AI consulting for small business

Work out what is worth doing before you spend anything.

Most small businesses do not need an AI strategy. They need someone honest to look at how the week actually goes and say which two things are worth automating, which are not, and what the real cost would be. That is this. The first conversation is free and there is no build attached to it.

Get a free audit See how it works

Text me anytime: (218) 818-1023. Skip the email if you like. I read and answer every text myself.

Why this exists

The three ways small businesses waste money on AI

I have watched all three happen. None of them involve a bad product; they involve buying before deciding.

Buying tools nobody adopts

A subscription bought in January, used twice, still billing in November. The tool was fine. It was never wired into how the work actually happens, so it stayed optional, so it died.

Automating the wrong thing first

The interesting problem instead of the expensive one. Automating your social posts while missed calls quietly cost you a job a week is the classic version.

Paying for a strategy deck

Twenty slides of what AI could theoretically do for a business like yours, no prices, no implementation, and a retainer. You can tell it is coming when nobody will quote a number.

The fix for all three is the same and it is not complicated: look at where the time and the lost work actually go, put numbers on it, and only then decide whether to build.

Two ways to do this

Free conversation, or the written version

Free Automation Audit

Twenty to thirty minutes, by phone, text or video. No card, no booking hoops, no implementation attached.

Where your week actually goes, in your words, not a questionnaire
One to three specific opportunities, named, not "AI could help with marketing"
Rough numbers for each, from the published price list
What I would not automate, and why
An honest "not yet" if your volume will not pay a build back

Request the free audit

AI Workflow Blueprint

$499 once

The written version, for when you need something to think about, share with a partner, or hand to whoever builds it. Credited toward a qualifying build.

Your workflows mapped as they really run, including the bits that live in someone's head
The opportunities, prioritised by payback rather than by how interesting they are
A recommended stack, with what each piece costs to run
Human-approval points: what a machine may decide, what it must not
A roadmap in the order that makes each step pay for the next
Yours to take elsewhere. It is a document, not a hook. Hand it to another developer if you like

Ask about a blueprint

The questions this answers

What you can actually ask me

Should we automate this at all?

The most valuable answer is often no. Low volume, a process that changes every month, or a job where being wrong is expensive are all reasons to leave it alone.

Build it or buy it?

What the subscription really costs over three years against what building it once costs, including the running costs nobody quotes you.

Which of these tools should we use?

Vendor choice, in plain terms: what each is good at, what it locks you into, and what happens to your data if you leave.

What do we do first?

Sequencing, which is most of the value. The order that makes each step fund the next beats a five-project plan you abandon in March.

Is our data safe in this?

What gets sent where, whose terms apply, what is retained, and how to run it on your own accounts if you would rather.

What will this actually cost to run?

Not the build. The monthly reality: usage, phone lines, sending, hosting. The number that decides whether an automation is worth keeping in year two.

What this is not

Three promises I will not make

No guaranteed rankings and no guaranteed ROI. Anyone putting a percentage on your return before looking at your books is guessing with your money. I will show you the hours a workflow removes and the real cost of running it, and you can do the arithmetic with numbers you trust.

No retainer to think. The conversation is free and the written blueprint is $499 once, credited against a build. There is no monthly advisory fee, because for a business your size that is a product designed to bill, not to help.

No pressure to have me build it. The blueprint is a document you own and can hand to anyone. If you take it to a cheaper developer, that is a perfectly reasonable outcome and it has happened.

Questions

AI consulting questions, answered

What does an AI consultant actually do for a small business?

Looks at how your week really runs, finds the places where time or won work leaks out, and tells you which of them a machine should be handling, in what order, at what cost. For a business under about fifty people that is a short, concrete conversation, not a strategy engagement. The output should be a list of specific things with prices next to them, and if it is a deck of possibilities instead, you are buying the wrong thing.

How much does AI consulting cost?

The audit conversation is free. The written AI Workflow Blueprint is $499 once, and it is credited toward a qualifying build if you go ahead with me. There is no retainer. If you want ongoing development capacity after something is built, that is $999/month and it is building, not advising.

Do I have to let you build what you recommend?

No, and the blueprint is written so you do not have to. It names the stack and the steps clearly enough for another developer to work from. I would rather be the person whose advice was worth having than the person who trapped you into a build.

What if the answer is that we should not automate anything?

Then that is the answer and you have lost nothing but half an hour. It happens, usually when volume is too low for a build to pay itself back, or when the process is still changing every month. Automating a process you are about to change is how you pay twice.

Do you work with businesses outside Minnesota?

Yes. The work runs over phone, text, email and video calls, so location does not change the price or the timeline. I am in Brainerd and I like working with Minnesota businesses, but plenty of this is done at a distance.

We already bought some AI tools. Can you help us use them?

That is one of the more common versions of this. Often the tools are fine and nothing was ever wired into the actual workflow, so nobody adopted them. Sorting that out is usually cheaper than starting again, and the audit will say so if it is true.

Half an hour, no card, no deck.

Tell me what your week looks like and what part of it you resent. I will tell you which bits a machine should be doing, what that costs, and what I would leave alone. In writing, within 24 hours.

Get my free audit Or ask about a blueprint