What we automate
100 things we can take off your plate.
If it happens over and over, it's probably on this list. Plain English, no jargon — the actual work we lift off small businesses every week.
Where to start
The five that most often pay for themselves inside 30 days
Land one, prove it, then build from there. Everything else is easier once one of these has visibly worked.
- 1 Missed-call text-back #16 Cheapest to build, most obvious revenue.
- 2 Instant lead reply #1 Speed-to-lead is the whole game.
- 3 Unbilled work alerts #67 Finds money that already exists.
- 4 Overdue payment chasing #58 The same, without the awkward call.
- 5 Automatic review requests #83 Compounds into more leads for free.
Email & Follow-up
15Instant lead reply
Every enquiry gets a real, personal-sounding reply in under 60 seconds — including at 11pm on a Sunday.
Best for: trades, clinics, agencies, real estate
How we build it
Web form / Facebook Lead Ad / Google LSA webhook → create CRM record → send templated email + SMS with next step and booking link.
The five-touch follow-up sequence
Quotes that used to go quiet now get chased five times over two weeks, automatically, until they answer.
Best for: contractors, installers, B2B services
How we build it
Quote sent = trigger. Day 1/3/7/14 branching sequence; any reply or booking kills the sequence.
Dead lead reactivation
Old enquiries that never closed get one well-timed message — usually worth a few jobs a month on its own.
Best for: any business with a stale list
How we build it
Query CRM for lost + aged leads → AI rewriter for personalization → throttled drip to protect domain reputation.
Inbox triage and labelling
Your inbox sorts itself into "needs you", "needs a quote", "invoice", and "junk" before you open it.
Best for: owner-operators drowning in one shared inbox
How we build it
Gmail/Graph watch → LLM classifier with a fixed label taxonomy → label, star or archive. Every classification logged for two weeks so you can audit it.
Draft replies waiting for you
Common emails come pre-written as drafts in your voice. You read, tweak, hit send.
Best for: professional services, agencies
How we build it
Classified email → LLM drafts using a style guide built from 30–50 of your own past replies → saved as a draft, never auto-sent.
Attachment filing
Every PDF, photo and signed doc that arrives by email lands in the right client folder, named properly.
Best for: accountants, lawyers, property managers
How we build it
Email watch → extract attachments → match sender/subject to client → save as YYYY-MM-DD_Client_DocType.pdf.
Out-of-hours autoresponder that actually helps
After-hours emails get an answer with hours, pricing range, and a booking link — not "we'll get back to you".
Best for: local service businesses
How we build it
Time-window condition → templated reply with calendar link. Suppressed for known clients and threads already in progress.
Quote follow-up with the quote attached
The chase email re-attaches the quote so nobody has to go digging. Removes the number-one excuse for not replying.
Best for: trades, fabricators, event vendors
How we build it
Pull the stored quote PDF from the CRM/Drive record and attach on each follow-up step.
Newsletter from work you already did
Your monthly email writes itself from the jobs you completed, the photos you took, and the questions customers asked.
Best for: trades, clinics, retail
How we build it
Monthly job data + photos + FAQ log → LLM drafts newsletter → into Mailchimp/Brevo as a draft for approval.
Referral thank-you
Anyone who sends you a customer gets thanked within a day, automatically. People refer more when they're noticed.
Best for: everyone
How we build it
CRM referral_source populated → thank-you email/SMS + optional gift-card trigger.
Onboarding email series
New customers get a proper welcome — what happens next, who to call, what to expect, and when.
Best for: clinics, agencies, subscription services
How we build it
Deal-won or first-payment event → 4–6 step sequence with embedded intake form and portal credentials.
Renewal and re-service reminders
Annual service, warranty, licence, or contract renewals get flagged and emailed before they lapse.
Best for: HVAC, pest control, insurance, IT support, legal
How we build it
Daily date-offset scan of the job history → 60/30/7-day reminder sequence with one-click rebook.
Escalation alerts on silence
If a customer email sits unanswered for four hours, you get a nudge. Nothing falls through.
Best for: teams of 2–15
How we build it
Thread-age monitor on the shared inbox → Slack/SMS alert with a direct thread link.
Supplier and vendor chasing
Late parts, missing invoices, and unanswered supplier questions get chased on a schedule so you don't have to remember.
