For the businesses Wellington runs on

Hire the software. Keep the people.

Most small teams hit a point where the admin needs its own person. I find the handful of jobs software should already be doing, and I build them for a fraction of what that person would cost. Your people get back to what software can't do, looking after customers.

  • Direct line, not a help desk
  • Fixed prices, agreed up front
  • No lock-in contracts
Grant, the person behind Ara Hiko
Grant Masters in IT Data & Automation Engineer The person you'll actually be talking to, from the first call to the finished job. No account manager, no ticket queue, no handover to someone who wasn't there.
What a year of that adds up to
0Hours handed back
$0What that saves you
0Evenings reclaimed
4.1%Quote page conversion
0Locals who found you on Google
0Weeks of posts out on time

0 enquiries caught $0 of work won from them

Sound familiar?

A Tuesday, before and after.

Six moments from a small team's day. The before half probably sounds familiar. The after half is the same day with the busywork quietly handled, and nobody hired to do it.

6:55am

BeforeAn enquiry from 9:40 last night is still sitting in the inbox, waiting for someone to find twenty minutes.

Overnight enquiry, answered

Replied with times that suit. Booking link included.

Answered before opening

First in with an answer, and nobody gave up an evening for it.

7:40am

BeforeTwo empty slots on the calendar, from people who just didn't turn up.

Reminder sent yesterday, 4:02pm

Hi Sam, Dave's Plumbing here. See you at 10:30 tomorrow. Reply C to confirm or R to rebook.

C

7:18pm
Both slots confirmed overnight

The morning starts with people, not phone tag.

9:15am

BeforeA missed call sits in the log with no name attached, and the job quietly goes to whoever answered.

Missed call while you were on the tools

Logged as an enquiry. Text reply sent. Waiting on your yes.

Handled in 40 seconds

The job stays warm and nobody had to put their work down.

11:00am

BeforeSomeone asks how the new flyer run's going, and you honestly don't know.

Bookings this month, by source
Google
14
Word of mouth
9
Flyer
6

A straight answer, without pulling anyone off the counter.

3:30pm

BeforeEnd of month means an evening stitching numbers together from four different logins.

Monthly numbers, ready to read
Bookings+12%
Enquiries+8%
No-shows−61%
Two things worth a look, flagged in plain English

If a number looks odd, you ask and get a straight answer back. The evening stays yours.

5:45pm

BeforeAnother tool renews this week. It promised to save time, and mostly it added another login.

Tool check, this quarter
Booking appEarning its keep
Payment terminalEarning its keep
Old CRMNo logins in 62 days

Every tool earns its place, and nobody digs through a year of statements to prove it.

None of this replaces anyone, and none of it needs more people doing more admin. It hands your team back the hours the busywork was eating, for the work that actually matters: purpose, craft, and people. Every one of those moments gets scoped and priced in your Opportunity Map below.

Where to start

Start with a map, not a leap of faith.

The last technology quote you got was probably five figures and a promise. This is the opposite: one day, one fixed fee, and a plain-English map of what's worth fixing, what it gives back, and what to leave well alone.

Start here

The Opportunity Map

$950 fixed fee, credited toward your first build

A costed, plain-English map of where the busywork is eating your team's week, and what getting those hours back is worth. Not a sales pitch: if something isn't worth doing, the map says so.

  • Every finding sorted by impact and effort, so each call is obvious
  • Ranked by payback: what to do first, what to skip, and why
  • Mapped in person, over a day spent alongside you and your team

Commission any build afterwards and the full $950 comes off the price, so the map ends up costing nothing.

Book your mapping day How the day works

Your Opportunity Map

Worked example
Quick wins Big bets Leave it Think twice Text reminders Invoice chasing Rebuilt website Logo tidy-ups Big new system
Impact Effort

Start top-left. Every finding lands somewhere on this map, with a number beside it. Hover a finding to see what it gives back.

  1. Talk

    Organise a call

    Twenty minutes, plain English. Tell me what's eating your team's week, whether that's the website, the day-to-day behind it, or you're honestly not sure yet.

  2. Map

    We map it together

    A day alongside you and your team. Everything worth fixing lands on the map with a number beside it, ranked by what it pays back.

  3. Build

    Build what pays

    Start with the quick wins or the big bet. Fixed price agreed before anything starts, and the full $950 comes off your first build.

What comes off the map

Most maps lead to one of two builds.

Both scoped from your map, both fixed price before anything starts, and both shown working before you commit to anything.

The website

A website that earns its keep

  • Live style versions of your actual site, so you see it before committing to anything
  • Copy written to turn visits into enquiries, not just look nice
  • Google Business profile set up properly, so locals actually find you
  • Launch on your own domain, no lock-in

Fixed quote, agreed before we start.

How the website work fits together

The partnership

Your time back, week after week

  • Missed calls replied to and logged before anyone's off the tools
  • No-show reminders that keep the calendar full
  • Reports that arrive ready to read, on your numbers
  • A small monthly partnership that keeps it all running and answers your questions

Scoped and priced from your Opportunity Map.

See the five quick wins

Seeing it first isn't a slogan. Here is a site built exactly this way, for a New Zealand cyber security consultancy. Live and scrollable, not a screenshot. The client's name, people and logos have been changed, the work has not.

A real build, anonymised. Tap it to open fullscreen and scroll the whole thing.
A note from Grant

A real person in Wellington. Not a call centre.

I'm Grant. I build data systems and automations for a living, I've got a Masters in IT, and on a good weekend you'll find me on a motorbike. Ara Hiko is just me, and my dog Saska.

Nobody needs telling how tough it is out there right now. But small teams are in a stronger position than most of them realise. The dashboards, the automations, the quiet systems that carry the busywork used to belong to the big fish. Now they're well within reach of a physio clinic or a two-van plumbing crew, and a small team can actually put them to work, because there are no layers of friction and bureaucracy in the way. A little of the right technology goes a long way. There has never been a better time to be small.

None of this is about replacing people with software. It's about finding the handful of high-impact fixes that hand your team its hours back, so the people who know your customers best can spend their time on the work that matters, helping everyday Kiwis build a life worth living.

No office, no staff, no account managers. The person who picks up is the person who does the work. Tell me what's eating your team's week and we'll work out together what getting those hours back is worth.

Grant

Ara Hiko · Wellington

Saska

Chief Morale Officer

Organise a call

What's eating your week?

Twenty minutes, plain English, no pitch deck. Whether it's the website, the day-to-day behind it, or you're honestly not sure yet, start with whatever is costing your team the most time.

Best way to reach you