In the early 1970s, I watched my father install a computer in his business. It took a whole room, extra cooling, different flooring, and months to set up.
Today, it takes minutes.
I’ve lived the whole stretch in between. An electric typewriter was a new thing when I was in high school. I went from a pager to a bag phone to a car phone to a flip phone, and now none of us can function without the iPhone or Android in our pocket. I lived through carbon paper and mimeograph machines, then faxes, then printers that also faxed.
Every one of those changes felt fast at the time. They seem to be coming faster now, but this is the way we as humans have always worked in the world. So here’s my honest position on AI: embrace the changes, or sell now.
Who passes you by
It probably feels like one more thing to learn when you already don’t have enough hours in the day. You may be thinking AI is for tech companies, not a business that has done fine for thirty years without it.
Here’s what I’d ask instead. Did you fight a point of sale system because you only wanted checks and cash? How has that worked for you? Did you hold off putting your business on Google until sales started to drop?
AI is definitely worth your time. If you get left behind, someone who is comfortable with AI will pass you by. It may be a competitor down the road, or it may be a new owner who buys a business like yours and runs it with half the effort.
Where to start
AI frees up an owner’s time in so many ways, and it looks different in every business. The lists are endless as to what it can do. That’s exactly why the place to start is small.
Pick one job that eats your week. For some owners it’s email. For others it’s automating product ordering so nobody is counting shelves on a Friday afternoon. Start there, get comfortable, and the next use shows up on its own.
The goal isn’t to adopt every new tool because it’s available. It’s finding the changes that improve how your business runs or how it serves your customers, and the same goes for everything else that shifts around you: what customers expect, the regulations in your industry, who you compete with, the economy. Owners who pay attention adjust early, before a temporary problem turns into a permanent one.
What happens to your people
This is the question most owners are afraid to ask out loud: will AI replace some of my staff?
My position is that it grows the business without the immediate need for new staff. The people you have already grow into new roles in a new world. The person who spent half the day on order entry now spends it with customers. That’s a better job, and a better business.
Why this is your moment
This is a time when leaders can take giant steps forward that were never possible for a small business before. Tools that once took a room full of equipment and months of setup are sitting on your phone.
Take advantage of it, and build your future and your future generations’.
And if you’re thinking about selling in the next few years, the same tools change how a buyer sees your business. A company where the owner answers every email and places every order by hand is harder to hand off than one where the routine work runs on its own.
Your first step
What’s the one task that takes the most of your week that a machine could handle? Start there this month.
If selling is on your horizon, Preparation to Payday™ looks at your business the way a buyer will, including which parts of it still depend on you doing everything by hand. Let’s talk about where you stand. What times work for you this week?
Will AI replace my staff?
In most owner-run businesses it grows the business without the immediate need for new staff. The people you have grow into new roles, often closer to your customers.
Where should a business owner start with AI?
With one job that eats your week, like email or product ordering. Get comfortable there and the next use shows up on its own.