Best for: trades, retail, manufacturing
How we build it
PO table with expected_date → daily overdue scan → templated chase, escalating tone at each step.
Reply-to-lead speed report
A weekly email showing how fast every enquiry got answered — because speed is what wins the job.
Best for: anyone with staff answering leads
How we build it
Timestamp first inbound vs first outbound per lead → weekly digest with median, worst case, and any lead over an hour.
Calls, Texts & Missed Leads
13Missed-call text-back
Every missed call gets a text within seconds: "Sorry we missed you — what do you need?" Most people reply.
Best for: trades, salons, clinics, restaurants
How we build it
Missed-call webhook → SMS with booking link → replies into the shared inbox. The single highest-ROI automation for local businesses.
After-hours call handling
Calls outside business hours get a text with your hours, an emergency option, and a way to book.
Best for: home services, veterinary, dental
How we build it
Time-of-day routing + templated SMS, with an emergency keyword that forwards to a mobile.
Two-way text booking
Customers book, reschedule, and confirm by text — no app, no portal, no phone tag.
Best for: salons, clinics, mobile services
How we build it
Twilio conversations + LLM intent parsing + calendar availability, with a careful fallback to a human on ambiguity.
Call recording to CRM note
Every customer call is transcribed and summarized into the customer record. No more "what did we agree?"
Best for: sales-led businesses, contractors
How we build it
Recording → transcript → LLM summary with action items → appended to the CRM note. Two-party consent rules checked per province/state.
Voicemail to text and task
Voicemails arrive as readable text with a task attached, so you can triage them in ten seconds.
Best for: owner-operators
How we build it
Voicemail file → transcription → email/Slack with urgency flag and click-to-call link.
Lead routing by job type and area
Calls and forms get sent to the right person based on what they need and where they are.
Best for: multi-tech trades, multi-location clinics
How we build it
Postal-code/service lookup → assign owner in CRM → SMS/push the rep. Round-robin fallback with a load cap.
Emergency call escalation
Urgent jobs cut through: text, then call, then the next person on the list until someone picks up.
Best for: plumbing, HVAC, restoration, IT support
How we build it
Keyword/AI urgency detection → escalation ladder with acknowledgement required at each step before moving on.
Estimate-by-text
Customers text a photo of the problem and get a ballpark range back, plus a booking link.
Best for: auto repair, appliance, landscaping, junk removal
How we build it
MMS in → vision model classifies the job → matched to your own price band table → templated reply. Always a range, never a fixed price, human-review flag on anything unusual.
On-my-way texts
Customers automatically get a heads-up when the tech is en route, with an ETA and a photo of who's coming.
Best for: home services
How we build it
Job-status change in the field app → SMS with tech profile and live ETA.
Post-job check-in text
A day after the job, a short text asks if everything's good — catching problems before they become reviews.
Best for: trades, clinics
How we build it
Job-complete + 24h delay → SMS → negative reply routes to the owner, positive reply into the review request flow.
Spam and robocall filtering
Junk calls and sales spam stop reaching your team's phones.
Best for: anyone with a public number
How we build it
Carrier-level screening + a blocklist auto-fed by numbers the team flags.
Call volume and missed-call reporting
A weekly number showing how many calls you missed and what that's likely worth.
Best for: owners who suspect they're leaking leads
How we build it
Phone system API → weekly rollup: missed calls × average job value = estimated leakage.
Text-to-pay after the job
The invoice goes out by text with a pay link before you've left the driveway.
Best for: mobile services
How we build it
Job complete → generate Stripe/Square payment link → SMS.
Scheduling & Reminders
13Booking link that respects real life
Customers book themselves into slots that actually work — travel time, lunch, and buffer included.
Best for: everyone
How we build it
Cal.com/Calendly with buffers, service-duration mapping, and working-hour rules synced from the live calendar.
Appointment reminder ladder
Reminders at 48 hours, 24 hours, and 2 hours — by text, not email, because texts get read.
Best for: clinics, salons, consultants
How we build it
Calendar event → scheduled SMS sequence with confirm/reschedule keywords handled on reply.
No-show recovery
Anyone who doesn't show gets a same-day message with a one-click rebook link.
Best for: clinics, salons, tutors
How we build it
Status flip to no-show → SMS + email with rebooking link, optionally a deposit on the second attempt.
