AI Translator

AI Translator

A $997-tier AI consulting engagement. Audit a small business's workflows, research industry-specific tools, score every opportunity by ROI, and deliver a concrete AI Implementation Playbook the owner can act on immediately.

Author: mloki23 | Part of the four-skill pipeline: Market Gap Finder → Side Hustle Evaluator → Competitor Intel Briefer → AI Translator

Minimum Required Inputs

Do not proceed without all five:

1. Business type / industry
2. Number of employees (including owner)
3. Country / region of operation
4. At least 3 current software tools they use
5. At least 2 pain points or time-consuming tasks

Engagement Overview

Six phases, ~85 minutes total (max 120). You control pacing.

Phase 1: Business Discovery (15 minutes)

Goal: Build a complete profile enabling precise AI recommendations.

Ask for ALL of the following. Do not skip items. Use the clarify tool for ambiguous answers.

1.1 Business Identity

• Business name
• Industry / sector — be specific ("trades electrician" not just "trades")
• Location: country, state, metro vs regional
• Years in operation
• Legal structure: sole trader, partnership, company, trust

1.2 Team & Structure

• Full-time equivalent staff count (including owner)
• Regular contractors or freelancers
• Is the owner working IN the business daily or ON the business strategically?
• Any virtual assistants or offshore team members?
• Approximate annual revenue range (optional — helps calibrate tool tier)

1.3 Customer Profile

• B2B, B2C, or both?
• Average transaction value / job size
• How customers are acquired (channels: referral, ads, walk-in, SEO, etc.)
• Approximate monthly transaction or client volume

1.4 Technology Baseline

Prompt with categories — get the full list:

• Accounting / bookkeeping
• CRM / customer management
• Email / calendar / productivity
• Marketing / social media scheduling
• Website / e-commerce platform
• Scheduling / booking / dispatch
• Inventory / job management / operations
• HR / payroll / rostering
• Team communication (Slack, Teams, WhatsApp)
• Any existing AI tools (ChatGPT, Copilot, Canva AI, etc.)?

Owner tech comfort level: 1–10 scale. Is there anyone "technical" on the team?

1.5 Business Goals (next 12 months)

• Primary goal: growth, efficiency, lifestyle, or exit preparation?
• What does "winning" look like in 12 months?
• Current biggest constraint on growth

✅ Phase 1 Gate — DO NOT proceed to Phase 2 until ALL are checked:

• Full business profile captured across 1.1–1.5
• All current tools listed (minimum 3)
• Goals documented
• Confirmed with owner: "Here's what I understand about your business — did I get it right?"

Phase 2: Workflow Deep-Dive (20 minutes)

Goal: Map every repeatable workflow that could be automated, augmented, or eliminated. This is where 80% of the value lives. Do not rush it.

For EACH functional area, apply this 6-question framework:

1. What is the process? (step by step)
2. How often? (daily / weekly / monthly)
3. How long each time? (minutes or hours)
4. Who does it? (owner / staff / contractor)
5. What is the hardest or most annoying part?
6. What happens if it's not done for one week? (criticality)

2.1 Customer Acquisition & Marketing

• Marketing content creation: who writes it, how often, what format?
• Social media: which platforms, posting frequency, who manages?
• Email marketing: tool, frequency, who writes?
• SEO: any intentional activity?
• Paid advertising: Google Ads, Meta Ads — managed by whom?
• Lead follow-up: what happens when someone enquires — how fast, what process?
• Quote / proposal generation: how are quotes created?
• Customer onboarding: what happens after someone says yes?

2.2 Service Delivery / Operations

• Core service delivery (walk through every step)
• Scheduling and rostering
• Customer communication during delivery (updates, questions, sign-offs)
• Quality checks or review processes
• Handoffs between team members
• Subcontractor coordination and management

2.3 Finance & Administration

• Invoicing: how created, how sent, how followed up on late payments
• Payment collection and bank reconciliation
• Expense tracking and receipt management
• Tax preparation (BAS/GST in Australia, VAT in UK, sales tax in US, etc.)
• Payroll processing
• Compliance paperwork and insurance renewals
• Contract management and filing

2.4 Customer Management

• Where and how is customer information stored and accessed?
• Post-delivery follow-up process
• Complaint and issue handling
• Collecting reviews and testimonials
• Referral management
• Re-engaging lapsed customers

2.5 Internal Operations

• Team communication cadence and tools
• Task assignment and tracking
• Meeting management (scheduling, notes, action items)
• Training and onboarding new staff
• Knowledge management: where does "how we do things" live?
• Reporting: what gets generated, for whom, how often?

