Lesson #378: Artificial Intelligence Can Do Everything Now--Good News For Owners, Bad News for Staff

 Artificial intelligence (AI) has been more than a buzzword for the last couple years; it is literally taking over every single aspect of how businesses are run.  Big corporations have even started hiring Chief Artificial Intelligence Officers to ensure their organizations are getting the most out of AI tools, largely to replace slow/expensive human-driven tasks with fast/inexpensive technology-driven tasks.  The applications are literally endless, but this post should help inspire you to rethink everything you are doing in your business, as there is probably a technology out there that can do it faster and cheaper.

I did a little researching on Google to see what AI tools I could stumble upon, and I was amazed at the breadth and depth of AI tools I found:

Need a business plan?

Need market research?

Need competitor analysis?

Need products designed?

Need marketing help?

Need customer service support?

Need technology coded?

Need financial reporting?

Need fund raising?

Need to recruit staff?

Great, there are now AI tools out there that can quickly and easily do all of these tasks.  Yes, you can get a lot of these same topics addressed from the main AI engines like ChatGPT, Claude and Google, but the businesses linked about are mastering their craft in each of these specific verticals.  So, as we are all experimenting with these main AI engines, we should also be experimenting with some of these niche solution providers we have never heard of before, as maybe they have a better “mousetrap” (at least for now).

Why do I share this?  For three reasons.  Firstly, an “old timer” like myself (aged 56) would have done what I normally would have done for these topics: hire people or consultants that produce the work product needed.  Because that is how I have always done it.  I didn’t even know there were other technology driven options out there that could help me move faster and cheaper.  And I am guessing there are a lot of other people out there that would have done the same thing.  So, I encourage you to take a pause, see what technology options are available to you and see if they can help you save time and money versus the “old ways” of doing business.

Secondly, if these new technologies prove effective, it is going to dramatically decrease the amount of capital that will be required to get new startup businesses launched and operating in the market.  Which means the speed at which your business faces new competition will be much faster.  So, you no longer have the benefit of “resting on your laurels” or coasting based on your past successes.  It won’t take long for some smart AI coder to launch a better product, making your business obsolete.  So, you need to protect your turf and go on the offensive:  figure out how AI can help you with your product development roadmap and innovation efforts.  If you don’t, someone else will!

Thirdly, all human workers out there should be “shaking in their boots”, in terms of thinking about their job security.  Yes, companies like Amazon or Google say AI will help reduce their future hiring needs, letting them grow more efficiently while keeping all of their current staff.  But lets not fool ourselves; companies are driven by their shareholders that are seeking higher valuations, typically from higher profits.  And what is the best way to increase profits?  Replace a $60,000 a year salaried person with a near-free technology!  Yes, I am talking to all you graphic designers, technology developers and customer service agents!

While that may sound great for that specific company’s bottom line, if all companies out there are employing this same logic, this could mean massive layoffs in the years to come, with no replacement jobs that will enable them a “soft landing”.  It wouldn’t surprise me if a majority of Americans were living on welfare in the next decade or two, which is a pretty bleak forecast.  The stock market may do great, with all the accelerating corporate profits as technologies replace people.  But the average American and their consumer spending power is going to be materially impacted for the worse.

Yes, all of these new technologies are very cool.  Who doesn’t want to move faster and cheaper on their growth plans?  But when you think about the long term implications of these AI technology advancements, it doesn’t paint a very rosy picture for the future of most average Americans.  So, if you are worried about getting potentially disintermediated by technology (which should be most of you!), start putting your “defense plans” in place now.  Start training yourself up with new skills that won’t get cut by profit-hungry management teams.  Who knows, maybe you can use the AI technologies to your advantage, in launching the next really great startup that everyone will be using.

It will be very interesting to see how this all shakes out in the coming years.  At a minimum,  you all need to be learning how AI technologies can help your businesses and or your specific roles.  If not, you may not have a profitable business or a defendable job for much longer.  Sorry to be “doom and gloom” here, just calling it like I see it.

For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: @georgedeeb.

 

[VIDEO] The Investor Playbook for Startup Capital

I was recently interviewed by ASBN, an online "television network" serving the small business community, about how investors assess startups before they invest.  This video will help you learn about the "Four M's" that investors are looking for:  the market, the model, the management and the momentum of the business.  I thought this video turned out great, and I wanted to share it with all of you to make sure fund raising efforts prove successful. I hope you like it!!

The embedded video player didn't give me the option to change the size of this video.  But, if you want to see a bigger version, simply click the expand size button in the player above.

Thanks again to Jim Fitzpatrick and the ASBN team for having me on the show.  I look forward to our next interview together.

For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: @georgedeeb.

What Will Happen to Your Business if You Die

I was recently engaged by the estate of a founder to assist in finding a new owner for their business after the founder died. There were a lot of valuable business lessons that came out of this process that I wanted to share with you. Not for your estate survivors after you die, but instead for you before you die, so you don’t repeat the same mistakes of this other entrepreneur who failed to properly lay out a clear legacy plan in the event of his death, leaving the survivors scrambling looking for answers in the wake of his death.

Read the rest of this post in Entrepreneur, which I guest authored this week.

For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: @georgedeeb.

