There are a great many people selling AI to small businesses at the moment. Some will leave you with a business that runs lighter. Some will leave you with a subscription and a tool nobody uses. These questions tell the two apart, and they work on us as well as anyone else.
If the answer is yes, every recommendation has a second reason behind it. A good answer is a plain no, and a willingness to work with the software you already run.
The honest answer to many AI questions in a small business is “leave that alone”. Ask for an example of something they have advised a client not to do. If there is not one, they have never said no.
A good answer involves a number counted before anything is built, and the same number counted afterwards, in hours and in pounds. A poor answer involves the word “transformation”.
Somebody should spend time in the business, with the people who do the work, before deciding what to change. If the proposal arrives before the visit, it was written for someone else.
You should. Ask whether you can take your records out at any time, whether the system itself becomes yours, and what you would be left with if the arrangement ended.
Everything breaks eventually: a supplier changes something, a form moves, a password expires. Ask who notices, how quickly it is fixed, and whether your team know what to do in the meantime.
The person you meet is not always the person who builds it, or the person who answers the phone a year later. Ask. In a small firm the answer should be short.
A fixed fee, agreed before work starts, for a piece of work with a clear end. Be wary of anything priced by the hour with no estimate, and of anything that cannot be explained on one page.
Each stage should end in a decision that is yours. If the only way out is to keep going, that is a reason not to start.
Not a logo wall. An example, described by what changed and what it was worth, in a sector close enough to yours that the problems rhyme. And ask whether you can speak to the client.
We sell no software and take no commission. We say no on the page and in the room. Every improvement starts with a figure and is measured against it. Fees are fixed and agreed in writing. Your data and, in time, the system are yours. Tom builds it and Tom answers the phone. The rest is on our home page, and the first conversation is twenty minutes at no charge.
Twenty minutes with Tom Williams, at no charge. Tell us how your business runs and where the days go, and we will tell you where the opportunities are likely to be, and whether an assessment is worth your money. If it is not, that is what you will hear.
Book a free scoping call →