What these prices never include: surprises. Nothing here means unlimited integrations, unlimited revisions or unlimited AI usage, and I will not pretend otherwise. Third-party costs, phone lines, SMS, email sending and the AI's own usage are billed at cost, with the provider's invoice shown, or run on your own account so I never touch the money at all.
AI automation for small businesses
Put your busywork on autopilot.
Missed calls answered in seconds. Leads followed up while they are still warm. Reviews asked for while the job is still fresh. I build AI automation around the way your business actually works, not the other way round, and every build is a fixed price agreed in writing first.
Text me anytime: (218) 818-1023. Skip the email if you like. I read and answer every text myself.
The problem first, then the technology
Where small businesses actually lose money
None of these are technology problems. They are time problems. You are busy doing the work, so the follow-up that wins the next job never happens.
Missed calls become someone else's customer
A new customer who gets voicemail calls the next name on the list. An automatic text back within seconds, in your own words, keeps the conversation yours until you can pick up the phone.
Slow follow-up loses won work
The lead that filled in your form on Tuesday bought from whoever replied on Tuesday. Automated follow-up answers in minutes, asks the qualifying questions, and keeps nudging politely until there is an answer either way.
Your software does not talk to itself
The enquiry lives in email, the quote in one app, the invoice in another, and you are the connection between them, retyping the same name four times. Integrations move the data so you do not have to.
Evenings go to repetitive admin
Quotes written up at 10pm, review requests that never get sent, the same questions answered by text all day. Most of that is a pattern, and patterns are exactly what AI is good at drafting for you to check and send.
What "automation" actually means here
One lead, start to finish, without you touching it
This is the workflow most businesses ask for first. Every step is something that already happens in your business, just done in seconds instead of whenever you get a minute.
Step one
A lead arrives
A call you could not take, a form on your website, or a Facebook message. Wherever it lands, the workflow picks it up.
Step two
They get an instant response
A text or email in your business's own words, within seconds, so the customer knows a real business heard them.
Step three
The lead gets qualified
A couple of natural questions: what the job is, where, roughly when. Tyre-kickers are politely sorted from real work.
Step four
Booking gets offered
A time on your calendar, or a promise of a call back inside a stated window, without four texts of back-and-forth.
Step five
Your records update themselves
The lead, the answers and the booking land in your customer list or CRM, spelled correctly, with nothing retyped.
Step six
Follow-up happens on schedule
No reply after two days? A polite nudge. Job finished? A thank-you and a review request while it is still fresh.
What I can automate
AI automation services, in plain English
Each of these is a defined build with a fixed price, not an open-ended project. Prices are on this page, and the audit is where we work out which one is actually worth your money.
Missed-call text back
A call you cannot take gets an automatic text within seconds: sorry we missed you, here is what we need to know, and when you will hear back. The conversation stays yours instead of going to the next company on the list.
Lead follow-up
Every enquiry from your website, phone or socials gets an instant reply, qualifying questions, and polite scheduled nudges until there is a yes or a no. Nothing sits unanswered in an inbox over a weekend.
AI receptionist
Answers the calls you miss, or all of them, on the number you already have. It speaks in your business's own words, takes the details, books or routes the caller, and emails you a summary the moment the call ends. Mine answers (218) 818-1023 today.
Estimate and quote follow-up
Most estimates die of silence, not of price. Sent quotes get followed up on a schedule you set, and you can see which ones were opened and which ones went quiet.
Review requests
A few days after the job, the customer gets a short personal message asking for a Google review, while the work is still fresh. Reviews are the local search battle, and the businesses winning it are just asking consistently.
Intake and paperwork
A photo, a voice note or a scribbled form becomes a drafted quote, job sheet or customer record. It writes, you check and send. That last step stays human on purpose.
Integrations
Your forms, calendar, CRM, invoicing and email connected so information typed once lands everywhere it belongs. Usually the least glamorous build and the biggest time-saver.
Custom AI assistants and agents
A custom assistant with your business logic in it: what it may decide alone, what needs your approval, and when it must hand a conversation to a person. Built with testing, permissions and escalation, not vibes. How I build the AI parts →
Custom software and dashboards
When no off-the-shelf product fits: portals, dashboards and internal tools, built around your workflow. More on custom software →
Built for the trades first
Roofing, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, remodeling?
Contractors and home-service businesses are where this pays for itself fastest, because every missed call is a real job with real money on it and you are on a ladder when it rings. There is a whole page on what I automate for contractors.
What it costs
Published prices, scoped in writing
Every project starts with the free audit, so you never pay to find out whether automation is worth it for you. "From" means the starting price for the defined scope; anything bigger is quoted in writing before work starts.
Free Automation Audit
$0
A 20 to 30 minute conversation. You leave with one to three specific automation opportunities and rough numbers, whether or not you hire me.
AI Workflow Blueprint
$499 once
A map of your workflows, the opportunities in them, the recommended stack, the human-approval points and a prioritized roadmap. Credited toward a qualifying build.
Automation Starter
from $1,995
One defined workflow: lead follow-up, missed-call text back, review automation or intake, with one primary integration. Built, tested, handed over.
