Beyond the seven

Or hand me a whole department

The monthly system is a system I have already built. This is the other kind of work: I map one department in your business, then build the AI team that runs it. Priced simply — four thousand to wire it in, thirty-six hundred for each of your processes we take over, a number you count rather than one I assert. Half the build is not due until the number we agreed on has actually moved.

Bring me the department

Back office, finance, operations, scheduling — whichever one is eating your week. I do not have a list of departments I am willing to take, because the honest answer to "can you automate this" is not until I have seen it. That is what discovery is for, and it is why discovery is paid: you get a decision either way, and the map is yours whether or not I build anything.

Two things I will turn down on the call, before you pay me anything. If the work needs a licensed professional in the loop — someone signing off as a clinician, an attorney, an accountant — automating around them is a liability, not a saving. And if the process only exists in one person's head and that person is leaving, there is nothing to automate yet; what you need first is that process written down, which is a cheaper problem than the one you came to me with.

1

Discovery — $3,500, two weeks, credited to the build. I sit with the people doing the work, map every step, audit what systems it touches, and hand you a written scope with a fixed build price. You own that document either way. If you stop here you have a process map and a plan you can take to anyone — that is why it is paid, not free.
2
Build — $4,000 plus $3,600 per process. Quoted after discovery, never before, because anyone who quotes a build price before seeing the work is guessing and will come back for more later. Your $3,500 comes off the total.
- 2 processes $11,200 · 2 weeks
- 4 processes $18,400 · 4 weeks
- 8 processes $32,800 · 6 weeks
- 14 processes $54,400 · 9 weeks
Those are worked examples of the same arithmetic, not tiers — four thousand to wire into your systems, thirty-six hundred for each job that stops being someone's. One more process is always $3,600, so there is never a cliff and never a reason to argue the count. A "process" is one thing a person does today that stops being their job — "chase unpaid invoices at 30/60/90 days", not "AI". You count them in the scope document and we both sign it, so the number is yours to check rather than mine to assert. At this rate a process touches a handful of systems, has at most one judgement call in it, and every system it touches has a way in; anything gnarlier than that I price separately and tell you why.
Half at kickoff, half when the number moves. The second half of the build price is not due until the metric we wrote down in discovery has actually beaten its baseline. If it does not, I do not invoice it. That is the whole guarantee — there is no separate clause, and it is deliberately the build at risk rather than a month or two of run fee.
3

Run — $2,500/month per department, or $1,999 prepaid on a twelve-month term. Month to month at $2,500, or $1,999 a month if you pay for the year up front. It keeps running, it keeps getting fixed, and on the monthly plan you can stop any time. Cancelling disconnects the system from your stack; your data, accounts and records stay yours. This is per department and it stacks — if you already run the seven AI employees at $2,500, adding a back-office build makes it $5,000/month, because there are two systems to keep alive rather than one.

Already a client? Start with one process for $3,800 — half the usual $7,600. Pick the single worst job in the department — the one someone does every week and nobody wants — and I will build that one thing and put it live in a week. No discovery phase, because I already know your stack, which is the only reason it is half price. If you then want the whole department, the pilot comes off the build the same way discovery does. It is the cheapest way to find out whether you want me anywhere near a department, and it is open to existing clients only — on a business I have not worked in, that same week is spent learning the business instead of building.

Already a client? The build is 15% less. Discovery is genuinely cheaper the second time — I already know your stack, your systems and who does what — so an existing client pays 15% off the build, and the $3,500 discovery credit still applies on top. An 8-process build runs $27,880 instead of $32,800. The run fee is not discounted: it pays for keeping the thing alive every month, and that cost is real whether it is your first department or your third.

Talk through a department build →

Why this is not a second price

The monthly system is the same system every time. This is scoped to your process.
It has a discovery and build phase, so it cannot be cancel-any-time mid-build the way a monthly install is.
The process count is fixed in discovery, so the total is knowable only once we have counted them together.

What the number is

The guarantee on the monthly system is a lead-gen promise — it measures the numbers a growth system moves, and it means nothing for a billing or scheduling build. So a department build gets its own baseline metric, written down during discovery: we name the one number this department should move, record where it sits today, and that number decides whether the second half of the build gets invoiced. Days-to-collect, unbilled hours, time-to-schedule — it is whatever the department is actually for. Agreed before the build starts, never after, so neither of us is arguing about the target while I am building against it.

One at a time

I run one department build at a time. Not scarcity marketing — I build these myself, and two at once is how both get done badly. If one is in flight, I will tell you the date I am free rather than start yours and stall it.

What this costs against the alternative

A department build is not competing with automation software — it is competing with the person you would hire, or the evenings you currently spend doing it yourself. So here is that comparison with the arithmetic shown rather than asserted.

Back-office coverage	Wages only	Loaded cost
20 hrs/week	$2,062/mo	$3,015/mo
40 hrs/week	$4,124/mo	$6,030/mo
Averon, running your processes	—	$2,500/mo

Blended from two BLS occupations because one department build spans both: the same engagement chases an unpaid invoice (bookkeeping clerk) and books a site visit (administrative assistant). Loaded cost = wages ÷ 0.684, per the BLS compensation split — wages plus employer taxes and benefits. It excludes recruiting, training, turnover and holiday cover, so treat it as the floor rather than the full number.

$23.23/hr — Median hourly wage, Secretaries and Administrative Assistants (SOC 43-6014). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. $48,310 median annual. Check it.

$24.36/hr — Median hourly wage, Bookkeeping, Accounting and Auditing Clerks (SOC 43-3031). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. $50,670 median annual. Check it.

68.4% — Wages and salaries as a share of total employer compensation cost. BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, 2026 Q1, private industry. The remaining 31.6% is employer taxes and benefits. Check it.

Where each option actually wins

Hiring someone

Wins on judgement. A person handles the case nobody wrote a rule for.
Wins on presence. They can walk the yard, meet a GC, pick up a phone.
Wins on redirection. You can change their priorities in a sentence.
Costs a loaded salary, plus recruiting, training and turnover.
Works your business hours, and takes holidays.

Automation software you run

Wins on price. Tens of dollars a month, not thousands.
Wins on control. It is yours, and nobody can take it away.
Someone has to build it — and that someone is you, on a weekend.
When a vendor changes an API, it breaks silently and stays broken.
No accountability: the tool does not owe you a working process.

A department build

Wins on cost per process. Below a part-time hire, above a subscription.
Wins on hours. The processes run nights, weekends and holidays.
Wins on accountability. One person owns whether it works, and it is me.
Loses on judgement — the refusals above are exactly where a person is required.
Needs a discovery call first, because a process nobody has written down cannot be built.

What changes, in practice

How it runs today

An invoice goes unpaid; nobody notices until the month-end review.
A quote is sent and never chased, because chasing it is nobody's job.
A supplier email sits unread until it becomes a scheduling problem.
The paperwork happens at nine at night, after the site work is done.
Everything above lives in one person's head, and that is a risk.

How it runs after

Every overdue invoice is chased on a schedule, in your words, without you asking.
Every quote gets followed up, the same way, whether or not it was a busy week.
Supplier mail is read, sorted and actioned or escalated the same day.
The paperwork is done before you get home, because it did not wait for you.
Each process is written down and operated, so it survives someone leaving.

Two ways to start

Thirty minutes on a call, your numbers, and a straight answer about whether this pays for itself at your volume. Or skip the call and start the install.

Book the 30-minute call → Or start the install

30 minutes. No pitch deck. If we're not a fit we'll say so on the call.

Grab a slot — thirty minutes, your numbers, no deck.

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