Start here
The three I get every time.
If you only read three, read these. Everything else is grouped into ten chapters below, so you can go straight to the part you actually care about instead of scrolling past sixty rows.
-
01
So what is this thing actually: a website, or a robot that answers my phone?
It is a website, and on the bigger builds an AI front desk sits on top of it. It catches every missed call and texts the customer back in 30 seconds in your voice, answers website messages, books in jobs, and grabs their number for you.
-
02
Is the AI front desk pretending to be me?
No. It says it’s the assistant for your business, never claims to be you. You read every word it’s allowed to say before it goes live.
-
03
Why is this so cheap? ServiceTitan was $600 a month and useless.
I’m one guy in Ontario, not an office tower in Denver. No sales team, no investors, no quotas. The flip side: I’m one guy. I’d rather you know that upfront.
Part one · What it is, and how it runs
Chapters 01 to 05: what it is, and how it runs
Chapter 01 / 10 · 6 answers
What is this thing?
The plain description, and what happens to all of it the day you sell the business.
So what is this thing actually: a website, or a robot that answers my phone?
It is a website. That is the product. Nothing here answers your phone and there is no synthetic voice anywhere in it. On the working and showcase builds the site also carries an AI front desk, which works in writing only: it answers the chat window on your site, email, and texts to your business number, using your real prices and hours. Every reply waits for your approval until you decide it does not need to. The phone stays yours.
Is the AI front desk pretending to be me?
No. It says it’s the assistant for your business. It never claims to be you. You can read every word it’s allowed to say before it ever goes live, and you can change it whenever you want.
Why is this so cheap? ServiceTitan was $600 a month and useless. What am I missing?
I’m one guy in Ontario, not an office tower in Denver. No sales team, no investors, no quotas. The flip side is I’m one guy. That’s the real trade-off and I’d rather you know that upfront than find out later.
When I sell the business in 3-5 years, does the website just come with it?
Yes. The domain goes in your company’s name, not mine. The website files, customer list, and Google reviews all stay with the business. If you sell, the new owner gets the keys, the same way they get the truck keys.
Does having this stuff actually make the business worth more on paper, or is it just an expense the buyer’s going to want to cut?
Honest answer: a buyer might want to swap it for their own system. But a working website, a clean customer list in a spreadsheet, and Google reviews tied to the business entity are real assets either way. The monthly fee is an operating cost. It doesn’t add to your multiple. The customer data and review history might.
Three years from now when I’m sitting across from a buyer, what exactly do I tell him he’s getting?
You tell him: the domain is in the company’s name, the Google Business Profile is in the company’s name, here’s a spreadsheet of every customer and every job. The AI front desk can be turned off in one click or pointed at his own system. Nothing about this is glued to me personally.
Chapter 02 / 10 · 4 answers
Why do I need it?
Whether it’s worth the money when your phone already rings enough to keep you busy.
When somebody messages me and I am under a sink, what happens?
They get a text from your number within about 30 seconds saying something like ‘Hey it’s Dave, I’m on a job, what do you need?’ Most of them text back what they want. You read it when you climb out. You don’t lose the lead and they don’t go call Marv down the road.
I get 2 calls a week from the Yellow Pages. If I spend $6,000 a year on this and still get 2 calls a week, am I just lighting money on fire?
Yeah, you would be. That is why you see a private preview before anything goes public, and why the build fee is a one-time cost rather than rent forever. If it is not doing anything for you, say so and we stop. The site is yours and the domain is in your name either way. That’s the deal.
Who’s calling the leads? Because right now my office gal calls them back within 10 minutes.
If your office gal is already getting back to people in 10 minutes, you might not need the text-back part. What you might need is the after-hours and weekend coverage when she’s not at her desk. I can turn the text-back off during her hours so customers don’t get a robot AND a callback.
If this stuff was so great, why isn’t every plumber already doing it?
Most are still on the Yellow Pages or a website their nephew built in 2014. The tech got cheap and good in the last 18 months. You’re not late, you’re early. That’s also a fair reason to be suspicious. Try the 30 days and see for yourself instead of taking my word.
Chapter 03 / 10 · 8 answers
How does it actually work?
