For people in tech and corporate careers

Build a business you own. Start while you’re still employed.

Launch a home-service business with the potential to replace your salary. You win and manage the jobs. Qualified subcontractors do the physical work. Groundwork gives you the playbook, AI-enabled software, personal guidance, and community to put it into practice.

Apply to join→See how it works

Software included · Two private coaching sessions each month · A founder community

More control over what comes next

Give yourself another way to earn.

You can enjoy your career and still want an income source you own. Especially when the next reorganization, leadership change, or shift in technology is outside your control.

Groundwork helps you put your experience in sales, systems, marketing, and communication to work in a local service business. One with real customers, work to deliver, and a reputation you build over time.

Keep earning while you test the model. Give yourself evidence to build on before making a bigger move.

How the business works

Own the customer relationship. Partner with people who know the trade.

Start with a service you can learn to scope and sell responsibly. Find qualified subcontractors who can deliver it. Build your offer around the cost of doing the job well.

You bring in the customer, agree on the work, coordinate delivery, and collect payment. Your business earns what remains after fulfillment, marketing, and other costs.

Your role

Sell the work. Set clear expectations. Coordinate the job. Check quality. Take care of the customer.

Your subcontractors’ role

Provide the trade expertise, labor, and agreed resources to complete the work.

Your next move

Use completed jobs to discover what sells, what earns a healthy margin, and what you want to grow. Keep working with subcontractors or build an internal crew around a specialty once the numbers justify it.

Start without building your own crew or buying a fleet. Your responsibilities as the business owner still include proper setup, reliable delivery, and customer care.

The business behind the playbook

Within 60 days, Hill Country Slabs reached a $200,000 annualized net-profit run rate.

Annualized net profit means the profit pace at that point projected over twelve months. It is not $200,000 of profit earned in sixty days or an established full year of earnings. This is our founder experience, not a typical member result or earnings promise.

John and Ron started a concrete business by finding customers and working with subcontractors to fulfill the jobs. Within the first sixty days, the business reached a pace equivalent to $200,000 in annual net profit. It initially ran part-time, without administrative employees, using the software now included in Groundwork.

We spent approximately $600 before getting our first paying customer. As the business developed, we added trucks and internal crews. That was a choice made after getting started—not a prerequisite for our first sale.

The approximately $600 figure describes our spending before our first paying customer. It is not the total cost of building Hill Country Slabs or an estimate of what you will need. Your costs, timing, and results will depend on your market and circumstances.

Groundwork brings together the operating lessons, software, and direct guidance we wish we’d had at the beginning. You can see how we approached the work and get help applying those lessons to your own market.

John, founder of Hill Country Slabs, on a job site with his phone in hand — John · Founder, Hill Country Slabs

The help around you

A clear next step. Someone to work through it with. Software to carry it out.

The playbook

Learn how to choose a service, evaluate a market, find subcontractors, price work, attract customers, and manage your first jobs. Live instruction, recorded lessons, and written guides help you work through each stage and revisit it when the decision becomes real.

Personal guidance and a founder community

Bring your market choice, estimate, subcontractor question, or difficult job to people who understand what you’re building. You get two thirty-minute private sessions each month, plus a community of owners comparing what works and helping one another move forward.

The operating software

Get the AI-enabled software used to run Hill Country Slabs. Keep scoping, estimates, jobs, invoices, and business records connected as your operation grows. Your license is included in membership.

Start with something you can prove

Your first milestone: a job sold, delivered, paid for, and worth doing again.

Replacing your salary is a bigger goal. Start by learning whether you can win a customer, deliver good work, and keep a positive margin after the costs of that job.

Your twelve-month launch track gives that first milestone a sequence—and helps you build beyond it.

Choose a service and market

Compare demand, startup needs, fulfillment options, and the realities of your schedule. Get help choosing where to focus before making larger commitments.

Prepare to deliver

Find and evaluate subcontractors. Work through scope, pricing, insurance, licensing, and setup requirements for your service and location. Build an offer around work you can reliably fulfill.

Find and close your first customer

Put an initial marketing plan into action. Learn to respond to inquiries, understand the job, prepare an estimate, and follow up. Use coaching to review the opportunities in front of you.