Cancellation backfill
When someone cancels, the slot gets offered to your waitlist automatically — first to reply gets it.
Best for: salons, dental, physio, high-demand services
How we build it
Cancellation webhook → query waitlist by service + preference → staggered SMS blast → first confirmation books and closes the offer.
Route-aware scheduling
Jobs get grouped by area so your day isn't spent driving across town twice.
Best for: mobile trades, delivery, inspections
How we build it
Daily job list → geocode → clustering + Google Routes optimization → suggested schedule pushed to the field app for approval.
Intake forms sent before the appointment
Paperwork gets filled out before they arrive, not in your waiting room.
Best for: clinics, legal, accounting
How we build it
Booking confirmed → send form link → chase at 48h and 24h if incomplete → completed form filed to the client record.
Deposit-required booking
High-value or high-no-show bookings only lock in once a deposit is paid.
Best for: event services, specialty trades, tattoo/beauty
How we build it
Booking → Stripe checkout with a hold window → unpaid holds auto-release after N hours and free the slot.
Recurring service auto-booking
Regular customers get their next visit booked automatically at the right interval.
Best for: lawn care, cleaning, pest control, hygiene recalls
How we build it
Job complete → calculate next-due from service type → create tentative booking → confirmation SMS with an easy change option.
Staff shift reminders and confirmations
Your team confirms shifts by text; anyone who doesn't gets chased before it becomes your problem.
Best for: restaurants, retail, clinics
How we build it
Schedule source → 24h SMS with reply-to-confirm → unconfirmed list to the manager each morning.
Calendar-to-CRM sync
Every meeting shows up on the customer record with notes attached, without anyone typing it in.
Best for: B2B services
How we build it
Calendar event with an attendee email match → log activity on the matching CRM contact.
Time-off and coverage requests
Requests come in, get logged, and coverage gaps are flagged before they hit the schedule.
Best for: teams of 5+
How we build it
Form → approval message to manager → on approval, update schedule + flag any shift left uncovered.
Holiday and closure messaging
Every closure updates your voicemail, autoresponder, Google listing, and booking availability at once.
Best for: all local businesses
How we build it
One master closure calendar → fan-out updates to the GBP API, phone system, booking tool, and autoresponder.
Follow-up appointment prompts
When a customer is due for their next visit, they hear from you before they've forgotten you exist.
Best for: dental, optometry, chiropractic, veterinary
How we build it
Recall-date field → daily scan → multi-channel reminder with booking link, escalating email → SMS → call task.
Data & Admin
15Form-to-everywhere
One form submission updates the CRM, the spreadsheet, the calendar, and your inbox. Typed once, or not at all.
Best for: everyone
How we build it
Webhook fan-out with field mapping and dedupe on email/phone.
Quote and proposal generation
Fill in a few fields, get a branded quote PDF out the other end, sent and logged.
Best for: trades, agencies, B2B
How we build it
Form/CRM data → template (Docs/Carbone/PandaDoc) → PDF → email + save to client folder + CRM status update.
Contract sending and tracking
Contracts go out for e-signature automatically and you're told the moment they're signed.
Best for: all service businesses
How we build it
Deal-won → DocuSign/Dropbox Sign envelope → signed webhook → file, notify, and advance the pipeline stage.
Receipt and expense capture
Photograph a receipt, and it's coded, filed, and in your bookkeeping without another thought.
Best for: owner-operators, field teams
How we build it
Email/MMS/Drive folder → OCR → LLM extracts vendor, total, tax, category → push to QBO/Xero → archive image.
Spreadsheet cleanup and merging
The monthly report that takes you two hours of copy-paste happens on its own at 6am.
Best for: retail, e-comm, ops-heavy businesses
How we build it
Scheduled pull from each source → normalize + dedupe → write to a clean Sheet with a change log tab.
CRM hygiene bot
Duplicates merged, missing phone numbers flagged, dead records archived — weekly, quietly.
Best for: anyone whose CRM has gone feral
How we build it
Fuzzy-match dedupe + required-field audit → auto-merge safe cases, queue the ambiguous ones for review.
Job photo filing
Before-and-after photos from the field land in the right job folder, tagged and ready for the invoice or the portfolio.
Best for: trades, restoration, landscaping
How we build it
Field app upload / shared album → match to job via geotag/timestamp → rename and file, optionally auto-tag with a vision model.
