Obvi-us › Flowlu setup
Flowlu Solutions Partner · #whathappensnext
Flowlu setup, built around how your business actually works.
Flowlu can run your whole client business: sales, projects, invoices, follow-ups and client portals. Most owners never get it there. I map what really happens in your business first, then build Flowlu to match, so nothing and no one gets forgotten again.
Helping service businesses since 2018
★ “Neil's best practices and automations nearly doubled our income in one year.” Esther Gambrell
What is Flowlu setup from Obvi-us?
It’s a fixed-price service that turns Flowlu from a half-configured subscription into the system your business runs on. It starts with a mapping diagnostic: your client journey drawn on a whiteboard, from first enquiry to the referral they send you, asking “what happens next?” at every step. Then I configure Flowlu around that map: CRM pipelines, project workflows, automations, dashboards, email templates and client portals. Finally, I train you and your team until you can change it yourselves. Most set-ups take 4 to 6 weeks.
You bought Flowlu. Then real life got in the way.
You signed up because you were tired of running the business from Post-its, spreadsheets and your own memory. Then you opened Flowlu and found screen after screen of settings and a blank pipeline. So it sits there, half set up, while the Post-its carry on.
Sound familiar? Here’s what it looks like day to day:
- Enquiries wait days for a reply because no one owns the next step.
- You remember your best and worst clients. The big middle drifts quietly away.
- Every new client gets onboarded slightly differently, depending on how busy you are.
- Invoices, chasers and follow-ups live in your head, so a week off means a week of catching up.
- You’re paying for Flowlu and still managing everything somewhere else.
None of this is a software problem. It’s a design problem: nobody has decided what happens next.
It’s also why the big quiet middle of your client list drifts away without anyone noticing.
Mapping first. Software second.
Most CRM setups start in the software and ask you to bend your business around it. Mine start at a whiteboard, with you. We walk your customer’s journey from first enquiry to repeat booking, from their side of the table, and ask “what happens next?” at every step.
That one question shows what to automate, what to keep personal, which data you need and when, and where clients currently slip through. Only then do I open Flowlu. The result fits you so closely that nothing off the shelf will feel right again.
Five steps from “we should sort this” to “it just works”
1
A free, listen-first chat
45 minutes. You tell me what’s slipping. Two ears, one mouth: I mostly listen. No pitch.
2
Map and diagnose
Whiteboard sessions covering sales, onboarding, delivery, invoicing and repeat business. You leave with a prioritised plan. £3,000, credited in full if you go ahead with the build within 30 days.
3
One fixed price for the build
What I’ll build, how, the fixed price and the timeline. On one page, in plain English, before any build work starts.
4
Build Flowlu around the map
Pipelines, workflows, automations, templates, dashboards and portals, tested with your real clients and data.
5
Train, hand over, stay close
Short recorded sessions so you can change things yourself. Quick “how do I do this again?” questions are always free.
What you’ll walk away with
A sales pipeline that never loses a lead
Every enquiry has an owner and a next action, with reminders before anything goes cold.
Project workflows for every service you sell
Onboarding, delivery and sign-off steps that run the same way every time.
Automations that nudge, remind and follow up
Welcome emails, task creation, renewal prompts and payment chasers.
Email templates you’ll actually use
Open, paste, personalise, send.
Dashboards that show what matters today
Open deals, overdue tasks, unpaid invoices, clients you haven’t spoken to lately.
One source of truth
Contacts, conversations, projects and invoices in one place, for you and your team.
Client portals, if they suit you
Clients see progress, files and invoices without emailing to ask.
The confidence to run it yourself
No lock-in, no mystery settings.
What happens when it’s set up properly
Esther Gambrell · school photography business
Esther (and her husband, Michael) ran her clients on Post-its and Google Sheets, and lost a client worth several thousand dollars through the cracks. She bought Flowlu but had no time to master it. We mapped her seasonal photo days, onboarding and delivery, then built her pipelines and workflows, with new-client onboarding kept separate from seasonal prep.
“The best practices and automations have nearly doubled our income in one year’s time.”
“So far nothing has dropped… Flowlu has definitely helped me keep track of stuff.”
She now edits her own templates and says she feels “a lot less stress”.
