Most small business owners I talk to know AI could help them, but they are not sure where to start. They have read articles, watched a few demos, maybe tried ChatGPT for a week or two, and then quietly set it aside because nothing clicked. That is exactly the gap a focused consultation is built to close.
If you have never booked one before, here is what actually happens when we sit down together, what to bring, and what you walk away with. The goal is simple: leave the call with one specific AI project that fits your business right now, and a clear path to make it real.
The Format and How Long It Takes
A consultation with me is usually a 60 to 90 minute video call, or in person if we are nearby. The structure is intentional but the conversation stays flexible. We will cover:
- Your business and what makes it tick
- How your team works and which processes drain the most hours
- What you have tried with AI, and where it stalled
- The bottleneck that bothers you most right now
- What a meaningful win looks like in the next 30 to 60 days
This is not a pitch deck in disguise. I am not here to sell you software, lock you into a long retainer, or talk over your head. I ask focused questions, listen carefully, and use what I hear to recommend something built for your situation, not a template I hand to every client.
What to Have Ready Before the Call
You do not need slides or a written brief. A few minutes of honest reflection on these questions is plenty:
What is your biggest weekly pain point? Which workflow eats the most time or causes the most frustration? Usually it is the task you quietly dread on Monday morning.
How many people are on your team? Solo founder, small crew, or a department-sized operation? This shapes which kind of solution will actually get adopted.
What tools are you already paying for? ChatGPT, Zapier, HubSpot, QuickBooks, a CRM you barely use? Knowing your current stack often reveals quick wins hiding in plain sight.
What is your timeline? Do you need a visible win in 30 days, or is this a 90-day build? Both are fine. Knowing up front lets us scope realistically.
That is genuinely all the prep you need. I will guide the rest with follow-up questions.
What We Actually Review During the Call
I will ask you to walk me through your workflows the way they really run today. Where does work come in? How do you handle it? Who touches it? Where does it get stuck? I am listening for the friction points you have stopped noticing because you have lived with them for so long.
If you have already experimented with AI tools, we will dig into what worked and what did not. Often the issue is not the tool, it is how it was introduced or how it connects (or does not connect) to the rest of your business. That is the kind of pattern that takes an outside eye to spot.
We will also walk through your customer journey. How do people find you? How do they become customers? Where in that journey could AI shorten a step, sharpen a message, or remove a handoff that is costing you deals?
Bring one bottleneck you feel every week, and we will design a solution around it.
Finally, we will talk about your team and how they actually work. Some teams jump on new tools the day they hear about them. Others need to see a working example before they trust it. The right project for your business depends as much on this as it does on the tech itself, which is why a generic AI guide can only take you so far.
What You Leave With
By the end of our call, you will have three concrete things:
A priority list. Three to five workflows ranked by which would benefit most from AI right now. You do not have to act on all of them. You will know exactly where the leverage is.
Your first project. A specific recommendation for what to start with, which tool fits, and roughly how long it takes to set up. This is built around your business, not pulled from a generic playbook.
An owner-readable plan. A short, plain-English document outlining the first project, what success looks like, how to measure it, and what training your team might need. Not a 40-slide deck. Just clarity on what comes next and why.
If you want help executing the plan, I offer ongoing support and we can scope that on the call. If you want to take the plan and run with it on your own, that works too. Either way, you leave with something useful in hand.
What NOT to Expect
No high-pressure sales pitch. No expensive enterprise tools you do not need. No long contracts you cannot exit. And no generic deck that could apply to any business in any industry.
You also should not expect the consultation itself to deliver the project. A consultation is direction and design. Implementation is a separate step, whether you do it yourself, hand it to your team, or bring me back in to build it with you.
And do not expect perfection on day one. The first project is meant to prove value quickly, not to be flawless. Real refinement comes from using it for a few weeks and adjusting based on what you learn.
How to Prepare in 10 Minutes
Write down one sentence: What is the workflow I do every week that I wish would go faster or easier? That is your starting point. Bring it to the call, answer questions honestly, and resist the urge to oversell or undersell the problem. The clearer you are about reality, the more useful the recommendation will be.
Most owners tell me they wish they had done this six months earlier. The cost of staying stuck on the same bottleneck week after week is almost always higher than the cost of an hour spent solving it.
If you are ready to put a name to your biggest bottleneck and walk away with a real plan, book a free strategy call. Want a little more context first? Take a look at how I work with small businesses, or read why working with a consultant saves time and how to pick your first AI project.
