Why Start with the Work Instead of the Tool?
It’s tempting to start with a tool somebody mentioned at a job site. Then you spend a Saturday trying to find a job for it.
The Teardown runs the other way. You watch where the hours actually go, and the tool comes last. It’s the method behind my custom builds, and most of my ready-made tools came out of one.
You can run a simple version yourself at the kitchen table. Here it is in five steps.
Step 1: Follow One Real Job Start to Finish
Pick one real job. A job starting this week works, and so does one that just wrapped.
Write down every touch from the first call to the final payment. For each one, note who did it, which app they used, and whether anything got typed twice.
Don’t fix anything yet. Just write it down.
Here’s an example, made up and kept generic. Say you run a two-truck plumbing company and a customer calls about a water heater:
- The call goes to voicemail while you’re under a sink.
- You call back that evening.
- The customer texts photos of the old unit.
- You write the estimate after dinner.
- Three texts go back and forth to settle a time.
- You text a reminder the day before.
- You do the job.
- You type up the invoice.
- You chase the payment.
That’s nine touches for one water heater, and only one of them is plumbing.
Step 2: Spot the Tells
A tell is a chore that keeps repeating. The classic ones are retyped texts, chased updates and estimates after dinner.
Go back through your list and ask a few questions of every touch:
- Did someone type the same thing twice, in two different places?
- Did someone have to chase an update, or get chased for one?
- Did it happen after hours or on a weekend?
- Did it land on a personal phone?
Circle every yes. Those are your tells.
The two pilots on my case studies page started with tells like these. Ashley at Ash & Pine Construction was pricing every job by hand at 9pm from a supplier catalog. Grant at Game Face Performance was booking a full roster of athletes by text and doing time-zone math late at night.
Step 3: Sort the Tells by Tier
Every tell goes in one of three piles. Some tasks a simple tool takes. Some need an assistant. Some you just stop doing.
A Simple Tool
The same thing happens every time, and no judgment is needed. Grant’s online booking is a good one: clients pick a time inside the hours he set, and the confirmations go out on their own. A review request that goes out the day Ashley hands over a finished job is another.
An Assistant
The task needs judgment or your voice. Drafting a reply, turning job photos into posts, or pricing a voice note against your own catalog all land here. These take more setup, and every message should wait for your approval before it goes out.
Stop Doing It
Some chores don’t need a tool. They need to go. In the made-up plumbing example, that might be a weekly job summary nobody reads, or a second copy of the schedule nobody checks.
Cross the stop-doing pile off your list. That’s time back for free.
Step 4: Score Each Chore
Score what’s left on three things: how often it happens, how painful it is, and how easy it is to set up. Here’s a simple version you can run on paper. Rate each from 1 to 5 and add them up.
- How often: 1 is once a month or less. 5 is every day.
- How painful: 1 is a small annoyance. 5 costs you evenings, weekends or jobs.
- How easy to set up: 1 needs new software and a lot of setup. 5 is a setting in something you already pay for.
Copy this table and fill it in:
| Chore | How often (1 to 5) | How painful (1 to 5) | How easy to set up (1 to 5) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
And here’s how the made-up plumbing company might fill it in. These numbers are made up for the example:
| Chore | How often | How painful | How easy to set up | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texting back missed calls | 5 | 4 | 3 | 12 |
| Settling appointment times by text | 4 | 3 | 4 | 11 |
| Writing estimates after dinner | 4 | 5 | 2 | 11 |
| Asking for reviews | 3 | 2 | 5 | 10 |
Highest total goes first. When two chores tie, take the one that’s easier to set up, because it pays off fastest.
Step 5: Try the Top Score on a Real Job
Set up the winner and run it on the next real job. Watch for whatever makes you hesitate, and fix that before you call it done.
Before you build anything, check the shelf. The chore you picked may already have a ready-made tool that installs in two sessions.
Then go back to your list and take the next one. One working tool beats four half-built ones sitting in the garage.
When to Have Me Do It
The version above gets you a scored list. A full Teardown is the same method with a second set of eyes on the job, an Online Presence Report up front, and a working tool at the end.
It takes one month and starts at $5,000. In week three you get a working version in your hands and try it on a real job while I watch. In week four it gets folded into how you already work and checked for hours saved.
The Teardown page has the steps and prices, and what’s in an AI Teardown report walks through the research part.
Where to Start
Pick one job this week and write down every touch. If you’d rather I follow it with you, tell me what’s eating your time.