That's step 1. Step 2 is give them some solid advice in the form of a few things to try. Say "Well here's what I would do" and tell them what you'd do. If they keep asking questions, tell them something along the lines of "I did something like that for another guy and charged him $X/hour, you want me to stop by?"
Mentioning an hourly rate lets them know that even though this might be a hobby for them, its not a hobby for you. It also weeds out the tire kickers.
When people say Bay Area I think they really mean Palo Alto!
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3298905
That poll indicates that the significant majority of HN readers reside outside the Bay Area of San Francisco in the US.
They also need to ENVISION their goal, and then WORK HARD, and OVERCOME ADVERSITY.
Also TEAMWORK AND GRATITUDE!
Four years later of 15-20 hours per week side work and that chance encounter had an amazing impact on my life.
Currently, this is a manual process, paper driven with digital photos, and after wards, somebody back in the office would transcribe the hand written notes into an excel spreadsheet along with pics.
This process could be made easier with an automated app on the phone. I had thought about making such an app, but haven't yet.
I guess when you talk to someone, you naturally gravitate towards issues they have.
Where is your contractor friend based? I am looking for a contractor, or some contacts, for a job now.
That really depends on context. Very often something starts out sounding like "document with text and pictures" or "database with some tables in it and some forms for UI", making it an easy job with generic business software. However, often when you look at the details the actual requirements are more complicated and require some level of domain-specific functionality.
There are many applications that are aimed at a certain industry and provide some core function that seems quite generic but then some other more industry-specific functions on top. That certainly includes tracking, displaying and annotating specifications and inspection results in the construction industry, where there are multiple players in the market already.
disclaimer: I met the founder once at a party.
We work with a lot of clients in manufacturing and construction. Our system has a way to build and schedule regular inspections, notifications, etc. We're working on business process management and moving into regulated industries.
A friend of mine works in sewers for a big construction contractor. I want this company using our stuff so that his job is more safe. Right now they take readings from his sniffer and write them out onto a sheet in a log book and throw that data in the back of the van. It might be three months or so before someone enters that data into a spreadsheet. If there was an incident and my friend happens to not make it out of the hole that day -- he's just another statistic. I hope that by taking a reading with our software we can at least anticipate the environment he's diving into. His co-workers won't be able to scribble some non-sense on paper and throw it in the back of the van before he dives in -- they'll be accountable and people will be notified if they don't.
It's amazing how much our customers still use paper and spreadsheets despite having SAP, Oracle, SAS etc servicing them with solutions for that last couple of decades. Turns out having a small team that can move fast and listen to users on the ground floor is still a good strategy.