Owner Assistant & Workflow Setup
Hand off the admin that fills your day
Create a practical assistant around the work that fills your day. Prepare for meetings, organize incoming requests, draft follow-ups, and keep track of next steps using your business context and preferences. We agree what it can access, what it can do, and what needs your approval.
Does this sound familiar?
- I start every day with a full inbox and no idea which emails matter.
- I walk into meetings and spend the first five minutes remembering where we left off.
- I promise things on calls and lose track of them by Friday.
- Half my replies are the same few answers, written fresh every time.
- Everyone in the business comes to me, so nothing moves when I'm away.
Illustrative example · Seafood export brokerage
The owner of an 8-person seafood export brokerage deals with buyers in Asia and Europe, processors in Nova Scotia and freight agents. Most of it happens by email, much of it overnight.
Before
- Overnight buyer emails get read on a phone at 6 a.m., with no sense of what's urgent.
- Price and availability questions get answered from memory or a spreadsheet, one at a time.
- Commitments made on calls live in the owner's head.
After setup
- A morning brief lists urgent buyer emails, shipment issues and today's meetings, with a link to each thread.
- Draft replies to routine price and availability questions pull from the current price sheet and wait for the owner to send.
- After each call, the owner dictates a few notes, and the assistant turns them into tasks and follow-up reminders.
How it works
- 1
Look at your week
We go through a typical week with you: where your time goes, what only you can do, and what could be prepared for you.
- 2
Agree access and approvals
We decide which inboxes, calendars and files the assistant can read, what it can draft, and what it may never do without you.
- 3
Set it up around your habits
We configure the brief, inbox rules, meeting prep and draft replies in the tools you already use, then adjust them as you start using it.
- 4
Review and tune
After a few weeks we look at what you used, what you ignored and what it got wrong, and change the setup to match.
Your setup can include
- Inbox triage
- Daily briefs
- Meeting preparation
- Draft replies
- Task capture
- Reminders connected to your existing tools
What you bring
- Access to your email, calendar and the files you work from most
- An hour or two to walk us through your week
- Examples of replies and briefs you'd want
- Clear lines on what stays private
What we handle
- Inbox sorting rules and a daily brief
- Meeting preparation from your calendar, past emails and notes
- Draft replies in your tone for routine questions
- Task capture from calls and notes, with reminders
- Access and approval settings you can review yourself
- A short guide and adjustments during the first weeks
What this is not
- The assistant drafts. It doesn't send emails, accept meetings or make commitments in your name unless you approve that specific action.
- It works from what it can access. If key information lives only in your head or on paper, it can't use it.
- It won't replace a human assistant for judgment calls, relationships or anything that needs someone in the room.
Tools we often work with
We start with what you already pay for. These are common, not required.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot
- Outlook
- Gmail
- Gemini for Google Workspace
- ChatGPT Business
- Claude
- Otter.ai
- Microsoft To Do
- Todoist
- Zapier
How we usually work on this
Build & Care usually fits, because the assistant needs tuning as your work changes. Build & Hand Over works if you're comfortable adjusting its rules and instructions yourself.
Ways to work togetherQuestions about owner assistant
Will it send emails on my behalf?
Not unless you decide it should. By default it drafts replies and you send them. Later you might let it send simple messages, such as a scheduling confirmation. You approve each type of message separately, and you can turn any of them off at any time.
Is it safe to give it access to my inbox?
We set it up on business plans whose terms say your content isn't used to train the vendor's models, and we give the assistant only the access each task needs. Most of these services process data outside Canada; if that matters for your records, tell us early. You can see what's connected and remove access yourself. We also agree what stays out, such as personal or HR folders.
How is this different from using Copilot or ChatGPT myself?
Those tools are part of it. On their own, they start each conversation knowing nothing about your business, your priorities or how you write. We set them up with that context, connect them to your inbox and calendar, and build routines like the morning brief so you don't have to prompt it every time.
How long until it's useful?
Simple pieces, such as the daily brief and inbox sorting, can be working early in the project. Draft replies take longer to get right, because they have to sound like you. We adjust them based on what you edit, so they need fewer changes over the first few weeks.
How much does it cost?
Pricing is scoped per project, based on the tools we connect and how much tuning you want. Your proposal lists our fees and, separately, software subscriptions and AI usage costs. You pay those to the vendor directly, so the accounts stay in your name.
Related answers
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ProductivityCan AI really manage a busy owner's inbox?
AI can sort your inbox, draft replies and write a daily brief. It should not send, accept or pay without you. Access scopes, approvals and setup.
Give the owner more room to lead. Tell us where it gets stuck.
Tell us what you are working toward and what keeps getting in the way. We will help you identify a practical next step.
Start with what you want to achieve
You can describe the problem in your own words. We will work through the possibilities together.