What the assistant is allowed to say on your behalf, and the things it never says.
If somebody asks how much to replace a hot water tank, what does the front desk tell them?
It says ‘every tank install is different. Leave your number and Dave will call you back with a real quote.’ It does not throw a price. You tell me what it’s allowed to say about pricing on day one, and it never goes off-script.
If the assistant tells a customer their furnace install is $4,000 and the real number is $7,500, am I on the hook?
No, and that is exactly why it does not quote a price unless you have given it that price. It collects the info and hands the lead to you. If you ever want it to quote a flat-rate item like a service call fee, you set the number and it only says that exact number.
How does this thing know what I do? Does it know I do plumbing and not roofs?
Before launch I sit down with you for an hour and write up what you do, what you don’t do, your service area, your pricing rules, your after-hours policy. That document is what the assistant reads. If something changes, you text me and I update it that day.
The text-back thing: does it come from my business number or some random 1-800?
Your business number. I forward your line through a service that can text from it. Your customers see your number, the one on every truck and fridge magnet, not a random 1-800.
Does the assistant write in Polish? Some of my older customers don’t speak English well.
Yes. It writes in Polish, Portuguese, Spanish and a good many others. It detects the language the customer is using and replies in the same one. You’ll get the lead in English so you can read it.
Are you going to text my existing customer list? Because of that anti-spam law.
No. The text-back only replies to people who called you first or filled out your form. That counts as consent under CASL. I never bulk-text your customer list, and if you ever want to send a campaign yourself, that’s a separate decision you make.
Does the review request go out even if the job went bad?
Only if you push the button. The review request isn’t automatic for that reason. You finish a job, you tap a name in your phone, it goes out. Mrs. Kowalski who hated her patio never gets one unless you decide she should.
Who answers when a customer calls at 9pm Saturday in February when their furnace dies?
Your phone still rings to you, same as today. If you do not pick up, they can type into the chat window on your site and get an answer straight away. It also handles people browsing the website. None of it wakes you up unless you want it to.
Chapter 04 / 10 · 6 answers
What does install actually mean?
The first seven days, how much of your time it costs, and what stays exactly as it is.
Walk me through exactly what the first 7 days look like: how many hours of my time?
About two hours of your time, total. Day 1: one hour on the phone with me, I take notes on what you do. Day 2-5: I build the site, you don’t have to do anything. Day 6: I send you the site, you read it, you tell me what’s wrong. Day 7: it’s live.
I have a (519) number I’ve had for 22 years. You’re not making me change it?
No. Your number stays your number. The text-back forwards through it. I never replace your phone number with anything else.
I already have a website with Google reviews linked to it. Are you replacing all that?
If your current site is doing the job, we keep your domain and just build on it. If we need a new site, we point the new one at your existing Google reviews so they don’t reset. Either way, you don’t lose review history.
You write the website words. Can I read it before it goes live? Can my wife fix it?
Yes. Nothing goes live until you’ve read every page and said ‘looks right.’ Your wife can mark up the draft in plain English and I’ll fix it. If you find a typo six months later, you text me and I fix it that day.
Does this need to plug into QuickBooks?
No. It runs separate. Sandra’s QuickBooks setup doesn’t get touched. If you ever want them to talk to each other later, that’s an optional add-on, but most people never bother.
Do I have to give you the login to my Google Business Profile?
No, and right now I do not touch it at all. Managing a Google Business Profile is a separate hands-on service I am not selling yet, so nothing on the price list includes it. I never have your Google password and I never publish as you.
Chapter 05 / 10 · 5 answers
What changes day-to-day?
What actually lands differently once it is live: for you, for your office, for a buyer.
Does this thing text my customers without asking me first?
Only the missed-call text-back, and only after they called you. Nothing else goes out automatically without you pushing a button. You’re not going to wake up to angry customers saying you spammed them.
If the buyer wants to roll my site into his 4 locations under his brand, can he?
Yes. The domain transfers to him, he can redirect it, point it at his brand, or sunset it. Same for the AI front desk. He can turn them off in a click or keep them running. Nothing is locked to my system in a way he can’t undo.