Automation Growth
from $3,500
A multi-step workflow with two or three integrations, AI classification or decision logic where it earns its place, testing and handoff.
AI Receptionist
from $2,500 setup
Then $299 a month: voice and SMS intake, FAQs, qualification, routing and booking, on the number you already have. Phone line and AI usage can be billed separately at cost.
Custom AI / Agent Build
from $5,000
A custom assistant or agent: your business logic, integrations, evaluation, permissions and escalation. Scoped and priced in writing first.
Automation Care
from $199/mo
Monitoring, small fixes, workflow health checks and minor optimization, month to month. Third-party software and usage billed separately.
Growth / AI Partner
from $999/mo
A defined amount of my development and automation time every month, for businesses that want continuous improvement rather than one project.
Custom Business Software
from $5,000
Dashboards, portals, internal tools and workflow applications when nothing off the shelf fits. See custom software.
How a project runs
Discover, identify, build, integrate, improve
1. Discover
The free audit. You talk, I listen, and we find where your time actually goes.
2. Identify
We pick the one workflow with the best payback, and I put a fixed price on it in writing.
3. Build
I build it and test it against real situations, including the awkward ones, before it ever touches a customer.
4. Integrate
It gets wired into the tools you already use, and you get a plain-English walkthrough of what it does and how to switch it off.
5. Improve
We look at what actually happened after a few weeks and tune it. Automation is a thing you keep, not a thing you launch.
The safety rule
Anything customer-facing drafts, and a human approves, until it has earned enough trust to act alone, and some things never should. We decide those lines together before the build starts.
The honest part
What I will not promise you
I will not promise a number one Google ranking, a revenue figure or an "ROI guarantee". Anyone who does is guessing with your money. What I can show you is the workflow running, the hours it removes, and the real monthly cost of keeping it alive.
I will not pretend AI is magic. It drafts, sorts, answers and reminds brilliantly. It also makes things up when it is allowed to, which is why everything I build works from your real prices, hours and rules, admits what it does not know, and hands hard conversations to a human.
And I will tell you when not to buy. If your lead volume is too small for the build to pay for itself, the audit ends with me saying so and pointing you at something cheaper, sometimes something free. That has already happened and it will happen again.
Start here
Get your free automation audit
Tell me what your business does and what eats your time. I will come back within 24 hours with the one to three automations I would build first, roughly what each would cost, and an honest note on anything I would not bother automating.
What you get back
- The one to three automations worth building first
- A fixed starting price for each, from the list above
- The honest monthly running cost, not just the build
- What I would not automate, and why
Rather call or text?
Easier if you are in the truck between jobs.
Straight answer guarantee
If automation is not worth your money yet, the audit ends with me telling you that, and what I would do instead. I would rather be believed next year than paid this week. More on how the consulting side works.
Questions
The things people ask before automating anything
What is AI automation, in plain English?
Software that does a repetitive job the way you would do it, without you doing it. A missed call gets a text back in seconds. A new lead gets a reply, a couple of qualifying questions and a booking link. A finished job triggers a review request three days later. The AI part is what lets it read, write and sort like a person; the automation part is what makes it happen every single time.
What should a small business automate first?
Whatever loses you the most won work. For most service businesses that is response speed: missed-call text back and lead follow-up, because those turn enquiries you already paid for into jobs. Reviews are usually second. Internal admin, like quotes and data entry, comes after, once the machine that wins work is running. The free audit exists to work this out for your business specifically.
What does AI automation cost?
The audit is free. A written blueprint of your workflows is $499, credited toward a build. A single defined workflow starts at $1,995, a multi-step build at $3,500, an AI receptionist at $2,500 plus $299 a month, and custom assistants or software at $5,000. Every project is a fixed price agreed in writing before work starts, and third-party costs like phone lines and AI usage are billed at cost, never marked up quietly.
Do I need new software for this to work?
Usually not. The point of integration is to connect the tools you already use: your phone, your calendar, your invoice app, your spreadsheet. If something genuinely will not connect, I will tell you, and tell you what the alternative costs, before anything is built.
Will customers know they are talking to AI?
When they are, yes. Nothing I build pretends to be a person, because getting caught pretending costs more trust than the automation ever saved. Most of what I automate is not conversation anyway: it is the follow-up, the reminders, the data entry and the scheduling that no customer ever sees.
What happens when the AI gets something wrong?
It will, sometimes, which is why everything customer-facing starts in draft mode: it writes, you approve. Where it does act alone, it works from your real prices, hours and rules, says "I don't know, here is the number" rather than guessing, and hands anything sensitive to you. And every build comes with a way to switch it off that you control, not me.
Can you guarantee this gets me to number one on Google?
No, and nobody honest can. Rankings depend on competition, reviews, links and time, not just on what your site says. What automation reliably does is convert more of the attention you already get: answered calls, faster follow-up and steady reviews, which are also, not coincidentally, things Google's local results reward.
Start with the busywork, not the buzzwords.
Tell me what your week actually looks like. I will tell you which parts a machine should be doing, what that costs, and what I would leave alone. Free, in writing, within 24 hours.
Where you are: across Minnesota, Minneapolis and St. Paul, or Brainerd and the lakes area.