Oʻahu-based AI trainer for small businesses
Take the job that eats your week: the quotes, the bookkeeping, the spreadsheet nobody wants to open. Hand the heavy lifting to AI. Check the work before it goes out the door. Keep the hours.
I’m Dean. Whether it’s just you or the whole crew, I help you find the part of your work that takes more effort than it should, then work out what to do about it. Sometimes AI can take over most of the steps, the way a power saw beats a handsaw. Sometimes the process itself needs a better path. Either way, you get training built for your work, documentation your people can keep using, and me on the other end of the phone for as long as the project needs it.
More about DeanWhat we work on
The spreadsheet that eats Friday afternoon. The inbox that never empties. The AI tool you opened once and closed again. Bring it as it is, tangled or half-understood. You don’t have to know which kind of help you need. We’ll figure that out together.
Some people need to understand what the tool can and can’t do before they touch it. We start there, in clear everyday language, without the jargon.
Some need a path through their own job: the steps, the instructions, the check at the end. Training built around your process and how you learn.
Some need someone beside them until it works, and a number to call when something changes later.
The free call
Tell me what repeats, who does it, and which tools you use. We’ll start with a free call. If training isn’t the right next step, I’ll say so.
How a session works
A hands-on session, whether you own the business, you’re the one who got handed the AI question, or you’re a few coworkers who share the same headache. We find the AI tool that fits your problem and explain it in clear, everyday language. Confidentiality comes first: nothing of yours goes into a tool until we’ve agreed what’s safe to share.
AI does the production. You’re the check before the car goes out on the road.
Maybe it’s costing you hours, maybe money, maybe a good employee’s patience. You don’t have to arrive with it neatly defined. Often the first job is working out what’s actually going wrong. Then we agree what a win looks like: a result that’s clearly worth the time and effort you put in.
The training is built around your process and around how you take things in: a short written guide, a video, slides, a quick reference, or hands-on practice together. You don’t need to learn everything about AI. You need enough of the why to run it with confidence and to steer it when it drifts. That’s how good managers work with any tool.
You leave with documentation written for your process and your people, in whatever form suits you. Where it makes sense, the fix can become an automation you switch on when you need it and off when you don’t. When something changes later and a question comes up, you call.
Pricing
Each price covers a planning call, the working session, and documentation written for your people. A follow-up call and continued help are there if you need them; we agree on that when we plan.
| One person | $395 |
|---|---|
| Groups of 2 to 5 | $795 |
| Groups of 6 to 10 | $1,295 |
| Groups of 11 to 20 | $1,895 |
| Larger groups and events | Quoted |
Each price is for the whole group, per session, not per person. All prices include Hawaiʻi GET. In person on Oʻahu, or by video anywhere in Hawaiʻi. The small print, including what a session does and doesn’t include, is on its own page.
Two small examples
The idea is the same whatever the job. Two checks, every time: what you give the tool, and what the tool gives you.
Example
It’s ten to five on a Friday. A customer messages: “Do you have an appointment available this Saturday?” You’re nowhere near the calendar. You don’t want to leave them hanging, and you don’t want to promise a slot you haven’t checked.
Only what it needs. Saturday hours are 9 AM to 1 PM. Availability hasn’t been checked yet. The reply should ask which service and what time they have in mind.
“Thanks for reaching out. We’re open this Saturday from 9 AM to 1 PM. Which service were you hoping to book, and what time works best for you? I’ll check availability and confirm.”
Thirty seconds. Hours right? Asks the two questions? Promises nothing? Send it.
Example
A month of receipts, and the bookkeeper wants them Friday. You photograph the pile. AI reads each one and lays them out in a spreadsheet by date, vendor, and category. You run the totals against your bank statement, fix the two it misread, and send the sheet off.
The part that used to take an evening now takes the length of a coffee.
Both examples are made up for teaching. No real customers, no real receipts, and nothing connected to a live inbox.
Who this is for
The method stays the same. The examples change with your business. Here is the kind of thing we practice, and what stays in your hands.
Turn your approved service details into a customer reply, a first draft of a quote, or a job summary for the file.
