5 steps to turn your regular business into an AI business
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You run a successful business. Clients paid you, the numbers piled up, and you added AI in some places to speed things up. You still have the feeling that something bigger is available and other founders are getting to it before you. That feeling is correct.
I started a social media agency at the age of 22 and sold it in 2021. My next business was a voicenote business coaching and mentoring platform. Things were going well, and things were going well. Then, on December 3, 2022, my friend Richard sent me a message about OpenAI’s new chatbot. He said it’s like having a genius in your pocket. I canceled my plans for the week, went straight down the rabbit hole, I ended up here.
Companies that incorporate AI into what they sell will be recognized. 130% higher than those who use it just to make their work faster. If your situation hasn’t changed, it’s a ticking time bomb. People have different expectations and the world is moving rapidly. You have a huge opportunity to rethink what already exists. We outline five steps to follow to transform your business and grow over the next 10 years.
First principles for turning your business into an AI business
Summarize the value your business creates
In one sentence, describe the most basic thing people receive from you. As a first principle, consider taxi companies. Its job is to transport people from point A to point B. Uber’s current model is that you order a car online and a driver arrives to take you from point A to point B. In the future, cars will arrive without a driver. Then there will probably be no cars at all and you’ll be teleported from A to B.
Why should they hire you or buy your product? Then keep asking why over and over again until you get to the real outcome they want. Strip away all the pieces you’ve built on top of your business and find the one thing your customers will buy.
Imagine how AI can create that value from scratch
Visualize, meditate, and look into the future. To imagine something that doesn’t exist, you have to stop looking into the past. Talk to your friends. think bigger than you. Tell them the value you are trying to create and ask how they would design it from scratch. I sent in questions about X, asking things like, “If you could pick one coach in the world, who would it be?” “If you could get the coaching arrangement you wanted, what would it be?”
The core value that my business created was proper guidance for business owners. So the question is, how can AI provide such guidance from scratch? The answer is coach box 2.0. AI coaches provide guidance without the need for a human each time, using your brand, knowledge, and style, based on the coach himself. Clients continue to receive the support they seek. Coaches share their wisdom on a large scale.
Why not code your first version this weekend?
See the world through your customers’ eyes. Grab a piece of paper and plan how you will support one of them, from the first greeting to the outcome they want, every step they get stuck on, and every point they give of value. There’s nothing technical yet. Just the path they walk and the moments you make a difference.
Then use it to discuss. Wisp flow To Claude Cowork. Explain the path out loud, ask for options for how AI can deliver each part of it, and choose the version that can serve your customers better than the version you can currently deliver. Build that platform. You’ll learn to think about the first thing you make on a weekend for over a year.
Plan and test demand with little effort
Turn your ambitious ideas into numbers. Write them out in a spreadsheet and calculate whether what you envision will become a commercially viable business at the prices people will pay and the costs you can bear. Go back to the step where the calculation works or you have better information.
Once the numbers work on paper, find the easiest way to test real-world demand. The first test was a basic website with some Typeform. When people filled out the form and registered their interest, we knew this idea had potential. Spending six months building without proof is the founder losing a year.
make something for yourself
The new version of Coachvox has been helpful from day one. My AI version generated leads, helped people understand my teachings, and kept them on my website longer. All of these results paid for themselves before the customer arrived.
Because it worked for me, and it worked for thousands of other coaches, and the pivot worked. Start with the tools you want to leverage for your business, then find out and count how many people are running a business like yours. That number is your market.
5 steps to turn your regular business into an AI business
The next wave of billionaires will be AI billionaires. The word itself gives us a hint, because AI is right around the corner in BillionAIre. Don’t just use tools, build tools. Go back to first principles, understand what people are buying from you, and create what your customers want in the next 10 years. Start by testing demand.
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