From overwhelming admin tedium to creative breathing room

The problem

Janelle, founder of Cold Tea Creative, an international design and branding agency, was "overwhelmed with endless todos not related to design":

• • Proposals: every proposal call meant 3-4 hours of going back through notes, formatting in Dubsado, drafting scope. Potential clients hot with excitement went cold during the delay.
• • Expenses: multi-currency receipts piled up on her phone. She was using a Google Sheet but it was tedious, making her forget to track. Every tax season was a high-stress scramble through thousands of photos.
• • Marketing funnel: time and effort spent on social media went untracked. She would spend 30 minutes every day reviewing posts, get distracted on the feed, and have no idea if she was improving.

Build 1: Discovery call → proposal in 5 minutes

From proposal call to proposal submitted fast. A workflow built around how she already runs sales: she takes a discovery call, and a polished proposal lands in her drafts before she's finished the next coffee.

• • Google Meet call transcript in (Granola, doesn't join the call, just listens)
• • Proposal autogenerated using template and proposal call transcript, past emails, Notion notes, brand voice plus any other relevant documents
• • Drops straight into her Dubsado workflow with template, no copy-paste
• • Reviewed and sent same-day instead of two days later

3-4 hours per proposal dropped to 5 minutes. 8 hours every month across 4-5 proposal calls per month.

Build 2: Weekly social media and SEO report

The same social-analytics system I run for my own brands, rebuilt for hers. A weekly report straight to her inbox, outlining what worked and what didn't.

• • Data pulled from her Instagram, TikTok, and Google Search Console
• • Weekly reports surface where traction is being made (e.g., % watch rate, views, likes)
• • Recommendations and new learnings incorporated into a running guide of Cold Tea Creative social media practices

Cold Tea Creative not only saved time (30 min a day) from tracking stats but gained a clear data-backed path to growing the business.

Build 3: Expense automation

A photo-to-spreadsheet workflow built around her actual habit: she takes photos of receipts, the system handles everything after. Multi-currency, auto-categorized, always up to date.

Come tax season, Janelle knows:

• • Expense category
• • Personal or corporate
• • Currency
• • Date, time, month

Tax season became a bit easier and went from a 15+ hour panic to a calendar reminder.

The outcome

• • Proposals out in 5 minutes. Leads close while still warm.
• • Knows what's working across Instagram, TikTok, and search every week, and grows on data, not guesswork
• • Tax-time dread replaced with a spreadsheet that's actually up to date
• • "Operational anxiety replaced by data-driven decision-making" (in her words)

Wes is a lifesaver! I used to actively avoid looking at my business expenses, and tax season was always a nightmare. Now I feel like I have breathing room to actually do design work. I feel like I'm finally "on top" of my business instead of it driving me.Janelle, Cold Tea Creative