How an Old-School Handyman Used an App to Repair His BusinessAn app that tracks invoices, payments and appointments helped put this handyman ahead of the curve.

Handyman Ramon "Ray" Gonzales III admits he was living up to his profession's negative reputation: archaic business practices and scattershot reliability. Six months after launching Hey Ray Handyman in Nashville, Tenn., he was falling behind on trafficking and tracking invoices and estimates, communicating with clients and collecting payments. And he was showing up late for appointments. His makeshift mobile office—consisting of a dog-eared appointment calendar and loose-leaf notebook—wasn't cutting it.

"The way I was running my business was really old-fashioned, and I was losing a lot because of it," Gonzales says.