Can my wife pull an invoice for the accountant, or is everything trapped in a dashboard?
Every month she gets a PDF invoice emailed to her: clean line items, no dashboard to log into. If she wants the full customer list, I send her a CSV. She opens it in Excel.
How much does the buyer have to learn? My foreman’s not a computer guy.
Almost nothing. The site runs itself. The text-back runs itself. The only thing he’d touch is tapping a customer’s name to send a review request. That’s one button. If he wants to leave it all running and never log in, it still works.
If I add a second business, my brother’s snow clearing under a different name, is that a second account?
Second account, second monthly fee. They’re separate businesses with separate phone numbers and separate Google profiles, so it has to be separate. I can usually do the second one at a discount on setup since I know the family already.
Part two · Money, exits and trust
Chapters 06 to 10: money, exits and trust
Chapter 06 / 10 · 7 answers
How do I pay?
The real price, the tax situation, the setup fee, and what shows up on the statement.
Is the build price the real price, or does it climb once everything is switched on?
It is the real price. $800 builds the presence site, a single page done properly. $2,000 builds the working site, up to eight pages with the AI chat assistant and a booking flow. $2,500 builds the showcase site with every visual variant, the signature motion and the launch kit. After that a care plan runs from $70 a month and covers hosting, the SSL, the domain and the changes you text me. Nothing on the smaller build is deliberately crippled. It is simply a smaller build.
Is this Canadian dollars? Plus HST?
Canadian dollars. Right now I am a small supplier and not charging HST yet, so $800, $2,000 and $2,500 are what you actually pay to build, and $70, $90 or $90 is what you actually pay monthly. What you see is what you pay. Once I register for HST it will show as a line on your invoice with my number on it, so your accountant can claim the input tax credit, and I’ll give you notice before that changes.
Is there a setup fee on top of the build?
No. The build fee is the whole build: I design it, write every word, lay out your photos, register the domain in your name, set up hosting and the SSL, and on the working and showcase builds train the AI front desk on your rules. The build fee is paid once, up front, before I start. The care plan starts the month you go live, not before.
What’s the price in two years? Are you going to do the cable-company thing?
I lock your price for 24 months in writing. After 24 months, if I raise prices, I give 60 days notice and you can cancel. I’ve never raised a customer’s price yet. If I do, it’ll be small and across the board, not a sneak attack on you.
What shows up on the Visa statement: ‘BALLY’ or ‘STRIPE’ or what?
BALLY DOES AI BRANTFORD ON. So when Sandra reconciles she sees the actual name, not some Stripe gibberish.
Who pays for the text messages? Bell or you?
I include the first 1,000 texts a month, which is way more than anyone uses. After that it’s about a penny each. If you somehow blow through 1,000 in a month I’ll text you before charging more. You’ll never get a surprise bill.
Can I write this off as a business expense?
Yes, full write-off. It’s an advertising and software expense on your T2125 or T2. Talk to your accountant about the exact line, but every dollar of this is deductible. Once I’m HST-registered my number will be on every invoice too, so your accountant can claim the input tax credit.
Chapter 07 / 10 · 7 answers
What if I cancel?
How you leave, how long it takes, and exactly what you take with you on the way out.
Can I stop the care plan? By text, no fight, no retention department?
Yes. Text me the word ‘cancel’ and I confirm it by email the same day. Thirty days notice, no early-termination fee, no call, no form, no PDF. The build fee is separate: it bought the site outright, so stopping the care plan doesn’t take the site away from you.
Who owns the website when I stop paying?
You do. The domain is in your company’s name from day one. When you cancel I send you a zip file of every page, every image, and a CSV of your customer list. You can host it somewhere else, hand it to another web guy, or let it expire. Your call.
What happens if I change my mind partway through the build?
Talk to me before you spend anything. You see a private preview link before the site goes public, and the back and forth to get it right is part of the build rather than an extra. What I will not do is dress this up as a money-back guarantee, because I do not offer one: once the build has started, that work has been done. You still see a private preview before anything goes public, so nothing goes live until you have looked at it.
What happens to my Google reviews and my Google page if I leave?
