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The Survey

Where AI would actually help you, and where it would not.

Everyone keeps telling you to use AI. Nobody tells you what for. This is an hour on how your week runs, and a straight answer about where software helps and where it does not. I arrive with no tool in mind.

Book The SurveySee what you get

$500 for the hour and the written summary, or $300 if I built your site, since by then I already know how you work. If the site is the thing that needs building first, that is a website build and the Survey rides alongside it. Only want the website looked at? The free 60-second check-up scans speed, SEO and security instead.

Why this matters now

The repetitive work is already eating your week. AI can take most of it back.

The advantage is not opening another AI tab. It is one assistant that knows your business, follows your rules, and quietly handles the repeat work. I set these up from Castlegar for owners across the Kootenays and beyond.

36%

of the work week goes to admin

Owners spend more than a third of every week on invoicing, scheduling, data entry, and follow-up. That is the quiet work that keeps the business small while you keep it running.

Time etc small business survey

60 to 70%

of work time is now automatable

McKinsey estimates current AI could take on the activities that absorb 60 to 70 percent of employees’ time today. Not the judgement, the repetition around it.

McKinsey, economic potential of generative AI

75%

of knowledge workers already use AI

Three in four knowledge workers use AI at work. The question is no longer whether to use it, but whether yours runs on your context and rules or someone else’s.

Microsoft Work Trend Index, 2024

A chatbot out of the box is not a business tool. The setup is what makes it safe.

The reason this is a conversation and not a form is that the useful answer depends entirely on your week. The same tool that saves one business a day a month is dead weight in another. So I look at your actual work first, and recommend second.

  1. 01

    The same admin work keeps coming back

    Inbox triage, reply drafts, summaries, task routing, and follow-up return every single week. A private operator handles the repetition so you can handle the decisions.

  2. 02

    Your knowledge is trapped in ten places

    Services, FAQs, policies, tone, and documents live everywhere except one place an assistant can use. I gather them into clean, private context.

  3. 03

    Generic AI is a stranger in your business

    A chatbot you re-explain everything to every time is not an operator. Yours will know your customers, your boundaries, and what good work looks like.

  4. 04

    Connected AI without guardrails is a real risk

    Customer data, passwords, private files, and public replies need clear limits before any automation touches them. Nothing runs that you did not approve.

New to all of this? Two plain-language guides help: can AI actually help a small business and AI setup versus AI operator.

You are paying for software you do not use, and doing work it could have done.

Both halves cost you quietly. The subscriptions leave in small monthly pieces and the work leaves your evenings, so neither ever looks like a problem worth booking a day for.

A week right now

  • Someone told you to use AI. Nobody told you what for, so you have three tabs open and no plan.
  • You pay for four tools and could not say out loud what two of them do.
  • The same admin waits for Tuesday night, because Tuesday night is when there is time.
  • Every quote gets built from scratch, so a job you have done a hundred times still takes an hour to price.
  • You looked at a tool that costs $200 a month and had no way to tell if it was worth it.
  • The advice you get comes from people who sell the thing they are recommending.

A week after

  • Three jobs are named, with what each one would cost to hand over, so you can pick.
  • The subscriptions you do not need are cancelled, and that money comes back every month.
  • You know the parts of your week AI genuinely helps with, and the parts where it would waste your money.
  • The repeat work has a template behind it, so pricing a familiar job takes minutes.
  • When a salesperson pitches you next, you already know whether you need it.
  • You keep the written page either way, whether or not you ever build anything with me.

What it costs you: one hour, and honest answers about how the week really goes. Five hundred dollars, or three hundred once I have built your site. Three of the five headings are about what to cancel and what to leave alone, so this is as likely to save you a subscription as to sell you a build.

The setup

One focused offer, scoped to your business.

I look at how the work actually moves through your week, tell you what software could take over, and what it could not.

The Survey

$500

Covers the assessment and the written summary. Anything built or set up afterwards is quoted separately.

Paid up front. $300 if I built your site, because by then I already know how you work.

Best fit

What to cancel, what you already own, what to buy, what to build, and what to leave alone.

An hour on how your week actually runs, then a written summary under five headings. Three of those headings usually make me nothing: things to cancel, things you already pay for and are not using, and tools you should buy from someone who is not me. That is deliberate. Nobody should take advice about software from a person who only ever recommends their own.

Best for

Owners who keep being told they should use AI and want a straight answer about whether that is true for them.

Delivery: Written summary within 3 business days
Book The Survey

What is included

  • WHAT TO CANCEL: overlapping subscriptions, unused seats, and things bought for one job in 2023
  • WHAT YOU ALREADY OWN: the tool you are paying for that does the job you were about to buy again
  • WHAT TO BUY: real off-the-shelf recommendations, priced, that I do not sell and take no cut on
  • WHAT TO BUILD: the jobs worth a custom tool, split into what saves YOU time and what earns you money, including custom AI skills and agent workflows if your business already runs on an AI assistant
  • WHAT TO LEAVE ALONE: the work that needs judgement, a relationship, or someone who cares
  • A ten-minute photo lesson if your website needs better pictures, because that is usually free to fix
  • A written summary you keep, whether or not you ever hire me
  • A price beside anything worth building, so you know what it would cost before you decide

The standard behind it is proven on real client builds.

