Moving a small business's assistants onto its own computer

I run Once, Not Twice, a small business that builds automations for other small firms. My own team of assistants used to live on a hosted chat app. That worked well for planning and decisions, but it was a poor fit for routine work: watching the inbox, drafting first versions, research, bookkeeping checks and daily filing.

So I split the work. The project coordinator and the builder stayed on the hosted app, so there is still one clear place to direct the team. The routine jobs moved onto a small office computer, running as scheduled jobs.

We started with a written plan on 2 November 2026. Before we moved anything, we backed up every assistant, and eleven backups were filed by 4 November. Each job follows the same pattern: it wakes on a timetable, checks its inbox, does only the work on its list, writes the result to an outbox, and files a short summary in our business record. We tested every job, including dry runs, before it went live. Nothing is sent, posted or spent without a person's yes. If a change looks wrong, we can roll it back in under five minutes, and the files stay on record. Running costs are capped at £10 a month.

On 4 November we took the old copies off the hosted app. The routine jobs now run on the office computer, and I can open a simple team dashboard on my phone.

A written plan first, then 11 backups filed before anything moved

One shared pattern for every job: timetable, approved job list, inbox, outbox and a daily summary

A personal yes before anything is sent, posted or spent, with dry runs and tests before go-live

Rollback in under five minutes, with the files kept on record

Running costs capped at £10 a month