“A fabulous business partner… expert Flowlu and industry knowledge turned my requirements into a sustainable business model.”
Lisa Turner
CEO, LRT Associates
CEO, LRT Associates
“Engaging Neil was the exact right thing to do.”
Karen Perry
CEO and Founder, Karen Perry Co
CEO and Founder, Karen Perry Co
“I trust Neil with my email list, which means I trust him with my business success.”
Andreea Grad
Founder, Ponder & Spoon
Founder, Ponder & Spoon
Trusted by Clients Across the World
The numbers behind a well-run CRM
$8.71
back for every $1 spent on CRM that’s properly implemented.
Source: Nucleus Research
30%+
of leads are never contacted at all.
Source: InsideSales lead-response research
25–95%
profit increase from a 5% lift in retention.
Source: Bain & Company, cited in Harvard Business Review
~1 in 3
leaders report lost revenue from scattered data.
Source: HubSpot survey
The software is the easy bit. The return comes from deciding what happens next, and making sure it does.
Built for firms with a long client list
I work with firms that have 100 or more past clients, who come back every so often, where nobody really owns the relationship once the job is done. Most are law firms, accountancy practices, music and arts organisations, and photographers and wedding businesses, plus coaches and consultants. The size of your list matters more than the size of your team.
A good fit if…
You’re already on Flowlu (or about to be), you’re the person everything runs through, and you want a system your team will actually use.
Probably not a fit if…
You need a 200-seat enterprise rollout or a CRM other than Flowlu. For a CRM-agnostic review, see Line 38.
Twenty years of airline processes, now working for small businesses
I’m Neil Gowans. Before founding Obvi-us in 2018, I spent around 20 years with airlines at Rockwell Collins and SITA, running process workshops for carriers such around the world. Airlines can’t afford to forget what happens next. Neither can you.
Now I bring that discipline to smaller firms, at a human scale: calm, practical, and built around how you actually work. More about Obvi-us
~20
years with airlines
2018
Obvi-us founded
Flowlu
Solutions Partner
“Saw our processes in a new light.”
Chris Essex, Procurement Director, easyJet
Chris Essex, Procurement Director, easyJet
Mapping first. One fixed price.
Every Flowlu set-up starts with a process mapping diagnostic. After it, you get one fixed price for the build, agreed in writing before any work starts, so there are no surprises.
If budget’s tight, we can reduce the scope or split the build into two phases, so you’re never paying for things you don’t need yet.
Questions owners ask
Something else on your mind? Bring it to the free chat.
Obvi-us is a Flowlu Solutions Partner based in the UK, helping service businesses worldwide since 2018. Founder Neil Gowans maps your client journey before configuring Flowlu, so the system fits how you work rather than a generic template.
Most Obvi-us Flowlu set-ups take 4 to 6 weeks from the first mapping session to handover. That’s elapsed time, not full-time work, so it fits around running your business.
Every Obvi-us set-up starts with a process mapping diagnostic at £3,000, credited in full if you go ahead with the build within 30 days. The build is then one fixed price, agreed in writing after the diagnostic. If budget is tight, the scope can be reduced or split into two phases.
Yes. Flowlu supports custom pipelines, fields, project templates, automations and client portals, which is why mapping your process first matters. Without a map, those options become a maze; with one, they become your business on screen.
You’ll need to join one or two mapping sessions, share examples of your current emails and documents, and test the build with real clients. Neil does the configuration.
Yes. Many clients arrive with a half-built account. We map the process first, then keep what works and rebuild what doesn’t.
You’ll have training recordings and the confidence to make changes yourself. Quick “how do I do this again?” questions are answered free, and optional ongoing support is available from £1,500 a month.
Not sure Flowlu is the answer?
Start with one customer: who is your Line 38?
Open your client list, scroll to row 38, and try to answer five questions about that person. If you can’t, the problem isn’t your software. It’s the big quiet middle of your client list that nobody is looking after. The Line 38 check works with any CRM, or none.
The Line 38 notes
Not quite ready for a Flowlu setup? Keep the ideas coming.
Short, practical emails on follow-ups, onboarding and keeping clients warm. Useful whether your CRM is Flowlu, a spreadsheet or a stack of Post-its, and a good way to see how I think before we talk.
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