Justin Smith

I run and grow service businesses: the people, the demand, the operation, and the systems underneath.

I am Justin Smith, General Manager of Adventure Idaho, a multi-site outdoor recreation company in Idaho. Since 2022 the company has grown 3.6x in customers and holds a 5.0 rating across 650 Google reviews, and it runs on a system I designed across the platforms it already uses, connected by automations. I did the product, the demand, the pricing and the operation in one company, then built the system underneath all four.

One company. Same management team. Demand, pricing, operations and the systems underneath, rebuilt together.

Most service businesses run on what one person remembers. The schedule, the exceptions, who is allowed to do what, which promise was made to whom. That works until it does not, and then the owner is the only thing holding it together.

That was never because owners are behind. Software shaped like a small business cost more than it saved, and the expensive part was never the code. It was writing the business down. That cost has collapsed, and the layer every service business is missing is buildable for the first time. Building it is mostly judgment: what to automate, what to leave to a person, and which platforms to connect rather than replace. I spent four years building it inside one company, in order: product, people, demand, pricing, then the operating system underneath all of it. I am now doing the same inside other businesses, on site, with the people who run them.

A week of work on one screen: every job with its start time, how many people are booked on it, who is assigned, and which jobs still need somebody, above running counts of who is out today, who is out this week, and what still needs filling.
The weekly board the crew works off. Names and numbers redacted.
Justin Smith and four Adventure Idaho guides in drysuits and helmets sitting in a raft on the Salmon River in morning light, talking through a training run.
Training guides on the river.

The order I work in, and I will argue with you about it

  1. The product. Make it the same every time, delivered by people who are not you.
  2. The people. Training, standards and debriefs, so quality holds while the volume grows.
  3. Demand. Get found, get trusted, get chosen.
  4. Pricing. Raise it once demand has proved the product is worth it.
  5. The operating system. The process and the software underneath it, so growth stops running through one person's memory.

Most of the damage I see comes from doing these out of order. A demand engine pointed at an inconsistent product just manufactures bad reviews.

What I built

What I have figured out

Ways in

Right now

What I am building and testing this month

A loaded paddle raft driving through a rapid on the Salmon River with a full crew digging in, several more rafts working the same water behind it and a crowd of guests waiting along the bank.