About this book:

"Small Business, Big AI" by Josh Todd offers a practical, non-technical guide for local entrepreneurs to leverage artificial intelligence for business growth and efficiency. The book emphasizes a "Pilot First" approach, encouraging owners to identify specific pain points, conduct small, time-boxed experiments (typically 2-4 weeks) with low-cost or no-code AI tools, and rigorously measure the impact on metrics like time saved, revenue increased, or errors reduced. It stresses the importance of strategy before tools, advocating for a clear problem definition, hypothesis, and success criteria for each AI initiative.

The book delves into various functional areas where AI can be applied, from automating administrative tasks like appointments and billing, to enhancing customer service with chatbots, boosting local marketing efforts, and streamlining content creation for social media and websites. It also covers more complex applications such as sales lead scoring, inventory management and predictive ordering, service delivery optimization, and even HR functions like resume screening and onboarding. A consistent theme across these applications is the "human-in-the-loop" model, where AI assists and drafts, but human judgment, oversight, and final approval remain crucial, particularly for sensitive or high-stakes tasks.

Key to the book's guidance is a focus on practical implementation, including advice on data fundamentals (collecting, cleaning, and securing data with consent), choosing appropriate tools (SaaS, APIs, no-code platforms), and building a repeatable project roadmap from pilots to standardized processes and scaled production. It also addresses critical considerations like measuring ROI, managing data security and privacy risks, ensuring compliance with regulations, and navigating change management to overcome staff resistance and foster adoption. Through numerous case studies and actionable checklists, the book empowers bootstrapped owners to integrate AI thoughtfully and incrementally, transforming their businesses not through radical overhauls, but through steady, compounding improvements that enhance efficiency, customer trust, and competitive advantage.

What You'll Find Inside:

• Practical 'Pilot First' Approach: The book focuses on small, low-risk, time-boxed experiments (30-90 days) to prove value quickly, allowing you to save time, increase revenue, and reduce errors without a big upfront investment.
• AI Across Your Entire Business: It provides specific, actionable playbooks for a wide range of functions, including automating admin, customer service chatbots, local marketing, sales enablement, inventory forecasting, hiring, and financial management.
• Strategy Before Tools: Learn to build an 'AI mindset' by assessing your business for the best opportunities, setting a clear strategy, and choosing the right tools (SaaS, No-Code, APIs) that fit your budget and technical comfort level, avoiding common pitfalls.
• People and Process First: AI is presented as a power tool, not a magic wand. The book offers practical guidance on change management, training staff, overcoming resistance, and ensuring human oversight for security, compliance, and customer trust.
• Real-World Playbooks and Case Studies: The content is built for non-technical owners, featuring step-by-step pilots, checklists, ROI calculation methods, and real-world case studies from local businesses like cafés, salons, and contractors to make the concepts tangible and replicable.

Who's It For:

This book is for non-technical small business owners, entrepreneurs, and operators who feel overwhelmed by daily tasks and are curious but skeptical about AI. It's specifically for local businesses like salons, cafes, contractors, and boutique agencies who need a practical, step-by-step playbook to automate repetitive work, save time, and compete more effectively without a large budget or a technical team. If you're looking for clear guidance on where to start with AI and how to measure real-world results, this book is for you.