The GC Practice

How it runs

The whole journey from handing over a card to a client. What is printed and what is digital, who does what, when, and what reaches the CRM.

The prospect journey

Hover any step for the detail behind it.

Identify

Jack

An owner worth inviting is identified — from a meeting, a client introduction, or an accountant.

No list is bought and nobody is cold-approached. The practice invites; it does not prospect.Produces — Nothing yet

Hand over the card

Jack

The numbered A6 card is given in person.

Never posted in bulk, never left on a table. The card carries no date and no venue, so one print run of 2,000 covers every event to 2028.Produces — A6 invitation card

Record the number

Jack

Record in the CRM which card number went to whom.

Do this the same day. Until it happens, any response comes back attached to a number nobody can identify. This is the single step that makes the whole system work.Produces — CRM: code → lead

They scan or type

Prospect

The QR code, or the six characters typed by hand.

Lands on thegcpractice.com/i/CODE. Not linked from anywhere and not indexed — a real number is the only way in.Produces — —

Visit recorded

Automatic

Logged the instant the page opens, before they press anything.

Somebody who opened their invitation twice and never confirmed is a warmer call than somebody who never opened it. Neither was visible before.Produces — CRM: invite_visit

They choose

Prospect

Confirm a place, ask a question first, or decline with a reason.

Three routes, none urgent. Nothing asks for money and nothing is sold.Produces — CRM: confirm / query / decline

Four questions

Automatic

The Mini Q, straight after confirming. Skippable.

Asked after the commitment so it costs no confirmations. Attendees who complete it convert at nearly twice the rate of those who do not.Produces — CRM: invite_miniq

Karen rings

Karen

Within a few days of confirming.

A person, not an automation. Fills in whatever the Mini Q was skipped on, and confirms they are who the card was given to.Produces — CRM: stage updated

Ticket goes out

Karen

Date, venue and reference.

The venue appears here and nowhere else — not on the card, not on the website. Sent about three weeks before the morning.Produces — Printed ticket

The morning

Graham

Nine until one. Capped at twenty businesses.

A working morning, not a presentation. Nobody is sold to and nobody is asked to sign anything. The card admits two.Produces — Attended / no show

Step 6, then diagnostic

Graham

The follow-up conversation, then the diagnostic meeting.

The first commercial conversation happens here, and only if they ask for one. The full office address is given at this point and not before.Produces — CRM: client

When someone hesitates

The brochure is not a stage in the sequence. It is the second approach.

They hesitate

Prospect

Interested, but not yet convinced enough to give up a morning.

Sometimes visible in the first conversation. More often it is silence: the card was scanned and nothing followed. Two weeks with no response is hesitation, not disinterest.Produces — —

The brochure

Jack

Handed over in person, as a second approach.

Thirteen pages, nine named clients, printed and numbered. Its job is to answer a sceptic, so it belongs at the point of doubt rather than at the event — by then they have already decided to come and it has nothing left to do. Never emailed, never linked, never published. The cover carries their name.Produces — Printed brochure

Back to the card

Prospect

They still confirm using the number on their original card.

The brochure carries no code of its own. The invitation number stays the single identifier throughout, so the CRM sees one thread rather than two.Produces — Rejoins at step 6

A person does itPrinted, handed overThey do it onlineAutomaticCRM entry

Only three steps are automatic: the visit record, the response, and the Mini Q. Everything else is a person doing something. The website captures and records; it never sells and never chases.

The timing

When	What	Note
Day 0	Card handed over	Jack. Physical. Record the number the same day.
Day 0–14	They scan it, or they do not	Most scans happen within 72 hours. After 14 days with no scan, it is a phone call rather than a wait.
On hesitation	Brochure handed over	Jack, in person. At the point of doubt — not at the event, where it has nothing left to do.
On confirming	Mini Q	Automatic, immediately after.
+2–4 days	Karen rings	Never later than a week; the intent goes cold.
−3 weeks	Ticket sent	Date, venue, reference.
−3 days	Reminder call	Karen. This is what turns a confirmation into an attendance.
The morning	The event	Nine until one. Capped at twenty businesses.
+2 days	Step 6 conversation	While the morning is still fresh.
+2–3 weeks	Diagnostic	Only where both sides want it.

