Startup Idea: Automated Scheduling Solution for Small Businesses

Startup idea to develop an intelligent scheduling software that can automate the employee working hours allocation process for small business owners. The software would take into account factors such as busiest hours, slower periods, special events, and employee availability to generate an efficient and optimize work schedule, freeing up the business owners to focus on their core craft.

I am the owner and main builder for a small leather goods company that has grown from a single person to about 20 employees. During this time, I have noticed I have spent less time building and making goods, my craft, and more time at the computer generating a schedule for my employees.

This has lead to less time not only doing what I love to do, but less time teaching, training, and guiding my employees to make good choices and be happy with their work. I recently, in the past three months, lost two employees due to poor scheduling and development.

In a perfect world, I would have software that would allow me to enter in data as far as when the most hours of work are needed, slow hours, special events like trade shows, etc. and would auto populate a schedule based on that data. It would also take into consideration schedule availability of my employees.

The software would be able to do this within minutes, compared to the hours I spend each week sorting schedules. I understand that the system would most likely leave gaps, and I could easily fill those. The software would also allow me to adjust times to fit our needs and make a great schedule. I would love to do this for a month out that way I can spend at most a single day each month working on scheduling, and the rest of the time in my workshop getting my hands dirty.

Submitter: JR, (view contact info).