Data entry from PDFs
Supplier invoices, purchase orders, and forms get read and typed into your systems for you.
Best for: wholesale, construction, accounting
How we build it
Document AI/LLM extraction with a confidence threshold → auto-post above it, human-review queue below. Always build the review queue.
Inventory threshold alerts
When stock drops below your reorder point, you find out — or the order goes out automatically.
Best for: retail, e-comm, trades with van stock
How we build it
Inventory source → daily threshold scan → alert or draft PO to supplier.
New customer setup
One "won" click creates the folder, the file, the calendar entry, the welcome email, and the task list.
Best for: agencies, professional services
How we build it
Pipeline stage change → parallel creation across Drive, CRM, project tool, and mail. Idempotent, so a double-click doesn't double-create.
Weekly owner dashboard
One page every Monday: leads, jobs, cash in, cash out, what's overdue. No logging into five tools.
Best for: every owner
How we build it
Multi-source pull → Sheet/Looker Studio → emailed PDF or link. Numbers only, no commentary, so it stays trustworthy.
Compliance and certificate tracking
Insurance, licences, WSIB/WCB certificates and tickets get tracked and chased before they expire.
Best for: construction, trades, healthcare, transport
How we build it
Expiry-date table → 60/30/7-day alerts to holder and manager → upload link that refiles the new certificate automatically.
Meeting notes to actions
Meetings turn into a summary and a task list assigned to the right people, in the right tool.
Best for: agencies, professional services
How we build it
Fireflies/Fathom/Otter transcript → LLM extracts decisions + owners + dates → create tasks → email the recap.
End-of-day job wrap
Every job's notes, photos, hours, and materials get pulled together into one clean record at day's end.
Best for: field service
How we build it
Evening batch across field app, timesheet, and photo folder → assemble job record → flag anything incomplete for the crew next morning.
Document retention and archiving
Old files get archived on schedule, so your Drive doesn't turn into a landfill.
Best for: professional services, healthcare
How we build it
Age + type rules → move to archive folder → retention log. Deletion is always a human decision, never automated.
Money & Getting Paid
12Invoice on job completion
The invoice goes out the moment the work is marked done — not next Sunday night.
Best for: trades, mobile services
How we build it
Job-complete webhook → build invoice from line items and hours → QBO/Xero/Stripe → send with pay link.
Overdue payment chasing
Late invoices get chased at 3, 7, 14, and 30 days, politely, without you playing bad cop.
Best for: everyone who invoices
How we build it
Daily AR scan → escalating templates → stop on payment → the 30-day step creates a task for the owner rather than auto-sending.
Payment received notifications and thanks
Payments post themselves, the customer gets a receipt and a thank-you, and the job closes out.
Best for: everyone
How we build it
Stripe/QBO payment webhook → receipt email → CRM/job status update → Slack notification.
Deposit and progress billing
Milestone payments get requested on schedule through the length of a project.
Best for: construction, renovation, agencies
How we build it
Project milestone table → on completion, generate and send the staged invoice → track against total contract value.
Subscription and retainer billing
Recurring clients get billed on time, every time, with failed cards chased automatically.
Best for: agencies, MSPs, memberships
How we build it
Stripe Billing + dunning → failed payment triggers an SMS/email retry ladder → notify the owner before it churns.
Job costing rollup
Every job shows what it actually cost you — labour, materials, drive time — versus what you quoted.
Best for: trades, contractors
How we build it
Join timesheets + material purchases + the quote → margin per job → weekly report ranking best and worst jobs.
Bank reconciliation prep
Transactions come pre-matched and pre-coded so your bookkeeper's monthly job is half done.
Best for: small businesses with an outside bookkeeper
How we build it
Bank feed → rules engine + LLM for the unclear ones → suggested coding into QBO/Xero for approval. Never auto-approve.
Sales tax and remittance reminders
HST/GST/sales-tax deadlines get flagged with the numbers already pulled.
Best for: Canadian and US small businesses
How we build it
Filing-frequency calendar → pre-deadline report generated from the accounting API → reminder email with figures attached.
Price list and quote-cost sync
When supplier prices change, your quote templates change too, so you stop quoting at last year's costs.
Best for: trades, wholesale
How we build it
Supplier price file → diff against current price table → update quote line items → flag any change over a threshold for approval.
