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One agreed repetitive task, configuration or connections, testing with you and plain-English handoff instructions. We confirm inputs, tools, exceptions and what counts as finished before work begins.

Third-party software and messaging costs are separate and confirmed upfront. Larger workflows have their own scope and flat quote. We first check what your existing tools already do.

A single automation is usually ready in about a week. Larger workflows typically take 2–3 weeks. Access to your tools and review of sample inputs are checked when we agree the schedule.

You own the agreed build and the accounts it runs in. TechD does not resell software subscriptions. You receive instructions for using the workflow and switching it off.

We agree test cases, exceptions and manual checks before handoff. Use the handoff instructions to pause a workflow if needed and contact Steve. Ongoing monitoring and fixes are available through optional support; additional work is scoped before it starts.

No. AI Partner is optional at $295/month and can be cancelled. Front Desk Care is a separate optional plan at $395/month with a twelve-month term. Third-party software costs can continue even without TechD support.

Bring one repetitive task and the tools you use. In 15 minutes we discuss fit and a sensible next step. Nothing is installed, signed or paid for during the call. Scope and price are agreed before work begins.

Yes. Use Ask Steve a question on the Contact page. A sentence or two is enough. Steve usually replies within one business day.

Pick the one job you do by hand every week and start there. Usually it is the follow-up nobody has time for: the missed call, the quote that never got chased, the form that came in on a Saturday. I build that one thing on the tools you already pay for, and you own it when it is done.

Probably not, and I’ll tell you that on the call. If customers can pick a time and get a real confirmation, that part is solved. The gap I keep finding is the form that ends in “someone will be in touch” with no time attached — common with dental, chiropractic, physical therapy, vets and marinas. If that’s your form, it’s worth fifteen minutes.

Draft the client emails, the invoices and the first version of your posts. That is most of the admin. Be careful with anything a client will read as your own words — AI writes a competent draft and a flat one, and the flat part is what loses you the job.

Many have a free tier that is enough for one person. ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude all do. The free tiers stop being enough when you want something to run without you sitting there watching it. That is the point where a paid plan or a built automation starts to make sense.

It is confidently wrong sometimes, and it does not know it. Customer-facing wording and automation rules are approved before use. New AI-generated messages and exceptions need the human review agreed in the scope. Anyone telling you to just let it run has not had to clean up after it.

Zapier, Make or Power Automate. They are the plumbing between your calendar, your forms and your inbox, and they are all fine. The tool matters far less than picking the right job to point it at.

ChatGPT or Claude will draft one and it will read well. The numbers are the part it cannot do for you. It will produce plausible ones if you let it, and plausible numbers are worse than blank ones.

Yes — emails, summaries, first drafts, writing down how a process works. Do not paste anything into it you would not email to a stranger, and check the data settings on the free tier before you put customer details anywhere near it.

The tools are usually $20 to $60 a month. Having something built is separate: one automation is $495 flat, and two or three that hand off to each other is $1,500. I quote before starting, so there is no invoice you have not already agreed to.

Work out what the job costs you now — hours a week, times what an hour of that person’s time is worth — and compare. If a task takes two hours a week and the build is $495, the arithmetic is quick. If it takes ten minutes a week, do not automate it.

A single automation is $495 flat and takes about a week. Tool subscriptions on top are usually $20 to $60 a month, and the accounts are yours — I do not resell anybody’s software or take a cut of it.

There is a free tier, and Plus is around $20 a month at the time of writing — check OpenAI’s pricing page for the current number. For most small businesses the free tier is enough until you want it doing something on a schedule.

No. The free tiers of ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude will handle drafting emails and posts for most people. You start paying when you want something running on its own, or when you need it to hold on to your business’s information.

Write down what it does and who checks it. Everything I build comes with a one-page description of what it touches and how to switch it off. If your team cannot explain it, they will not trust it, and it will quietly stop being used.

Take the task you would hand to an assistant if you had one, and hand it to a workflow instead. Usually that is follow-up, a weekly report, or re-typing the same information into two places. One at a time.

It is a rule of thumb rather than a law: roughly a third of routine desk work is repetitive enough to hand off, and that is where to start looking. Do not take the number literally. Look at your own week instead.

You will see lists like data, algorithms, computing, ethics and adoption. It is a framework for a classroom, not something you need in order to run a marina or a dental practice. Adoption is the only one that decides whether any of this works for you.

Slowly, and one thing at a time. Build one automation, live with it for a month, and see whether anybody still uses it. If they do, build the next one. If they do not, that is worth knowing before you have bought five.

Scheduling, summarising long email threads, and handing work between people without anyone re-typing it. Keep a person in the loop anywhere a customer sees the output.