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If your quote takes two or three weeks and another company can send theirs today, you've given the customer a reason to go elsewhere before the work even starts.
Marketing and sales are important, but the systems behind the work deserve attention too. You can spend time attracting someone, then leave them waiting while you work out how to get a quote out the door.
For a business owner wondering where to start with AI, that slow process gives you something concrete to work on.
Make the work clear for your people
Operations can sound like a separate department. I'm talking about the systems and processes you put in place so your people know how to do the work.
When those are clear, you can do more of the thing you're good at. Technology and AI can then sit on top of that process to help you do it faster.
Consider a hypothetical choice between a business that needs weeks to send a quote and one that can send it today and have someone there tomorrow. How long are you asking a customer to wait?
Start with how the work gets done. Then look at what technology could improve.
Pick one manual task everybody hates
If your first reaction is that you're not good with computers, keep the starting point small. Pick one thing in your company that everybody hates doing. Something manual.
You already have a place to begin the conversation: the task itself. Ask ChatGPT how you could solve it with technology. You're asking about work you recognise, rather than trying to figure out what to do with AI in general.
You don't need to make the whole company the subject of that first question. Choose the manual job, explain what needs doing, and ask how technology could help.