Life As An Entrepreneur in The World of AI

By Richard Dickson

Becoming a successful entrepreneur is never easy. There are many “get rich quick” schemes that will tell you otherwise, that all you need is a solid idea for a business and you’ll be raking in the cash in no time. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I have seen businesses all over Scotland fail because of this: young, bright-eyed entrepreneurs start up their businesses without doing the prerequisite leg-work, and before the end of the year they’re all the way back to square one – sometimes now saddled with massive debt.

There are steps you need to take before the momentous decision of starting your own company: investing in frameworks, logistics, and equipment, taxation and regulatory costs, building a proper business plan, creating a cashflow forecast, and much more.

What else do you need to do in order to succeed as a small business owner?

An important thing to know is that this isn’t a career choice, but a re-orientation of your whole life.

This means dedicating your life to success, possibly sacrificing friendships or a university career for it. I had too many friends back in Glasgow, when I was a trainee electrician, who would mock you and try to bring you down if they knew you were trying to better yourself like this. You can’t let that kind of negativity in, because it’ll start to work its way into your professional life.

And yes, I said it, university. The money you’d spend on rent, a mortgage, or tuition fees is far better spent on investment in yourself. Not just that; a business mentor will help you far more on your road to success than any academic lecturer. You need to surround yourself with mentors, in fact, the kind of people that will fuel your drive and ambition.

So, that’s a lot of negatives. What are the positives about entrepreneurship in the modern world? Two words. Artificial Intelligence. When I was starting out, I put a huge amount of work into bolstering my online presence, and now almost all of that work can be automated!

There are a huge amount of resources available – most of them either free of charge or extremely cheap – that anyone can access to help AI supercharge their business. There are even video tutorials on how to use them! You can save a lot of headaches, effort, and money, with just a little investment. That investment, in fact, being primarily time and effort, rather than financial.

I have seen businesses even double their profits using AI, through a combination of decreasing their costs and doubling their revenue – mainly in the online space. It’s a constantly evolving tool with close to unlimited potential, and we luck few get to be at the absolute forefront of this major change in our society.

So remember: be tough and resilient, willing to make sacrifices and work hard. Also, however, you need to willing to adapt and evolve, learn to use new tools, and make your work valuable. If you do all of that, you will succeed. All that being said, here are my five top tips for using AI to enhance your business:

1. AI isn’t optional and it isn’t something to be scared of.. In 10 years there will be businesses using AI, and businesses that have failed.
2. Lose the fear of needing to be a tech wizard. Businesses designing AI systems MUST make them user friendly to get their subscription revenue as high as possible. You don’t need to be a tech expert
3. Most common AI systems that will make an immediate impact in your business are inexpensive or even have free versions. We save roughly £200,000 per year on salaries, and our AI tool and subscription costs for those creative departments total around $1000 annually.
4. There are enough AI experts in the world now that you can get access to direct AI and automation implementation training. So you get the fast track version of the best tools and how to use them.
5. Evolve your thinking about your staff using AI. ”I pay you to do it, not a computer” is an inefficient way to run a business. We get 50% more productivity out of our members of staff due to their AI training. When you build the right team and deliver the right training, they will be MORE efficient, and revenue WILL increase.

For more information, please visit: https://growthgetters.com/