I sell two things, and the boundary between them matters.
The main one is a build: custom operational software that takes over a manual process your team repeats every week. It has a clear start, a clear end, and you own what comes out.
The second is infrastructure work: deployment pipelines, cloud architecture, platform engineering. The same skills that make the software reliable, available on their own when that’s all you need.
Custom Operational Software
The system that replaces your manual process.
Every small business has one: client intake, document prep, follow-ups, payment chasing, data copied between tools. Somebody does the same steps by hand for every new client or order. I build the software that does those steps instead. Bespoke to how you actually work, and yours to own when it’s done.
Where it starts and where it ends
Ends: the system is running, documented, with runbooks, and handed off. You own the code outright. Anything after that is a separate, explicit agreement, never scope creep.
What you get
- Process mapping: your workflow on paper first, so we agree on what the system does before I build it
- The system itself: the right tools for the job (custom code, managed services, or both), wired together with error handling, version control, and docs so it doesn’t fail silently
- Human checkpoints where they matter: review steps stay in for anything you’re not ready to automate blind
- Documentation and runbooks: maintainable by your team or any future developer
- Handoff: the repo, the docs, and a walkthrough. You’re not dependent on me
What owning it means
The code, the data, and the workflow are yours. I build on proven services and open source where that’s smarter than building from scratch, so if the system uses paid services underneath (AWS, a payments API, e-signatures), those accounts are yours too, billed to you directly at provider rates. Nothing routes through me, and nothing about the system is rented from me. What you own is the software that ties it all together.
On AI: I use it heavily to build these systems, which is why the timelines are weeks and not months. Whether the finished system should use AI is a separate question. Document pipelines usually shouldn’t, because you want the same input to produce the same output every time. Drafting-heavy work sometimes should. We make that call together when we map your process.
Evidence
Built an AI email system for a health coaching business that cut post-call email time by 93%, from 30-60 minutes per email to under 5 minutes. Currently building automated client intake for a notary services business.
Pricing
| Scope | Timeline | Investment |
|---|---|---|
| One workflow, automated end to end | 1-2 weeks | $4,000 - $6,000 |
| A complete process (e.g. client intake through onboarding) | 4-6 weeks | $8,000 - $12,000 |
| Full back-office system with reporting | 8-12 weeks | $15,000 - $25,000 |
| Light maintenance: a system I built, kept running | Ongoing | $750/mo |
| Active retainer: multiple systems, new automations | Ongoing | $2,000 - $4,000/mo |
Each tier is a fixed scope with a fixed price. If you want more after delivery, that’s a new conversation, not a surprise invoice.
Infrastructure & Platform Services
This is the infrastructure work that sits underneath the software builds. It gets scoped from an architecture review, because platform work inherits whatever already exists and pretending otherwise with a tier menu wouldn’t be honest.
Cloud Infrastructure & Platform Engineering
Infrastructure your team can run after I’m gone.
Whether you’re migrating to AWS, modernizing legacy systems, or building from scratch, I design and implement cloud infrastructure as code. Everything in Terraform. Clean, modular, documented.
Ends: infrastructure your team understands and operates, with runbooks and a knowledge-transfer session.
What this covers
- Deployment pipelines: automated build, test, and deploy with staged environments and tested rollback, so shipping stops being scary
- Cost optimization: find where the AWS bill is waste and fix it in Terraform, not a slide deck
- Cloud migration: on-prem to AWS, EC2 to ECS, monolith to serverless
- Infrastructure as Code: Terraform modules your team can read and modify
- Serverless architecture: Lambda, Step Functions, EventBridge when they’re the right fit
- Observability: CloudWatch dashboards, structured logging, smart alerts
- Security hardening: least-privilege IAM, secrets management, compliance-ready
- Documentation and knowledge transfer: runbooks, architecture diagrams, team training
Pricing
No tier table here, because platform work inherits your existing systems and quoting it sight-unseen wouldn’t be honest. Engagements get scoped after the architecture review. As reference points: focused problems and proofs of concept usually land around $12,000-20,000 over 2-4 weeks, and full builds and overhauls run $25,000-60,000 over 1-3 months. Ongoing support after that is scoped to the system, not a standard subscription.
Book a call
The first step is a free 30-minute fit call. You describe the process, and we decide together whether it’s worth solving and whether a paid Operations Diagnostic is the right next step.