Stays yours, always has been. I don’t manage or log into your Google Business Profile today, so there’s nothing of mine to remove. Every review, your hours, your photos, all of it sits under your own login, not mine.
What happens to my customer list if I leave?
I email you a CSV of every name, phone number, email, job description, and date in your account. You open it in Excel. It’s yours to give to whoever you hire next or to keep in a folder. I delete my copy 30 days after you cancel and email you confirming I did.
If I just retire instead of selling, am I on the hook for anything?
No. You text ‘cancel,’ the charges stop, I send you the files. There’s no trailing fee, no early termination, nothing. If you want a ‘business is closing’ page up for 90 days redirecting old customers somewhere, I’ll do that for free.
If I get ten more jobs a month, great. If I get zero, do I get my money back?
No, and anyone promising otherwise is guessing with your money. I do not control whether your area is searching for a plumber this month, or whether your prices land against the shop down the road, so I will not put a number on leads or on where you rank. What I will say plainly: the build is a one-time fee rather than rent, the site is yours, the domain is in your name, and the care plan stops on thirty days notice.
Chapter 08 / 10 · 6 answers
What if it breaks?
Who you actually reach, on a Sunday, and what happens to your business if I’m not here.
When I call that number you put in the ad, do I actually get YOU?
Yes. (519) 761-2251 rings to my cell. Mon-Fri 8a-6p ET I pick up. After hours you leave a voicemail or text and I get back to you that night or first thing. There’s no call centre and there never will be.
If something breaks Sunday morning and I can’t take calls, do I get you on the phone?
Text me. I see texts on weekends. If your site is down or the text-back is broken, I’ll fix it within a couple hours, weekend or not. If it’s a ‘can you change my hours on the website’ kind of thing, that waits till Monday.
What happens if you get hit by a bus or quit?
Real answer: there’s a one-page document with my lawyer. It says that if I’m gone, every customer gets sent a zip of their site, a CSV of their customers, and their domain transferred to them within 14 days. The website would keep running on its own for at least 90 days while you find someone new. That’s the best I can do as one guy and I’m not going to pretend otherwise.
You’re one guy. What happens when you take a vacation in July, my busy season?
I take maybe a week off a year and I tell every customer two weeks before. The website and the text-back keep running because they don’t need me to function. If something breaks while I’m gone, I have one guy in Hamilton who handles emergencies for me. You’d have his number.
If something breaks, who fixes it: me, you, or my nephew?
Me. You don’t touch anything technical. You text or call, I fix it. If your nephew wants to log in and poke around he can, but you don’t have to learn anything to keep this running.
How long have you been doing this? Can I talk to other tradespeople you work with?
Straight answer: I do not have trades customers to point you at yet. I have been building this full-time and you would be early. That is exactly why the demonstration builds on this site are clickable, why the prices are published rather than quoted per victim, and why the domain goes in your name from day one. I would rather you judge the work in front of you than a track record I have not earned.
Chapter 09 / 10 · 7 answers
What about my data?
Where your customers’ information sits, who can touch it, and how you get all of it back.
Where is my customer’s information sitting? On some server in China?
Canadian and US servers (Vercel and Supabase), set up PIPEDA-aware. Not China. Not sold to anyone, not used for advertising, not shared with third parties. The full privacy policy is on the site and it’s plain English, not 40 pages of lawyer talk.
Do customers have to agree to be texted? Is there a checkbox?
Yes. The contact form on your site has a line that says ‘by submitting, you agree we may text or call you about this request.’ That covers CASL. If someone calls you first, replying to their call counts as consent under the implied consent rules. Both bases covered.
If you write reviews for me on Google, is that legal?
I don’t write reviews. I send your real customers a text asking them to leave a real review, and they write whatever they actually think. Google bans fake reviews and so do I. If you ever ask me to make one up, that’s where we part ways.
Do you get the login to my Google Business Profile?
No, and right now I do not touch it at all. Managing a Google Business Profile is a separate hands-on service I am not selling yet, so nothing on the price list includes it. Where a profile post gets written for you, it is handed over finished and you paste it in yourself. I never have your Google password and I never publish as you.
Can I export everything to a spreadsheet whenever I want? My accountant will ask.
