05 · About
A firm built around a stated scope
Meridian Loop Advisory helps owners and managers of small and mid-size businesses in and around Columbus decide where AI and automation are worth using, and then puts the chosen changes in place. The way it works is set out below, in the order a client meets it.
02 · Approach
How the firm works
Meridian Loop Advisory takes work to a written scope rather than an open-ended retainer. Six services are published with their scope and their price, and a client chooses one of them or asks which one fits. That choice is the whole of the sales process.
Clear records matter more than clever tools here. Each engagement carries a note of what was agreed, what was changed and what was deliberately left alone, so the next conversation starts where the last one ended rather than from the beginning. The firm is vendor-neutral, takes no referral fees from software companies and would rather turn a request down than take it on without a scope that both sides can read.
Nothing is sold by the hour, and no service is extended once it has started without a new written scope and a new figure agreed before the extra work begins.
03 · Principles
Three operating principles
Each one is a rule the firm can be held to, not a statement of intent.
01
Scope before price
A figure is only meaningful next to the work it covers, so every service on this website carries its scope in twenty-five to forty-five words. Where a scope cannot be stated in advance, the price is quoted in writing instead of guessed.
02
Plain language, in writing
A recommendation the client cannot restate in their own words has not been explained. Options, trade-offs and what was decided are put in writing after each session, in the same language they were discussed in.
03
No promised outcome
Meridian Loop Advisory does not promise a saving, a revenue figure or a result from any tool. It describes what a service covers, what it costs and what the client would need to decide, and stops there.
04 · Process
Four steps, enquiry to record
The same four for every service on the Services page, whatever the figure.
01
The enquiry
A visitor sends the contact form or writes by email, naming a service and the question behind it.
02
The reply
The firm replies during office hours with what it can do, what it would cost and what it would need.
03
The agreement
Scope and figure are set out in writing. Nothing starts until both are agreed.
04
The work and the record
The work is carried out, handed over with its documentation, and a written note of the scope and the decisions is kept with it.
05 · Place and limits
The office, and what the firm cannot take on
One stated limitation
Meridian Loop Advisory is a small firm with four consultants and a fixed weekday schedule. It runs no more than three automation sprints at the same time, so a new sprint can wait two or three weeks for a start date, and some requests are declined because the calendar cannot hold them. The firm says so at the enquiry stage rather than accepting the work and delivering it late. It also does not build custom software products or resell licences, so a business looking for a bespoke application is told that plainly and pointed elsewhere.
06 · Contact
Ask whether the firm can take it on
An enquiry gets a straight answer about capacity and timing before anything else is discussed.