AI for Small Business Owners Who Wear Every Hat (and Are Tired)

“You’re part of Skynet.” This is what a friend jokingly told me today.

Though friend may be generous after receiving that slight. jk

As cool as it would be to have a skeleton of steel I understood what they were getting at. There has been a consistent beating of the AI doomsday drum. AI is taking the jobs of humans. Humans are getting into unhealthy relationships with AI. AI can’t do my laundry.

It’s not like all of it is unfounded or should be dismissed. I’m in the industry and strongly stand for guardrails and prioritization of the health and wellbeing of humans, our planet and all life.

Still, with so many AI insiders issuing warnings about the technology on top of the real concerns communities have with data centers being built in their hometown, there’s a lot to be cautious about.

But there’s still room for optimism.

Yesterday, I spoke on a panel with 3 other business owners to discuss what there is to be optimistic about with AI in business.

I shared my personal experience as a solo entrepreneur. In my role, I’m the marketer. The head of sales, the customer experience person. I’m in charge of lead generation, and follow-up, and making sure the website is designed to convert.

I can go on and on. (I won’t. You have your own list.)

If you run a business by yourself or with a small team, I’m guessing that list sounds familiar. If you’re a real estate agent and a team of one, I’m guessing you could finish it for me.

Who knew becoming an entrepreneur meant hiring yourself for twelve jobs and only being good at a few of them?

Why can’t one person just do all of it?

Because you can’t. There’s only so much time. Only so much money. Only so much energy. The hats you wear on a day-to-day basis doesn’t magically disappear.

When you do everything alone, you never have time. You’re supposed to be thinking up ideas, executing them and pushing the company forward. That takes time, and you don’t have it, because you’re busy doing literally everything else.

Side note: did you know most small businesses in the US have no employees at all? According to the SBA Office of Advocacy, about 82 percent of US small businesses are nonemployer firms. That’s a lot of people doing everything in their business.

I witness this in my clients’ businesses. They’re real estate agents, and many of them are a team of one. They run an entire business alone, and it’s overwhelming. Of course, this is not just a real estate industry problem. If you’re a consultant, a designer, a coach, a CPA, you know this list too.

But I’m telling you there’s a way through…

I’m not one of those people letting AI write some bs story about the hardships of running a business without having lived through it. I am firmly standing next to you and other solo founders having been in the same boat.

My optimism comes from a place of not being truly alone in my business anymore.

So you don’t have to take my word for it, I’m going to show you exactly what I do.

And how delegating work to AI has reduced my admin burden and helped grow my business.

How can AI for small business owners take work off your plate?

There’s an easy way and a hard way to use AI.

Using AI as a chat interface that replaces Google is the hard way. Let me show you an easy way. I shared this with people at yesterday’s event, and can attest it only takes about five minutes.

You could sit down and write out everything in your business you don’t want to do. That works.

Orrrrrrr……

You can have a conversation with your AI, which is what I did. (The conversation is easier. You’re already tired.)

Here’s what you do:

1. Open Claude or ChatGPT and tell it about your day. What work did you do? Emails, posts, forms, follow-ups, the marketing thing you keep putting off. Type it or talk it out. It doesn’t need to be tidy. (I HIGHLY recommend Claude’s voice feature to have a surreal conversation with your AI.)
2. Ask it one simple question. Copy this if you want: “Here’s all the work I did today: [describe your day]. Which of this work can you take off my plate?”
   • Extra points: ask it to prioritize based on impact.
3. Pick one thing from its answer and go from there. Not ten. One.
   • Have it create a plan for that work, ask you questions and ask for information it needs before it begins.

Include the boring stuff. Nobody is grading your to-do list.

I’ll name my limits here: I can’t tell you which of your tasks AI should take first. I don’t know your day, and your day isn’t my day. Your AI can find out in about five minutes if you tell it.

What does it look like when it works?

For me, it looks like a website.

Before: For a previous business, I built websites on Wix, Squarespace and WordPress. It took weeks upon weeks. The design wasn’t great, and I didn’t have the right connections to help me.

After: I use Claude Code to design websites now. I come in with an idea, and what would have taken me weeks, Claude can do in a couple of days.

And the result? Pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

It doesn’t stop at the site. For lead magnets, it can generate so much that my imagination is the limit. (Which is a lot of pressure on my imagination.)

Articles and Instagram were on my list too. I wrote articles for an old website, and it was time consuming, and honestly, I didn’t like it. I ran content on Instagram, and coming up with ideas was tough.

Now, I record myself, talk to Claude and can have it edit my work easily (with the right connectors).

Here’s the shift. I can create projects and skills and connect Claude or ChatGPT to my other tools, so the AI does work on my behalf. I’m not the only one thinking up ideas, executing them and pushing the company forward anymore. Giving Claude the ability to build my website was a weight off my shoulders.

I don’t have to be alone in my business anymore.

Can AI do more than save me time?

The story that stuck with me most during the panel last night was not mine. It was one of the hosts’. Tian helped put the panel on and invited me, and it was so good to see this community keep growing.

Tian told the room a harrowing story. His father was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given six to 12 months to live. Unfortunately, he did not qualify for many of the experimental programs here in the United States.

So Tian used AI to analyze his father’s health data and cross-reference current research on what was being done about it. He was looking for one thing: a cutting-edge scientist or doctor running a program his father could actually get into.

He found one in China. He got his father into it and two days before the panel, his father was successfully discharged.

My story is a website. His is a father who was given six to 12 months to live.

So when people ask me if I am optimistic about AI I can confidently point to these stories and say, “Yeah.”

Ready to hand something off?

Do the five minutes today. Open Claude or ChatGPT, tell it about your day, and ask the question. Then tell me what it said. If it says “nothing,” I’d genuinely love to hear about your day.

Talk soon,

KC