How to Get an AI Coding Agent to Build the Software Your Business Actually Needs

Episode notes

What this conversation covers

It's the exact two-year anniversary of Small Business Big AI, and Kim and Hal are finally answering a promise from a year ago.

In Episode 96, they told you that you were renting your business: your CRM, your scheduling tool, your website, all of it built for an imaginary average company, none of it actually yours. This week, they hand you the blueprint to buy it back.

Kim is building Lewis Howard Insurance Group's own proprietary CRM live, in real time, using nothing but Supabase, GitHub, and a coding agent that takes her plain English business logic and turns it into working software. No developer on staff. No template built for somebody else's agency.

Hal puts himself on the spot with his own decade-old operational wish (a tool that finds him, instead of another dashboard he has to remember to check), and Kim walks through exactly what a coding agent would ask before it builds it.

Midway through, Kim introduces the IMPACT Framework, the six-step process behind every build decision on this project:

• Identify: state the real goal before you type a word

• Mode: define the role you want AI to play

• Parameters: set the rules, tone, and constraints

• Activate: give it the context and examples it needs

• Check: verify the work before you trust it

• Transform: turn the result into the exact format your business needs

Full framework at smallbusinessbigai.com/impact.

And Kim is honest about the part nobody wants to hear: this isn't free, and it isn't instant. You still own the decisions, the data model, and the ongoing maintenance. The pitch was never that this is easy. The pitch is that it's finally yours.

Got a piece of software you've wanted for years and never had? Send Kim and Hal your wish on LinkedIn. They might build it live on an upcoming episode.

Q: What does “renting your business” mean on Small Business Big AI?

A: Paying ongoing subscription fees for CRM, scheduling, or website tools you don't own or control, built to a generic template rather than your specific business logic.

Q: What is a coding agent, according to Kim Howard?

A: An AI tool that asks clarifying questions in plain English about your business problem, then builds custom software for it, without requiring the operator to know how to code.

Q: What three pieces make up Kim's proprietary CRM build?

A: Supabase for the data, GitHub for the version history, and a coding agent as the builder that turns plain English business logic into working software.

Q: What is the IMPACT Framework?

A: Kim and Hal's six-step process for directing AI: Identify, Mode, Parameters, Activate, Check, and Transform. Full breakdown at smallbusinessbigai.com/impact.

Q: Why does AI output turn into slop, according to the show?

A: Usually one of two missing steps: nobody stated the actual goal (Identify), or nobody verified the output before using it (Check).

Q: Does building your own business software mean it's free or easy?

A: No. Kim is explicit that you still own the decisions, the data model, and ongoing maintenance. The benefit is ownership, not ease.