Byte-Sized Businesses: My A.I. Assisted Biz Blitz - 26
Edition 26 - My First Custom GPT
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.
As I am optimizing, I have shifted my efforts towards three of the businesses. Those are Nordic Jo’s Coffee, Consulting/Coaching for the Coffee Industry, and selling Tumbler Wrap Designs on Etsy.
In This Edition
I built my first Custom GPT to help me be more efficient as a business coach for the coffee industry.
My First Custom GPT
Custom GPTs have of course become a key development for ChatGPT, and I have decided to jump in and start playing.
The first use case that I thought of was building a Custom GPT that could help me with my coaching business for the coffee industry. I often get questions through my coaching sessions around trends, if I’m seeing certain things happening in the industry, or if I’m seeing others take certain actions. I don’t like to rely solely on my own personal observations when addressing these questions so I generally try to follow up with some research.
ChatGPT has been extremely helpful with this in general, just because it can search and find resources so much faster than I can on my own, but I think that Custom GPTs can take this to the next step even.
As I have been progressing, I have been accumulating various industry reports and market intelligence reports around the coffee industry. The information contained in these various reports can be quite extensive and dense, and I recognize that especially as my library grows, a lot of answers to these questions that I receive could be addressed in material that I already have. My idea here is that I can upload these reports into a Custom GPT with the instructions to use those documents as it’s primary resources and that could allow me to quickly find insights in those existing materials.
This first edition of this Custom GPT is really more of an experiment or test run. I created it with the basic instructions that it was to assist me in being a cost management coach for coffee roasters and uploaded a market trends report for it to use as a primary resource. Keep in mind, I’m not an expert on creating these. This was just my first step into experimenting myself. There is very likely improvements that could be made on top of this. Here is a screenshot of my configuration though.
As I said, this one is more of a first iteration and an experiment, but as I come across more trusted resources, I will continue to edit this GPT to add in those resources and grow the library of information that it has available to it. If the existing resources that I have uploaded doesn’t include pertinent information, I will ask it to search the web to find something that does provide insight. This should then lead to me finding more reports and resources that can then be added into this GPT, which should allow it to become increasingly useful over time.
The List So Far
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. Update: This shop was transitioned again to be solely focused on the Tumbler Wrap Designs listed below.
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.