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VOL. 01 // ISSUE 003
THE SLAPPY WEEKLY

Launch Faster, Run Leaner, Grow Bigger

Instant Business: Just Add Water! SLAPPSHELL’S serviceCRM

Learn how to launch, validate, and scale your business ideas faster with SLAPPSHELL’s first flagship product: serviceCRM.

Ethan Orenstein|12/19/2025
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01 / 05
Problem

Intoduction

The Subscription Problem

A website. Lead capture. A CRM. Email. Scheduling. Invoicing.

That's potentially six different tools—six different logins, six different bills—before you've made a single dollar.

02 / 05
Simplify

Keep it simple, stupid

It Shouldn't Be This Hard

When you start a new business, you don't know what you don't know. So you start Googling (or GPTing or Clauding or Gemini-ing?) solutions.

30-plus million small service businesses in the US need a way to capture leads, communiticate and coordinate with those leads, and collect payments.

03 / 05
Start Now

Launch, Run Lean, Grow Big

Introducing serviceCRM

I had an idea for a small test business. I knew I needed the full stack to actually test the idea properly, but it didn't make sense to spend $100s/month on tools to allow me to do so.

I'd rather put that money into paid campaigns to see if I could actually convert leads. Test the demand first, THEN build out the infrastructure.

The result is serviceCRM—a simple, effective lead capture website with a built-in CRM.

Everything you need to get to your first dollar faster, all in one platform. By changing a few configuration files, I can now launch a brand new website for a completely different business idea almost instantly. Just add water.

typescript
export const businessConfig: BusinessConfig = {
  company: {
    name: "Your Company",
    tagline: "Professional Service You Can Trust",
    phone: "(555) 555-5555",
    email: "yourcompany@yoursite.com",
    address: "123 Main St, San Diego, CA 92024"
  },
    }
04 / 05
Get Slappin'

Join SLAPPSHELL

Building in Public

Most of the last decade I've been working on projects privately. Just heads down, building stuff, seeing what works.

If you're into this, subscribe here, on YouTube, and follow along on the SLAPPSHELL socials of your liking.

/ 05
Get Slappin'

Join SlappShell

05 / 05
For Your Eyes Only

Instant Business: Just Add Water! SLAPPSHELL’S serviceCRM

Hi, I’m Ethan, and I’m addicted to experimenting with online businesses.

Over the last 10 years, I’ve lost track of how many projects have been launched. Some are really successful, others very much not so.

My projects have covered a broad spectrum too - everything from physical and digital project sales to publishing projects to leads.

The path I took to get here was: journalism > content writing > SEO > information architecture > user experience > digital advertising > programming.

That might look a little bit disjointed, but it’s what gives the SLAPPSHELL project its strength.

And here, in the 3rd installment of THE SLAPPY WEEKLY, I’m proud to introduce the first release: SLAPPSHELL’s serviceCRM.

Launching & Running a Business Shouldn’t Be So Hard

When you start a new project or embark on your own business, you don’t know what you don’t know.

So, you start searching for solutions.

If your idea is anything like the 30+ million small businesses in the United States, you’ll probably find that you’ll need a way to capture leads, communicate and coordinate with them, and collect payment for your services or products.

For a lot of those businesses, a lot of those things are happening online (probably on a mobile device too).

Simple, right? There are probably a ton of solutions that make that super easy.

Not. The. Case.

How Many Subscriptions Does It Take to Change a Lightbulb?

For many people with service-based business ideas starting down this path, they quickly find that they’re going to need at least 3 different tools/subscriptions to get started including:

  • A website.
  • A way to capture leads.
  • A CRM to manage those leads.
  • A way to email clients.
  • A way to schedule clients.
  • A way to send invoices and collect payments.

Then, you find that all the costs for these subscriptions start to add up. You also find that each tool’s features are either too clunky and bloated or missing the simple thing that you really want.

Most people give up here. Understandably!

It shouldn’t be such a pain in the ass to launch a new idea and run in lean.

Starting With Small Experiments

I had an idea to launch a new little test business and ran into all of the problems above.

The issue was that I knew I needed all of those things above to see if my idea would work, but I was still in the testing phase. I didn’t know if it was a good idea yet, and it didn’t make sense to spend all this time and money on different tools. I’d rather spend that money on paid campaigns to see if I could convert leads.

So, I decided to take matters into my own hands and build the damn thing myself.

The result: a simple, yet effective lead capture website with a built-in CRM.

Doing it this way, I knew the project would have everything it needed to be set up for success:

  • Core website.
  • Solid SEO.
  • Conversion tracking.
  • Fast, responsive design.
  • Custom lead forms.
  • Simple CRM with email automation to schedule, invoice, and service leads.

Then I packaged it up to rinse and repeat for other ideas I had, and for other businesses to use.

By changing a few different configuration setting files, I could launch a brand new website for a brand new project instantly.

Who is serviceCRM Built for?

The whole point of the SLAPPSHELL project is to make it easier for people to launch, run, and scale their businesses.

serviceCRM is designed for service-based businesses and developers/agencies building solutions for those types of businesses. You can check out some example use-cases for serviceCRM here.

I’m releasing it in two versions with a few different licensing tiers:

  • A self-hosted boilerplate that you can customize and host for yourself or clients.
  • A managed service where SLAPPSHELL will help you with the setup and maintenance, so you can focus on running your business.

If that sounds like you, you're in the right place.

Hey, It’s Only Week 3! That Limited Launch Offer might still work!

Most of the last decade has been spent working on my own projects in private.

SLAPPSHELL is the first time I’m really giving the whole “build-in public” thing a shot.

If you’re into that sort of thing, be sure to subscribe here and follow along on the SLAPPSHELL socials.

If you like the sound of serviceCRM for your business or for building solutions for your clients, you can check out all the details and demos for serviceCRM here.

If you see a little banner at the bottom of the screen, you might just find a coupon code. Copy that little sucker and use it at checkout.

And, if you’ve got any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out. SLAPPSHELL is always available and interested to connect with other makers and business owners.

EXPERIENCE. EXPERIMENT. ENJOY!

THANKS FOR SLAPPING BY

You've just enjoyed: VOL. 01 // ISSUE 003

Instant Business: Just Add Water! SLAPPSHELL’S serviceCRM

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