A $1,000 first project surfaced $10,700 in prioritized engineering work the business needed.
Restoration services / Wisconsin
A restoration business with 24 automations and no architecture.
Daleen Restoration was running 24 Zapier automations across operations, customer communication, and commission tracking. The automations had accumulated over years. Some were redundant. Some were broken. Nobody on the team had a complete picture of what was running, what was working, and what was quietly costing the business money.
Accumulated automation without engineering review.
Twenty four automations sounds productive until you audit them. Most operational stacks aren't built. They accumulate. A workflow here, a Zap there, a fix for something that broke six months ago. Without a systematic audit, the business was paying the operational cost of every undocumented dependency without getting the visibility to know where the cost was hiding.
Systems assessment first. Engineering work second.
I started with a written assessment instead of building. The first phase audited all 24 automations: what each one did, what it depended on, what would break if it failed. I built commission tracking infrastructure during the audit phase to validate the working approach. The output was a 14-page systems assessment with a five phase engineering roadmap and fixed pricing for each phase. The architecture decision that mattered: assess before building. Most operators don't get this approach because most builders don't lead with diagnosis. Once the assessment surfaced the actual scope of work the business needed, the engagement expanded from a $1,000 first project to $10,700 in prioritized builds. Each phase had its own fixed price and timeline.
From a single project to a multi-phase engineering roadmap.
The assessment delivered what the business was missing: visibility into its own operational infrastructure. Commission tracking shipped during the audit phase. Each subsequent phase was scoped with fixed pricing and timeline before work started. The engagement turned into a structured engineering roadmap instead of a series of one-off projects.
Assessment-first engagements expand naturally.
Most engineering engagements end at the build because the build was the only thing scoped. Assessment-first engagements expand because the diagnostic surfaces what the business needs. The $1,000 first project at Daleen wasn't a teaser. It was the first phase of an engineering relationship that scaled to match the real scope of work.
Start with an audit.
Every engagement starts with a Growth Systems Audit. I map your infrastructure, identify what's leaking, and write a roadmap with fixed pricing on what gets built next. Three days. $1,500. Credits toward your first build over $3,000.