What you do by hand every week doesn’t have to stay that way.

I look at what happens several times a week in your business and rebuild those steps so they run without you. From Aschaffenburg, for businesses in the region.

Automation from Aschaffenburg, for businesses in the region.

First call

Free, about 45 minutes. You’ll know more about your own week afterward than you did before.

Felix Winkel builds it and looks after it himself

You talk to the person who builds it. There’s nobody else here.

Book a 45-minute call

This is what doing it by hand looks like.

Orders from the inbox.

An email comes in, someone opens it, reads off the quantity and the item and types both into the other program. Twenty times a day, every day, and once a week somebody makes a typo.

Appointments in two places.

The appointment sits in the calendar and again on the whiteboard in the workshop. When it moves, someone updates both. Or just one, and then somebody drives out there for nothing.

Twelve almost identical invoices.

End of the month, the same line items for the same customers, only the date and the amount change. Half an hour per invoice, if nothing gets in the way.

The paperwork after the job.

Photos off the phone into the folder, hours into the list, a report to the customer, the invoice into the accounting program. Four places, the same details, typed in again every time.

Example Orders from the inbox

InboxThu 7:42 AM

The Linden Inn

Order for Friday

Hi all, for Friday please 12 × rye loaf, 1 kg, 6 × spelt wholegrain and 20 × pretzels. Back door by 6 as usual. Thanks, M. Becker

Inventory · The Linden Inndone

ItemQty
Rye loaf, 1 kg12
Spelt wholegrain6
Pretzels20

3:40 min for one email

Calendar

MonTueWedThuFriMiller, service

Workshop whiteboardout of date

  • Tue · Miller, service
  • Wed · Carter, sign-off

The calendar says Thursday, the board says Tuesday.

Invoices · October12 / 12

6:00 hrs for twelve invoices

Job 1047

  • 6 photos
  • 3.5 hours
  • Report
  • Folder
  • Timesheet
  • Report to the client
  • Accounting

16:00 min, the same thing four times

Did a process come to mind while reading that works the same way in your business? Then we already have something to talk about on the first call.

What exactly I build, and when it isn’t worth it

Did a process come to mind while reading that works the same way in your business? Then we already have something to talk about on the first call.

What exactly I build, and when it isn’t worth it

AI-generated image

Four questions. Then you’ll know whether we can save ourselves the work.

How often, times how long?

Five minutes a day sounds like nothing. It’s twenty hours a year. Three hours once a quarter sounds like a lot, and it’s twelve. Do the math, the result surprises most people.

Does it follow fixed rules?

If someone has to look and weigh things up every time, there’s nothing to automate. Then I build the groundwork: everything’s ready in one place, and you decide in one minute instead of ten.

When AI helps and when fixed rules are enough

Is the data already digital?

No program can read what’s on a notepad at the counter. Getting it into digital form comes first. That’s a separate project with its own price, and I say so up front.

Can your software talk to other programs?

Some programs hand data off to others on their own. Older ones often can’t. A program from 2009 usually has no way to get data out. Days of work hang on this, so I check it before I quote a price.

Some things don’t pay off, and I’ll say so.

A process that comes up twice a year is done faster by hand than with a program that needs maintaining. Sentences like that cost me jobs. I say them anyway.

The four steps.

  1. Call.

    I go through your week with you, point by point. One question runs through all of it: what do you find yourself doing over and over? About 45 minutes, free, and there’s nothing to sign.

    First call · 45 min · free

    Thursday

    • 09:00
    • 10:30
    • 13:00
    • 14:30
    • 16:00
    • 17:30

    Straight into the calendar. Your answers from the self-check are already in the notes.

  2. Proposal.

    One price, one process, one page. It says what runs by itself afterward, what still happens by hand and what the month costs. All on that one page, so you don’t have to go looking.

    Proposal · example1 / 1

    Orders from the inbox

    Runs on its own
    Read the email, match the items, into the inventory system
    Stays manual
    One click to confirm
    One-time
    fixed price
    Monthly
    Running it and changes
    First 30 days
    If something doesn’t work as described, no charge
  3. Build.

