I run three websites. Gagne Marketing, Tech Assist For Seniors, and a mobile massage business I help manage. For a long time, that meant three separate rounds of keyword research, three sets of blog posts to write, and three inboxes of small updates that never stopped piling up.
I am not going to tell you AI fixed everything. What I can tell you is exactly what I built, what it does, and what I still do myself. No pitch, just the actual setup.
The Bottleneck Was Never the Ideas
The bottleneck was never coming up with what to write or what to fix next. It was the repetitive parts. Checking Google Search Console for keyword gaps, comparing them against pages I already had, copying HTML into WordPress, formatting it correctly every time. None of that takes skill. It takes time, and time is the one thing a solo business owner does not have extra of.
So I built tools that handle the repetitive part and left the judgment calls to me.
What I Actually Built
Over the past several months, I put together a set of small, specific tools instead of one big system. A script that pushes finished blog posts and pages straight to WordPress. Scripts that pull my Search Console and Analytics data so I can see what is actually ranking instead of guessing. A tracker that checks my keyword positions on a schedule without me opening a spreadsheet. A scheduler that posts to Facebook directly through the platform’s own connection, with nothing in between. A script that keeps my Tech Assist client list synced with my calendar and my website’s contact form every morning.
None of these are complicated pieces of software. Each one does one thing. That is on purpose. A tool that does one thing is easy to fix when something breaks, and easy to explain to someone else if I ever need to.
The Part I Actually Use Every Day
The tool I open the most is not a website script. It is an invoice app. I built one for each of my businesses, and both live on my phone as a home screen shortcut. When a job is done, I open the app and send the invoice right there. That is the whole process.
I bring this up because it is easy to talk about AI in the abstract. This is not abstract. It is a button on my phone that I actually press.
Why I Am Not Using an Automation Platform
I tried Make.com. I wanted to like it. What I found instead was a tool that took real effort to learn, and every new connection between apps added its own separate cost on top of the last one. The pieces never felt like mine. They felt like something I was renting, one connection at a time.
What I use instead does not work that way. I ask for what I need in plain language, and I keep the result. If I want to change something next month, I change it myself. Nothing about my setup depends on a platform staying available or a subscription staying active for every single connection.
What This Actually Means For You
I am not selling automation. If you want a deeper look at the difference between hiring a consultant and buying a platform, I already wrote about that in AI consulting versus AI automation. This post is the other half of that conversation. Proof that the advice I give comes from actually building things, not just talking about them.
If you are curious what a setup like this could look like for your own business, that is exactly the kind of conversation I have during AI consulting for Manatee County businesses. And if you want the practical, day-to-day version of how small businesses use AI tools like ChatGPT, I covered that separately in how small businesses actually use ChatGPT every day.