Smart Solutions for Small Business

Your Business,
Built Smart.

Professional websites and intelligent automations that save you time, impress your clients, and help your small business compete like a big one — without the big-business price tag.

10+

Sites Launched

100%

Small Business Focused

24/7

Automations Running

automation.js — Built Smart

// Route new lead from web form

const lead = await form.capture();

await crm.addContact(lead);

await email.sendWelcome(lead);

await slack.notify("New lead!");

// Done in < 2 seconds, zero effort

 

schedule.every("day", sendReport);

// Your business runs itself 

What I Do

How I Help Your Business Grow

From a website that works around the clock to automations that eliminate busywork — and the infrastructure to run it all at scale.

🌐

Website Design & Development

A professionally designed website is your hardest-working employee — available 24/7, never calls in sick, and makes a great first impression every single time. I build modern, fast, mobile-friendly sites tailored to your brand and your customers.

  • Custom design that matches your brand
  • Mobile-first & fully responsive
  • Fast load times & SEO-ready
  • Contact forms & lead capture
  • Easy to update and maintain
Start a Project

Business Process Automation

Stop wasting hours on repetitive tasks. I design and build smart workflows using Make.com and Zapier that handle data entry, follow-ups, notifications, reporting, and more — automatically — so your team can focus on work that actually moves the needle.

  • Lead capture & CRM automation
  • Email & notification workflows
  • Data sync across your apps
  • AI-enhanced task handling
  • Reporting & scheduling automation
Your Account. Your Automations. Your Rules.

Every workflow I build lives inside your Make or Zapier account, connected to your tools with your credentials. You'll need an active subscription with either platform — both offer free tiers to get started — and access to the apps you want to connect. When the project wraps up, the automation runs entirely on your infrastructure. You're not dependent on me to keep the lights on. Think of it as hiring a contractor to build in your own shop: when the job is done, what's built is yours, fully and permanently.

Automate My Business
🔒

Managed Automation Hosting

AI and automation can save your business hours every week — but if you handle confidential information, where that data lives and travels matters as much as what the tools do. Managed Automation Hosting is built for businesses that can't afford to get this wrong.

I provision a private n8n automation server on infrastructure you own, connected to AI services under enterprise terms. The result: the same productivity gains you'd get from popular AI tools, with a defensible answer to the question "where does our client data go?"

Why This Matters

Most popular AI and automation tools route your data through shared servers, retain it for years, or use it to train future models. For some businesses that's an inconvenience. For attorneys, healthcare providers, financial advisors, HR teams, and anyone bound by confidentiality obligations, it's a serious liability.

For attorneys specifically: a 2026 federal ruling (US v. Heppner, S.D.N.Y.) confirmed that submitting client information to public AI platforms can be treated as a third-party disclosure — meaning attorney-client privilege can be waived the moment text is pasted into a free AI tool. ABA Model Rules 1.1 (competence), 1.6 (confidentiality), and 5.3 (vendor supervision) apply to every AI tool a firm uses. The architecture you choose determines whether your AI use is defensible.

The same principles apply to anyone with a duty of care over client information — patient records, financial data, HR files, trade secrets. Convenience doesn't excuse exposure.

The Three Tiers of AI Risk

High Risk
Public / Consumer AI

ChatGPT Free & Plus, Claude.ai Free/Pro, Gemini consumer

  • Data may be used to train future models
  • Multi-year retention possible
  • Counts as third-party disclosure

Never with confidential data.

Conditional
Cloud Automation

Zapier, Make.com

  • Data flows through vendor servers
  • SOC 2 / DPA available with paid tiers
  • Vendor staff have controlled access

Fine for non-privileged work — admin, intake, scheduling.

Defensible
Self-Hosted + API

n8n on your VPS + AI API on commercial terms

  • Data stays on infrastructure you control
  • API calls under commercial terms — no training, short retention
  • You own the logs, server, and deletion policy

The architecture for confidential work.

How It Works

🏢
Your business
🖥️
Your private
n8n server
🤖
AI API
(commercial terms)
📥
Result back
to your server

A closed loop. Client data never touches a consumer AI product. The AI call is governed by enterprise terms with no training and a short retention window. Logs, backups, and access controls live on infrastructure that belongs to you — not a third-party platform.

What's Included

  • Private VPS provisioning (billed directly to you — no markup)
  • n8n installation, SSL certificate & security hardening
  • Encrypted daily backups & uptime monitoring
  • Software updates, security patches & ongoing maintenance
  • Automation builds tailored to your workflows
  • Documentation you can hand to a compliance officer or auditor

A Good Fit When…

  • You handle confidential client data — legal, medical, financial, HR
  • Your industry has confidentiality, privilege, or compliance obligations
  • You want clear documentation for clients, auditors, or regulators
  • You'd rather own your data than rent space on someone else's servers

Sample Documents & Templates

Free starter templates you can use to build your own internal documentation. These same templates are included — fully customized to your business — with every Managed Automation Hosting engagement.

These templates are provided for informational purposes only. They are not legal advice and should be reviewed and adapted by qualified counsel before use.

Talk About My Setup
My Work

Built to Launch & Last

A look at the websites and automations I've built for small businesses — toggle between the two below.

Sites I've Built & Launched

Real websites for real small businesses — each one custom-designed to help owners show up professionally online.

Katy Chavez

A bilingual website for an immigration and criminal defense attorney — available in both English and Spanish with a single click, so every client feels at home from the moment they arrive. Built to establish trust, communicate expertise, and make it effortless for clients to take the next step.

Visit Site

Cruising With Me Travel

A vibrant travel agency site designed to inspire wanderlust, capture leads, and make booking inquiries effortless for vacation planners.

