Automation and self-hosting for remote-run, multi-location service businesses.
I work with remote-run and multi-location service businesses — residential cleaning is home turf, and the same patterns hold in landscaping, pest control, junk removal, and adjacent trades.
I'm most useful early, when the question is still what should and shouldn't be automated — before anyone has bought a platform.
Automation audit. I go through what you're paying for and what it actually does. The last time I did this on my own business, 129 automations turned out to be about 14 real ones. Output is a written list: consolidate, replace, leave alone. Two weeks.
Self-hosting evaluation. Whether to move off SaaS, which tools survive a security screen, and what you should refuse to move. I rejected three of the most-recommended open-source tools in my category on disclosure history — that evaluation is documented and repeatable on your stack. Two to three weeks.
Operations layer build. The longer engagement: a written constitution defining what the system may never do, staged approvals, and the reporting layer. Scoped per operation, because the answer depends on what you'd never let a machine near. Baselining comes first — I automated before measuring in my own business and lost the ability to prove what changed.
I take a small number of engagements at a time and I'll tell you honestly when I'm at capacity rather than stretching one thin. If the timing doesn't work I'd rather say so than take the retainer.
Deciding what to automate and what to leave alone. This is most of the value and the part people skip.
Self-hosting evaluations, including the security screen. I rejected three widely-recommended open-source tools on vulnerability grounds; that evaluation is documented and repeatable.
Building an operations layer with guardrails that actually hold — and knowing the difference between a guardrail that's a permission and one that's a promise.
I won't promise you time-saved numbers. I don't measure them in my own business and I'm not going to invent them for yours.
I won't recommend automating customer communication. The downside is asymmetric: a missed insight costs you an opportunity, a bad automated message costs you the customer and you find out last.
I won't tell you to replace your booking platform or your system of record. Replace the glue and the commodity tools. Leave the thing your business is made of alone.
Tell me what you're running and I'll tell you which parts of this would break in your operation.
No pitch, no deck. If it turns into work, we'll talk about that then.