Your check: prices, availability, and anything that commits your business.
Sort a month of receipts, reconcile a spreadsheet, or turn meeting notes into a clean set of slides.
Your check: totals, names, and anything going to the accountant.
Organize a maintenance request or draft a follow-up from approved property facts.
Your check: property details, personal information, and anything that needs a licensed professional’s review.
Turn approved program notes into a donor update, a grant paragraph, or a volunteer briefing.
Your check: beneficiary privacy, permissions, and every claim about impact.
These are the kinds of tasks we work on together, not a list of finished client projects.
Other ways to work together
Training only counts if it ends up working on your own job, in your own shop. These are the other ways people work with MakaWorks.
For businesses that want someone to ring when a tool changes, a new question comes up, or a process stops behaving. A monthly retainer, sized to how much you need. Quoted individually, once we’ve worked together.
Ask about a retainerFor associations, employers, and training partners. A talk introduces what AI can and can’t do for a business like yours; a working session gives people time to try it. Quoted by format and audience.
Ask about a group sessionReusable templates, tool settings, or a defined workflow in your own accounts, with a written scope, a fixed fee, and a handoff. We check what your existing tools already do before proposing anything custom.
Ask about a setup projectFor previous clients. Bring a process that isn’t sticking, a tool that changed, or an output you don’t trust, and we sort out that one thing. Quoted per session.
Ask about a reviewVoice agents that answer the phone. Private or local AI that keeps your data on your own machine. Agents that take a job from start to finish instead of just answering a question. Connecting AI to QuickBooks or your scheduling software. Ask. Dean has worked with Hermes, Ollama, Kimi’s desktop agent, DeepSeek, and Manus, and keeps an eye on the ones people ask about, like OpenClaw and Grokbot. If it fits your business, we’ll get it working. If it doesn’t, or it’s outside what Dean does well, he’ll say so and point you to someone who can.
Privacy and accuracy
Privacy and accuracy are different questions, and we practice both.
Which account, which settings, what the provider’s terms say, and what your own rules allow. While learning, we can use made-up or redacted information.
Facts, tone, permissions, commitments. AI drafts. You send.
Regulated or sensitive work may still need your IT, legal, or other professional adviser. We’ll tell you when we think it does.
Frequently asked
No. Some people arrive having never opened a chatbot. Some have paid subscriptions they barely use. We start wherever you are.
Often not. Many businesses already have Gemini or Copilot in their Google or Microsoft accounts, and the free versions of the main tools go a long way. Some jobs are worth a paid plan. If yours is, you’ll hear it from me before you spend anything.
Yes. That is most of what a session is: your tool, your job, your files, and a way of working that fits how you already do things.
It depends on the account, the settings, and what’s in the document. Some free accounts can use what you type to improve their models. Business accounts generally don’t, and most settings can be changed. Before anything of yours goes in, we look at all three together and decide.
Once we’ve agreed the tool and the settings are right for it, yes. Until then, we work with made-up or redacted versions. Nothing real goes into a tool by accident.
You keep the documentation and the process. If a question comes up, call. If you want someone on call, there’s a monthly retainer. If a process stops sticking, we can book a review.
An agent is AI that can take steps on its own: open a file, look something up, fill in a form, then come back with the result, rather than only answering the question you typed. A skill is a saved set of instructions that teaches the AI to do one job your way, every time, so you don’t re-explain it. Both are useful in a small business. Both still need your check before anything goes out.
Start with the free call. That’s exactly what it’s for. If the answer fits in a phone call, that’s where it ends.
On Oʻahu, yes. Neighbor islands by video, or in person by arrangement.
Yes, by video. Everything in a session works over a screen share, and people on Maui, Kauaʻi, and Hawaiʻi Island have the same access to the documentation and follow-up.
Next steps
Tell me what repeats, who does it, and which tools you use. We’ll start with a free call. If training isn’t the right next step, I’ll say so.
Pick a time on the calendar that works for you.
dean@maka.worksTell me what’s been giving you trouble, and we’ll get on it.