Visit Site
Demo

Pac and Go Travel

A full-service site for a travel agency — complete with a fully functional back-end admin panel and individual agent mini-sites, each with their own permissions.

View Demo
In Progress

Strait Arrow NC

A site for a North Carolina general contracting business currently in development — showcasing services, past work, and making it simple for homeowners to request a quote.

Preview Site

Ready to add your business to this list?

Let's Build Your Site

Workflows That Run Themselves

Automations don't have to be complex to be valuable. Some handle a dozen tasks at once; others — like the office visit tracker — do one small job that quietly takes time and stress off a team's plate, so workers can focus on what matters and still get the information they need.

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Watch Inbox
🏷️
Detect Form Type
🤖
AI Analysis
📋
Correction Report
📊
Log to Sheet
Make.com + AI

USCIS Form Proof Scanner

Watches a dedicated inbox around the clock. When an email arrives with a recognized subject, the automation identifies the form type — Proof, DACA, AOS, and more — extracts the attachment, and routes it through an AI analysis engine that checks every field for errors, omissions, and missing signatures. The sender receives a detailed correction report within minutes, and every scan is automatically logged to a shared spreadsheet. Zero manual review. Nothing slips through.

Make.com AI Analysis Gmail Google Sheets USCIS Forms
💬
Watch Chat
🏷️
#office Filter
📝
Parse Details
🗄️
Log Visit
📧
4PM Digest
Make.com + Telegram

Office Visit Tracker

Monitors a Telegram group chat via webhook. When a staff member posts a message tagged with #office, the automation instantly parses the client name and any accompanying notes, then logs the visit to a live data store. At 4:00 PM every day, a scheduled scenario sweeps the store and fires a clean summary email — a complete list of everyone who walked through the door that day. Reception-level visibility, with zero reception overhead.

Make.com Telegram Webhook Data Store Scheduled Email
📦
Dropbox Scan
📄
Extract PDF
🤖
AI Analyze
🗂️
Client Folder
📬
Admin + Daily Email
Dropbox + AI

Intelligent Mail Scanner

When physical mail is scanned at a remote office and uploaded to Dropbox, the automation kicks in immediately — pulling each PDF, reading its contents, and using AI to determine whether it's client correspondence or administrative mail. Client documents are filed automatically into the correct Dropbox folder, creating a new client folder if one doesn't exist yet. Admin and personal mail is routed to a dedicated folder, and at the end of each day a digest email goes out with a summary of everything that arrived. A fully staffed mailroom, without the mailroom.

Make.com Dropbox AI Analysis PDF Processing Auto-Filing Daily Digest

Have a process that's eating your team's time?

Let's Automate It
Why Automation?

Work Smarter, Not Harder

Running a small business means wearing a lot of hats — and too often, those hats involve repetitive, time-consuming tasks that pull you away from the work that actually grows your business.

Automations

Work Less.
Accomplish More.

The average small business owner spends 20+ hours a week on tasks that could run on autopilot. I design and build automation systems that handle the busywork — letting you and your team focus on growing the business.

1

Identify the Time Drains

We map out the repetitive tasks eating up your team's hours — data entry, follow-ups, scheduling, reporting.

2

Design the Workflow

I build a custom automation blueprint connecting your existing tools — no ripping out what already works.

3

Launch & Let It Run

Your automation goes live and starts working around the clock — we monitor, tune, and expand as you grow.

Make.com

Visual workflow builder for complex multi-step automations — connects hundreds of apps with precision logic.

connects with

Zapier

The fastest way to link your apps — 6,000+ integrations to get data moving between your favorite tools instantly.

powered by

AI-Enhanced Processing

Smart automation that reads, writes, categorizes, and responds — handling nuanced tasks that rules alone can't.

👨‍💻
About

Hi, I'm Rob.

Founder & Lead Developer — Built Smart by Rob

My relationship with technology started in 1989 — the day I got my first computer, I took it apart and upgraded it. I've never looked back.

Since 1994, I've built a career spanning nearly every corner of the IT industry: technical support, network administration and engineering, application management, incident and problem management, identity and access management (IAM), and governance, assurance, and compliance. Along the way, I've always had a soft spot for small businesses — setting up servers, configuring email systems, wiring offices for Ethernet back when Wi-Fi was still science fiction, and generally making sure smaller organizations could access enterprise-grade capabilities without enterprise-grade price tags.

In 2025, a corporate reduction in force gave me the nudge to explore some other chapters. I ran a general contracting company for a stretch, and when shifts in the real estate market slowed that down, I leaned into another passion: travel. I became an Independent Travel Agent — because if I'm going to book my own cruises, I might as well earn a commission doing it.

But IT has a way of pulling you back.

In my last corporate role, my primary focus was writing scripts to automate the collection and analysis of data for risk assurance and compliance. I loved every minute of it. That experience got me thinking: why not bring that same focus on automation to small businesses?

That's what Built Smart by Rob is all about. I combine decades of real-world IT experience with modern tools that can accomplish remarkable things at a fraction of traditional costs. Whether you need a brand-new website, a redesign of an existing one, or custom automations that eliminate repetitive tasks and streamline your workflows — I can build it.

The goal is simple: help your business run smarter, so you can focus on what you do best.

Web Design Web Development Make.com Zapier AI Automation Process Optimization Small Business Strategy Netlify
Get in Touch

Let's Build Something Smarter

Whether you need a new website, want to automate a headache-inducing process, or just want to explore what's possible — I'd love to hear about your business. No hard sell, just an honest conversation.

📧
[Email coming soon]
📍
Raleigh, NC — Serving clients nationwide
⏱️
Typical response within 24 hours