The Survey is new, so I am not going to invent success stories about it. What I can show you is the standard of the work behind it. Summit Handyman and Family Designs & Creations are real client builds, planned and shipped with the same care this setup gets.

See the portfolio
Brett from Kootenay Made Digital built my website for my business. He was very friendly and professional, really took my website to a high level. It’s easy for customers to navigate and makes my life a lot easier with all their information on the request an estimate feature. Any minor issues he has been very receptive and promptly fixed! I highly recommend getting your business site built by Kootenay Made Digital!
Brody, sole proprietor of Summit Handyman, Langley BC. Facebook review.

What one cancellation is worth

$

One of those, cancelled, pays for the $500 hour in 11 months and $588 a year after that. If I built your site it is $300, so 7 months.

I am not going to guess how many the hour finds, because that is the whole thing this service exists to stop people doing. Some businesses have one, some have five, and a few have none and get told so.

What I need from you

Almost nothing, and that is deliberate. This is an hour of me asking questions, not an audit you have to prepare for. If you turn up with only the first item on this list, the hour still works.

One uninterrupted hour

  • A call where you talk through the week as it actually goes, not as the org chart says.
  • Whoever else knows how the work really runs, if that is not only you.

A look at what you already pay for

  • The subscriptions list, or the card statement with the software lines on it.
  • Whatever AI tools anyone in the business is already using, including the ones nobody mentioned.
  • A rough sense of which jobs eat the most time, even if the number is a guess.

Timelines count from the day I have these. If something takes a while to find, that is normal and it is not a problem, but the finish moves with it and I will tell you the day it slips rather than at the end.

From scattered AI use to controlled business support.

  1. 01

    Walk me through a normal week

    Not a strategy session. I want the boring parts: what lands in your inbox, what gets retyped, what you chase, what you forget, and what you do on a Sunday because there was no time on Thursday.

  2. 02

    Look at what you already pay for

    Most businesses are already paying for tools that overlap or go unused. Sometimes the answer is not new software at all, it is using one thing you already have properly. I will say so if that is the case.

  3. 03

    Name the three that are worth it

    I pick the repetitive jobs where a computer would do better, and I explain what each would involve in plain terms, skipping the jargon and the acronyms. A vendor gets named only when the name matters.

  4. 04

    Be honest about the rest

    Some of your work needs judgement, a relationship, or a person who cares. That work should stay yours, and I will tell you which parts those are. That list is usually the most useful page of the summary.

The priority window is not a goodbye. If you want steady help after handoff, that lives on the website care plans page.

What owners ask before installing a private AI assistant.

What is The Survey?+

An hour on how your business actually runs, then a written summary under five headings: what to cancel, what you already own, what to buy, what to build, and what to leave alone. I do not assume a tool before we start.

What does it cost?+

A short conversation on your end. The work happens on mine, and the written summary lands within three business days. If something worth building comes out of it, I quote that separately and you are free to take the summary elsewhere.

I am sceptical about AI. Is this a sales pitch?+

Good instinct, and no. Three of the five headings in the summary make me nothing: what to cancel, what you already own, and what to buy from someone else. If the honest answer is that you should spend nothing, that is what the summary says.

What kind of things does it usually find?+

Quoting and follow-up, answering the same handful of customer questions, chasing invoices, copying information between two systems that do not talk, and writing the same message over and over. Often the fix is not AI at all: it is a page that answers the question, or a setting in software you already pay for. Sometimes it is something worth building, like a ballpark estimator so customers stop phoning to ask what things cost.

If you say I should build something, is that included?+

No, and I would rather be blunt about it than have it come up later. The fee buys the hour and the summary. If the answer turns out to be an estimator on your site, an after-hours assistant, or setting up a tool properly, that gets its own quote with a number on it before anything starts, and it is priced on its own rather than discounted by what you already paid. You are also completely free to take the summary and have someone else build it.

Do I need a website first?+

No. This is about how your business runs, not your website. That said, a lot of what I find does live on a website: an estimator so people stop calling for prices, a page that answers your five most-asked questions, or something that answers after hours when you are closed. Those get flagged as build work with a number beside them, and you are free to take that list to anyone.

What happens to my information?+

It stays between us. I am one person in Castlegar, not a platform harvesting your data. Nothing you tell me gets fed into a tool, sold, or used for anything except writing your summary.

What if the answer is that AI cannot help me?+

Then I tell you that, you keep the summary, and you have saved yourself from spending money on something that would not have worked. I would rather give you an honest no than sell you a yes.

Start with a minute, not a meeting.

If you also have a website, the free 60-second check-up is a separate tool worth running: an automated scan of speed, SEO, security headers, and best practices. The Survey is about how your business runs, so you do not need one to get the other.

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Refer a neighbour who signs, and I e-transfer you $200. Anyone can refer, there is no limit, and it pays out when their first payment clears (second payment for Own It Monthly projects).