Starting a business?
Partner with Papalocal for $30 a month.
Our three objectives for your business:
- Reduce your expenses
- Increase your revenue
- Automate the routine work
Free to sign up. Once you turn the plan on: $30 a month, plus 1.25% of payments through Papalocal and Stripe's processing fee.
What you earn depends on your work, your prices and your town. Many side businesses earn little or nothing, and we can't promise any amount.
From Garret Merkley, founder of Papalocal, who has started 7 local service businesses.
Objective 1 of 3
Reduce your expenses
One plan holds the tools a service business runs on. Here's what in the $30 plan does this:
- Customers, quotes, a schedule and invoices. One customer list, priced quotes that turn into booked visits, a calendar, and invoices your customers pay from a link. No separate scheduling software to pay for.
- Your website, at your own web address. Built from what's already in your account. Hosting and the padlock are included; you bring the domain name.
- Request forms that feed your customer list. Every page of your website gets one, and each request lands in your list.
Still yours: What you save depends on what you pay for today. We can't promise an amount.
Objective 2 of 3
Increase your revenue
Tools that ask for the tip, the review and the next booking, so nobody has to remember to:
- Tips on your pay links. Before paying, your customer can pick no tip, 15, 20 or 25%, or another amount. You switch it on.
- A review request after a customer pays. Three days after a customer pays through Papalocal, it emails them a link to review you on Google, Yelp, Facebook or Trustpilot (once every 180 days). You switch it on.
- "Book again" emails. A past customer is invited back 45 days before the anniversary of their last booking.
Still yours: The work, your prices and finding your customers. What you earn depends on your work, your prices and your town. Many side businesses earn little or nothing, and we can't promise any amount.
Objective 3 of 3 · Automate
Automate the routine work
Start with what repeats. On the $30 plan:
- Online booking. Customers pick a service and a time on your booking page. Their card is saved, and nothing is charged at booking.
- A card on file. Ask a customer once to save a card; after that, each invoice is one press to charge.
- Crew clock-in with a crew map. Your crew clocks in from their phones, you see who's working and where, and the payroll time report is ready. Each added employee is $10 a month.
With add-ons, priced up front
- AI call answering, $50/mo + $0.30/min, priced per AI assistant. Forward missed calls; an AI answers in your business's name and writes up every call.
- Call system, $50/mo + usage. A local number that texts back a caller you missed.
- With both, switched on: a website lead who asks for a text gets one within seconds, and one who asks for a call gets an AI call about 2 minutes later (never overnight). An overdue invoice gets a text, then an AI call. Each stops when the customer replies.
Still yours: You decide what's switched on. The work itself is still yours.
Our 1.25%, and what you can pass on
Our $30 a month is the same whether you earn or not. The 1.25% means we earn more only when your customers pay you through Papalocal, so we want you paid. That's $1.25 of every $100 your customers pay you through Papalocal, tips included.
- Pass the card fee to your customer. Up to 3% on credit cards, never more than Stripe charges you. Debit and prepaid cards are never charged it, and your customer sees the fee before paying.
- Pass the bank fee on too. 0.8%, at most $5, on bank payments.
- Where your state allows it. It won't switch on in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, Puerto Rico or California.
- Take tips. Our 1.25% applies to tips too.
Your customers' payments never sit with us. Stripe takes its fee and our 1.25% out of each one and sends the rest to your own Stripe account.
Papalocal's 1.25% stays on every payment, and it isn't returned if you refund a customer (nor is Stripe's fee). We don't put it inside the card fee: card rules say that fee may only cover the cost of taking the card.
The whole price
Free to sign up. Your account and business page cost nothing. The plan starts only when you turn it on.
$30 a month (one person; each added employee is $10 a month), plus 1.25% of payments your customers make through Papalocal, plus Stripe's processing fee. It's billed daily from a prepaid balance. Once your card is saved, it's charged a top-up within the hour, and again each time the balance falls under a month's charges plus 15%. You choose the top-up amount ($25 or more; $100 until you change it). You can cancel the plan online after its first 30 days; cancel any add-ons on it first.
