Built for owner-run companies

Your crews go home.
The office comes home with you.

The quotes get written at ten at night, the jobs live in your head, and the pipeline depends on the phone ringing. We fix the office work that keeps you buried, then help the right customers find you.

If the owner still answers the phone, we built this for you.

Tell us what’s stuck

A six-month engagement built around two important problems.

An owner reviewing quotes and drawings at his laptop after the working day.

Why this exists

A few parts of the business are carrying too much weight.

In a small owner-run company, a lot of important work still depends on one person remembering what happened, following up, writing the quote, answering the customer, and explaining the job to everyone else.

Shop & Field helps move that work into simple, repeatable processes the team can actually use. We start with the parts that are slowing everything else down, then help the company become easier to find once it can handle more work.

Before: calls, quote requests and schedules all run through the owner. After: intake, job folders, estimating, proposals and follow-up have a shared process.

What we fix

Organize the work, systemize what repeats, and improve discoverability.

We look at how work actually moves through the company and find the two places creating the most drag. Then we fix those two and make sure the team can keep them running.

A clipboard holding an organized job checklist.

Run the work

Give the team a reliable way to move work from the first inquiry to a clear handoff.

  • Job intake and quotes
  • Estimating and proposals
  • Office, field and shop handoffs
  • Customer follow-up
A business search listing and a local map pin.

Win the work

Make it easier for the right customers to find your company and get in touch.

  • Search and local listings
  • Useful landing pages
  • Inquiry tracking
  • Google Ads

For owner-run general contractors, specialty contractors, fabrication shops, machine shops, and service and trade businesses.

Software, when it earns its place

We build around the way your company already works.

Big platforms can be useful, but they also come with setup, configuration, training, and upkeep. In a small company, that work often falls back on the same person who was already overloaded.

We start with the files, forms, inboxes, spreadsheets, and habits the company already uses. If software makes one of the agreed problems easier to solve, we use it. If it does not, we leave it out.

Considering a new platform? Start here
01

Tools in your name

You purchase any software directly from the vendor.

02

A process your team can use

We test the work with the people who will keep it running.

03

Ownership stays with you

The files, accounts and work we build stay with your company.

The six months

Six months to fix two important parts of the business and hand them back working better.

We agree on the two problems, learn how the work currently moves, build the fixes, and test them in the real business. Most weeks require a few hours of your time.

01

Month 01

Learn

Understand your business, your people, and where the work gets stuck. Agree on the two problems and what a useful fix looks like.

02

Months 02 to 05

Build

Build the fixes around your existing tools, put them to work, and help the team use them. Improve discoverability as the business becomes ready for more work.

03

Month 06

Hand off

Stabilize the process, document how it works, and make sure your team can keep it going.

We agree on the two problems before we start. Software and advertising accounts stay in your company’s name, and everything we build stays with you whether we keep working together or not.

What this looks like in practice

A clearer path from the first inquiry to the proposal.

We’re building this with an owner-run commercial contractor, starting with getting bids reviewed, priced, and out the door.

Plan Room brings the job information, drawings, trade quotes, estimate and proposal into a shared workflow. The company keeps its familiar working files, with people reviewing the important decisions.

The example is anonymized. Ask us to walk you through the build when we talk.

Talk through your own workflow
An anonymized real build

Plan Room

Prototype

Explore the path from a new opportunity to a reviewed proposal.

01 Intake and job folders

Keep the inquiry, walkthrough notes, drawings and due date together in one job folder.

Job folder Ready for review
02 Plans and quantities

Record quantities alongside their source drawings. An estimator checks uncertain measurements before they go into a bid package.

Quantity worksheet Human review
03 Quotes and estimate

Compare trade quotes, surface exclusions, and carry reviewed numbers into the company’s existing estimate workbook.

Estimate workbook Excel
04 Proposal and handoff

Prepare the proposal from the reviewed estimate and agreed scope. The team checks it and decides when to send it.

Proposal draft Word

Example content from a prototype. These panels explain the workflow; they do not process live jobs.

Who leads it

Work directly with Hannah and Dan.

Hannah, project operations lead

Hannah

Project operations

Helps companies get organized, tighten up their process, and make the work run without everything going through the owner.

Dan, systems and growth lead, cropped from his original Election Commission photograph

Dan

Systems & growth

Builds the systems that support the work and helps companies get found through practical marketing and technology.

Let’s get started

Show us the two things that keep following you home.

Tell us a little about your company and where the work gets stuck. We’ll use that to start a 20-minute conversation about whether we’re a good fit.

You don’t have to have both problems figured out before we talk.