Lesson #377: What to Expect After a Change in Control of Your Business

Congratulations, you just sold your business!  But don’t expect things to remain the same under the new ownership.  Oftentimes, new owners have a different vision of what to do with your business to help achieve their needs, and they may have different ideas on how best to do certain things inside of the organization, resulting in a ripple effect of chaos for the transitioning staff in its wake.  This post will help you figure out what to expect after a change in control, so the expectations of you and your team are properly managed ahead of time.

Every Single Aspect of Your Business Can Change

Even if the buyer says nothing will change post-sale during their “romance” period of getting you to agree to a sale, that is rarely the case, as a buyer starts to put their own fingerprints all over your business.  This could be things like changing your product mix or website to better bias their products or other preferred vendors.  Or, changing all the various systems your business uses for accounting, marketing or operations, that will be a learning curve for the legacy staff.  Or, the other specifics of your business, like the details of your sales and marketing plan, or the details of your sales commission plans, as the Buyer may have experience in doing these things in other ways that better syncs with their current business.  So, the point here is to get ready for a lot of change.

Get Ready for Potential Layoffs

Even if a buyer says they plan on keeping everyone post sale, that doesn’t mean they will.  There are high odds that overlapping positions, especially in the management ranks, are likely candidates for the buyer to want to remove.  And a buyer will be a lot less willing to carry any struggling staff members, that you were more forgiving with.  If a salesperson is not hitting their sale quota, or the sales organization has too much excess capacity in relation to the leads coming in, those staff members will be a risk.  So, prepare for this during your negotiation period, to make sure any severance packages are pre-negotiated for any layoffs in the first year, to protect your staff members.

Get Ready for a Lot of Paper-Pushing Busy Work

Everything is going to change post sale.  Your legal entity’s name, your bank accounts, your credit cards, your sales tax filing systems, your government contracts, your social media profiles, your about us pages, etc.  Prepare to backburner your normal work for a while, as all this minutia gets sorted out, setting everything up for the new owner and communicating such changes to all of your staff, customers, vendors, partners, etc.  And your finance team is most likely going to be doing lots of post-sale report building and auditing for any working capital adjustments or other post-closing monies that are moving around between the parties.  The first few months post a sale will not be your most efficient work months!

You Need to Prepare to Let Go of Your Baby

Your “baby” is grown up now and post-sale is somebody else’s “teenager” to worry about, not yours.  Psychologically, this can be a very difficult time for the founders to transition through as the new owner starts to implement their vision and desired solutions, which most likely is different to how you were doing those same things before.  That is okay; let go of any “sacred cows”, be flexible to the new owner’s needs and don’t have any opinions that are “set in stone”.  If you think they are screwing something up, that is their lesson to learn, even if you communicating your past learnings on such topics are falling on their “deaf ears”. 

You May Need to Find a New Passion

Nobody loves a business as much as its founder does.  And that founder invests a lot of blood, sweat and tears in helping that business grow and succeed.  But once you cash out, and you no longer have the economic upside you once had, your emotional ties to the business will start to fade over time.  When you feel that passionate flame starting to burn out, most likely within a few months of closing your transaction, that may be a good time to start looking for your next “baby” to raise, where you can get that passion back from your next venture.  It is very hard to simply be an “employee” in the buyer’s organization, after you have had been “steering the ship” for all the years prior.

Closing Thoughts

I have been the CEO of three businesses that were scaled and sold to a new buyer.  The themes discussed in this post come from firsthand experience of what happened in the wake of each of those changes in control.  So, before you sign your name to your pending sale agreement, make sure you can deal with the above issues raised, practically and psychologically.  If you can’t, maybe you shouldn’t sell?  But, if you can, make sure you go into the sale process “eyes wide open”, and for anything that you feel could become post-sale issues you want to protect against, make sure you get it pre-negotiated in your sale agreement before you sign on the dotted line.  Good luck!

For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: @georgedeeb.

 

[VIDEO] How Founders Can Evaluate Venture Capital Options

 

I was recently interviewed by ASBN, an online "television network" serving the small business community, about the importance of doing your research before picking a venture capital partner.  This video will help you learn about how to find the best firm and the best partner therein for your business.  I thought this video turned out great, and I wanted to share it with all of you to make sure fund raising efforts prove successful, both in the near term and the long term. I hope you like it!!

The embedded video player didn't give me the option to change the size of this video.  But, if you want to see a bigger version, simply click the expand size button in the player above.

Thanks again to Jim Fitzpatrick and the ASBN team for having me on the show.  I look forward to our next interview together.

For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: @georgedeeb.

AI Can Do Everything Now and It Will Replace You--Protect Yourself Now!

 

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been more than a buzzword for the last couple of years; it is literally taking over every single aspect of how businesses are run. Big corporations have even started hiring Chief Artificial Intelligence Officers to ensure their organizations are getting the most out of AI tools, largely to replace slow and expensive human-driven tasks with fast and inexpensive technology-driven tasks.  The applications are literally endless, but this article should help inspire you to rethink everything you are doing in your business, as there is probably a technology out there that can do it faster and cheaper.

Read the rest of this post in Entrepreneur, which I guest authored this week.

For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: @georgedeeb.