Workflow & AI Consulting

Helping small teams get their time back with AI and automation.

Every week the same work comes back. The spreadsheet rebuilt by hand, the report stitched together from four systems, the same customer question answered for the hundredth time. I sit with the people doing that work, measure what it actually costs you in hours and dollars, and build the fixes that pay for themselves. Where nothing needs changing, I will tell you that too.

A fixed fee, quoted first
Every engagement is priced before anything starts. No hourly billing, no scope creep.
Weeks, not quarters
An audit runs two weeks end to end. Enablement is two sessions. You see results inside the month.
You keep the deliverable
Maps, rankings, roadmaps, playbooks. You can stop after any engagement and still have something useful.
Why start here

The teams that get real value from AI all start in the same place: with a clear picture of where their time actually goes.

Once that picture exists, the decisions get straightforward. Some workflows need nothing more than better use of tools you already pay for. Others justify building something purpose-built. A few are best left exactly as they are. The work is knowing which is which, so every dollar you spend afterward goes to a workflow you have already measured.

What I offer

Three ways to start, in the order they usually make sense.

Most engagements begin with an audit or a set of enablement sessions. Building custom software comes last, and only for the workflows that have earned it.

01

The Workflow Audit

$3,500 – $7,500
Fixed fee · Two weeks from kickoff to delivery
Owner-led firms and finance teams

The back office still runs on manual work, and one person can make the call to fix it. Bookkeeping, reconciliations, client reporting, moving data between systems. You suspect there are hours to reclaim, and you want evidence before you spend on tools or training.

Two weeks: a week of discovery sitting with the people who do the work, then a week mapping, costing and sequencing it. You get the draft before a live working session, and final deliverables within two business days of it.

  • Workflow maps. Every step, who performs it, how long it takes, and where the friction lives.
  • A prioritized opportunity list. Each workflow costed in hours per month, dollars, error exposure, expected savings and rough payback. An investment case, not a list of ideas.
  • A phased roadmap. What to do first, what it should take, what it should return. Act on it with me, with your team, or with anyone else.
02

AI Enablement

$2,950
Fixed fee · Two sessions · Teams up to five, then $250 a head
Small teams where everyone does a bit of everything

The same manual work comes back every week. Rewriting one product description for three channels. Answering the same customer question for the hundredth time. Rebuilding the same spreadsheet by hand every month.

Session one is a day on site, about an hour with each person alone. We spend the first half on what their week actually looks like, and the second half building something for it. One at a time is deliberate: people are more honest about the boring parts of their job when the rest of the team is not in the room. Session two is ninety minutes with everyone together.

  • A list of what your team actually does. Gathered person by person, not read off a process document.
  • A ranked list of what to fix. Sorted by payoff and difficulty. Some you can fix this week with tools you already pay for. Some are fine exactly as they are, and I will tell you that too.
  • At least one fix per person, built in front of them. We use their real files, so they see it work before anyone asks them to trust it.
  • The playbook. The ranked list, the prompts exactly as built, notes on how your brand sounds, who owns what, and where to start. Yours either way.
03

Custom Tool Development

Quoted from the work
Scoped from an audit or a playbook
The last resort, not the default

Internal tooling for the workflows where off-the-shelf software does not fit and better prompting is not enough. Always scoped from an audit or a playbook, so a build is aimed at a workflow that has already been measured, and only where it clearly pays for itself.

Every engagement is a fixed fee quoted before anything starts, and each one ends with a deliverable, so you can stop after any of them and still have something useful.

How it works

The same shape every time.

Discovery in person, analysis in between, and a working session where we go through the findings together before anything is final.

01

A thirty-minute call

Enough to hear what is slowing your team down, confirm fit, and give you a fixed price. If I am not the right person, I will point you somewhere better.

02

Discovery, where the work happens

I sit with the people who do the work and watch the process as it actually runs. Friction rarely shows up in a process document.

03

A draft before we meet

You get the findings ahead of a live working session, so you arrive with questions ready and we can pressure-test the plan together.

04

Delivery in two business days

Final documents follow the session, incorporating anything it changed. Everything is yours to act on, with me or without me.

Who you would be working with

Caleb Tomkins

Caleb Tomkins, founder of Harbor Automation

I spent four years as a Technical Director in feature animation, solving complex software problems on films including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Paw Patrol.

That work is mostly one thing: taking a large, messy operational problem, breaking it into pieces small enough to solve, and picking the right technology for each. It is the same skill a business running on manual work needs, and it is what I bring to every engagement.

Small businesses have the same problems as large ones and almost none of the same options. An agency will quote six figures and six months for something a small team needs working next quarter. I started Harbor Automation to close that gap. So far that has meant automating bookkeeping tasks, teaching teams to use AI inside the work they already do, and handling the technical side of client engagements for firms with nobody in house.

Harbor Automation, LLC Workflow & AI consulting for small teams and owner-led firms
A lighter way in

Getting Started with AI for Business

A one-hour class for small business owners on finding the repetitive work in your week that AI can handle, and choosing the right tool for each one. You leave with a list of candidates drawn from your own business and one task chosen to attempt that week. Nothing to bring but a description of the work you would like to stop doing.

  • 01The categories of AI tools available to a small team, and what each is genuinely good for
  • 02Chats versus agents, and when to grant one access to act on your behalf
  • 03The criteria for judging whether a task is worth automating, applied to your own week
  • 04A live build: one task from the room, solved in front of you
  • 05Where these tools fail, how to verify output, and what should never be handed to them
Start with a conversation

Thirty minutes is enough to tell you whether the work is worth doing.

Bring what is slowing your team down. I will tell you honestly whether an audit, a set of sessions, or nothing at all is the right use of your money, and give you a fixed price if it is. If I am not the right person, I will point you somewhere better.