About smallific

If you run a growing business, you’re probably the 24/7 human company database. Every decision, in every department, every day, comes back to you.

Your skills and experience grew your business. Not your ability to process email, help out with admin or answer endless phone calls from a team who struggle to operate without you!

I’m Caroline Crossland, and I started smallific to fix that.

Why smallific exists

Growth is a good problem, but it’s still a problem. The way things worked for five people creaks at fifteen and falls over at thirty.

Businesses of 4 to 40 people get the worst of both worlds. Too big for the founder to hold it all in their head. Too small to hire a marketing director, an operations lead and someone who understands the software. So the founder does all three, at 9pm.

smallific is for the Holes in your Headcount: strategy, systems, marketing and pragmatic AI and automation. Done for you, done with you, or a clear plan you run yourselves.

Where I’ve come from

I’ve spent over 20 years as a marketing leader.

Some highlights: I started my marketing leadership career as Product & Channel Manager at IRWIN, running the P&L for the biggest channel and event in the business. I went on to run UK marketing at Wera Tools for a decade. In that time both turnover and brand awareness grew exponentially, and we delivered a hugely successful brand refresh and retargeting that took brand loyalty to new levels in the tools market.

During my years at Xeros Technology Group, latterly as Group Marketing Director, I rebranded our commercial division and led teams in both the UK and USA, supported by multiple international agencies.

Much of my experience has focused on industrial and commercial B2B, where nobody has time for marketing theory – it’s all hands on deck and results are all that matters.

Whilst my job titles said marketing, in practice it was often transformation: multiple rebrands, plus the systems behind the work. Asset libraries before they were common. New websites, internal comms processes and multiple new systems specified, implemented and communicated, across CRM, ERP, CMS and DAM.

Alongside the day job, I kept helping small businesses and startups get their online presence, bookings and systems sorted. Turns out helping small businesses punch above their weight gives me goosebumps.

How I work

• Plain English, always. No jargon and no 50-page plans. If I can’t explain it across a kitchen table, it isn’t ready.
• Make what you’ve got work harder first. Software magnifies whatever process you already have, good or bad. We fix the process before anyone buys anything new.
• No commissions, ever. I have no partnership agreements with software providers, so nothing gets recommended because it pays me.
• Your team is the point. Automation takes the tedious jobs off people, so they can do the work only people can do.

Freelance, content creation and volunteering

• Built CrosswalkClan, a travel advice brand and content creation machine for UK and Irish travellers visiting the USA, from nothing to an established Instagram and website audience and affiliate revenue, with little to no budget.
• Chaired the PTA at my children’s primary school for eight years, managing people, budgets, volunteers and getting things done. Grew fundraising to levels not previously seen for this tiny village school, raising over £50k.
• Penistone Football Coaching: updated the brand, refreshed the website and introduced an online booking system with a free taster session strategy. The result was increased bookings, higher turnover and massively less time lost to tedious, repetitive owner admin.
• Web and email hosting and online strategy for small businesses across Sheffield and Barnsley.

smallific runs on the same kind of systems I build for clients, predominantly on free and cheap tools. I practise what I preach, and I look forward to showing you how my setup works.

Where I work

Based in Penistone, South Yorkshire, I work with businesses across Barnsley, Sheffield and the wider region, and remotely across the UK.

Imagine spending time out of the office growing your business, without endless calls from the team. Maybe even taking a holiday (one you don’t spend checking emails and worrying about what’s happening back at work).

Start with a free online presence audit. You’ll get a short, plain-English, jargon-free look at how your business comes across online, including areas for improvement and some quick fixes you can easily make yourself. Alternatively, book an introductory call: no charge, no hard sell, and a straight answer to the question “Can you help?”