Byte-Sized Businesses: My A.I. Assisted Biz Blitz - 23
Edition 23 - Back to Consulting
Recap: At first, I challenged myself to launch two micro-businesses per month with the help of AI. Now I am shifting towards building on top of those micro-businesses. You can get caught up on the details of the challenge in my original post here.
For new readers, you can scroll to the bottom of this post to see a full list and summary of the micro-businesses that have been launched. Not each one will be covered in every weekly edition, but I will be sure to keep you up to date on all of the key points as things progress.
In this Edition
Consulting for the Coffee Industry with a Business Coaching Approach
How ChatGPT is helping me as a Business Coach
That Consulting Gig Thing
This may require a little refresher. I first mentioned the consulting gig in one of the early editions. It stemmed from a business that I had started a few years prior that was focused on helping coffee businesses manage their cash flow and spend to become more profitable. The original idea was that I would be a one-stop shop for both bookkeeping and consulting. I hired a white label bookkeeping service to manage that side of it, and I would essentially be a fractional CFO. It didn’t really pan out the way that I planned. The potential clients that I encountered already were happy with what they had for bookkeeping, and the needs that they did have ranged significantly. I ended up helping more with things like identifying suppliers and distribution. I left my website and other materials up, but didn’t really actively push the business for the last couple years.
But over the last couple months, something unexpected has been unfolding. It started with the first consulting opportunity that I wrote about in this newsletter. At that time, I was caught a little off guard to be completely honest. Like before, I am going to be intentionally vague out of respect for client privacy, but this client was essentially looking to import and roast coffee and then run a coffee shop. I helped them out by talking through some of their challenges with them and then setting them up with a couple other resources that were able to guide them to a modified business model that should give them a better start. It was pretty much left at that though.
I assumed that was likely a one off situation, but then I had a second individual reach out. Similarly, I had a complimentary call with them where we bounced around some ideas. It was a fun call, but again, I wasn’t really prepared with my own business offering, so it was essentially just me talking though some stuff with them for free.
After that, a third and then a fourth individual reached out, and I realized that these aren’t one offs, and it was time to start taking this seriously. I did a little digging and found out that an article on coffee consultants that I had been featured in from April of 2021 had made its way to the top of Google search results. That was the reason that all the sudden I was getting this increase of interest.
From here, I decided to reshape my offering. I decided to go with a simplified version of my original offering, which could be best described as business coaching. I have met with both of the last two prospective clients. One has hired me and it seems likely that the other is as well, although we haven’t settled on the exact meeting frequency for the second.
These inbound leads could lead to a nice side project, but I think that it can be more. It just so happens that one of my best friends who is also an entrepreneur has been digging deep into email marketing. He and I have come to an agreement for him to help me reach more prospective clients. It is early, and we aren’t going to rush things, but I am optimistic.
ChatGPT as an Assistant
So where does AI fit into this consulting work?
I am starting these engagements with a self-evaluation. Basically, after the intro meeting with the prospective client, I create a self-evaluation form for them to complete that I can use to help identify their needs and opportunities for improvement. Normally, I would just think of the questions that I want answered and write it out. But ChatGPT has proven to be a massive help in this area. I start with explaining what I am doing and what I am looking to find with this form and give it a few example questions that I have thought of myself. After this, it gives me a first draft of the evaluation form and from there, I approach it as a conversation. I will ask it to add or remover certain pieces and even ask it what other areas I should be considering that I haven’t thought of myself. Once I am satisfied with the the questions, I ask it to create a Word doc of the form. This method lets me be both faster and more thorough in creating evaluation forms tailored to a specific client.
The other area that ChatGPT has been very handy is research. We are definitely moving from “search” to “answer”, but I’m still not going to just trust whatever ChatGPT tells me. Hopefully, we will get to a point where you can just trust it, but for now, I am finding that it is most helpful in finding resources. I will ask it to either find me certain resources or ask it questions in which it will provide an answer and link the resources. Those resources have been where the value is. ChatGPT can simply browse and read much faster than I can, and because of this, I have already been able to find things like market studies that I had previously not been aware of. This is allowing me to provide resources to my clients that will help them very early on.
It is still too early to really say where this business coaching practice will go, but I’m excited with how it is starting. I’m hopeful that this will become a major piece of my overall portfolio.
Dough Control - Dough Control was a blog on cash management for small businesses that I originally started a couple years ago, but hadn’t maintained. I decided to revitalize that blog with the help of AI tools like ChatGPT. This will be a longer duration project, with the goal of developing a following before monetizing.
Canvas and Quirk (originally PleasurePrinted) - This was the first Etsy shop that I launched. It features captivating nature scenes on canvas or metal prints for home or office decor. The images are generated by Midjourney and enlarged with VanceAI. The product descriptions are drafted through ChatGPT. This shop has now been transitioned into a general store through which I will be launching all of my Etsy oriented micro-businesses / product categories.
LittleDreamersDen - A second Etsy shop that also focuses on wall art, but on the other side of the pricing spectrum. The same tools are used to create the works, but the finished products are posters rather than the more expensive canvas or metal prints. The focus of this shop is nursery room decor.
The Consulting Gig - I received a request for some costing and supply chain help. To start, I’ll provide as much value as I can up front. The hope is that the potential client will find it worth hiring me for consulting/coaching on an on-going basis. I plan on using AI to boost my speed in compiling research such as lists of potential supply chain partners.
CozyGifted (originally FlickersOfFantasy) - The third Etsy shop. This shop was originally planned to be as a candle shop, but I have pivoted to also use it for other physical items that work well as gifts.
Wirestock - Selling stock images generated with Midjourney. Wirestock is easy to use right in Discord and allows you to list your images for sale across multiple platforms at once.
Tumbler Wrap Designs (Digital Files) - Digital files of designs to be printed for tumbler wraps. These are sold through Etsy to hobbyists and vendors that sell tumblers in which the print designs on.
Personalized Enamel Coated Camping Mugs - The products are items that I am fulfilling through print on demand services with personalization enabled through HelloCustom, an AI software that streamlines the personalization process between Etsy and Printify.
Personalized Blankets - Similar to the mugs mentioned above, these are fulfilled through the print on demand services of Printify with the personalization being enabled through HelloCustom.
Nordic Jo’s Coffee - Not a new launch, but actually my first business. I will be sharing how I am using AI to produce some of my content for Nordic Jo’s.