Validating my idea: a dead-simple CRM for tradespeople (plumbers, electricians, hairdressers)
Hey IH,
I'm a solo developer and I'm doing things the right way this time — validating before building.
Here's the problem I've identified:
Independent tradespeople (plumbers, electricians, painters, hairdressers...) manage their entire business with paper notebooks, WhatsApp and Excel. Every week they:
- Lose potential clients because they forgot to follow up on a quote
- Spend entire evenings sorting through invoices
- Can't find a client's info when they call back
They're not looking for Salesforce. They just want something simple that works.
So I'm building Artise — a minimal CRM built specifically for tradespeople:
→ Client profiles in 30 seconds
→ PDF quotes with their logo in 2 minutes
→ Automatic SMS follow-ups when a client goes quiet
→ A clean calendar
Pricing: free up to 10 clients, then €19/month.
I just launched a waitlist to measure real interest before writing a single line of code:
👉 https://artise-eta.vercel.app/
Would love honest feedback from this community:
- Does the problem feel real and painful enough to pay for?
- Does the landing page communicate the value clearly?
- What would you do differently at this stage?
Thanks for reading!
This resonates a lot. The pain isn’t lack of features, it’s follow-up and organization. Most tradespeople I’ve talked to lose jobs simply because they forget to reply or can’t find info fast enough. I like that you’re validating before building. Curious: have you already talked to 5–10 real tradespeople 1:1, or is this mainly landing-page driven so far?
@R4YK0 Perfect timing — I just built a 30-second validation video for the Artise use case:
Video: https://youtu.be/cKSExLNmfSw
Left side: Marc scrolling through chaotic WhatsApp chats, losing track of a €450 invoice, ending the month short
Right side: One-click reminder via Artise dashboard, professional SMS sent in 30 seconds, money recovered
This is exactly what I mean by "video validation" — zero code, zero backend. Just show this 30-second clip to 5-10 electricians/plumbers and ask:
> "If a tool could save you from losing money like this, would you pay €19/month for it?"
If their eyes light up and they say "I need this now," you build. If they shrug and say "maybe," you just saved 3 months and €20K.
I'm running 3 free pilot spots for teams willing to test this method (case study exchange only). If you want to go deeper — maybe test PDF quotes vs SMS reminders to see which feature actually drives the €19 conversion — shoot me an email: [email protected]
Either way, that €450 pain point is sharp. Well identified.
@R4YK0 Would love to dive deeper into the video prototype plan for Artise — mind sharing your email or Twitter handle?
I have a specific validation template (3-min video script + test questionnaire) ready to go that goes beyond what I shared above.
My email: [email protected] (feel free to reach out directly too)
Yes props to you for putting in the proper research. I'm learning on the go at the moment. I can comment as I have a brother who owns a body/paint shop and his wife owns her own hair salon. Both of them use their cell phones for managing appointments and new business. My brother needs to text updates to clients of where the project is at and if it hits a milestone he sends an invoice (typically monthly). My sister-in-law handles all scheduling requests through her cell phone via text and it looks like a nightmare. I've asked both of them if they considered moving to an app or CRM, but they are stuck in the day to day and it's working well enough. I believe you'll be able to "show" potential clients how it would work for them and take away some of the burdens so they can just focus on their "craft". Happy hunting in your research!
This is gold, thank you.
What you just described — your brother texting milestone updates manually, your sister-in-law drowning in scheduling texts — that's exactly the workflow I'm trying to replace. And the fact that they said "it's working well enough" is actually the most important insight you could give me. That's the exact objection I'll need to overcome.
The job isn't to convince them their current system is broken. It's to show them what 10 hours a month of their time is actually worth, and what "working well enough" is costing them in missed clients and mental load.
You just gave me my demo script. I'm going to build around that exact scenario — a body shop owner sending manual update texts, a hairdresser managing bookings through WhatsApp — and show them side by side what it looks like with Artise.
Really appreciate you sharing this. If you ever want to show them a prototype once it's ready, I'd love the feedback.
Happy to help
Love that you're "doing things the right way this time" — validating before coding is the game-changer.
One observation on the waitlist approach: Email signups measure interest, but not payment intent. I've seen 500+ waitlist signups convert to <5% actual purchases.
Have you considered testing the €19/month pricing before building? Specifically: showing tradespeople a 3-minute video demo of Artise (the PDF quote + SMS follow-up workflow), then asking "would you pay €19/month for this right now?"
I learned the hard way that "this looks useful" ≠ "I'll pay €19." Now I validate with video prototypes — 3 days, €50 cost, real purchase intent data before the dev cycle.
Happy to help you test this approach on Artise if you're open to it. No cost, just looking for case studies on validation methods.
Either way, great problem space — tradespeople definitely need this.
Really appreciate this — the conversion gap between "interest" and "payment intent" is exactly what I'm worried about too.
Your video prototype idea is interesting. My current plan was to use the waitlist conversations to get on calls with tradespeople, show them the mockup, and literally ask "would you pay €19 for this right now?" — which feels close to what you're describing.
I'm curious about your approach though: what does a €50 video prototype look like in practice? Is it a screen recording of a clickable Figma prototype, or something else?
Either way, your point is noted — I'll make sure my next validation step involves real payment intent, not just email signups. Thanks for the honest feedback.
@R4YK0 Saw your GitHub repo (RAYKAKA133/Artise) — clean start with the HTML prototype.
Want to send you the video validation template I mentioned. What's your email or Twitter handle?
Mine: [email protected]
Exactly — you're already on the right track with "show mockup + ask for payment intent."
The video prototype difference is subtle but powerful:
Instead of you showing them a mockup and asking "would you pay?" (still hypothetical), you create a 3-minute video showing Sarah the plumber using Artise in her actual workflow (generating a quote in 2 mins, automatic SMS follow-up), then ask "would you pay €19/month to have this?"
It's role-play as validation. Users respond to seeing the experience, not the interface.
In practice: I use Seedance/AI to generate the "user scenario" video (€50 cost, 3 hours) rather than just Figma walkthrough.
Happy to walk you through exactly how I'd do this for Artise — or just build the first one for you to test. No strings, just want to prove the method works.
DM me your email or shoot me a note at [email protected] and I'll send you a template + examples? or x @hard_study_jone
Either way, good luck with the validation — sounds like you're approaching it thoughtfully.
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