The Problem
What existed before I stepped in
NR Skin was operating through a fragile website and several disconnected manual tools. Payments, appointment booking, inventory, shipping, and customer communication were each managed in isolation — creating operational risk and limiting the owner's ability to grow.
Specific failure points included:
- Booking was handled manually via text and DM, with no confirmation system
- Payments had a live tax double-charge the owner wasn't aware of
- A payment workflow was silently dropping orders
- Inventory was tracked by hand with no alerts or automation
- Customer communication required manual follow-up after every transaction
- The owner had no administrative dashboard to see the business at a glance
The Build
What I built
- Unified commerce and booking platform replacing all disconnected tools
- Tax-compliant checkout with accurate rate application
- Inventory tracking with threshold alerts and shipping workflow integration
- Two-way Google Calendar synchronization for real-time availability
- Automated customer email journeys — confirmations, reminders, and follow-ups
- Owner-facing administrative dashboard with client records, order history, and booking management
- Back-in-stock notification system for retail products
- 144-client directory with searchable profiles
System Flow
How the booking system works
Customer selects a service and dateReal-time availability pulled from Google Calendar
Availability confirmed & slot reservedPrevents double-booking across all channels
Calendar updated automaticallyTwo-way sync — owner's calendar reflects instantly
Confirmation email sent to customerIncludes service details, date, and pre-appointment instructions
Reminder triggered 24 hours beforeAutomated — no manual action from the owner
Owner receives notification & client record updatedFull history visible in admin dashboard
Approach
How I approached it
- Mapped the owner's existing workflow end-to-end before writing a line of code
- Identified the highest-risk operational gaps — the live tax error and dropped payment workflow were found this way
- Designed the platform around how the owner actually worked, not how software typically expects a business to be structured
- Used AI-assisted development (Claude Code) to prototype, test, debug, and document each system component
- Added manual review points in the admin dashboard for decisions that should stay with the owner
- Used AI-assisted tooling to deploy to a production VPS, then trained the owner on daily use
Results
What changed
4 → 144
Clients in the platform directory, supported by the new booking and communication infrastructure
1
Unified platform replacing multiple disconnected tools
2
Critical payment issues found and fixed — a live tax double-charge and a silently dropped order workflow
0
Manual steps required for booking confirmations, reminders, or post-appointment follow-up
Note: The platform supported growth from 4 to 144 clients by consolidating operations and removing friction. Direct attribution of client growth to the platform alone would overstate the case.
Screenshots
Platform views
All customer names, emails, payment details, and private data are blurred in production screenshots.
Ownership
What I personally owned
Workflow discovery
System architecture
AI-assisted development
Integration setup
Testing & debugging
Production deployment
Documentation
Owner training & enablement