Two businesses with one owner can run in a single CRM if you separate access rather than the database: the client and their history are shared, while orders, projects and funnels belong to each unit. That is how the CRM for SHUMI is built — a women’s clothing brand and the creative agency SHUMI Agency, which we built from scratch in two weeks.
Key takeaways
SHUMI is a women’s clothing brand from Russia: 16 years on the market and a place among the TOP-100 women’s clothing brands on Wildberries. Alongside it runs SHUMI Agency, a creative agency with the same owner.
The two businesses are different by nature. The brand handles orders, production and hand-over; the agency handles projects, clients and managers. Each has its own clients, orders and staff, but the owner is one, and part of the clients are shared between the two businesses. So they needed one operating environment rather than two parallel ones.
We brought both businesses into one system. From start to launch it took two weeks.
Before the project the brand and the agency ran in parallel, and information travelled between people rather than through a system. Here is what it looked like.
Such a scheme relies on the memory of the staff. While orders are few, it goes unnoticed. When there are more of them, a status has to be hunted down in a conversation, and a client who contacted both the brand and the agency has no single history.
Mistake Solving this with a separate program for each business. SHUMI’s task was phrased differently: not one more program, but one system for two businesses.
The task was set out as three requirements, and each can be checked on the finished system rather than taken on trust.
It is useful to draw up such a list before choosing a tool. It answers three questions: what in the company is shared, what is separate, and where a new enquiry goes. Without answers to them, development turns into endless clarifications.
We built the CRM from scratch around SHUMI’s processes: not a set-up of an off-the-shelf service, but an operating environment built around how the brand and the agency really work. It has roles, a single client base for both businesses and an order funnel from first touch to hand-over.
When two different processes must fit into one system, a ready-made template has to be bent to both at once. The article on custom CRM names this case among the signs that a company has outgrown a platform: the second line of business does not fit into the system, and a separate account or a second program is set up for it. It also explains when a ready-made CRM is enough and development would only postpone order in sales.
Tip Describe the processes first, then choose the tool. If you have one or two funnels, standard roles and typical documents, configuring a ready-made platform is enough. If your business lines follow different rules, as at SHUMI, price the development.
At its core there are two flows and one system: each business has its own funnel and its own roles, while the client base is shared. It is laid out like this.
| What we compare | SHUMI — clothing brand | SHUMI Agency — agency |
|---|---|---|
| What is managed in the system | Orders, production, hand-over | Projects, clients, managers |
| Which flow | Its own client flow and staff roles | Its own flow of requests and its own funnel |
| Who sees what | Brand staff see brand orders | The agency manager sees their projects |
| What is shared | A single client base and a single operating environment | A single client base and a single operating environment |
Access is split by role: brand staff and agency managers have separate rights. Brand staff see brand orders, the agency manager sees their projects, and only the owner sees everything at once.
For such a scheme it is more reliable to describe access as a combination of role and line of business, rather than hand out rights by job title. How to separate rights, keep an action log and protect the database is covered in the article on access rights in a CRM.
The clients of both businesses are collected in one base: a client is visible in both businesses, and their history is not lost. Instead of two scattered databases there is a single client card.
For the owner this answers simple questions: which clients are connected to both businesses at once, and what has already been discussed with them. Before, finding out would have meant comparing two databases by hand.
Each order follows its own path — from first touch to hand-over. Statuses now live in the system instead of being forwarded as screenshots. How to build funnel stages, measure conversion and avoid typical mistakes is covered in the article on the sales funnel in a CRM.
We built SHUMI a new website and connected it to the CRM: every request lands straight in the right funnel, with no manual transfer and no lost leads.
This closes the loop. If a website sends enquiries to an inbox or a chat, the system inside the company can be as good as you like, but the entrance to it stays manual, and that is exactly where requests get lost. Here a website request and a messenger enquiry end up in the same place: the funnel of the right business.
Which channels and systems are usually connected to a CRM and how to check the data exchange is covered in the article on CRM integrations.
The main result is one operating environment for two businesses instead of screenshots and chats. SHUMI’s sales grew fivefold.
Four things changed in the team’s work.
Important Two weeks is the timeline of this project. For another one it is made up of the number of processes, roles and integrations, and we do not name it before looking at the task.
One shared CRM is needed when the units share clients or when the owner needs a complete picture of the whole group; separate systems make sense when there is no overlap. What decides it is not company size or headcount but what ties the businesses together.
| Situation | What to choose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Clients of the two units overlap | One CRM | A single client card keeps the history of contact in both businesses, and it does not have to be assembled by hand |
| The owner needs a picture of the whole group | One CRM | The head sees all units in one system instead of merging reports from several programs |
| Staff should see only their own unit | One CRM with roles | Role-based rights close off other people’s data, so a separate system is not needed for that |
| The units share no clients, no people and no reporting | Two separate systems | A shared base would add nothing, and the set-up would only get more complicated |
If you are unsure, start with the first row of the table: shared clients are the strongest argument for a single system. At SHUMI that was exactly the case: the two businesses had clients, and there was no way to see them in one database.
The scheme from the case suits an owner with several lines of business: production and services, a shop and a service centre, two legal entities with shared clients. Start not with choosing a program but with answers to a few questions.
It is also worth looking at the places where such projects usually break.
We start with a map of flows: which units exist, who works with them, where enquiries arrive and what must be shared. Roles, funnels and the structure of the base follow from it, not the other way round. Then we build the system around those processes and connect the website to it, so a request reaches the funnel without manual transfer, as in the SHUMI case.
The budget reference points are on the CRM service page: a custom CRM built around your processes costs from $12,000, and a rollout on a ready-made platform from $3,000. Which option you need becomes clear after the processes are reviewed.
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A custom CRM built around a company’s processes, like SHUMI’s, costs from $12,000. If the processes are standard and a ready-made platform is enough, a rollout starts from $3,000. Both prices are on the CRM service page; the final figure depends on the number of processes, roles and integrations.
No: access is split by role. Brand staff see brand orders, the agency manager sees their own projects, and only the owner sees everything at once.
At SHUMI the businesses are different by nature too: the brand handles orders, production and hand-over, the agency handles projects, clients and managers. So each has its own roles and funnel, while the client base and the operating environment stay shared.
Every enquiry, from the website or a messenger, lands straight in the right funnel. At SHUMI the new website is connected to the CRM, so requests are not transferred by hand and do not get lost.
At SHUMI two weeks passed from start to launch of the system. For another project the timeline is made up of the number of processes, roles and integrations, so it is named after the task is reviewed, not in advance.
When you have one or two funnels, standard roles and typical documents. Then it is simpler to configure a ready-made platform: a rollout starts from $3,000, while custom development starts from $12,000. If your business lines follow different rules, as at SHUMI, price the development.
With the answers to the checklist questions above: which data is shared, who sees what and through which channels enquiries arrive. Then the path of an order or project in each business is described — from first touch to completion.
