Daniel AndrewsAI & Automation

“I love the work. It's the paperwork after dark I can't keep up with.”

AI consultant in Hastings and St Leonards. Less admin, more of the work you're good at.

Your admin set up to run itself, so the evenings are yours again. Trade, shop or studio.

I'm Daniel Andrews, based along the coast in Eastbourne. I help small businesses in Hastings and St Leonards use AI and automation to cut the admin and get their evenings back, safely and in plain English. I'll come to you, or we can talk by video.

Book a free 30-minute callMaking Tax Digital
Daniel Andrews mapping a business's processes on a whiteboard with two local business owners
Sound familiar?

Good at the work. Buried in the paperwork.

In a trade, a shop or a studio, if everything stops when you stop, you've built a job, not a business. Work in a trade? My page for tradespeople goes further.

“I'm on the tools all day and doing quotes at midnight.”
“The shop's fine. It's the online orders and posts that eat my evenings.”
“Making Tax Digital has me worried about my records.”
“We're a creative studio. We want AI for the admin, not the creative bit.”

What does business in Hastings look like?

Small and hands-on. Hastings had 2,930 VAT or PAYE-registered businesses in March 2026, and 88.9% employed fewer than 10 people. Construction is the biggest group at 17.2%. Shops make up 9.6% of businesses, the highest share anywhere in East Sussex or Brighton and Hove.

Hastings businesses compared, March 2026
MeasureHastingsEast SussexEngland
VAT or PAYE-registered businesses2,93023,2302,423,150
Fewer than 10 staff88.9%90.4%89.2%
Construction17.2%17.3%14.1%
Professional, scientific and technical13.7%15.4%15.9%
Hotels, cafés and restaurants10.4%6.8%6.2%
Retail9.6%7.3%7.7%
Information and communication7.8%6.5%7.3%
Manufacturing5.3%5.0%4.5%

Source: ONS UK Business Counts, March 2026, released 24 September 2026. Counts are rounded to the nearest 5 by ONS, so percentages are approximate. Sector rows show each group's share of all businesses. See the Nomis profile for Hastings.

You'll sometimes read that Hastings has an unusually high share of very small firms. On the latest official figures it's about average: 88.9%, against 89.2% for England. What does stand out is the mix. Shops, hotels and food businesses, and information and communication firms all make up a bigger share than the England figure.

The county's economic strategy describes a lively cultural and creative scene in Hastings, and a real strength in advanced manufacturing, especially vacuum technology. Hastings and Bexhill-on-Sea together form the largest urban area in East Sussex, with around 139,000 people.

Where can AI and automation help Hastings businesses?

In the repeated jobs around the real work. For builders and trades, that's quotes, job updates and invoices, and for shops it's stock, online orders and social posts. Creative and digital studios lose time on briefs, proposals and approvals; manufacturers on quoting and reporting. You stay in charge of anything that goes to a customer.

Hastings sectors and where the time goes
Sector (share of local firms)Where the time goesWhat usually helps
Construction and trades (17.2%)Quotes after hours, updates by text, chasing paymentQuotes drafted from site notes; automatic job updates; invoice reminders that stop once paid
Hotels, cafés and restaurants (10.4%)Booking emails, rotas, reviewsReplies drafted in your tone; review requests sent at the right moment
Shops (9.6%)Stock checks, online orders, social mediaLow-stock alerts; order updates sent automatically; a week of posts drafted for you to approve
Creative and digital (7.8%)Briefs, proposals, client approvals, invoicingProposal first drafts from a call; approval reminders; time and invoices linked
Manufacturing and engineering (5.3%)Quotes, job tracking and weekly figuresQuote templates filled from enquiries; a simple dashboard instead of a Friday spreadsheet

For a closer look at the trades side, my business automation page covers the tools, and there's a guide to chasing unpaid invoices automatically.

Making Tax Digital is already here for some sole traders. HMRC says sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 had to start using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax from 6 April 2026. The threshold falls to £30,000 from 6 April 2027 and £20,000 from 6 April 2028. If receipts and invoices already flow into your accounting software automatically, the quarterly updates become routine.

This is general information, not tax advice. Check HMRC's guidance or ask your accountant about your own position.

Daniel Andrews chatting with local business owners at a networking breakfast
Why me

A business owner who builds the fixes himself

For years I worked 60 to 70 hours a week, often until 2am, sure that more hours were the answer. They weren't. Putting my law firm on systems was. The firm is now four to five times the size it was when I started.

It has two offices in East Sussex and around 30 people, and I'm its Managing Partner. When something there is slow, I don't wait for a software company. I build the fix.

My consultancy is new, so there are no Hastings case studies yet, and I won't pretend otherwise. Here's what's running in my own firm today.

  • Figures pulled straight from our case management system into a live dashboard.
  • Work passed between colleagues along a set route, with one-click sign-off.
  • Web pages and posts drafted with AI, then checked automatically before a person approves them.

More about how I got here on my About page.

What free business support is there in Hastings?

A good amount. The Business & IP Centre at Hastings Library offers free resources and one-to-one advice. The borough council has business support pages, and the East Sussex Growth Hub runs free programmes, including digital skills workshops. For networking, the Hastings Area Chamber of Commerce welcomes members from across Hastings and St Leonards.

Start with the free help if it suits you. When you want someone to look at your business in particular and build the changes with you, I'm the next step. The rest of the county, including Bexhill, Battle and Rye, is on my areas page.

In Hastings or St Leonards? It starts with a free 30-minute call, then I'll come to you. No jargon and no hard sell.

Book a free 30-minute call

Do you come to Hastings, or is it all by video?

I come to you. I'll visit your premises anywhere in Hastings and St Leonards, from the Old Town and Ore to Hollington, Silverhill and West St Leonards, and on to Bexhill and Battle. The first proper meeting works best face to face. After that, much of the building and testing happens by video.

If you're not sure where to start, an AI readiness assessment finds where the week goes. If your team wants to use AI well, AI training covers the tools and the rules.

Questions people ask

Questions from Hastings businesses

Do you cover St Leonards and Bexhill?

Yes. St Leonards is part of the borough of Hastings, and Bexhill-on-Sea is next door in Rother. I work across both, and the rest of East Sussex.

Can you help me get ready for Making Tax Digital?

I can set up the plumbing: receipts, invoices and bank feeds flowing into your accounting software without retyping. I don't give tax advice, so your accountant or HMRC's guidance should confirm what you need to submit and when.

We're a creative business. Will AI take over the creative work?

Not if you don't want it to. The usual starting point is the admin around the work: proposals, approvals, scheduling and invoicing. The creative decisions stay with you.

Do you work with manufacturers and engineering firms?

Yes. Quoting, job tracking and weekly reporting are often good places to start. I'll work with the systems you already have and tell you plainly if something can't be connected sensibly.

Is there free AI help in Hastings?

Yes. The East Sussex Growth Hub runs free workshops and webinars, the Business & IP Centre at Hastings Library has free resources, and the government's AI Skills Hub offers free AI foundations courses online.

Get your evenings back, Hastings

Book a free 30-minute call, in person or by video. Tell me which job you'd most like to stop doing, and I'll tell you honestly what it would take.

Book a free 30-minute call Email me