Small Business Owner's AI Opportunity Assessment

AI is changing how small businesses grow. Here is your step-by-step guide to making it work for you.

You don’t need to become a tech expert. You need to know where AI saves real time, wins more customers and adds profit, and where it doesn’t. Each of the 35 chapters tackles one real job in your business, with a quick win you can finish today, five clear steps, copy-and-paste AI prompts, a worksheet and a checklist.

Inside, you’ll learn how to:

• Find the AI uses that matters most for your business, and skip the hype
• Build a 12-month marketing plan in one working session
• Create social media posts, emails and a 30-day content calendar in less time
• Prepare for sales meetings, write proposals and follow up so good leads don’t go cold
• Answer customers faster without losing the human touch
• See where you make and lose money, and price with confidence
• Build your first AI agents, safely and with you in control

Real examples from real kinds of businesses. Follow six owners (a home builder, an accounting firm, an auto repair shop, a cleaning company, a restaurant and a salon) as they put AI to work. You’ll see what they asked, what AI produced and what they fixed before using it. 

Then finish with a 30-Day AI-Powered Small Business Plan to make it stick.

Works with the AI tools you already use, including ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and Gemini.

“A practical, step-by-step tool that helps small business owners grow with AI.”
— Jason Schleip, SBDC Director, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

“Every week, owners ask us the same question: ‘Where do I start with AI?’ This handbook answers it one task at a time, with clear steps, ready-to-use prompts, and checklists. It takes the intimidation out of AI and keeps the focus where it belongs: on growing a more profitable business.”
— Ron Chisholm, SBDC Consultant, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater