build order, ranked on return for the price

  1. Design Review
  2. Build
  3. Test on your data
  4. Go live and train

3Evolve

Monthly, optional

Your business keeps changing after go-live. Evolve keeps what we built working as it does, and keeps building the next items on your list, at the pace you choose.

Each month: everything live kept running, and the next item built

Book a 20-minute call

Why the usual starting points stall

AI training and workshops

The team learns the tools. How the work runs stays the same.

Costs the work
Estimates each return
Built in

A free audit, then their software

The audit recommends what that agency sells. It covers part of the work, and the team works around the rest.

Costs the work
Estimates each return
Built in

Hiring another admin

The same work by hand, one salary higher.

Costs the work
Estimates each return
Built in

The Systems Diagnostic

Your work costed, each return estimated, every build priced.

Costs the work
Estimates each return
Built in

Figures from our builds

~$1.1M

One client's year of lost managements, priced from their own fee and commission rates. Scattered across the year, so nobody had added it up.

Measured on a live run
167 · 0

Ended managements classified in a single pilot run, and the manual lookups it needed.

Measured on a live run
Under a week

From the start of one client's Business OS build to signing in on their own Microsoft tenant, with email, calendar and Xero connected.

From the project log
~A$43,700

A year of monthly invoicing at one business, by their own estimate. We've built an automation that prepares those invoices.

Their own estimate
~A$15,500/yr

The estimated effective value of that invoicing automation, using the savings method above.

Estimate
~10 hrs/week

Estimated saving from a tool we're building that reads incoming emails and enters the quote and delivery details into a stock management system.

Estimate

The Systems Diagnostic price

Systems Diagnostic

Starts here

Fixed price, ex GST · invoiced in full at booking · two weeks

Under 10 peopleA$3,900
10 to 30 peopleA$4,900
Over 30 peopleQuoted

Team size is the number of people who would use what gets built, day to day. Over 30, we scope it on a call and quote it in writing.

  • The workshop in person or online, and the interviews
  • The Diagnostics Report, with every recommended item priced
  • The 90-minute Diagnostics Review
  • No obligation to build anything afterwards

Deliver

After the Review, if you choose

Typically from A$5,000

The build your Diagnostics Report recommends, each item priced before you order. Tested on your own data, and handed over with your team trained.

Evolve

Optional, month to month

Quoted

Quoted at the Diagnostics Review, against your delivery engagement. If you decline it, everything is handed over on your own accounts.

Book a 20-minute call

At the moment we're taking on only four diagnostics a month.

Who the diagnostic is not for

Businesses under A$2M a year in revenue

There usually isn't enough work that follows the same steps for a build to return much, and the principal is often the one doing it.

Solo operators

You are the workflow, and there's nothing to hand off yet.

Processes that are "whatever needs to happen this week"

We automate processes that already exist. If there's no established way of doing things yet, settle that first.

A strategy deck, and nothing built

The diagnostic exists to produce a priced plan you can build from. If you want AI strategy advice and a slide deck, we're the wrong call.

Still with us? Then you're probably the right kind of business, and we'll tell you on the call if it isn't a fit.

Book a 20-minute call

Common questions

What happens on the 20-minute call?

It is a sales call with one job: to check that your business is a fit and, if it is, to book your onboarding session. You speak with Peter McEvey, who runs every engagement. Bring your questions about the diagnostic.

Is the workshop in person or online?

In person wherever that is practical, which is South-East Queensland by default: the Education session and the workshop run on one day. Elsewhere, or if you prefer, it runs online in two sittings on days 1 and 2.

How much of my team's time does it take?

Your team attends the workshop. After that, we interview the principal and the owner of each shortlisted workflow one-on-one, usually 3 to 6 people. Nobody else is interviewed.

What if we need to move a date?

Every date is booked at onboarding, before the two weeks start. If you move one, the two-week clock pauses until the new date.

Where do the figures in the report come from?

From your own records, the workshop and the interviews. Each figure in the Diagnostics Report is marked with its source, and the savings it shows are estimates.

Do we have to build anything afterwards?

No. The diagnostic is a complete piece of work. You keep the Diagnostics Report, with every recommended item priced, whether you build with us, build elsewhere or stop there.

How is a build paid for?

In full when you sign your delivery engagement, or monthly. If you pay monthly, the terms are written into your delivery engagement before you sign it.

Do we have to take Evolve?

No. Evolve is optional and runs month to month on 30 days' notice. The one exception is a build paid monthly, where Evolve runs for that payment term. If you decline it, everything is handed over on your own accounts.

Our work is very specific. Can any of it be automated?

That is what the diagnostic tests. The work still needs judgement. We leave your judgement alone and find the copying and re-keying around it. If nothing is worth building yet, the report says so.

What happens to our data?

What we build runs on your own Microsoft 365 or Google tenant and your own accounting package, with role-based access and a record of every action. You own all of it.

Book a 20-minute call

A sales call with Peter McEvey to check the fit and book your diagnostic. The price is already on this page.

  • 01

    Answer a few questions. Your team size, what your business does and the systems you use tell us which price applies and what to ask on the call.

  • 02

    Pick a date, then a time. Choose a day on the calendar to see its open 20-minute times. Peter confirms by email and sends the meeting link.

  • 03

    The call. If the diagnostic suits your business, we book your onboarding session.

1 · About your business

Team size *

2 · Pick a time

20-minute calls. Times are in Brisbane time (AEST, UTC+10).

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This sends a request. Peter confirms each call by email. By sending you agree to our privacy policy.

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Peter will confirm by email and send the meeting link. Until then the time is held for you. A copy of your request is on its way to your inbox.

If anything changes, reply to that email or write to peter@zeroth.au.