The Start Right Program
Build it properly the first time.
A cohort program for genuine startups, run over six weeks. Set up your email, devices, files, security and support the way you would if you already knew what you were doing, before any of it becomes expensive to unpick.
- Next intake
- The programme
- 12 sessions over 6 weeks
- Each session
- 30 minutes, daytime or evening
What this saves you from
Eighteen months in, everything works. Nothing is where it should be.
Your business email is still the personal address you set up the week you registered the company. Files live across a personal cloud drive, a laptop desktop and someone’s USB stick. Two people share a login because it was quicker at the time. Nobody knows which computer has the only copy of anything.
None of it is broken, so none of it gets fixed. Then you hire your fourth person, or a client asks about your security, or a laptop dies, and untangling it costs several times what doing it properly would have cost at the start.
Who this is for
Founders who would rather not learn this the expensive way.
- You are still planning, or you launched in the last few months
- It is you, or you and a small handful of people
- You are making technology decisions by searching and guessing
- You would like a business email address that is actually yours
- You do not want to spend money you do not have yet
- You also do not want to build on something you will have to redo
- You want to look credible to clients from the first meeting
Not this program
An established business is better served elsewhere
Start Right is built for genuine startup mode, and the pricing reflects that. If your business is already running, you will get more from the services built for you.
- You have been trading for more than a year
- You already have staff, systems and data in daily use
- You have an IT provider now, or have had one before
- You are looking to switch providers rather than start out
What you set up together
The foundation, done once and done right.
We guide the decisions and the setup. You end up understanding your own systems, which matters more than any single choice we make along the way.
Identity & email
- A business email address on your own domain
- Microsoft licensing sized to what you actually need
- Accounts set up so adding people later is simple
Files & collaboration
- One place files live, not four
- Sharing that works with clients without losing control
- A structure that survives your third and tenth hire
Security from day one
- Logins protected properly, before it matters
- Protection on every device
- The habits that stop most of what goes wrong
Devices & print
- Computers chosen for the work, not the sale price
- Printing that will not become a monthly annoyance
- A sensible replacement horizon, so nothing surprises you
Backup planning
- What is actually worth protecting, and what is not
- A backup that has been tested rather than assumed
- A plan for the day a laptop goes in the ocean
How you get help
- A support process, so problems have somewhere to go
- What to handle yourself and what to hand over
- Cohort sessions where your questions get answered live
What it costs
Low at the start, because that is when you have the least.
Pricing ramps over three years as the business grows into a full managed services relationship. Nothing is hidden, and the ramp is written down before you join.
Get it built
The cohort programme and the setup work. Your costs are mostly the licensing and essential tools you would be paying for anyway, whoever set them up.
Grow into it
As you hire and the business gets busier, support scales up with it. You are not paying for a service level you do not need yet.
Fully managed
By now you have staff, systems and things worth protecting properly. You move onto fully managed IT on standard terms, with a provider who already knows every decision you made and why.
Standard managed services
Put your numbers into the pricing calculator to see where you would land. Members also get access to private equipment planning and preferred procurement. Those are quoted directly rather than published, because the pricing depends on what you actually need.
If it does not work out
If you file to dissolve the company, we waive what is left.
Starting a business is hard enough without a three year technology commitment hanging over it. If a formal dissolution of the corporation is filed, the remaining RTGroup service commitment can be waived.
That is a deliberately checkable line rather than a judgement call. A filed dissolution is a matter of public record with a date on it, so there is never an argument about whether the business has really closed or who gets to decide.
It applies to incorporated businesses. If you operate as a sole proprietorship there is no dissolution to file, so the waiver does not apply to you. We would rather say that here than let you find it out later.
We would rather you start properly than start cheaply and feel trapped. Most of the reason founders build on consumer tools is fear of committing to something they cannot get out of.
Questions
The things founders ask us.
I have not launched yet. Is it too early?
No, that is the ideal time. Decisions made before you have staff and data are far cheaper than decisions made after. Pre-launch businesses are exactly who this is built for.
We have been running for a few years. Can we join?
No, and we would rather say so plainly than take the booking. Start Right exists to get decisions right before there is anything to unpick, and the pricing only works on that basis. An established business needs fully managed IT or co-managed IT, which are built for exactly that situation.
Do I have to buy everything through you?
Mostly no. Members get access to preferred procurement because it is usually better value, but you are free to buy elsewhere and we will still help you choose well.
There is a short list of exceptions. Certain components are specified rather than suggested, because the rest of your setup has to stay compatible with them and because your security depends on them behaving predictably. We tell you which ones those are, and why, before you spend anything.
Why a cohort instead of just hiring you?
Because most of what a new business needs to decide is the same, and other founders ask the questions you had not thought of yet. It also keeps the cost down at the point where cost matters most.
Could I end up in a group with a competitor?
No. Each cohort is put together so there are no conflicting business interests in the same group. You can say what you are actually building, and what you are actually worried about, without working out first who else is in the room.
If a conflict comes up when we are filling a group, one of you goes into the next intake rather than both being squeezed in.
What if I already set some of this up?
Common, and fine. We work with what you have, tell you honestly what is worth keeping, and only redo what genuinely needs redoing.
We are a sole proprietorship. Does the closure waiver cover us?
No. The waiver is triggered by a formal dissolution being filed, and a sole proprietorship has none to file. Everything else in the programme is open to you, and this is worth knowing before you join rather than afterwards.
If you are planning to incorporate anyway, and many founders do within the first year or two, that is worth a conversation on the way in.
What happens at the end of three years?
You are on fully managed IT on standard terms, with a provider who knows every decision in your setup and why it was made. No migration, no discovery project, no starting over.
How much of my time does it take?
About an hour a week for six weeks. Two thirty minute sessions a week, twelve in total, with daytime and evening options so it fits around whatever else you are doing.
They are deliberately short. An hour a week is something a founder can actually protect. A full day workshop is something that gets moved twice and then quietly dropped.
Start properly.
A new cohort every month. Six weeks, an hour a week, daytime or evening. Join the next one, or ask a question first if you would rather.
Would rather write?
Send this and we will reply, usually the same business day. No call unless you want one.
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