Kable Record

Third-generation contractor, Phoenix | Founder, OSQR: AI tools for the trades | U.S. Patent 12,679,457 | Author, The Fourth Generation Formula

[Kable Record @kablerecord]

I put 6 AI CEOs in charge of 6 tiny businesses.

5 found a problem people complain about online and put a fix up for preorder. The 6th sells my workbook.

$25 budget each. They make the calls.

So far: $0 spent, $0 sold.

Updates go in this thread. Which would you bet on?

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@SMBDealGuy The add-back I'd look hardest at in a trades company is the owner. If he prices every job and answers the phone at 9 PM, that's a salary the buyer pays the day he leaves, and it's easy to miss because he never paid himself for it.

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Every CEO, live: https://t.co/nBeEQZd54i

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Day 8 of my 6 AI CEOs. The week: $0 in, $0 spent, 0 sales. Three built their product and went to instant download. Wednesday the ones that got posts are judged on visitors and sales. (My thread ran a day short; today is Day 8.) Owners: where do you go to ask when you're stuck?

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CEO #5 sells a $12 Etsy profit sheet: paste Etsy's monthly statement, see every fee and the profit left. Day 8: 0 sold, $0 spent. Today it goes looking for a seller asking what they really kept after fees, to answer with the fix and no link.

[Kable Record @kablerecord]

I put 6 AI CEOs in charge of 6 tiny businesses.

5 found a problem people complain about online and put a fix up for preorder. The 6th sells my workbook.

$25 budget each. They make the calls.

So far: $0 spent, $0 sold.

Updates go in this thread. Which would you bet on?

[Kable Record @kablerecord]

The home-set company didn't show.

So I got my own installer's license. Learned septic work myself too.

Later, one call from a man named Sonny, and two hours after that the plant wanted to sell homes to us.

The job nobody shows up for is usually the door.

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@Jsongonline Contractor here. Before a plumber pays someone $9,000 for this: 0% on a business card is an intro rate, usually about a year. What's left on the vans after that rolls to card interest, on your personal guarantee. Pay them off inside the window or skip it.

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Day 3 of handing my companies to AI CEOs. The real numbers:

Cold email to trade owners: 152 sent, 2 replies, 0 calls.
Restaurant phone line: 5 owners emailed Friday, no answer yet.
The lab's 6 tiny businesses: 0 sold, $0 spent.

This week the irrigation clamp CEO asks 15 manufacturers for quotes.

Writing the email is easy now. Getting a stranger to write back is still the whole job.

[Kable Record @kablerecord]

@japan_nobunaga Contractor here. We ask who did it because the answer changes the job. A licensed guy means a permit and somebody to call. Thomas means we open the wall to find what else he touched.

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In 2008 we started saying yes to pavers and bathrooms.

That's where I learned the line I still use: the GC has all the liability and none of the control.

Your name is on the permit. The sub decides when he shows up.

Put the start date in the sub's contract, or it's only a hope.

[Kable Record @kablerecord]

Day 6 of my 6 AI CEOs: 0 sold, $0 made, $0 spent. This week three of them turned preorders into instant downloads. The hard part so far isn't the product, it's finding the buyer who is asking the question today. https://t.co/nBeEQZd54i

[Kable Record @kablerecord]

@tjohnston623 @BillWiIdin A repair day is the right fix. Most shops don't run one, so a number like $1,800 is how they say no without saying it.

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@LeonKelem @BillWiIdin Could be. The advice holds either way.

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78 hours straight on one concrete job in El Paso. Tear out a plant floor, pour 160 yards back, 96-hour window.

At 2 AM the equipment started failing and a sewer line broke. We finished.

Since then: backup for the backup.

What do you always bring two of?

[Kable Record @kablerecord]

CEO #2 sells GCs a $29 tracker for what you owe each sub and the retainage you're holding. Day 5: 0 sold, $0 spent. Today it went instant: pay, and the Excel file is in your receipt, with a 30-day refund.

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@BillWiIdin Most guys would rather quote high than tell you no to your face.

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@LandlordCowboy @BillWiIdin Usually not. On a box for box swap the price is mostly the drive. Hand them a half day and the number comes down.

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@simpletoneight1 @BillWiIdin That number ends up on here with a screenshot every time.

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@realfrugalmogul Hope he's dried in before the first storm.

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@JBspy82 @Kicksbuttson For cracks up to about an inch, yes. Bigger holes, cut foam board to fit and foam the edges. Around the flue use sheet metal and high-temp caulk, not foam. Mouse holes get copper mesh first, they chew right through foam.

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@Kicksbuttson Ask what the $2k covers. Plugging mouse holes is an afternoon. Sealing every top plate, light box and bath fan before the new stuff goes in is the part worth paying for.