Backend systems for growing businesses

I turn founder-held chaos into a system the business can run on.

I design and build the operational systems behind growing service businesses - the CRM, the workflow, the automation layer that lets your team run the business without it living in your head.

Book a call with Stonelion

Fig. 01 - the flow

One system. Visible end to end.

Who it's for

Already a real business

2+ years trading

Team of 4 or more

A process still run on memory

Option A

SYSTEM BUILD

Project-based, 4–10 weeks. Map it, build it, hand it to your team.

Case / John Lewis

Rewards & Loyalty Platform

Backend infrastructure for a national retailer's customer loyalty program.

What I do

Map it. Build it. Hand it over.

A three-stage process, always in this order - because building the system before understanding the business just automates the chaos.

STAGE 01

Map how you actually work

Not how the org chart says it works - how work actually moves through your business today: where it gets captured, where it stalls, where it lives only in someone's memory or a WhatsApp thread.

STAGE 02

Build the system that runs it

One place to capture enquiries or jobs, move them through the right steps, automate the repetitive parts, and show you - at a glance - what needs attention.

STAGE 03

Hand it to your team

The result isn't a tool only you know how to use. It's a system your team runs day to day - visibility that doesn't depend on you holding every detail together.

Free resource

The Stonelion Business Operating System Playbook

A free playbook that helps you find exactly where your business is still running on memory instead of a system - and gives you a clear order to fix it in.

Bonus: get the System Build readiness checklist free when you opt in - the same checklist I use to scope a first engagement.

Who this is for

This works best for businesses that are already real.

If your business fits this spec, we should talk. If it doesn't yet, keep growing - I'll be here.

✓

Trading for 2+ years, with proven, healthy revenue

✓

A team of 4 or more - the point where "it's all in my head" stops being efficient and starts being risky

✓

A core process - how you win, deliver, or get paid - still running on spreadsheets, WhatsApp, email, and memory

Services

Two ways to work together

One builds the system. The other keeps it evolving as you grow. Most clients start with the first.

OPTION A

System Build

Project-based · 4–10 weeks

I map your business, design the system, and build it: the CRM or workflow platform, the automations, the dashboards. Delivered with a clear handover - your team is running it, trained on it, and not dependent on me to keep it working.

Best for: one clear process causing the most pain right now - leads going cold, onboarding rebuilt manually every time, jobs tracked across five disconnected tools.

OPTION B

Systems Partner

Ongoing retainer

For businesses that want a permanent, part-time systems engineer - not just a one-time build. I stay embedded: extending the system as you add staff or services, and keeping the operational backbone solid as you scale.

Best for: businesses actively growing - adding headcount, service lines, complexity - who'd rather have this handled continuously than rebuilt every 18 months.

A single place enquiries, jobs, or cases get captured
Clear, automatic next-step assignment - nothing waits on memory
Dashboards showing what's overdue, stuck, or needs a decision
Automated follow-up for the repetitive parts of the process
Integration with the tools you already use, where it makes sense
A handover your team can actually run without you

The course

Prefer to build it yourself? Learn the system.

A guided course for founders who want to map, systemise, and automate their own operations - with structure and feedback, not just a template to figure out alone.

COHORT-BASED · LIVE SESSIONS

The Business Operating System Course

R8000 · 6 weeks · next cohort 1

Join the next cohort

The same diagnostic process I use with System Build clients - taught live, in a small group, so you leave with your own operations mapped, scored, and your first automation actually built, not just a plan sitting in a doc.

Map your revenue engine

Identify the 2–4 processes actually driving revenue - and stop treating every task as equally urgent.

Map how work actually moves

Trace each driver through Capture → Qualify → Deliver → Follow-up, and find where it lives today.

Diagnose your dependency score

Score each stage and find exactly where the business depends on you personally.

Design your system

Turn the diagnosis into an actual blueprint - the CRM, workflow, and automation structure your business needs.

Build your first automation

Implement the highest-priority piece live, with feedback, so you leave with something running - not just designed.

Handover - make it run without you

Document and train your team on the system so it survives you being on holiday, or just busy.

Six live working sessions, recorded if you can't make it live
The full worksheet set - the same ones behind the free playbook, expanded
A small cohort of founders working through their own businesses alongside you
Direct feedback on your system design before you build it
Templates for the CRM/workflow structure, ready to adapt
Alumni access to future cohort sessions

Want it built for you instead of DIY? See System Build ↑

Proof

Built for John Lewis

Rewards & Loyalty Platform

UK RETAIL · NATIONAL SCALE · CUSTOMER LOYALTY INFRASTRUCTURE

THE SITUATION

John Lewis needed a rewards and loyalty system capable of running reliably at the scale of a major national retailer - supporting real customer transactions, real data volume, and zero tolerance for the downtime that erodes trust in a loyalty program.

WHY IT MATTERS HERE

The discipline required to build financial and customer-data infrastructure for a business like John Lewis - reliability, clear data ownership, systems that don't fall over under real usage - is the same discipline I bring to a business running on spreadsheets and WhatsApp. The scale is different. The standard isn't.

FOUNDER, STONELION

About

Backend is where the real weight lives.

I'm a backend software engineer who's spent the last several years building the infrastructure other systems depend on. Backend is where I'm strongest - and it's also where the real operational weight of a growing business tends to live: the data, the workflow logic, the thing that has to work correctly every single time or the whole business feels it.

I founded Stonelion as a one-person build shop, and I still run it as a business owner - which means when I look at a founder who's the only person holding a process together, I recognise it, because I've been that person. That's the gap I close: taking what's currently working because you're personally making it work, and turning it into a system that works because it's actually built to. It's the same discipline that's let us grow the team behind it - see who's joined us.

Book a call →

Amazon

CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE - GLOBAL SCALE

Impact.com

MARKETING TECHNOLOGY - ENTERPRISE CLIENTS

John Lewis

REWARDS & LOYALTY PLATFORM

Stonelion Labs

SYSTEMS FOR GROWING BUSINESSES - NOW

Start here

Let's look at how your business actually runs.

Bring me the process that's costing you the most right now - the one you'd fix first if you had the time. We'll spend 30 minutes working out whether a System Build or a Systems Partner engagement is the right shape for it.

Book a call →

You'll be talking directly to me - no account managers.

Stonelion works with established service businesses - typically 2+ years trading, teams of 4 or more - building the systems that let them scale past founder-dependency.