Normal people have a welcome sequence. You sign up for their newsletter or download their lead magnet, and you get anywhere between two and five emails telling you how wonderful they are, why you should trust them, what their origin story is, and — if you’re really lucky — a special discount code for something you didn’t ask for.
I don’t have an email list, so that’s going to be a bit difficult.
Consider this my welcome sequence instead. One page. No drip. No urgency. No P.S. designed to make you click something.
So. Who are you then?
I’m Esme. I’m an Online Business Manager — which means I run the backend operations of other people’s businesses so they can focus on the bit they’re actually good at. I’ve been doing this for about fifteen years, which is long enough to have seen every trend, every “game-changing” tool, and every productivity system imaginable cycle through and either stick or die.
I work from home in the UK with my husband Luke, a three-monitor setup, and strong opinions about fountain pens.
What do you actually do all day?
I work with a small number of retained clients — the kind of relationship where I’m genuinely embedded in how their business runs, not just doing tasks from a list. I handle systems, processes, tools, automations, and the general glue that holds a small business together behind the scenes.
I’m a Notion Ambassador, a ClickUp Verified Expert, and an Asana Ambassador, which sounds like a lot of badges but mostly means I’ve spent a genuinely embarrassing amount of time inside these tools and know how to make them work for real businesses rather than just in demos.
I’m not trying to sell you anything here. This blog is just writing. It exists because I wanted somewhere to think out loud, not because it’s the top of a funnel. If you ever do need an OBM and want to know what working with me looks like, you can find that at esmecrutchley.com/services. Don’t need an OBM? Don’t click the link. Simple.
What’s this blog about then?
Honestly? It’s about whatever I’m thinking about.
The professional version: it’s about running a small service business in 2026 — the tools, the systems, the decisions, the stuff nobody writes about because it’s not sexy enough for a LinkedIn carousel.
The more honest version: I got tired of content that performs expertise rather than demonstrates it. Everything optimised for reach, nothing optimised for actually being useful. I wanted somewhere to write things that were too long for LinkedIn and too considered for a hot take.
So I write one post a month. Properly. About something I’ve actually thought about, wrestled with, or changed my mind on. Sometimes it’s about tools. Sometimes it’s about how I work. Sometimes it’s about the business of running a small business. Sometimes it’s about something adjacent that I can’t stop thinking about.
I’m not chasing a niche. I’m not building a funnel. I’m just writing.
Are you one of those productivity people?
Sort of, but not in the way that word usually implies.
I care deeply about systems and how work gets done — but I’m suspicious of productivity culture as a genre. The optimisation-for-its-own-sake stuff. The five AM routines. The notion that if you just found the right app you’d finally become the person you’re trying to be.
I think good systems should reduce the amount of time you spend thinking about systems. I think tools should serve the work, not the other way around. And I think most productivity content is written for people who want to feel productive rather than people who want to get things done.
I try to write the other kind.
What are you like as a person?
I swear. Not gratuitously, but I’m not going to pretend I don’t. If that’s going to bother you, this probably isn’t the blog for you, and that’s fine.
I think out loud. I change my mind when I encounter better information. I’m allergic to false certainty and performative confidence.
I write with a fountain pen in a Hobonichi planner and I have extremely strong opinions about ink. This isn’t relevant to anything but it felt dishonest to leave out.
I am not going to teach you to scale your business to seven figures. I don’t want to scale my business to seven figures. I want to do excellent work for a small number of clients, think interesting thoughts, and go to bed at a reasonable hour.
Why should I read this?
You probably shouldn’t, if you’re looking for growth hacks, content calendars, or strategies to 10x your revenue.
You might like it if you’re a small business owner, freelancer, or operator who’s tired of advice written for a different kind of business than the one you actually run. If you want someone to think out loud about tools and systems and the reality of running a small service business without the performance layer on top.
Or you might just be here because someone sent you a link. That’s fine too. Have a read. See if it’s for you.
How do I know when you’ve posted something new?
Two ways — both optional, neither pushy.
If you want a personal nudge, email me at esme@systemsandglitter.com and let me know. When I publish something new I’ll reply with a short note about what it is. You can reply back. I’ll read it.
If you’d rather not hand over your email address — completely valid — set a recurring reminder in whatever app you use. I publish on the 1st of every month. Set the reminder for whenever you actually want to sit down and read something. Could be the 1st, could be the 15th, could be a Sunday morning when you have coffee and time. Entirely up to you.
No form. No sequence. No five emails before you get to the thing you came for.
Just the writing, when it’s ready.
Hi. Nice to meet you.