Background
TRL Home Solutions is a contracting and handyman company in the Spokane area. It started as one person and has grown steadily to a two-person crew doing the day-to-day work while I manage the business.
What was getting in the way
Every time the business grew, the way I worked stopped scaling. Something that worked for one person (notes, memory, a text thread) fell apart as soon as someone else needed the same information.
- Getting scope to the crew. What needed doing on a job lived in a text thread, so the crew had to scroll back for the one message that listed everything.
- Photos and documentation. Before-and-after pictures and notes were scattered instead of attached to the job.
- Client communication. Updates depended on someone remembering to send them.
- Cost and overlap. I had three CRMs plus separate documentation and project tools, much of it doing the same job, adding up to $700+ a month. That’s a lot for a small shop.
Figuring out the process first
Before choosing any tool, I worked out what actually happens on a job: how a lead becomes a quote, how a quote becomes a scheduled job, what the crew needs on site, and how the work becomes an invoice. Writing that down made it obvious what to simplify, what to automate, and what to leave alone.
Cutting the software bill
I compared about five tools aimed at contractors and listed what each one did and where they overlapped. Then I dropped the overlap and settled on two tools:
- QuickBooks for bookkeeping, customer management, quotes and invoices, and job costing.
- Asana for tracking leads and where each one stands, project notes and documentation, and follow-up reminders.
That let me drop the bottom of the stack instead of paying several vendors to do overlapping work. It’s the same process I use in the Software & Subscription Cost Review: inventory what you pay for, find the overlap, and decide what to keep, drop or downgrade.
What I built
- A checklist generated from each quote, including the items I want to be sure get addressed, so scope travels with the job instead of living in a message.
- One place on site where the crew sees every item, along with the documentation and photos for that job.
- A simpler stack: two tools, each with a clear job.
- The company website and its local listings, which I set up and run, and where we regularly post our work.
Using AI where it actually helps
For quoting, I give an AI assistant photos of the job along with a written description and measurements. It returns an analysis of the materials needed, an estimate of labor hours, and comparisons to local prices where it can. Then I check it: I verify the material costs and compare the hours against what I know the work actually takes.
It doesn’t replace my judgment, and it never sees a client’s name or details, only the photos and a general area.
What changed: quoting and building material lists now take roughly 30–40% fewer hours (my own estimate), and the process has flagged building-code items I wouldn’t have thought of until we were into the job.
The honest part
Not every tool earns its place. I tried a purpose-built field-service platform and went back to what worked. I’ll tell you the same thing about your tools.
What changed
- Fewer missed items and fewer miscommunications on jobs.
- The crew works from one checklist on site instead of searching a text thread.
- Three CRMs and several overlapping tools became two. Software costs dropped from $700+ a month to about $250, which is a big deal for a small shop.
- Quoting and material lists take roughly 30–40% fewer hours, and the process catches building-code items I would otherwise have missed.