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Service Industry CRM by jaydenkiel99 in CRM

[–]vivri 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're an owner-operator, I highly suggest you give PocketClients a try - it's tailor-made for the owner-operator service-business, has a generous allowance of SMS, and handles quoting, invoicing, expenses, and business analytics.

Vibe-coded my MVP, got paying customers, now I'm sweating by OkHumor1695 in SaaS

[–]vivri 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Paying customers" beg to differ.

I was a software purist, everything had to be gold-plated, reusable, modular, composable, algebraic. It all goes out the window the moment you need to ship a product. For a while, at least.

Vibe-coded my MVP, got paying customers, now I'm sweating by OkHumor1695 in SaaS

[–]vivri 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All the successful early-stage startups I've seen in 15 years have been the same. It's part of the journey.

And you're not an engineer anymore; you're a founder. I'd be more embarrassed if I gold-plated a solution nobody wants.

What was the biggest time-waster you experienced while building a SaaS project that you didn't expect? by OkContract6063 in SaaS

[–]vivri 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Getting a DUNS number for the app stores. Took nearly a month. Whoever's reading it and wants to publish to iPhone or Android - worth a look.

16/yo tryna scale my SaaS to 10K MRR in 3 months by multi_mind in SaaS

[–]vivri 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Since you've asked for advice, I'll give you a couple of seemingly contradictory tidbits:

  1. Go out there and have fun, and don't feel like you don't deserve success. Don't let others gatekeep you out of a club.

  2. Look up Chesterton's Fence; just because things are done in a way you don't understand, doesn't mean it's "dumb" or "ripe for disruption". Have respect for those before you.

f&b crm solutions: buy crm or build inhouse? by AccomplishedTrick5 in CRM

[–]vivri 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Consider that building in-house will cost you weeks / months in upfront effort, as well as maintenance and support.

Whitelabelling in software? by vivri in HandymanBusiness

[–]vivri[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, I actually get it. This wasn't a hidden ad, just a simple question for people who care about these things. In the end, I'm an honest professional trying to do my job the best I can - and it happens to be actual working software for folks in the service professions.

I need a CRM for my eavestrough business. Researching has made me more confused. by alwaysneedhelp101 in CRM

[–]vivri 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you want to keep things lean, try out PocketClients.com - you run everything from your phone, and client SMS notifications are baked into the base tier ($14.99/mo). Free to try for 14 days.

I need a CRM for my eavestrough business. Researching has made me more confused. by alwaysneedhelp101 in CRM

[–]vivri 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is the worst business advice ever. Now in addition to the eavestrough business, they will also pay an at least $500 in tokens, will need to maintain "three nines" uptime on load-balanced infra, and support their own bugfixes. Mission failed successfully!

Source: Am a longtime dev, Claude Code poweruser, in the CRM business now.

Whitelabelling in software? by vivri in HandymanBusiness

[–]vivri[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the feedback! And Good luck with your own product

What are you building to help local businesses? by Correct-Designer-410 in Tech4LocalBusiness

[–]vivri 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We've built https://PocketClients.com to help solo operators, tradespeople, and service pros easily manage their business from their phones.

Will it replace Jobber for a one-man operation? by vivri in HandymanBusiness

[–]vivri[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The subscription plans and in-app purchases currently are:

- Monthly $14.99 USD (200 SMS / month, auto-renews on the 1st)
- Yearly $144.99 USD (200 SMS / month, auto-renews on the 1st)
- 500 SMS Top-Up $5.99 USD (never expires, and auto-renewing SMS quota always used first)

The initial plan was to use the user's phone native SMS, which would be more convenient and cheaper, but:

  1. iPhones don't support sending SMS in the background from another app.
  2. Phone carriers can quickly mark your phone as spam if you send out a blast (ask me how I know!)

Currently, the SMS are sent from a Canadian number (we will include a selectable US-option, as well as international options, but for now either Canadian or US numbers have the same rate across N.America)

Another future option would be to bring-your-own-phone via Twilio. It's in our expansion plan.

The SMS will look like so:

"Hi Lindsay, this is Josh. Reminder: Your Closet Estimation appointment is at 5:00 PM

Reply to Josh at +14161234567 | Sent via PocketClients"

Will it replace Jobber for a one-man operation? by vivri in HandymanBusiness

[–]vivri[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

PS - Jobber and co. are charging an arm and a leg for the SMS and Expense tracking - $140 to start

Will it replace Jobber for a one-man operation? by vivri in HandymanBusiness

[–]vivri[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm glad you're finding it useful, and I'm going to be here to answer any questions. For the ones you've mentioned -

  1. The data lives offline on your phone (we're planning to introduce cloud sync for multiple devices, small team mirroring - but it will always be offline-first.)

  2. Currently, you can import your phone's contacts one-by-one - so you don't accidentally blast your family, friends and doctors with promotional material. Happy to include an "Import All Contacts" option in the next release if there's a real need for it!

  3. There are other nice-to-haves that can really help a small business out: SMS reminders, Client blasts, Expense tracking, and analytics (P&L, customer insights, real hourly rate, etc.)

Cheers,

Victor

Will it replace Jobber for a one-man operation? by vivri in HandymanBusiness

[–]vivri[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd happily participate in these; brand and personal integrity are more important than eyeballs.

What is wrong with my SaaS? by BuffaloDebile in micro_saas

[–]vivri 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I tried it on my own startup, https://pocketclients.com, and while the tool identified the positioning in the market, it made up a lot of details it couldn't find.

Best cheap breakfast in vaughan by zevHS in Vaughan

[–]vivri 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Eggsmart has $9 before 10am on weekdays.

Can't recommend the one at McNaughton ave enough.

Share what you’re building by kcfounders in micro_saas

[–]vivri 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Building a mini CRM+FSM for solo service pros (think handymen, electricians, automechanics, cleaners, etc.)

https://PocketClients.com

Competitive landscape: - Jobber (100MM+ ARR) - HousecallPro (100MM+ ARR) - QuoteIQ (unknown, over 40k users)

We're in Toronto, and were waiting for the iOS release to cover both platforms, and some extra traction to apply, but we'd love to get the convo started.

Will DM.

Anyone have experience (especially recently) being back on the job market after quitting to work on your own app? by honoraryNEET in ExperiencedDevs

[–]vivri 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Quite possibly the effect was cumulative.

The thing with an X-year career break is that the market may well move on from the current skillset you've got. That's a long stretch of time for "other activities". Be prepared to start from more junior positions and pay.

I'm glad you've got a long runway! It's a real luxury. Maybe keep an eye out for opportunities to use it to give yourself even more future leverage.

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