🏪 Series Beginner Slow · 60d

The Small-Business AI Operating System

Put AI into the parts of a small business where it pays for itself.

12 of 12 parts published · ≈98 min so far · Written for small business

The parts, in order

  1. 01 Map the Work Before You Automate It Count the work first: exact Gmail search queries, a six-column task inventory, and a Sheets AI formula that sorts what repeats from what does not. Beginner ~7 min Verified July 31, 2026
  2. 02 Pick One Workflow to Automate First Score five candidate tasks against four tests, then pick a platform by how it bills: Zapier counts actions, n8n counts runs. Beginner ~7 min Verified July 31, 2026
  3. 03 Handle Customer Email Without Losing the Customer Three stacking layers for customer email: Gmail templates, the Help me write draft bar, and a paid AI inbox at $30 per seat. Beginner ~6 min Verified July 31, 2026
  4. 04 Draft Quotes and Proposals in Minutes Build a Claude project that drafts priced proposals from your own rate card, exclusions and past work, and outputs a .docx you can send. Beginner ~7 min Verified July 31, 2026
  5. 05 Turn Your Documents Into an Answering Machine Load your supplier terms, manuals and procedures into a grounded notebook, then ask questions that force a citation you can click. Beginner ~7 min Verified July 31, 2026
  6. 06 Keep Your Books Readable With AI Export a month of transactions, run three questions over it, and categorise with a Sheets formula you can audit later. Beginner ~6 min Verified July 31, 2026
  7. 07 Write Marketing Copy That Sounds Like Your Business Store your voice once in ChatGPT Custom Instructions, a Gemini Gem or a Claude Project, with the real character limits and the FTC rule on what you can claim. Beginner ~9 min Verified July 31, 2026
  8. 08 Schedule and Triage With an AI Assistant Use Help me schedule, Gmail search operators and Shortwave AI filters to cut inbox and calendar admin, with the documented limits on each one. Beginner ~9 min Verified July 31, 2026
  9. 09 Hire, Onboard and Document With AI Draft job ads and onboarding docs with AI, build a notebook a new hire can question, and stay inside the NYC and Illinois hiring-AI rules. Beginner ~10 min Verified July 31, 2026
  10. 10 What You Must Never Paste Into a Chatbot The exact training toggles and retention windows OpenAI, Anthropic and Google publish, and the data categories to keep out of every assistant. Beginner ~11 min Verified July 31, 2026
  11. 11 Cost Control: What This Stack Should Cost You Real seat, task and token prices for the small-business AI stack, checked 31 July 2026, plus the two price cliffs already dated on vendor pages. Beginner ~10 min Verified July 31, 2026
  12. 12 Review the Whole System Every Quarter A ninety-minute quarterly check on your AI stack: model retirement dates, vendor notice periods, privacy settings, usage meters and dead automations. Beginner ~9 min Verified July 31, 2026

Prerequisites are advisory. Every part is written to work on its own, so start wherever your problem is.

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