Complete the job and learn from the numbers

Coordinate fulfillment, check the result, invoice, and collect. Compare your estimate with actual costs so the next quote is better informed.

Build a repeatable business

Improve the offer, acquisition process, and subcontractor relationships. Learn which jobs deserve more attention and when you have enough evidence to invest in growth.

Start alongside your career. The pace depends on your market, available time, capital, and any requirements that must be met before taking on work.

Apply to join→

Included with membership

Give your business an operating system from the start.

The software we use at Hill Country Slabs brings the daily work into one place: scoping, estimating, routing, job management, invoicing, payment collection, payroll, and bookkeeping.

It is built to work with AI agents, giving you a way to use AI inside the operation as well as while planning it.

You still make the decisions and check the work. The software gives you the infrastructure to support them without starting from a blank collection of tools.

Groundwork software is included for every year of active membership.

Scope and estimate: Turn job details into an estimate you can review and send.
Coordinate the work: Keep job information, schedules, and fulfillment organized.
Invoice and collect: Manage the steps between completing the work and getting paid.
Keep track of the business: Manage financial records and review what jobs are costing and earning.

Help when the decision is real

Bring the estimate. Bring the question. Bring the job you’re unsure about.

Some decisions need more than another lesson. Is the scope clear? Does the quote leave enough room? What should you ask this subcontractor? Is this a customer you can serve well?

Use your two monthly private sessions to work through consequential decisions. Recurring live instruction, recordings, and written material give you ways to keep learning between sessions.

The written guides are also structured for use with your own AI tools, so you can turn the material into checklists, drafts, and plans for your business.

People to build alongside

Have people to call when you’re figuring it out.

A quote you want a second opinion on. An ad that brings in the wrong leads. A subcontractor you’re trying to evaluate. A first job you’re proud to have finished.

Groundwork gives those conversations a home. Share what you’re learning, compare approaches, and work alongside people building their own service businesses.

Start together. Keep growing.

Your first year focuses on launching, completing profitable work, and building a repeatable operation. As your business develops, the questions move toward better margins, dependable fulfillment, stronger systems, and the kind of company you want to own.

Groundwork is an ongoing community. Continued membership keeps you connected to the software, guidance, and people as those questions change.

Who this is for

Bring your experience. Be ready to learn a new business.

Groundwork is for people in tech and corporate careers who want to put their commercial and operational skills to work in a business of their own.

You should be willing to speak with customers, learn your service, manage subcontractors, and take responsibility when a job needs attention. You’ll need consistent time and a startup budget beyond the membership fee.

You can begin without trade experience. You do need a commitment to understanding the work you sell and making sure it is done well.

If you’re looking for passive income or a business that runs itself from day one, this will ask more of you than that.

Groundwork membership

Build with a plan, personal guidance, and the tools to operate.

Your first year begins with a twelve-month launch track. Membership includes:

The Hill Country Slabs playbook for starting with subcontracted fulfillment.
Recurring live instruction, recorded lessons, and written guides you can use with AI.
Two thirty-minute private coaching sessions each month.
Guidance on service selection, market evaluation, estimates, pricing, subcontractors, and early jobs.
A private community of people building local service businesses.
A license to Groundwork’s operating software.

Continued membership supports the next stage: improving margins, strengthening fulfillment, and developing a business you can manage with greater confidence.

Apply so we can discuss your goals, time, market, and starting resources—and whether the program fits what you want to build.

Apply to join →

Business setup, insurance, marketing, subcontractor payments, and other operating costs are separate from membership.

Questions

Frequently asked questions.

You can begin without it. The initial model puts you in charge of winning and managing jobs, with qualified subcontractors performing the physical work. You will still need to learn enough about your service to scope it responsibly, price it sensibly, and recognize a good result. Groundwork helps you work through that learning.

Keep building your career. Start building something you own.

You don’t have to decide today when you’ll leave your job or how large your business will become. Start by exploring a service, a market, and a way to win your first customer—with experienced guidance and people building alongside you.

Apply to join Groundwork→

Coaching, community, and operating software included