AI as a business

Every answer 32 answers

• Can AI agents run a business on their own yet?

  Not yet, outside simple things. As of mid-2026 AI keeps getting better, but you can't just say "build this" and have it done, or I wouldn't be working 12-hour days. My goal is making human headcount optional wherever AI does the work reliably, using a small team of agents I can understand and trust.

• Can I sell done-for-you newsletters to businesses and organizations?

  Yes, and the buyers are everywhere. Most chamber, HOA, trade association and city newsletters are done by someone who doesn't care and wants it off their plate. Offer to do it for the same or less than they pay now. My rough price ideas run from $300 to $2,000 a month. The hard part is reaching buyers, not doing the work.

• Can you make money building a niche version of old, boring software?

  Yes. Take a category that's been around 10 or 15 years, like review management or forms, and build the version for one industry you know deeply. A friend's review tool for self-storage owners reportedly makes about $12,000 a month. Boring niches have less competition, and they're big enough for a small team.

• Can you make money building websites for small businesses with AI?

  Yes, for now. Nine of the ten businesses near you probably have terrible websites, and with AI you can build a better one in minutes. Don't cold pitch "a pretty website." Build their actual page and send it. Charge a flat monthly fee, around $100, and treat the site as a foot in the door for bigger AI work.

• How can insurance agents use AI?

  Use AI to take over follow-up, quoting paperwork and admin so you have time for what agents rarely do, like calling clients to review policies. Independent agencies, with their own tools and manual processes, have the most room to automate. Captive agents are limited by the carrier, so they should build a personal brand they own.

• How do I choose a niche for an AI consulting business?

  Pick one industry, not a location, and go one level deeper than the category: pool service or pest control, not "home services" or "Texas business owners." Look for fragmented trades with money and recurring revenue where you can reuse most of what you build. It helps a lot if you already know the industry's problems.

• How do I find clients for an AI consulting business?

  Go local and build trust before you pitch. Most owners want to shake the hand of the person they hire, so chamber meetings, free trainings, featuring owners in your own media and referrals beat cold email. Give away the playbook, publish how-tos about tools they already use, and get two strong reviews in one niche before you scale.

• How do I get AI consulting clients by making videos about software my industry already uses?

  Make walkthroughs of AI doing real work inside the software a trade already runs, like Claude with Jobber or QuickBooks. Generic "six things Claude can do" videos drown in competition. Tool-specific ones reach that tool's paying customers. A partner of mine got calls from the software companies the day after posting.

• How do I make my software a painkiller instead of a vitamin?

  Attach a way for the customer to make money. Software that only saves time is a vitamin: nice, easy to cancel, and a solo user will just do the extra hour by hand. Add something that earns, like a paid directory or jobs section, and the tool can pay for itself, command a higher price and lock people in.

• How do I run an AI workshop for non-technical business owners?

  Keep it basic, hands-on and in person, promote it to an audience that already trusts you, and do the first one free for practice. One newsletter mention got me about 95 signups and 35 to 45 people in the room. After that, charge, collect every email, and treat the workshop as the top of the funnel for implementation work.

• How do I turn something my business already does into a service I can sell?

  Make yourself the first client. Prove the playbook in your own business, then show the real numbers (ad cost, calls, meetings, signed customers, ROI) and sell it as a productized service, for example $2,000 a month or more. Work you must pay for anyway, like recruiting creators, is a good candidate to turn from a cost into a business.

• How do you run corporate AI training that actually sticks?

  Lead with mindset, not tools. Make it hands-on with laptops open and real work, standardize the company on one AI platform, and teach individual use before any shared team system. I run it as four touchpoints: an intro call, a prep call the week before, the in-person workshop, and a follow-up one to two weeks later.

• How long will the AI consulting opportunity last?

  My read has ranged from one to three years, and in May 2026 I said the next 12 to 24 months, before owners learn the tools and prices compress. That's a forecast, not a guarantee. Consultants and implementers benefit as AI speeds up, because owners need more help, and rising token prices push them to hire someone.

• How much should I charge for AI automation services for small businesses?

  It depends on the offer. A $1,000 AI audit can lead to $4,000-$8,000 builds. A productized system runs $2,000-$10,000 setup plus $300-$800 a month. A bundled marketing team supports $1,500-$3,000 a month, a full back-end retainer $3,000-$5,000. Under $500 a month, small businesses rarely bother to cancel.

• How much should I charge to set up a newsletter for someone else?

  I've charged $3,000, and quoted $3,500, to get someone launched in one to two weeks: templates, welcome email, signup survey and Meta ads, all set up and ready to run. You're selling what you learned the hard way, not your hours. For ongoing advice, one well-funded client paid me $500 an hour.

• How should I price a new SaaS product when I launch it?

  Early on, price for adoption. I'd rather charge a no-brainer $30 to $40 a month and get users, proof and feedback than squeeze out revenue. Add urgency with a founding offer, like locking in the price forever for the first 50 paid customers. Then scale tiers by usage, charge per extra publication, and sell AI credit in dollars.

