Obvi-us › Flowlu setup
Approved 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.
Image · Hero
A woman founder and Neil at a whiteboard covered in sticky notes, mid-conversation, natural light, unposed.
Alt: “Neil Gowans of Obvi-us mapping a client’s process on a whiteboard before setting up Flowlu”
Helping founder-led 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-fee service that turns Flowlu from a half-configured subscription into the system your business runs on. We start by mapping your customer journey on a whiteboard, 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 setups take four to eight 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.
Image · Problem
Close-up of a desk: laptop open on an empty CRM screen, surrounded by handwritten sticky notes and a printed spreadsheet.
Alt: “A small business owner’s desk with sticky notes and spreadsheets instead of a working CRM”
Image · Method
A finished whiteboard process map in mint and charcoal marker, with a few stages circled.
Alt: “A customer journey map drawn on a whiteboard using the #whathappensnext method”
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
30 minutes. You tell me what’s slipping. Two ears, one mouth: I mostly listen. No pitch.
2
A tailored proposal
The problems we heard, what I’ll build, how, the fixed fee and the timeline. On one page, in plain English.
3
Map your process
One or two whiteboard sessions, in person or online, covering sales, onboarding, delivery, invoicing and repeat business.
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.
Image · Steps graphic (optional)
A simple five-step strip in the Obvi-us mint accent on white.
Alt: “The five steps of an Obvi-us Flowlu setup: chat, proposal, map, build, train”
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.
Image · Product
A clean Flowlu dashboard screenshot from a real (anonymised) client build, in a laptop frame.
Alt: “A Flowlu dashboard configured by Obvi-us showing pipeline, tasks and invoices”
What happens when it’s set up properly
Image · Esther
A photo of Esther, with permission, ideally at work with a camera.
Alt: “Esther Gambrell, school photographer and Obvi-us Flowlu client”
Esther Gambrell · school photography business
Esther 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 founder-led service businesses
I work with businesses of 1 to 30 people that sell their expertise, not products: coaches, consultants, accountants, law and immigration practices, photographers, music schools, designers and agencies, across the UK, US, Canada and Australia.
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.
Image · Audience
Three or four different women founders in small-office or studio settings, a montage of real working moments rather than posed headshots.
Alt: “Founders of small service businesses who use Flowlu set up by Obvi-us”
Image · Neil
A warm, natural portrait of Neil mid-conversation (not arms folded).
Alt: “Neil Gowans, founder of Obvi-us and Flowlu Solutions Partner”
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 as easyJet and Oman Air. Airlines can’t afford to forget what happens next. Neither can you.
Now I bring that discipline to founders, 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
One fixed fee. No surprises.
Most Flowlu setups cost £3,000 to £5,000, depending on how many services and team members you have. You’ll get a fixed fee in your proposal before anything starts.
If budget’s tight, we can reduce the scope or split the work 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 an approved Flowlu Solutions Partner based in the UK, working with founder-led service businesses worldwide since 2018. Founder Neil Gowans maps your process before configuring Flowlu, so the system fits how you work rather than a generic template.
Most Obvi-us Flowlu setups take four to eight weeks from the first mapping session to handover. Simple single-service businesses can be quicker; businesses with several services or team members take longer.
An Obvi-us Flowlu setup usually costs £3,000 to £5,000 as a fixed fee, agreed in a written proposal before work starts. 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 an optional monthly support plan is available for ongoing improvements.
[YOUR ANSWER]
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.
Image · Line 38 (reuse)
Reuse the spreadsheet graphic from the Line 38 page, with row 38 highlighted.
Alt: “Row 38 of a customer spreadsheet highlighted, from the Obvi-us Line 38 check”
Obvi-us · Neil Gowans · Approved Flowlu Solutions Partner · #whathappensnext
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