We grew from 2 people to 9. The shop still runs on KiwiDock.
KiwiMill is a 9-person custom scale model shop. They built KiwiDock to run it — and still do, every day. Here is what that looks like with real jobs on the board.
KiwiDock
Blog
Practical notes on pipeline, quoting, and running the shop.
Bill From the Quote, Not a Second Spreadsheet
The invoice shouldn’t be a rewrite of work you already priced. Here’s how we bill deposits and remainders from the same quote.
One Dashboard Instead of Five Tabs
Email, a spreadsheet, a whiteboard, QuickBooks, and a group text will get you through a week. They will not get you through a year. Here’s the 7:30am screen we actually look at.
Schedule and Gantt Without a Project-Management Degree
A ten-person shop needs to know who’s on the job this afternoon — not a critical-path seminar. Here’s the day planner we actually open, and the Gantt we open when a job has more than one moving part.
Your Pipeline Should Be a Board, Not a Status Meeting
Monday-morning status meetings exist because the pipeline lives in someone’s head. Here’s how we put every opportunity on a board the whole shop can see.
We Run Our Own Shop on KiwiDock, Every Day
The best test of trade business software is running a trade business on it. Here's how we use KiwiDock ourselves, every day.
Why Small Trade Businesses Outgrow Spreadsheets
Spreadsheets work fine for one person tracking a few jobs. Here's what breaks first as a trade business grows, and what actually replaces them.
Hide the Complexity, Don't Remove It: Our Design Philosophy
Simple software isn't the same as basic software. Here's the design principle behind how we're building KiwiDock.
7 Things a CRM Built for Trade Businesses Should Actually Do
A checklist for evaluating CRM and job-tracking software if you run a small trade or service business — without the enterprise bloat.
Why We're Building KiwiDock for the Businesses Software Forgot
Small trade and service businesses have been stuck choosing between spreadsheets and bloated enterprise software. We're building something in between.