Open Afternoon: AI automation for small business owners
Get your day back for the work that counts
Manual, repetitive work crowds out the work you are good at. Open Afternoon builds AI automations that answer inquiries, send reminders, and pass work along. They run on the tools you already use, and a person checks what matters.
- Based in St. Charles, Illinois
- Remote, for small businesses across the United States
- Built on the tools you already use
- Starts whenA new inquiry arrivesA form or an email comes in.
- StepIt is read and sortedJob type, location and how urgent it is.
- StepA reply goes outThe customer gets an answer and a time is held.
- You getOne short summaryWhat came in, what was sent, and what needs you.
The name
What an open afternoon means
An open afternoon is time with nothing waiting on you. You have no inbox to clear and no reminder to send. Repeat work takes those hours, and the work you are good at waits.
We build the automation that does the repeat work. You get the time for the people you serve, your craft, and the decisions only you can make. We do not promise a number of hours. We build it, test it on your real work, and you judge the result.
What we build
Six jobs we can take off your plate
These are examples of what we can build. We design each automation around your own process.
New inquiries get an answer
Each message is read, answered and sorted, so the right ones reach you first.
- Starts when
- A form or an email arrives
- You get
- A reply sent and a time held
Bookings and reminders
Customers book, confirm and reschedule on their own, and the reminder goes out before the date.
- Starts when
- A customer asks for a time
- You get
- A booking and a reminder sent
Quotes get a nudge
A quote that sits unanswered gets a polite follow up, on a schedule you set.
- Starts when
- A quote goes out
- You get
- A follow up sent on time
Email gets sorted and drafted
Messages are read and sorted, and a draft reply waits for your approval.
- Starts when
- A message lands in your inbox
- You get
- A summary and a draft to approve
Common questions get answered
A chatbot on your website answers from your own documents and hands the rest to a person.
- Starts when
- A visitor asks a question
- You get
- An answer, or a handoff to you
Repeat entry and weekly numbers
Forms and spreadsheets update themselves, and a short report arrives each week.
- Starts when
- New data arrives
- You get
- Updated records and a weekly report
How it works
From the job that eats your afternoon to a tool that does it
A project has four steps. Each one has a plain outcome you can check. See the full process.
Plan
We start with a free 30 minute call by phone or video. You describe the job. After the call, if an automation fits, we send a written plan and one fixed price, and you approve it before work starts.
Build
We build on the tools you already use. We test it on your real work before it goes live.
Hand off
You get the working system, your own accounts and logins, a written guide and a recorded walkthrough.
Support
We stay available to adjust the build as your work changes.
You stay in charge
You decide what runs alone and what comes to you
You choose which steps run on their own and which come to you first. A person checks anything that affects money, a legal obligation, or another person.
- Starts whenA new inquiry arrivesA form or an email comes in.
- Sorted byWhat it asks forThe automation reads it and picks a route.
- A clear requestA time is heldA reply goes out with the time.
- Needs a personIt comes to you firstYou get a summary and a suggested reply.
- Not a fitA polite reply goes outIt is filed so nothing is lost.
Fewer requests slip
A request that waits in an inbox can slip
An automation moves each request along the same way every time, and it tells you when a request needs you. A busy week is less likely to leave a message unanswered.
Without a system
With the automation
Questions
Questions owners ask first
What does Open Afternoon do?
Open Afternoon builds custom AI automations for small business owners. The automations take on manual, repetitive work, so owners spend their hours on the work they are good at. We work remotely from St. Charles, Illinois. Every project starts with a free 30 minute call by phone or video.
Why is it called Open Afternoon?
An open afternoon is time with nothing waiting on you. Repeat work, such as inquiries, reminders and data entry, takes those hours. We build the automation that does that work, so the afternoon is yours again.
Do I need to change the software I use?
No. We build on the tools you already use. We suggest a change only when it clearly earns its place.
Do I need to be technical to work with you?
No. You describe the job in your own words. We explain each step in plain language and handle the setup.
Our work
Work we have built
These are projects we built for a local small business. Each one shows how we work: the computer does the routine part, and a person stays in charge of anything that goes out or needs judgment.
A morning summary of the whole business
For a local small business, we built a morning summary page. Every day it pulls store sales, online orders, website traffic and ad spend into one private page, set against the same period last year. It only reads. It changes nothing in those tools. The owner no longer has to log in to four places and add the numbers by hand.
One catalog from many supplier lists
For a local small business, we built a supplier availability catalog. Each morning it collects the price and stock lists that suppliers post on websites, in PDFs and in emails, and merges them into one searchable page for staff. Staff no longer have to open a dozen separate lists to answer one customer question.
One customer list and email drafts
For a local small business, we built one customer list and a tool that drafts email campaigns from it. The list combines customers from the point of sale system, the email platform and the website, one row per person with duplicates merged. The tool finds past buyers of a product and writes a draft campaign to them. It never sends. The owner reads the draft and presses send, so the owner no longer has to build a list and a first draft for every campaign.
Survey answers to website reviews
For a local small business, we built a survey checker. Every night it reads new answers to the survey sent after a finished job. Answers with top scores and no written comment go to the reviews section of the website on their own. Any answer with a comment waits for the owner's yes. The owner no longer has to read every response and copy the good ones onto the site.