Constructing
Business Systems
It's rarely the build. The money disappears in coordination, translation and rework — the costs that never appear on a quote.
When a £20k project becomes a £45k project, the extra rarely bought more product. It bought meetings about the product. Amends caused by briefs that changed hands four times. A designer's intent rebuilt wrongly by a developer who never spoke to them. Three suppliers billing to sit on the same call.
None of these appear as line items. They're distributed through day rates and timelines, which is why comparing quotes by the number at the bottom tells you so little.
Not cheaper people — fewer interfaces. When strategy, design, engineering and marketing sit in one team, the translation tax collapses. Add modern AI-assisted engineering and the production hours themselves shrink. The result isn't a cheaper version of the same project; it's the same project without the overhead that never improved it.
You can't negotiate away a structural cost. You can only choose a structure that doesn't have it.
When you evaluate suppliers, ask one question: how many handoffs sit between the person who understands my business and the person who writes the code? Every handoff is a leak. Count them.