A search firm, one person, run on an AI back office.
This is not a case study about a client. It is my own business. I have run Lechley Associates alone for twenty four years, and over 2026 I rebuilt its back office around AI, in the evenings and between calls. What follows is the day as it actually runs, the numbers from the desk, and the rules I would not now break.
The desk in numbers.
Counted on 13 October 2026, from the machine that runs it. Real figures, not targets.
- 50+
- scheduled jobs run every night
- 1,005
- calls transcribed and mined
- 2,851
- commitments tracked, both directions
- 6,190
- people mentions indexed from calls
- 27
- written playbooks that run the desk
- 1
- person on the payroll, as it has been for 24 years
The day, as it runs.
The night shift finishes
Overnight the host has pulled new calls into the transcript store, mined them for names, companies and promises, enriched the people who moved jobs, and drafted the day's news and content for sign-off. Nothing has been sent.
The morning brief
One page, built from my own calendar, inbox and CRM: who I am seeing, what I owe them, what they owe me, which three things matter today. I read it with the first coffee.
The one-page briefing
Everything I know about the person: the last exchange, what was promised in both directions, what I want from this conversation. It takes seconds to produce and I never go in cold.
The meeting files itself
A structured note lands on the CRM record, both sides' commitments are captured, follow-up tasks are created. I used to type this up the next morning. Now I say yes to a draft.
Drafts, not sends
Outreach, follow-ups and chasers are drafted in my own voice from the history of the relationship. Every one waits for a tick. That rule has never been relaxed.
The close
What moved, what did not, what tomorrow needs. Then the health check runs, because automations go quiet without anyone noticing, and I would rather know.
The rules I would not now break.
Drafts first, always
Nothing is sent, filed or promised without a person saying yes. It is the rule that makes the rest safe, and the one I set up first for every client.
One system of record
Facts live in one place, the CRM. Everything else reads from it and writes back to it. Two copies of the truth is how automation goes wrong.
A daily surface people actually read
The thing seen every morning is the thing that gets adopted. Build the brief before you build anything clever.
Playbooks, not prompts
Each repeatable job is written down once as a playbook: what it reads, what it produces, who signs it off. Twenty seven of them run my desk.
Check it is still running
A nightly health check reports every job that did not run, every stale search, every unanswered promise. Silence is not success.
Start with three
I did not automate the business. I automated the morning brief, the meeting notes and the chasing, then learned what the next three should be.
What it did for the business.
I speak to more people, because the preparation and the admin no longer eat the day. I have not missed a parents’ evening. And the year I switched the desk over has been the best I have had in twenty four years of running it, on a retained fee I do not discount.
None of that is a projection. It is the business you would be hiring, run the way I am proposing to set up yours.
If you want the same shape.
Run the five-step process, bring the list, and email me with the subject line AUTOMATE.