Printed and digital

Item	Form	Quantity	Specification	File
A6 invitation card	Printed	2,000, one run	350gsm uncoated or heavier. Numbered, no date, no venue, no region.	GC-A6-Invitation-artwork.pdf
Ticket	Printed	Per event	Carries date, venue and the reference. The only place the venue appears.	in the collateral page
Testimonial brochure	Printed	Short runs	13 pages. Numbered, issued by hand, never emailed or published.	GC-Practice-Client-Accounts.pdf
Business card	Printed	Jack	85×55mm. Oxblood reverse, QR to the website. No telephone number.	GC-Business-Card-Jack.pdf
Invitation email	Digital	As needed	Plain text, no images, no tracking. Supplements the cards; never the main route.	in the collateral page
Email signatures	Digital	Three	Graham, Karen, Jack. Tables and inline styles for Outlook.	signatures/
The website	Digital	Always on	Six public pages plus the invitation page. No maintenance.	thegcpractice.com

Brand

Colour

Name	Value	Use
Ink	#14181C	Text, dark panels. The default dark.
Brass	#8C7134	The only accent. Rules, labels, small marks.
Brass lit	#C0A468	Brass on a dark ground.
Oxblood	#6B2029	SENT ITEMS ONLY — invitation, ticket, brochure, business card. Never navigation, never the website.
Paper	#F2F3F1	Page background. Cool, not cream.
Stone	#E4E5E1	Quiet panels.
Grit	#5A646D	Secondary text.

Rules

Libre Caslon Display for anything engraved: headings, and labels set in wide-tracked capitals. Archivo for reading. IBM Plex Mono for numbers, codes and dates.
No rounded corners anywhere. A practice sets type on a rectangle.
Oxblood appears only on things that are sent or handed over. If it is on a screen, it is wrong — with one exception, the invitation page's seal.
The ledger mark — one square per client place — appears on the website, the invitation card, the ticket and the back of the brochure. It is the one motif that crosses every medium.
No photographs of people. No stock imagery. No logos other than the wordmark.
British English throughout. No Americanisms, no marketing register, no exclamation marks.
Never name the venue anywhere but the ticket. Never name a client who has not consented. Never publish the diagnostic conversion rate or client value.

All colour and type live in design/tokens.css. Change a value there and it moves the website, the invitation card, the ticket, the brochure and the business card together. Never set a colour anywhere else.

Backups

When	What	How
Nightly	JetBackup	Automatic, off-server. cPanel → JetBackup → File Backups. Restores a single file or the whole account.
Before any upload	public_html zip	File Manager → home directory → select public_html → Compress → download. Ten seconds.
Always	The project folder	content.json and the build, on your machine and the NAS. THIS IS THE ONE THAT MATTERS — dist/ can always be rebuilt from it; it can never be rebuilt from the server.
Quarterly	Test a restore	Restore one harmless file from JetBackup and confirm it works. An untested backup is a hope.

What reaches the CRM

form	Sent when	Fields
invite_visit	The page opens	code, at, referrer, arrived
invite_confirm	Yes, hold me a place	code, name, business, email, phone, companion
invite_miniq	Straight after confirming	code, team_size, challenge_time/team/money, challenge_notes, change_90_days, turnover
invite_query	Ask before you decide	code, name, email, message
invite_decline	Not this time	code, reason, reason_label, email
confirm	Ticket reference entered	ticket_reference, name, email
enquiry	Request an invitation	name, business, role, email, phone, location, turnover, message

Endpoint: https://tools.gracor.org/api/capture.php

If the CRM is unreachable, the form opens the visitor's email programme with everything they typed already filled in, so the enquiry still arrives. Nothing is lost while the endpoint is being built.