No setup fee.
On from the start: AI review replies, $0.15 each plus AI usage, from your balance. An AI replies to each review left for you on Papalocal, and once you connect Google, to each Google review with no reply. You can pause it from your business's Google page.
What the $30 includes
- Customers and leads. Every person you deal with, marked lead or customer, with their calls, texts, quotes and jobs on one page.
- Quotes, jobs and schedule. Send priced quotes, turn them into jobs, and book visits on a calendar with a lane for each person.
- Invoices and pay links. Customers pay from a link with no login. The money goes to your own Stripe account.
- Your website, on your own domain. Built from what's already in your account, at your own address with its padlock.
- Google Business Profile sync. Run your Google profile from Papalocal: posts, photos, hours and questions. Your first location is included; more are half price.
- What people search on Google. See the words people typed when Google showed you, and how often people in each of your towns search for what you do. Google's own numbers, on your Dashboard.
- Reviews: links, QR codes and an embed. Send customers straight to your Google, Yelp or Facebook review page, and show your reviews on any website.
- Time clock, team chat and training. Your crew clocks in from their phones, reads the team feed, and takes your own training courses.
Includes one person. Each added employee is $10 a month. Papalocal keeps 1.25% of payments made through it, on top of Stripe's own fee.
What costs extra, only if you add it
- AI call answering $50/mo + $0.30/min Forward missed calls. The AI answers in your business's name and writes up every call. $50 a month on the Co-Op covers up to 10 calls at once; each line past 10 is $15 a month. Plus the minutes it talks.
- Call system $50/mo + usage Local numbers, call tracking, recordings, transcripts and "press 1" menus.
- GPS rank grid $0.013/point See where you show up on Google at every point of a map grid over your service area, and where your competitors do. An 11 × 11 grid is about $1.57.
- Email sync $10/mo Your business inbox inside each customer's page.
Why I built Papalocal
I'm Garret Merkley. I started my first business at 21. In the 16 years since, I've started seven local service businesses and had more than 100 employees. I bought one, sold one and closed some.
Starting or running a business isn't for everyone. I would know. But creating and building businesses is my passion, and I get a lot of joy out of helping people do it. It's that simple.
Honestly, $30 a month and our 1.25% of payments through Papalocal cover the tools to run the business. You never have to buy an add-on. If you want to automate more of it, I can help with that too; the add-ons people ask about most are priced on this page.
Once you're in, you can message me from your account. I use an AI assistant to help draft replies, and I read every reply sent under my name.
Questions
Is it free to sign up?
Yes. Your account and your business page cost nothing. The $30 plan starts only when you turn it on, from your business's Money page. One thing is on from the start: AI replies to your reviews, $0.15 each plus AI usage. You can pause them.
Will you find me customers?
No. Papalocal gives you the tools: card payments, your website, your Google Business Profile and invoices your customers pay from a link. Finding customers is your work.
How much will I save or make?
What you earn depends on your work, your prices and your town. Many side businesses earn little or nothing, and we can't promise any amount. What you save depends on what you'd pay for otherwise.
Do I need experience?
You need to do the work to a standard someone will pay for, or learn to. The steps are laid out in order; the work is yours, and so is the risk.
How is it billed, and can I cancel?
It's billed daily from a prepaid balance. Once your card is saved, it's charged a top-up within the hour, and again each time the balance falls under a month's charges plus 15%. You choose the top-up amount ($25 or more; $100 until you change it). You can cancel the plan online after its first 30 days; cancel any add-ons on it first.
Who owns the business and the money?
You do. It's your business, in your name: your customers, your Google listing and your data. Your customers' card payments go straight to your own Stripe account; Papalocal never holds them.
Let's start on our three objectives.
I've built the software to run a business and laid out the steps in order. The work is yours, and so is the risk. All that's left is deciding: do you want to do the work? If the answer is yes, let's start. — Garret
Free to sign up. Once you turn the plan on: $30 a month, plus 1.25% of payments through Papalocal and Stripe's processing fee.
Not ready? No obligation. See business ideas, Garret's emails and the AI assistant (an AI, not Garret)