If you can imagine it, let’s build it.

Custom software can change how a whole business runs. I became interested in it almost 20 years ago, because of what it did for my own.

In 2007 I was running Virtual Aviation, a small business selling flight simulator sessions to pilots and to the public. We had an office but no simulators of our own. Sessions took place at training centres at Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton and Manchester.

I had tried the software I could buy, and none of it fitted how we worked. So I commissioned a booking system. It cost the equivalent of about £20,000 today, which was a big investment for a business that small.

Each instructor saw only the sessions they could take, matched to the aircraft, simulators and training centres they worked with. Customers could search availability, book online or buy a gift voucher to redeem later, and training centre staff could see who to expect.

The whole business ran on it. It was completely transformative, and it probably paid for itself 50 or 100 times over.

Web designers often focus on how a site looks, and developers on how it works. I enjoy both, and that booking system is what led me to start Whitespace. If there's something in your business you think could work better, we'd like to hear about it.