How I Finally Delegated Estimating (Without Hiring Another Person)
For years, estimating was the one thing I couldn’t take off my plate. We changed the org chart. We hired roles. Delegated everything we could. But estimating? That was always me. Even if I wasn’t doing anything else in the business... I was still stuck quoting jobs. It was the bottleneck I couldn’t fix—until now. I built a ChatGPT-powered estimator trained with my systems, my pricing, and my language. It asks the right questions, runs the math, and delivers estimates like I would—without me being involved. Now I’m no longer the bottleneck. Customers get quick answers. I get my evenings and weekends back. Want to build your own? Map out your estimating logic. Plug it into ChatGPT. Test and refine. If you're stuck working all day and doing estimates at night and on Saturdays anddddd, sometimes even Sunday mornings when everyone's sleeping—this might be your way out. Heres my direct Zoom link if you'd like to learn more: https://calendly.com/ryaan-besthandymancompany/bh-plan-phone-consultationHow do home service businesses fill their calendar before busy season?
When work slows down, most service businesses feel it fast: stress, cash flow pressure, and last-minute scrambling. Sound familiar? What’s the one thing you rely on most before busy season to keep your calendar full? New leads Repeat customers Referrals Deposits or upfront payments Booking weeks in advance Something else? (do tell!) Bonus: What used to stress you out about slow periods that doesn’t anymore?
Can AI create accurate inventories from photos or walkthroughs for estimates?
Anyone here using AI to build inventories from photos or on‑site for moving quotes? We’re a moving company looking to automate as much of the quote process as possible. Right now, we’re still doing a lot of manual inventory collection and data entry, and it’s slowing us down and leaving room for mistakes. I’m specifically interested in: AI tools that can take phone photos or short videos (or an on‑site walkthrough) and automatically create an itemized inventory we can use for estimates. Anything that can recognize furniture/boxes from images and turn that into quantities, cube/weight, or at least a structured checklist. Workflows where the customer does a virtual survey themselves and we just review and price it. Bonus points if it can be integrated within jobber If you’re doing this today, which software are you using, how accurate is it, and what does your workflow look like from first contact to approved quote? Any “don’t waste your time on this tool” stories are welcome too.AI Receptionist vs Outsourced vs Owners
Hello everyone, New to the community here. Recently launched an HVAC business in Texas, after being in real estate development for nearly 2 decades. Would love to hear your insights on your experience with AI receptionist vs outsourced team vs you answering the calls yourself. I am personally finding our AI receptionist build via RetellAI perhaps isn't the best. But also, majority of calls now are sales calls....so I am really torn on what to do. Any advice and insights would be appreciated. Sincerely, Alice
How do service businesses track service contracts and manage multi-day or multi-visit jobs?
Hello! How are you entering and keeping track of service contracts? We sell, install and service generators and want to make sure we are properly tracking these and ensuring renewals don't slip through the cracks. Some are once a year visit, some need 2 visits, some need 4. How do you guys do this? What about jobs that require multiple visits? Our installs take time from the moment we get the project approved, to then getting the permit approved, and the individual days of work, inspections, etc. Looking for tips on this. Thanks!How do you manage different level Service Contracts in Jobber?
We are currently offering one service contract; however, we are looking to create three tiers. We would have a Silver, Gold, and Platinum package. Each package/membership would offer something different. How could we effectively manage this in Jobber to keep track of which clients are on which level package? How many visits they have/have used? Payments? Etc.How to start an in house training center for painting?
I am looking for feedback on starting a training center for residential painting. We have a shop but it is kind of small for what I am looking at doing. Is there any creative ways I could go about purchasing, or leasing a building that is specifically for training and education? My goal would be to hire on young men and women who are interested in the painting trade and have a facility to train them in before they every step foot on a job. For example, there would be a class room to learn about products and applications. Then there would be actually rooms built out and small exterior walls build out with different substrates to actually train applications. I would hire some of my current employees to be paid extra to run classes and training. What do you think? Am I dreaming too big or is this something I could accomplish? How could I go about making this happen?How to implement safety meetings? Certs?
When growing your painting business how can you go about focusing more on safety? With a larger team and more people on jobs/bigger jobs what do safety meeting look like? How do you go about getting your team and your self educated? What certs can you get and how do you offer them?4 wheel drive and winter tires.
In my past jobs I was always provided a work truck. All companies would buy the standard Chevy Colorado 2 door WT, rear wheel drive and all weather tires. If there was a bad snow storm, sometimes I couldn't even get out of my driveway! Funny thing is, back then I didn't care, I was an employee and if I can't make it safely, it was the companies problem to figure out. Now that I have started my own business I have decided that I would buy a 4 wheel drive truck and install winter tires. I want to be available to my customers no matter what the weather and I don't want any excuses. I feel I can safely make it to a home or business no matter the weather and I think that is going to make me stand out to customers. I know that not all businesses have cold weather problems to deal with but in Ontario where I live and operate, I think being ready for winter is very important. If anyone is thinking about purchasing a work vehicle, and live in a snowy area, I would highly recommend making the investment in a 4 wheel drive vehicle with good tires!Building an AI online bid?
I have been messing around with the idea of creating a way for my customers to submit some information on their own through our website and AI provide them their bid for painting. Has anyone done this? Have any ideas on how to do it? And what could be the potential pros and cons of this? I'm thinking that it would need to have a customer login & portal. There would need to be a way to upload additional files. Pictures and videos of project. There would need to be a fee that is charged to use this service to try and gatekeep competitors from using it. The fee would be removed if the job is landed. There might need to be an agreement signed that unforeseen work that wasn't included in the submission could result in a change order. What would you add?