    I build it and show you where it stands before anything goes live. For a single process, we’re talking days. Weeks, if it gets tangled. Months would be a bad sign.

    Progress · exampleDay 4

    • Read emails from the inbox done
    • Match items and quantities done
    • Hand over to the inventory system in progress
    • You take a look, then it goes live next
  4. Operation.

    It runs. If something changes at your end, whether new software, a new process or a new hire, I move with it. That’s the part most people underestimate.

    Your process · examplelast 45 days

    runningchange

    09/12
    Added a new item
    09/03
    Supplier switched to a new email format, updated

Data and operation.

  • Portable

    Built from components you’ll find everywhere. It can run somewhere else later without being rebuilt.

  • Data processing

    If I process personal data on your behalf, we sign a GDPR processing agreement first. Before the start, not at some point after.

  • Status page

    Whether my services are up right now is shown publicly on a status page. status.sw-labs.de

New work.

Pete Smith

Pete Smith

Author

A new website instead of WordPress, plus a page for teachers, a dashboard, and posts that go out to Facebook and Instagram on their own.

  • Website
  • CMS
  • Automation
View project
Fresh, clear, interactive: Felix Winkel gave my website a fantastic new look. Working together was straightforward, and I'm absolutely thrilled with the result. Highly recommended!
Pete Smith

From €2,000 per process.

Put that number next to the hours the calculator further up showed you. We work it out in more detail on the first call.

One-time
A fixed price for a named process. What it costs depends on how many programs hang off it and whether they’ll talk to each other. I name it before I start, and it holds as long as the scope holds.
Monthly
From €25 for running it and keeping it current. I keep what I built working and adjust small things when something changes at your end.
Not included
A server of your own, paid third-party services, bigger rebuilds. Whatever applies to you is in the proposal. The invoice won’t show anything you haven’t seen before.
The first 30 days
If something doesn’t work the way I described it, I fix it. At no extra charge. I’m the one who described it that way, after all.
Payment
In two or three installments, depending on scope. The split is in the proposal.
Book a 45-minute call

Websites, web applications, small programs.

I build these too. Usually because an automation project is missing the piece everything else hangs on: a hiring portal where applications don’t get buried in the inbox. An order overview where your customer checks for themselves instead of calling. A menu behind a QR code, changed in thirty seconds. And if you just need a website, say so. I do that too.

SW labs is me, for now.

Felix Winkel

Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, Germany

I’m Felix. I build systems I actually enjoy using. Not ones that shave five minutes off something because it happens to be possible. Mostly it comes down to friction: where does a piece of information need to go, and which parts of that need no human hand at all. There are new tools every week. Half the work is the groundwork. The other half is finding out which of those tools hold up day to day.

My own projects: bearing, SW forge, Lark

You talk to the person who builds it.

You write, I answer. Nobody sits in between. It’s a one-person operation.

You pay for the work, nothing else.

No office in a prime location, no sales department. What the proposal lists is the time that goes into your process.

Your process sets the shape.

I don’t have an off-the-shelf template you’d have to fit into. And if something doesn’t pay off, I say so before you pay for it.

What businesses ask me.

What does it cost?

From €2,000 for one process, plus from €25 a month for running it and keeping it current. What it comes to in your case depends on how many programs are involved and what the solution runs on. I name the price before we start, not after, and it holds as long as the scope holds.

How long does something like this take?

A single process usually takes days to a few weeks. What stretches the timeline is almost never the building. It’s getting access to your programs.

What if my process doesn’t pay off at all?

Then I say so in the first call and you’ve spent 45 minutes. Four questions decide it. They’re further up this page, and you can go through them yourself beforehand.

Is there funding for this?

In Bavaria, there can be. The Digitalbonus Bayern covers up to 50 percent if the project costs at least €4,000, your business has fewer than 50 employees and you apply before you give the job. Licensed professions, including medical practices and law firms, are excluded. The other terms are further up, next to the price. I help with the application.

Tell me what bugs you every week.

I listen, and I tell you whether anything can be done about it. Sometimes the answer is no. Then you know after 45 minutes, not after the job.

Book a 45-minute call
45 min · Free · Straight into the calendar

Reply within two business days. Usually sooner.

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