The weekend project that took seven months
Someone in a Reddit thread I was in told this about their own business. I've left their name out, but the details are theirs.
- Step 1
The plan
Eight years running a cleaning company, paying close to $800 a month for business software. In April they started building a replacement with AI, figuring it would take a weekend and save $800 every month after.
- Step 2
Seven months later
Clients missed alerts. Other clients got the wrong ones. Emails didn't go out, invoicing was a mess for months, photos stopped loading, and the employee side of the app quit working. Fixing one thing kept breaking another.
- Step 3
What they figured out
The software they were replacing didn't get there overnight. It's been around for years, and it got good by running into every one of those problems and fixing them.
"If you never set up a database, or cloud storage, or a domain, or text messages, or email alerts, or invoicing before AI, you'll probably miss something even when using AI."
The parts nobody shows you in the demo
An AI can write the screen where a client books a cleaning in about a minute. Everything below is what makes that booking reach the right person, get paid for, and still be there next month.
Text messages
Before an app can text your customers from a regular local number, US carriers want your business registered (it's called A2P 10DLC): who you are, what you're sending, and how people opt out. Skip it and your texts get filtered or blocked. Even after that, someone has to handle failed sends, STOP replies and texts that go out twice. Don't count on an AI draft to bring any of it up.
Email that lands
Your domain needs SPF, DKIM and DMARC set up right, or a lot of your reminders can quietly end up in spam. You won't see an error. Clients just stop showing up.
The database
Who can see which records, what happens when two people edit the same job, and backups you know will actually work when you need them.
Photos and files
Before and after pictures that load fast on a phone, don't disappear, and can't be opened by anyone who guesses the link.
Invoicing and payments
Declined cards, retries, refunds, sales tax, and the client who got charged twice and wants to know why.
Logins and who sees what
Owners, employees and clients each need their own view, and when someone quits, their access has to go with them that day. Get it wrong and a cleaner can see every client's address, or one client can open another's invoices. Most people find this one out from an angry phone call.
Why AI doesn't catch it
I use AI every day, and it's fast. But it answers the question you ask, and most of what goes wrong lives in the questions you didn't know to ask.
You can't ask what you don't know
If you've never heard of DKIM, you won't ask the AI to set it up. It won't always bring it up on its own, either.
Fix one thing, break another
Without tests, nothing checks that today's fix didn't break last week's. That's the "invoicing works, now alerts don't" loop.
Failures are quiet
A text that never sent doesn't pop up an error on your screen. You find out when a client calls, or when they don't.
Works for one, not forty
It runs fine with you clicking around. Forty clients and six employees using it at once is a different app.
It tends to agree with you
Ask "is this secure?" and you'll usually hear yes. It isn't lying. It just can't see what you haven't shown it.
Your evenings aren't free
Every night spent chasing a reminder bug is a night not spent on the business that's paying for all this.
Before you start, can you answer these?
No shame if you can't. These are the things I'd be setting up for you, and the ones AI drafts tend to skip.
What happens when a reminder text fails, and who finds out?
Where are customer photos stored, and who can open them?
Does your reminder email pass SPF, DKIM and DMARC?
If a card gets charged twice, how would you know?
If your data got wiped tonight, how do you get yesterday back?
If you've got answers for all five, go build it, honestly. If you'd have to ask the AI, that's the part you'd be paying someone like me for.
Building it yourself FAQ
You can get something working, and for a prototype or a tool only you use, go for it. The trouble starts when customers and employees depend on it. Texts, email, payments, logins and backups all have to work every day, and those are the parts AI drafts tend to skip.
Often not, once you count everything. Claude Max alone runs $100 to $200 a month, texting and email services add their own fees, and your time isn't free. The software you're replacing also took years to get right.
Registering text messaging with the carriers (10DLC), email authentication (SPF, DKIM and DMARC), who can see which records, backups that have been tested, failed payments and refunds, and changes to one feature that quietly break another.
Every day. It's fast at the boring parts. The difference is I set up databases, texting, email and payments by hand long before AI could, so I know what to check when it says it's done.
Send it over and I'll take a look. Sometimes it needs a handful of fixes. In the rough cases it's quicker to start clean and carry over the parts that work, and I'll tell you which one it is up front.
Custom business software starts at $99 a month, with texting, email and hosting fees included. Tell me what you're trying to build or replace and I'll give you a straight answer on whether it's a fit.
Go for it. It'll probably tell you you're in great shape, which is sort of the point of this page. It can only check what you show it. It'll confirm your app has reminder texts. It can't see whether those texts are actually reaching anybody. A checklist isn't the same as having watched this stuff break, and if you'd rather skip that part, send me the app instead.
What building it yourself actually costs
If you're building it with Claude Max, that's $100 to $200 a month. Then add a texting service with its own registration and monthly fees, an email service, hosting and a database. Then add your nights and weekends.
Custom business software from me starts at $99 a month, and the texting, email and hosting fees are included. That starting price is less than the AI subscription by itself, and you get someone who's set all of this up before.
You're not paying me to type. You're paying for knowing what breaks.
- Building it yourselfOn a Claude Max plan $100+ /month
- An app that works when you test it
- Texting, email and hosting fees included (not included)
- Texting registered with the carriers (not included)
- Email set up so it lands in inboxes (not included)
- Backups that are tested, not just turned on (not included)
- Payments that handle declines and refunds (not included)
- Someone to call when it breaks (not included)
- Your evenings back (not included)
- Custom softwareBuilt by someone who's done it beforeStarting at $99 /month
- Built around how your business runs
- Texting, email and hosting fees included
- Texting registered with the carriers
- Email set up so it lands in inboxes
- Backups that are tested, not just turned on
- Payments that handle declines and refunds
- Someone to call when it breaks
- Your evenings back