BoatSitterUS is a South Florida-based boat charter marketplace helping families, small groups, and tourists discover and book trips on the water. At its core, the business connects local boat owners with renters through a curated, concierge-style experience — but its digital infrastructure hadn’t kept pace with demand.
From spreadsheet-based operations to an outdated site with no real product visibility or automation, the business was being held together manually — primarily by the founder, fielding every text, call, and calendar conflict himself.
BoatSitterUS partnered with Make Plain to bring operational clarity, digital scale, and automation to the platform — with a clear mission: “Build smarter systems—so you can lead with vision, not live in the grind.”
Make Plain began by conducting a deep operational audit of BoatSitterUS. The goal wasn’t just to launch a better-looking site — it was to remove the founder as the bottleneck and transform the business into a scalable, trackable, automated operation.
Here were the critical problems we identified and prioritized:
| Problem | Background |
| Only ~20% of boats were visible online | Manual updates made product uploads nearly impossible |
| Customers were paying for unavailable boats | Customers visiting the site had no idea they could be booking a boat that was not actually available |
| No CRM or sales funnel tracking | No visibility into who was contacting, booking, or ghosting |
| No automated booking confirmations or reminders | Every confirmation was manual |
| Business owner had to front payments to boat owners at the time of purchase | No payment automation = cash flow strain |
| No centralized availability system | The owner couldn’t instantly answer what boats were available for which weekends on a call |
| No profit/loss visibility | No margin tracking, tax prep was a nightmare |
| No systems or procedures | There were not concepts of formalized processes to manage inventory, gather feedback from clients, or hiring new employees |
From this foundation, we created a roadmap of what the platform needed to become — a full-stack system with automation, analytics, and growth infrastructure built in.
We started by mapping the business owners day-to-day and highlighting all friction points — from answering calls without knowing inventory, to refunding bookings because of calendar confusion, to handling all owner payments manually. We translated this into a systems strategy covering UI, automation, operations, and financial tracking.
We also documented key questions the platform needed to be able to answer post-launch:
We rebuilt the site from the ground up using WordPress + Elementor, pairing a clean luxury aesthetic with conversion-focused flows. Visitors can now:
We configured WooCommerce to support complex rental logic:
We implemented Stripe Connect Express, enabling:
We launched a GoHighLevel-powered CRM, layered with:
We also built a Google Sheets + Make.com integration that auto-generates WooCommerce-ready product imports, making bulk boat uploads fast and error-free.
We completed extensive testing across devices, checkout scenarios, Stripe payout cases, and CRM flows. We also connected Google Analytics and began initial SEO and Google Business optimization.
| Area | Tools |
| Web Design & CMS | WordPress + Elementor |
| Booking Engine & Inventory management | WooCommerce |
| Payments | Stripe Connect Express |
| CRM | GoHighLevel |
| Automation | Make |
| Financial Tracking | QuickBooks Online |
| SEO & Blog Content | AI & WordPress Blog System |
| Analytics & Measurement | Google Analytics, GA4 |
| Area | Before | After |
| Product Visibility | Only 20% of boats listed | Full boat catalog live with filters |
| Availability Management | Manual texts, no sync | Calendar-based availability logic |
| Booking Flow | 100% manual | Fully automated deposit/final split |
| Owner Payments | Out-of-pocket by business owner | Instant payouts via Stripe Connect |
| CRM + Customer Data | None | Full lead lifecycle tracking in CRM |
| Profit & Loss Tracking | Manual estimates | Real-time margins via QuickBooks |
| SEO & Growth Infrastructure | Not in place | Blog system + category structure ready |
“This wasn’t a redesign. It was a rebuild of the business. Before, I couldn’t even tell someone if a boat was available on a given weekend. Now I have a platform that works for me.
The team at Make Plain took everything out of my head and turned it into systems — not just for today, but for scale. Whether I want to add 10 boats, 10 brokers, or launch ads next month, we’re ready. This is exactly what I needed — a partner who gets the business side, not just the tech.”
– Steve, Founder of BoatSitterUS
At Make Plain, we believe small businesses deserve systems that scale. BoatSitterUS was proof that when you combine technical infrastructure with smart operations design, you don’t just get a better site — you unlock a better company.
If you’re ready to stop running your business out of your inbox and start running it like a real platform — let’s talk.
