Journal

Notes from the workshop

Custom software, workflow automation, and digital marketing, written up as we ship.

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September 7, 2026 / workflow-automation

AI Notetaker Recording Consent: What Utah Businesses Owe

A federal judge just held that an AI notetaker can be a third party eavesdropper, not your tool. Here is what that changes for a Utah business that records meetings.

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September 5, 2026 / websites

Chrome HTTPS Warning in October 2026: What to Check Now

Chrome turns on HTTPS warnings for every user this fall. Your homepage is almost certainly fine. What breaks is the stuff nobody has looked at in years.

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September 2, 2026 / utah-business

Utah Sales Tax on Software and Digital Products in 2026

Utah began taxing streaming and subscription access on July 1, 2026. The older rule matters more for most owners: prewritten software is taxable, custom software is not, and the invoice decides.

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August 31, 2026 / digital-marketing

Google Business Profile Q&A Is Gone: Where Answers Live Now

Google discontinued Business Profile Q&A and stopped showing FAQ rich results in 2026. Both places small businesses published answers are closed. Here is where they go now.

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August 29, 2026 / custom-software

Software Supply Chain Risk: What Is Inside Your Custom App

Most of the code running your custom software came from strangers on a public registry. Here is what changed in the past year, and the five questions worth asking.

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August 26, 2026 / workflow-automation

Automated Text Messages for Small Business: The Consent Rules

Appointment reminders are automation, and two rulebooks govern them. What is in force now, what got pushed to 2027, what got struck down, and what Utah adds on top.

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August 24, 2026 / websites

Core Web Vitals for Small Business: Lab Scores vs Real Data

The same page scored 73 on mobile and 99 on desktop minutes apart. Here is what Google actually measures, and why most small business sites are not in that data at all.

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August 19, 2026 / custom-software

Who Owns Your Custom Software? The Paperwork That Decides

Paying for a build does not make you the copyright owner by default, and AI written code opens a second gap. Here is what your contract and your accounts have to say.

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August 17, 2026 / utah-business

Utah Privacy Law for Small Business: What Actually Applies

Utah's consumer privacy act almost certainly does not cover your business. A quieter statute does, at any size, and it is the one nobody sends you an email about.

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August 15, 2026 / digital-marketing

Email Deliverability for Small Business: What Applies to You

The 5,000 a day bulk sender rules are probably not about you. A shorter list is, and missing it is why your quotes and invoices quietly land in spam.

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August 12, 2026 / workflow-automation

AI Agents for Small Business: Deciding What They May Do Alone

Most AI agent projects stall on permissions, not intelligence. A practical way to decide which tasks an agent can finish on its own and which it should only draft.

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August 10, 2026 / websites

Should You Block AI Crawlers? A Small Business Answer

Cloudflare changes its AI crawler defaults on September 15, 2026. Publishers and small businesses want opposite settings, and the advice going around is written for publishers.

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August 8, 2026 / custom-software

AI Generated Code Security: What Business Owners Should Ask

AI now writes roughly half of committed code, and the 2026 security data has not improved. Here is what to verify before you approve software built for your business.

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August 5, 2026 / utah-business

Utah AI Disclosure Law: What Your Chatbot Must Tell Customers

Utah's AI Policy Act asks less of your chat widget than most owners assume, and more of your business than they expect. What the rule actually requires in 2026.

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August 3, 2026 / websites

Website Accessibility for Small Business: What 2026 Changed

The DOJ pushed its web accessibility deadlines back a year in April 2026, but lawsuits against private businesses hit a record. What that means for a small business site.

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August 1, 2026 / digital-marketing

Google Ads vs SEO: How to Split a Local Business Budget

A decision framework for splitting budget between Google Ads and SEO, built on timeline and margin rather than channel loyalty, with the Utah numbers that change the answer.

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July 29, 2026 / workflow-automation

Patient Intake Automation: What the Rules Now Require

How a small practice should automate patient intake in 2026: forms and consent, the prior authorization clock, reminders, and Utah's disclosure rule for AI intake assistants.

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July 27, 2026 / custom-software

Internal Tools for Small Business: When to Retire the Spreadsheet

The signals that a spreadsheet has quietly become a business system, what a right-sized internal tool replaces, and how to size the budget before you call anyone.

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July 25, 2026 / digital-marketing

AI Search Optimization: What Google Actually Says Works

Google published its generative AI optimization guide in May 2026 and told site owners to skip llms.txt. Here is what actually decides whether AI assistants can cite your business.

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July 22, 2026 / workflow-automation

Invoice Processing Automation: A Small Business AP Blueprint

A practical blueprint for automating invoice and accounts payable work in a small business: how to capture bills, route approvals, and pay vendors without adding headcount.

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July 18, 2026 / custom-software

Legacy Software Modernization Without Stopping the Business

How to replace an aging business system one seam at a time, using an incremental approach that keeps the company running instead of betting everything on a single cutover weekend.

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July 15, 2026 / digital-marketing

Salt Lake City Local SEO: What Actually Moves the Map Pack

How relevance, distance, and prominence really work for Salt Lake City businesses, plus the Utah address format trap and the federal review rule that made three common tactics illegal.

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July 14, 2026 / workflow-automation

Client Onboarding Automation for Service Businesses

The workflow that runs after a client says yes: agreement, intake, kickoff, and access provisioning, plus the Utah e-signature rule most onboarding flows get wrong.

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July 9, 2026 / custom-software

Buy vs Build: When Custom Software Pays Off

A practical total cost of ownership framework for deciding between SaaS subscriptions and custom software, built for the budgets of Salt Lake City small businesses.

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January 29, 2026 / digital-marketing

Boost ROI With Campaign Automation Best Practices

Campaign automation best practices for B2B teams: segmentation, lead nurturing, ABM, and the KPIs that prove ROI, with a practical rollout plan for Utah businesses.

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January 16, 2026 / digital-marketing

B2C Marketing Automation That Scales Customer Value

How consumer businesses use marketing automation to grow: lifecycle journeys, behavior-based email, segmentation, and the metrics that prove customer value.

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January 6, 2026 / workflow-automation

How to Automate Business Processes Efficiently

Practical methods to automate business processes, plus a complete lead routing walkthrough from web form to CRM to follow-up so inquiries stop falling through cracks.

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January 6, 2026 / custom-software

The Ultimate Guide to Custom Web App Development

The essentials of custom web app development: benefits, process, tech stack choices, costs, and how to decide between a custom build and no-code platforms.

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December 30, 2025 / workflow-automation

Insurers Say AI Is Too Risky. Here Is What That Means for Your Business

Major insurers want AI liability excluded from business policies. What the black box problem means for companies adopting AI, and how to automate with guardrails.

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December 28, 2025 / custom-software

What AI Transparency Means for Your Business Software

OpenAI built a language model designed to be understood rather than powerful. What interpretability research means for businesses adding AI to their software and tools.

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December 22, 2025 / digital-marketing

Digital Marketing Solutions: Helping Your Business Grow

A plain-English guide to the core digital marketing channels, how they fit together, and how Utah small businesses can start growing online without a big budget.

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