AI Consulting
Helping small businesses in West Michigan automate and build custom tools with AI.
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I’m unemployed and need income. That’s the honest starting point.
But the reason consulting specifically makes sense is that all my skills kind of point here: looking at new AI stuff all day, building things AI-natively, thinking about systems and automation. Most small business owners know AI is changing things and have no idea what to do about it. They’re not going to hire a full-time AI person. They don’t need a strategy deck. They need someone who can walk in, understand their operations, and build something that saves them time or money immediately.
The consulting pitch is basically: let me do for your business what I’ve been doing for my own projects. Targeting about 20 hours a week, which leaves time for Fantasy Joes and other projects.
What I’d actually do
Depends on the business. Find the highest-leverage inefficiency and fix it. Common examples:
- Manual processes that should be automated — paper in the field, data entry, report generation
- A CRM or platform they’re paying for but barely using
- Multiple systems that don’t talk to each other, so information lives in five places
- Not getting back to customers fast enough
- Building custom software tools for specific workflows
Whatever the pain point is, it’s probably solvable. The first step is understanding the business, and then figuring out a solution that actually fits how they work.
The distribution system
I built an AI pipeline to find and reach potential clients. It scrapes local businesses that fit the profile, researches each one, and then a six-agent pipeline generates a personalized outreach package — a custom postcard with AI-generated imagery and a customized landing page on nickdahlhoff.com explaining how I could help them specifically.
The funnel is: postcard → personalized website → booking. The plan is to send 100-200 postcards and see what comes back. Whether it converts is the open question.
Where it stands
Pre-launch. No clients yet, no postcards sent yet. The pipeline is mostly built, the website needs to go live. Haven’t done any consulting work yet — paid or unpaid. The work itself I’m confident in. The client acquisition is the unknown.
Updates
March 2026
Built the full prospecting pipeline: broad scrape to find local businesses, deep scrape to research each one, then a six-agent pipeline that generates personalized postcards and landing pages. Personal website (nickdahlhoff.com) is live. Next step: send the first batch of postcards and see what converts.