Where AI Actually Belongs in a Growing Business
And where it doesn’t By Steele Consulting Every business owner is being pitched AI right now. In email. In LinkedIn DMs. In vendor pitches. In the panels at every industry conference. The pitch is usually some version of: “you need AI in your business, or your...
Where AI Actually Belongs in a Growing Business
And where it doesn’t By Steele Consulting Every business owner is being pitched AI right now. In email. In LinkedIn DMs. In vendor pitches. In the panels at every industry conference. The pitch is usually some version of: “you need AI in your business, or your...
When a Spreadsheet Becomes a System
5 signs it’s time to rebuild By Steele Consulting Every business has one. The Excel workbook that started as a personal tracker for one person and somehow became the source of truth for something the business actually runs on. The master pricing sheet. The commission...
How to Tell the Difference Between a Process Problem and a Software Problem
How to Tell the Difference Between a Process Problem and a Software Problem The most expensive mistake in business technology is fixing the wrong one By Steele Consulting Every few months, a leadership team decides that something in the business isn’t working, and...
Build, Buy, or Bend
How to decide when off-the-shelf software stops working By Steele Consulting Every business that’s been running for more than a few years has a tool that doesn’t quite work anymore. The CRM that fits 80% of your sales process. The accounting system that handles every...
In-House, Outsourced, or Hybrid?
How to build a software team without hiring 20 people By Steele Consulting Every growing business eventually hits the same crossroads. The technical work has outgrown what one developer (or no developers, or one stretched-thin team) can do. The owner has to decide...
Why Most Dashboards Get Ignored
And how to build one people actually use By Steele Consulting Every business has them. A dashboard somebody spent six weeks building, presented in a leadership meeting with real enthusiasm, and now sits in a browser tab nobody opens. Two months in, the screens still...
The Real Cost of an Underbuilt Tech Team
And how to know when it’s time to bring in help By Steele Consulting You can usually tell when a business has outgrown its tech team. Not because anyone complains — they rarely do. Engineers tend to absorb pressure quietly until something breaks. You can tell because...
What to Look for in a Software Partner When You’re Not Technical Yourself
A practical guide for business owners who are about to hire one By Steele Consulting You’ve decided you need custom software built — or rebuilt, or modernized, or maintained — and you’re about to hire someone to do it. The proposals are stacking up. Everyone you’ve...
The Quiet Cost of Tech Debt
How to Put a Dollar Figure on It for Your Board Steele Consulting The slide that keeps getting cut Every CTO we work with at the mid-market level has had the same experience. Two weeks before the board meeting, finance asks for the engineering deck. The CTO has been...
How to Make Decisions Faster Without Making Worse Ones
By Steele Consulting Speed and quality are not opposites when it comes to decision-making. But most leaders treat them like they are — either moving fast and hoping for the best, or slowing everything down in pursuit of certainty that never fully arrives. The result...
Hiring for Culture vs. Hiring for Skill — Getting the Balance Right
By Steele Consulting Few hiring debates are more persistent — or more polarizing — than this one. On one side: hire for culture, train for skill. People who fit the culture will grow into the role. Skills can be taught. Values can't. On the other side: hire the most...