Payroll input prep
Hours, overtime, and mileage get assembled into a clean payroll file each period.
Best for: teams with hourly staff
How we build it
Timesheet source → validation rules (missing punches, over-cap OT) → exception list to the manager → export in the payroll provider's format.
Unbilled work alerts
Completed jobs that never got invoiced get flagged before they're forgotten forever.
Best for: busy field service businesses
How we build it
Weekly diff of completed jobs against issued invoices → list to the owner. Frequently pays for the whole engagement in month one.
Cash flow snapshot
A simple weekly picture: what's coming in, what's going out, and what's late.
Best for: owners without a CFO
How we build it
AR + AP + bank balance pull → 4-week forward view → emailed summary with anything unusual called out.
AI Assistants
14Website chat that knows your business
A chat assistant trained on your services, pricing, and FAQs — that books appointments instead of collecting emails.
Best for: all local businesses
How we build it
RAG over your site + docs + FAQ log, tightly scoped with refusal rules, plus a booking tool call and a clean handoff to a human.
Quote assistant
Customers describe the job in their own words and get a realistic ballpark straight away.
Best for: trades, moving, events
How we build it
Structured intake → LLM maps to your price band table → always a range with assumptions listed, never a binding number.
Internal knowledge assistant
Your team asks "how do we handle X?" and gets the actual answer from your own documents.
Best for: teams of 5+, franchises
How we build it
RAG over SOPs, manuals, and past tickets → Slack/Teams bot with source citations on every answer.
Email draft assistant in your voice
Replies get drafted the way you'd write them, learned from your own past emails.
Best for: owners, salespeople
How we build it
Style profile from historical sent mail → draft-only output, plus a feedback loop that captures the edits made before sending.
Call summary and next-step assistant
Every call ends with a written summary, the agreed next step, and a task on someone's list.
Best for: sales-led businesses
How we build it
Transcript → structured extraction (summary, commitments, objections, next step) → CRM note + task.
Proposal writing assistant
First drafts of proposals get written from the discovery call and your past winning proposals.
Best for: agencies, consultants, B2B services
How we build it
Call transcript + a library of past accepted proposals → LLM assembles a draft against a fixed template → human edits before it goes out.
Review response writing
Every review — good or bad — gets a thoughtful reply drafted for you within the hour.
Best for: restaurants, clinics, retail, trades
How we build it
Review webhook → LLM drafts a response matched to sentiment and specifics → approval step for anything under 4 stars, no exceptions.
Job description and hiring screener
Job posts get written and applicants get a first-pass screen against what actually matters to you.
Best for: businesses hiring regularly
How we build it
Role template → LLM writes the post → applicant responses scored against defined criteria with reasons. A human on every reject — never the model's final call.
Competitor and market watch
A monthly note on what competitors are charging, posting, and changing.
Best for: competitive local markets
How we build it
Scheduled scrape of public pages + review feeds → LLM diff against last month → digest email.
Document Q&A
Ask a question about a contract, spec sheet, or policy and get the answer with the clause cited.
Best for: legal, construction, insurance
How we build it
Document upload → chunk + embed → Q&A interface with page-level citations.
Complaint triage assistant
Angry messages get spotted and escalated to you first, before anyone else replies.
Best for: customer-facing businesses
How we build it
Sentiment + urgency classification across email/SMS/reviews → immediate owner alert with a suggested response and a hold on any automated reply.
Social post drafting from real work
Photos from a finished job become a caption, hashtags, and a scheduled post.
Best for: trades, salons, restaurants, retail
How we build it
Job photo folder → vision model describes the work → LLM writes captions in your brand voice → queue in Buffer/Later for approval.
Multilingual customer replies
Customers who write in another language get answered in it, properly.
Best for: diverse urban markets
How we build it
Language detection → translated draft in both directions → keep the original text on the record.
Voice AI receptionist
An AI answers the overflow calls, takes the details, and books the appointment when nobody's free.
Best for: high call volume local businesses
How we build it
Vapi/Retell/Bland agent with a calendar tool + strict escalation. Sold as overflow and after-hours only — never a replacement for the front desk.
Reviews, Referrals & Reputation
8Automatic review requests
Happy customers get asked for a review at exactly the right moment, in the right channel.
Best for: every local business
How we build it
Job complete + positive check-in → SMS with a direct Google review link → single reminder at 3 days, then stop.