• How should a small business use AI without losing the human touch?

  Split by surface, not ratio. Anything a customer, reader or advertiser touches stays human. Back-office grunt work goes to AI, and people underrate how much it can now absorb. A business that's 100% human falls behind one getting 100x the output, and one that's 100% AI produces so much sameness that nobody cares.

• If anyone can build software with AI, what's the real competitive advantage?

  Audience. AI made great websites and software easy to build, so that no longer protects you, and competition for attention is about to climb as products multiply. An audience that trusts you can't be cloned. A great product nobody knows about is worth zero. Build the audience first and you get options for how to make money from it.

• Is generic AI consulting a good business?

  No. Generic "AI for anybody" consulting is a trap because every client's setup is different, so nothing compounds. I talked to two people in two days doing it and both said it sucks. Pick one vertical, go one level deeper than "home services," and templatize 90% of the work so each new client is configuration.

• Should B2B software be self-serve or high-touch at first?

  High-touch first. I sell lightbreak as a high-cost, high-touch platform and onboard the first customers myself, with no Stripe checkout or automated onboarding. Go to buyers with calls, conferences and referral deals, hide pricing when selling upmarket, and build self-serve only after the managed version works.

• Should I build AI software or sell AI-powered services?

  For most people right now, sell the service. AI-driven marketing and implementation use the same tech without the complexity of software. Build only for a narrow problem you know firsthand, for an audience you can already reach. Watch agency capacity, and consider a managed or productized service as the bridge.

• Should I bundle my software into a paid community to cut churn?

  It can make both stickier. Members won't leave a community if leaving means losing a tool they rely on, and you skip the churn and support tickets of cheap standalone software. The cost is a smaller market. My later plan flipped it: price the software on its own and give community access free on the top tier.

• Should I sell AI services as one-off projects or a membership?

  Both, in that order. Land the client with a one-off build, then move them onto a done-with-you membership. Project work has no compounding and no floor, and when you build it you own every fix. A membership at $500 to $1,000 a month sells setup, tools, coaching and group calls while the client does the work.

• Should I start a newsletter agency for YouTubers and podcasters?

  I think it's a massive opportunity. Most YouTubers have no owned channel to reach their best fans, and the smart big ones already pay agencies thousands a month, probably for work done by hand. An issue can take about 15 minutes. Sell growth and monetization, with the writing included, and land the first creator cheap.

• Should I target solopreneurs or real businesses with my AI content and software?

  Real businesses, usually. Solopreneurs and entrepreneurs want AI content the most, but they're broke and perfectionists. Established companies have budget and real problems. I built software for entrepreneurs at $75 a month, then found legacy local media wanted it at hundreds a month. The sweet spot is about 5 to 50 employees.

• Should I white-label GoHighLevel or build my own CRM with AI?

  Start on GoHighLevel's white-label plan. At $300 a month you get unlimited client sub-accounts covering marketing, voice, forms and workflows. Its big flaw is that it's confusing, and running it through Claude fixes that. Building your own leaves you with zero customers and ongoing maintenance. Don't send your newsletter from it.

• What should a software MVP include, and what can you do manually at first?

  Only what the client needs to get value. Do the rest by hand: billing, data gathering and edge cases can be manual for a couple of months. Sell it cheaper, use it yourself first, give a few people early access, and lead demos with what works. Aim between enterprise-grade and sloppy. Fast still can't mean broken.

• What should an AI membership for small businesses include and cost?

  Two paid tiers over a free group. About $400 a month gets everything the team builds, a Slack or Discord, group office hours and build discounts, nothing one-to-one. About $1,000 adds a monthly 90-minute call, reserved office hours and a quarterly audit. Sell to small teams in one vertical. These are untested proposals.

• Why do software products fail even when the product is good?

  Usually it's sales and distribution, not the product. My insurance software stalled because nobody spent 20 to 30 hours a week in front of buyers. Other killers: spending too much before proof, a last 5% that doesn't work, and staff who won't adopt another system. Define the sales motion first.

• Why is it so hard to turn software I built for my own business into a product?

  Because going from one location or brand to two multiplies the complexity about 5 to 10 times. Everything hard-coded has to become a setting, and each fix is small but there are dozens. Build for yourself first, in a way that's naturally reusable, and only package it once it works. Building two versions at once cost me a month.

• Will AI-generated content make trust more valuable?

  Yes, that's my bet. As AI floods every channel and fakes look real, people will assume what they see online is fake unless it's proven real. They'll fall back on people they can meet in person and brands they already trust. Local, visible and human gets more valuable. It's a forecast, not a measured result.

• Will OpenAI and Anthropic just build whatever AI product I make?

  Not if you go narrow. The big labs won't build hyper-specific, multi-step workflows for a niche like local media because it isn't worth their effort, and that's where an independent builder wins. The real risk is simple one-feature software, which whoever already has distribution can add as a feature.