SwansonX
Free automation audit
AI automation for Twin Cities small businesses

In this market, the audit is usually the first invoice.

The Twin Cities has a real AI consulting industry now, and it prices like one: paid discovery, four-figure monthly retainers, and a proposal that arrives after you have already spent money finding out whether you needed it. Mine is free and the prices are on the page. That is most of what is different about buying this here.

Get a free automation audit How this market prices

Text me anytime: (218) 818-1023. Skip the email if you like. I read and answer every text myself.

What is different about the metro

Three things, and none of them are the technology

The first is how it is sold. Metro AI consultancies commonly charge for the discovery work itself and then run a monthly retainer in the four figures. That model is not dishonest, and for a hundred-person company it is probably right. For a six-van plumbing outfit it means paying a meaningful sum to find out whether a $2,000 build was worth doing.

The second is what a lead costs you. Metro competition makes paid leads and ad clicks materially more expensive than they are up north. When you are paying more per enquiry, the arithmetic shifts: converting a larger share of the leads you already bought beats buying more of them, and that is exactly what follow-up automation does.

The third is that you probably already own software. Metro businesses of any size tend to have a CRM, a dispatch system, an invoicing platform and a scheduling tool, none of which talk to each other properly. That makes the work here integration rather than greenfield, which is a different job and usually a more valuable one.

Where metro businesses actually leak

The four gaps I see most in the Cities

These are metro-shaped problems. They show up far less in a two-person operation ninety miles north.

The handoff between office and field

You have staff. That is the good news and the problem: an enquiry passes between a person answering the phone, a person scheduling, and a person doing the work, and things get dropped in the gaps between them rather than by anyone in particular.

Fix: one pipeline everything flows through.

Four systems, no shared truth

The CRM says one thing, the dispatch board another, and the invoice gets typed from a text message. Nobody can answer "what came in this week" without adding it up.

Fix: integration and a dashboard.

Expensive leads answered slowly

You are paying metro rates per click and then replying the next morning. That is the most expensive habit on this list and the easiest to fix.

Fix: reply in seconds.

Drive time nobody accounts for

A booking made without thinking about where the crew already is can cost most of an afternoon on 494. Scheduling that respects geography is worth real money here in a way it simply is not in a rural service area.

Fix: scheduling and routing rules.

The honest comparison

When you should hire a metro firm instead

I am one person, and there are situations where that is the wrong answer. If you have a hundred staff, a compliance department, procurement, or a project that needs several people working in parallel to a deadline, hire a firm with several people in it. I will say so on the call rather than after the contract.

Where I am the better answer is the range this site is actually built for: businesses with somewhere between two and fifty people, who want one defined thing built properly for a published price, who would rather talk to the person doing the work, and who do not want a retainer attached to it.

And I am not in the Cities, which matters mainly because there is no metro office in the price. The work runs over calls and video anyway. If you want someone in the room every week, that is a legitimate reason to hire local, and it is a different purchase from this one.

Where I work in the metro

Across the Twin Cities, remotely

Most metro projects run entirely over phone, text, email and video calls, and the price is the same as anywhere else in the state. Businesses I work with are spread across:

Minneapolis · St. Paul · Bloomington · Brooklyn Park · Plymouth · Maple Grove · Woodbury · Eagan · Edina · Burnsville · Eden Prairie · Minnetonka · Apple Valley · Coon Rapids · Blaine · Lakeville · St. Louis Park · Roseville · Shakopee · Chanhassen · Chaska · Savage · Inver Grove Heights · Golden Valley

Looking for a website rather than automation? That is the Twin Cities web design page. If you are further north, there is a Brainerd and lakes area page and a statewide one.

What it costs

Published prices, fixed in writing

Published, and the same in Edina as in Aitkin. The audit is free, which in this market is the part worth checking against whoever else you are talking to.

Free Automation Audit
$0

Twenty to thirty minutes on how your week runs. One to three things worth building, with real numbers, or an honest "not yet".

One workflow, built and tested
from $1,995

Missed-call text back, lead follow-up, estimate chasing or review requests, with one primary integration. Multi-system builds from $3,500.

AI receptionist
from $2,500 setup

Then $299 a month, on the number you already have. Phone line and AI usage billed at cost on top.

Every project is one fixed price agreed in writing before work starts. Third-party costs, the phone line, texts, email sending and the AI's own usage, are billed at cost with the provider's invoice shown, or run on your own account. The full price list.

Questions

Twin Cities automation questions

How much does an AI consultant cost in Minneapolis?

It varies a lot, and the model matters more than the number. Several metro firms charge for discovery or an audit up front and then work on a monthly retainer in the four figures, which suits larger companies. My audit is free, a written blueprint is $499 credited toward a build, single workflows start at $1,995 and there is no retainer unless you want ongoing capacity. Ask anyone you are considering to put their numbers in writing before you commit, including mine.

Should I hire a metro firm instead of one person?

Sometimes, genuinely. If you have a large team, procurement or compliance requirements, or a project needing several people working in parallel to a fixed deadline, a firm is the right call and I will tell you so. For a business between roughly two and fifty people wanting one thing built well at a published price, a single experienced developer is usually faster, cheaper and easier to talk to.

We already use a CRM and dispatch software. Does that help or hurt?

It helps, and it is the normal metro situation. The work becomes integration: making the systems you already pay for talk to each other so information typed once appears everywhere it belongs. That is usually more valuable than adding another tool, and it is the thing most likely to make your existing software finally worth what you pay for it.

Do you come to our office?

Not routinely, and it is fair to weigh that. I am based in Brainerd, about two hours north, and metro projects run over calls and video, which is how the price stays where it is. I do come down for something that genuinely warrants it. If you want a weekly in-person presence, hire someone in the Cities; that is a real requirement and a different purchase.

What should a metro service business automate first?

Response speed, almost always, because your leads cost more here than anywhere else in the state and replying the next morning wastes what you already spent. After that it is usually the handoff between whoever answers the phone and whoever does the work, which is where metro businesses with actual staff lose things that a solo operator never would.

Is there a metro rate?

No. The prices on this site are the prices, in Edina or in Aitkin. There is no metro office and no account manager in the cost, which is a large part of why the numbers look the way they do.

Start here

Get your free automation audit

Tell me what software you already run and where enquiries get dropped between your people. I will come back within 24 hours with what I would connect first and what it costs.

One line: roughly how many of you, and where you work.
Rough numbers are fine. Put a phone number in here if you would rather I texted you.

No card, no call to book, no mailing list. I reply within 24 hours.

What you get back

  • Which of your existing systems can actually connect
  • A fixed price for the first integration
  • What your slow replies are costing at metro lead prices
  • An honest steer to a firm if that is the better fit

Rather call or text?

Easier from the truck between jobs.

Call (218) 818-1023

Text (218) 818-1023

Straight answer guarantee

If your volume will not pay a build back, the audit ends with me saying so and telling you what I would do instead.

Elsewhere in Minnesota

The rest of the state

Location does not change the price. It changes which problems come up first, which is why these pages are not the same page three times. Or start with the automation services page, the contractor hub, or the trades: roofing, HVAC, plumbing, electrical and remodeling.

AI automation in Minnesota

The statewide picture: seasonality, surge weeks and when to build.

Read it →

AI automation in Brainerd & the lakes

Where I actually live, and the cabin owner who is three hours away.

Read it →

Get a straight number before you spend one.

Tell me what you already run and where things get dropped. Within 24 hours you will have a written answer and a fixed price, and it costs nothing to find out.

Get my free automation audit Text (218) 818-1023