Yes. There’s a ‘download everything’ button in your account. Customer list, jobs, review requests sent, money paid, all of it in a CSV. You can pull it monthly for your accountant or annually, whatever you want.
If the AI says something stupid that gets me sued, is that on your insurance or mine?
Honest answer: probably both, depending on what was said. The structural protection: the assistant is locked to what you approved on the setup call (it cannot invent prices or promises) and you can flip on Owner Approval mode where every reply waits for your thumbs-up. E&O insurance is on my Q1 to-do list as a one-person operator; the agreement reflects that openly. I’m not going to promise zero risk, because nothing in business is zero risk.
Is the website accessible for people who use a screen reader or keyboard?
Yes, I build toward WCAG 2.1 AA. Every image carries a text description, the whole site works by keyboard, text meets colour-contrast targets, and if you switch on ‘reduce motion’ in your device or browser settings the animations stop. It is not perfect (I am one person and I keep improving it) so if any page is hard to use with a screen reader, on a keyboard, or on a slow connection, email hunter.ballantyne@ballydoesai.com or call (519) 761-2251 and I’ll fix it. This is my accessibility statement, last reviewed July 2026.
Chapter 10 / 10 · 6 answers
Will this lock me in?
The agreement, the domain, the assets, and the parts I genuinely cannot promise you.
Is there a contract? Multi-year? Auto-renew traps?
Month to month. No contract to sign. The terms are a one-page agreement that says: you pay a one-time build fee, the copyright passes to you on final payment, and the care plan runs month to month on thirty days notice. That’s it. If a future version of this gets longer, you stay on the one-page version.
Is the domain registered in your name or mine?
Yours. The company’s name and the company’s address on the registration. I’m listed as the technical contact so I can manage DNS, but you’re the registrant. Your lawyer can pull a WHOIS lookup and verify it any time.
Can I get in writing that everything you build belongs to my corporation?
Yes. There’s an asset assignment clause in the one-page agreement that says all work product (website, copy, customer data, front-desk configuration) is owned by your corporation, not me. Your lawyer can mark it up before signing. I’ve never had anyone change it but I’m not precious about it.
If I die tomorrow, what does my wife do?
She emails or texts me and I send her a zip of everything, plus instructions for handing it to a broker or shutting it down. If she just wants the website turned off, that’s one reply from me. There’s also a one-pager I’ll give you for your filing cabinet that explains what this service is and how to cancel it, in case she has to do it without me.
Show me a real tradesperson I can phone, not a yoga studio.
Honest answer: I cannot yet. I do not have paying trades customers to hand you for a cold call, and I am not going to invent one. What you can do instead is open the demonstration builds on this site and click through them like a customer would. The protection you get in writing: the agreement is one page and public, the copyright passes to you on final payment, the domain is in your name from day one, and the care plan stops on thirty days notice.
How do I know you’ll still be in business in 5 years?
You do not, and neither do I. What you do know is the part that is written down: the domain is in your name, the copyright passes to you on final payment, your data exports any time, and the care plan runs month to month on thirty days notice. If I go under you lose a supplier, not your website. That is the only honest answer.
63 Unanswered
The sixty-third one is yours.
Sixty-two is as far as I have got, and every one of them is on this page because somebody actually asked it. If the question you came for isn’t here, it isn’t because I am dodging it — nobody has put it to me yet. Call the number, ask it, and you get the same plain answer as the sixty-two above. Then I write it up here as number 63.
It rings my cell, Monday to Friday, 8a to 6p ET. After hours, text the same number and you hear back that night or first thing. Or book a time instead.
Ten more answers, written for your trade
- 01Plumbing “Can the AI handle emergency plumbing calls after hours?” 10 answers →
- 02HVAC “How does the system handle booking a second visit after we order a replacement blower motor or control board?” 10 answers →
- 03Electrical “What happens if a customer wants a firm number on a panel upgrade over text?” 10 answers →
- 04Roofing “Will the AI quote a full tear-off over text?” 10 answers →
- 05Landscaping “What happens to the AI in the off-season when the phone goes quiet?” 10 answers →
- 06Contracting “Will it give a price over text for a kitchen reno or an addition?” 10 answers →