Custom software for small businesses

Custom software and automation, built around how you already work.

Tempest Labs builds tools for businesses that have outgrown spreadsheets, paper forms, and software that was never designed for the way they operate.

Your business shouldn't have to reshape itself around someone else's software.

A lot of small businesses end up working around the tools they bought. Customers live in one program. Jobs live in a spreadsheet. Scheduling is somewhere else. Payments are a third system. Someone on the team becomes the person who copies it all over.

Tempest Labs takes the other approach. We look at how the work actually moves through your business, then we build software around that workflow — not the other way around.

Systems for the parts of the business that are still held together by hand.

If a process is important and still lives in paper, texts, or a spreadsheet, it can usually become software.

Customer and job systems
Keep people, jobs, and history in one place instead of scattered across notebooks and inboxes.
Scheduling
Appointments, calendars, and reminders that match how your shop actually books work.
Digital intake
Collect the details you need up front so the front desk is not rewriting the same information.
Orders and inventory
Track what came in, what went out, and what still needs to be done — without a shared spreadsheet.
Dashboards and reporting
Give owners and staff a clear view of the day's work, not a pile of exported files.
Portals and mobile tools
Customer portals, employee tools, and mobile apps for the work that happens away from a desk.

If people are doing the same steps every day, there is usually a better way.

  1. Still copying information between systems?

    We can connect the parts of your business that shouldn't require someone to copy and paste all day.

  2. Managing jobs through spreadsheets?

    A job list that updates as work moves is easier to trust than a file that only one person understands.

  3. Entering the same customer information multiple times?

    Intake can feed the rest of the process so names, numbers, and notes are typed once.

  4. Chasing down paperwork?

    Forms, approvals, and status updates can move digitally instead of from clipboard to counter to inbox.

  5. Using five different tools to manage one workflow?

    Those pieces can often become one system, or at least talk to each other.

  6. Forgetting follow-ups because they live in someone's head?

    Reminders and status changes can happen when the work happens — not when someone remembers.

Not everything should be automated. The repetitive, easy-to-get-wrong parts usually should.

We understand the work before we write the software.

  1. 1

    Understand the problem

    What is slow, repeated, or falling through the cracks — and who feels it every day.

  2. 2

    Map the workflow

    How the job actually moves today, including the unofficial steps that keep it running.

  3. 3

    Build the solution

    A focused system around that workflow, not a pile of features you will never use.

  4. 4

    Test it with the business

    The people who will use it try it against real jobs before it becomes the new normal.

  5. 5

    Deploy and improve

    It goes into daily use, then we tighten what still creates friction.

You do not need a six-figure software budget to stop doing things the hard way.

Custom software has a reputation for being something only large companies buy. That is not who we build for. Tempest Labs works with small and locally operated businesses that have outgrown the current setup but cannot justify — and do not need — a massive platform.

You talk to the builderNo chain of account managers between you and the person writing the software.

Sized to the businessThe tool matches the workflow. It is not a platform you have to grow into.

Built to lastWe design for the version you will still be using next year, not a one-time demo.

A custom app for a shop that needed less front-desk friction

Hem Over Heels · Client case study · Mobile business app

Hem Over Heels mobile app showing services, appointments, and customer tools

Built for daily operations, not a demo

Hem Over Heels needed a better way for customers to browse services, reach the business, and pay without adding more work at the counter.

Tempest Labs built a mobile app the shop actually uses — on iOS and Android — so peak hours are less about interruptions and more about the appointment in front of them.

In-app payments · Fewer front-desk interruptions · Faster flow during busy hours

Real client project · Deployed on iOS and Android · Built for daily business use

FrontBin is live. BitBuddy is our free classroom.

FrontBin is Tempest Labs' first SaaS product, now live. BitBuddy is a free classroom Tempest Labs built and maintains. Custom software is what we take on for other businesses.

Tempest Labs · FrontBin

Flagship product · SaaS · Live

FrontBin

Counter software for alterations, dry cleaning & shoe repair

FrontBin runs the front counter of a drop-off shop: intake, tickets, payments and pickup, all in one place. It came out of building and running software for a real alterations shop, so it's shaped by how a counter actually works.

  • QR ticket status

    every ticket has a QR code customers scan to see where their order is, when it's due, and what they owe. That means fewer "is it ready?" calls.

  • Ready-for-pickup email

    one click lets the customer know their order is done.

  • Partial payments

    take deposits and balances at the counter.

  • Staff PINs

    the whole team works on one shop account, and each person has a role.

  • Customer import

    bring an existing customer list in from a CSV.

  • Printable tickets with the QR code built in.

Live at frontbin.com. Invite-only founding program now open, with a free 30-day trial and no card to start.

Designed, built and hosted by Tempest Labs.

Tempest Labs · BitBuddy

Live · Free

A free crypto classroom with paper trading

An ordered Learn path and a practice wallet with live market data. No real money. Not financial advice. Built and shipped by Tempest Labs.

Optional outbound exchange links, if they appear, are labeled affiliate relationships — not a second product we ask you to buy.

  • Learn pathLive
  • Practice walletLive
  • Paper tradingLive
  • Real moneyNever
Tempest Labs · Platform

Coming soon

Customers, jobs, and payments in one place

A system we are building for shops that want customer management, appointments, intake, jobs, staff tools, payments, and reporting without renting five separate tools.

  • Customer managementPlanned
  • Appointments and intakePlanned
  • Orders / jobsPlanned
  • Payments / POSPlanned
  • Staff and reportingPlanned

Have a process you wish was easier?

Tell us what you are doing by hand today. If software can take that work on, we can build it.