Negative feedback interception
Unhappy customers reach you privately before they reach Google.
Best for: everyone
How we build it
Rating gate: low scores route to a private form + owner alert; high scores route to the public review link. The private path stays genuinely useful.
Review monitoring across every site
New reviews on Google, Facebook, Yelp, and industry sites all land in one place.
Best for: multi-location businesses
How we build it
Polling/webhooks per platform → unified Slack channel or Sheet → pairs with drafted replies.
Testimonial collection and formatting
Great reviews turn into website testimonials and social graphics without anyone doing design work.
Best for: service businesses
How we build it
5-star review → template render (Bannerbear/Canva API) → post queue + CMS testimonial entry.
Referral program tracking
Referrals get tracked, credited, and rewarded automatically.
Best for: clinics, gyms, home services
How we build it
Unique referral codes/links → attribution on new customer creation → reward issuance + notification to both parties.
Google Business Profile posting
Your Google listing stays active with fresh posts, photos, and offers — which helps you show up in the map pack.
Best for: every local business
How we build it
Content queue → GBP API scheduled posts → monthly performance pull into the owner dashboard.
Review request timing optimization
The system learns when your customers are most likely to leave a review and asks then.
Best for: businesses at volume
How we build it
Response-rate tracking by send hour and channel → shift the send window toward the best slots. Needs a few hundred data points to matter — we'll say so.
Win-back campaign for lapsed customers
Customers who haven't been back in a while get a reason to return.
Best for: salons, restaurants, retail, auto
How we build it
Last-visit scan against your typical repeat interval → segmented offer campaign → track redemption against a control group.
Websites & Content
5Form and landing page setup that feeds everything else
The forms on your site connect straight into the automations instead of dumping into an inbox.
Best for: everyone
How we build it
Rebuild forms with proper field naming, hidden UTM/source capture, spam protection, and a webhook out.
Automatic blog and FAQ from real questions
The questions customers keep asking become pages on your site that bring in more customers.
Best for: SEO-conscious local businesses
How we build it
FAQ log from inbox/chat/calls → cluster by topic → LLM drafts → CMS draft for human review. Never published unreviewed.
Photo gallery updates
Finished job photos flow onto your site's gallery without touching the website.
Best for: trades, landscaping, renovation
How we build it
Approved photo folder → resize/compress → CMS API upload with alt text generated from the job record.
Site uptime and form-failure monitoring
You find out the moment your site goes down or your contact form stops working — not three weeks later.
Best for: everyone
How we build it
Uptime monitor + a synthetic form submission on a schedule → SMS alert on failure. Catches silently broken forms, which are far more common than outages.
Content repurposing
One piece of content becomes a post, an email, and a couple of social captions.
Best for: businesses already producing content
How we build it
Source content → LLM produces format-specific variants → scheduling queue for approval.
Hiring & Team Ops
5Applicant intake and acknowledgement
Every applicant gets a reply, gets scored, and lands in one organized list.
Best for: businesses hiring often
How we build it
Job form/Indeed feed → acknowledgement email → scoring against criteria → tracker board.
New hire onboarding checklist
Day one is set up in advance: accounts, paperwork, training, and a first-week plan.
Best for: teams of 5+
How we build it
Hire-confirmed trigger → task fan-out across IT, payroll, and manager → progress tracking with nudges on anything overdue.
Training and SOP delivery
Your team gets the right procedure at the right moment, not a PDF they'll never open.
Best for: franchises, field teams
How we build it
SOP library + drip scheduling by role → completion tracking → refresher prompts on a cycle.
Daily crew dispatch summary
Every tech starts the day with their jobs, addresses, notes, and materials in one message.
Best for: field service
How we build it
Morning batch from the schedule → per-tech SMS/email with an optimized route link and job-specific notes.
Timesheet chasing and approval
Missing timesheets get chased before payroll, not during it.
Best for: hourly teams
How we build it
Pre-payroll scan for missing/incomplete entries → SMS to the individual → summary list to the manager for approval.
Ready to get your time back?
Ready to get your time back?
Let's find the repetitive work eating up your week — and show you what we can take off your plate.
Book a 20-minute Breeze AuditYou'll leave with a written map of your three biggest time sinks and what each one costs you a year — whether or not you hire me.