Paper schedules, phone tag, and information that lives in one person’s head. I help small businesses in Franklin Park, Elk Grove Village, and nearby towns fix what slows them down.
AIMention offers AI consulting for small businesses around O’Hare, including Franklin Park and Elk Grove Village. Founder Charlie Riske is a member of the GOA Regional Business Association. He finds where AI or a simpler fix saves the most time, starting with a free 30 minute call.
A lot of companies around O’Hare have been doing things the same way for decades, and it works, right up until the one person who knows everything is out for a week. Scheduling runs through one desk. Job details sit in folders. The owner answers the same questions all day.
That is the kind of problem I like best, because the fix is rarely fancy. The first step is often getting the information out of people’s heads and into one place. AI gets far more useful after that, whether it is reading old paper records or answering your crew’s questions so you don’t have to.
I am a member of the GOA Regional Business Association, the Itasca based business group for this part of the suburbs, and I run my practice from nearby Bartlett. We can start by phone or video, and I can come out when seeing your operation would help.
The problem: The operations manager spent 45 to 90 minutes every night on scheduling calls. The schedule, the routes, and decades of hand drawn sprinkler plans lived on paper and in one person’s head.
What I built: An assessment, demo prep, and a decision deck for moving to scheduling software, plus a plan for AI to read the paper plans and file them by address.
What changed: A clear plan worth about 8 hours a week in peak season.
The problem: The owner wanted more new system installs. Google Ads and direct mail had not paid off.
What I built: I worked through three years of job records, 1,470 jobs and about 490 customers, ranked them by buying signals like unclosed quotes and repeat repairs, then wrote a personal text and email for each of the top 25.
What changed: A ready to send list of 25 likely buyers with no ad spend, plus a sheet to track replies and booked jobs.
Client names are left out to protect their privacy. Time savings are estimates from each client’s assessment, not measured results.
The full details are on my AI consulting page. Want a rough number first? Try the AI hours saved calculator.
I work across the area. See AI consulting in the Chicago suburbs, or my page for Bartlett businesses.
Yes. I am based in Bartlett and I am a member of the GOA Regional Business Association, based in Itasca, so I know this part of the suburbs and the people doing business in it.
Often, but the order matters. I worked with an irrigation company running on paper schedules and hand drawn plans, and the first step was getting onto real scheduling software. AI comes after that, reading the old paper plans and filing them by address.
Usually not. I start with what you already pay for, and many fixes are built on those tools. If a system is really holding you back, I will explain why and what it would take, and the decision stays with you.
It depends on the tool and how it is set up, so it is one of the first things I look at. I will show you which settings to use and what should stay out of AI tools entirely, and I keep your information private.
A free 30 minute call. Bring the problem that keeps coming back.
Book a free 30 minute callNo deck and no pressure. If nothing is worth doing, I will say so.