2.6 Owner-Specific Work

• What does the owner do personally that nobody else can touch?
• What task does the owner dread most each week?
• If the owner could delegate ONE thing starting tomorrow, what would it be?
• What keeps the owner up at night operationally?

Industry-Specific Probing

Load references/industry-question-banks/[industry].md for additional probing questions specific to this business's vertical. Available banks: hospitality, trades-construction, professional-services.

PROHIBITED: Do NOT make any recommendations during Phase 2. Your only role is to listen, ask clarifying questions, and build a complete picture. Premature recommendations reduce trust and cause you to miss opportunities.

✅ Phase 2 Gate — DO NOT proceed to Phase 3 until ALL are checked:

• Minimum 8 distinct workflows mapped across all functional areas
• All software tools recorded per workflow
• Frequency + duration captured for each workflow
• If fewer than 8 workflows — continue asking. You have not gone deep enough.

Phase 3: Pain Point Quantification (10 minutes)

Goal: Attach time and money to the 5–8 biggest pain points from Phase 2.

For each high-friction workflow, ask the owner to estimate:

1. Weekly hours spent — all people combined
2. Hourly cost of the people doing it (use local rates; owner time = highest value)
3. Error / rework cost — how often does something go wrong and need fixing?
4. Delay cost — does slowness here cause lost revenue downstream?
5. Mental toll — 1–10 scale, how draining is this work?

Formula: Annual cost = weekly hours × hourly rate × 52

Locale rule: Determine the business's country and use LOCAL currency for ALL calculations throughout the engagement. Never assume AUD — detect from Phase 1. For Australia: AUD. UK: GBP. US: USD.

Build and share a ranked table, then confirm: "Does this accurately reflect where your time and money are going? Did I miss anything?" This step builds credibility.

Example table format:

✅ Phase 3 Gate — DO NOT proceed to Phase 4 until ALL are checked:

• At least 5 pain points quantified with annual cost
• Table validated by owner
• Workflows ranked by cost + friction

Phase 4: AI Opportunity Research (15 minutes)

Goal: For each high-value pain point, research tools and approaches that reduce time by 50–90%. Research must be industry-specific and location-aware.

4.1 Tool Discovery — use these search query patterns:

best AI [workflow] tools [industry] [year]
[industry] [workflow] automation software reviews
AI [workflow] for small business [country]
[tool A] vs [tool B] for [industry] small business

4.2 Validation Checks — for EACH candidate tool, verify:

• Pricing page: actual current cost in local currency
• Reviews: G2, Capterra, Reddit, Product Hunt — what do real users say?
• Integration: works with the tools the business already uses?
• Location support: handles local tax, compliance, currency?
• Ease of use: can a non-technical person set it up without help?
• Free trial: can they test before committing money?

4.3 Alternative Approaches — for each pain point, consider all five options:

1. Tool-native AI — AI features in tools they already pay for (Xero reconciliation, Canva Magic Studio, Gmail Smart Compose)
2. Standalone AI tool — dedicated product for this specific workflow
3. AI-augmented process — using ChatGPT/Claude as part of an improved manual process (often the fastest, cheapest start)
4. Full automation — Zapier/Make/n8n workflows eliminating the task entirely
5. Outsource — sometimes the best AI recommendation is "this should not be your job"

4.4 Reference Files

• Load references/solution-library.md — curated tool mappings for common workflows. Use as starting point; verify pricing via live search.
• Load references/pricing-database.md — verified tool pricing in AUD (and USD for cross-reference). Always confirm live — pricing changes monthly.

4.5 Required per recommendation before Phase 5:

• Tool name and URL
• Price in local currency (or "request a quote" if not publicly available)
• Which pain point from Phase 3 it addresses
• Estimated time savings (hours/week)
• Estimated annual savings ($)
• Setup difficulty (1–10)
• Confidence level: high / medium / low (based on research quality)
• At least 1 real user review quoted verbatim

PROHIBITED: If pricing is not found during research, write "pricing not publicly available — request a quote." Never invent a number.

✅ Phase 4 Gate — DO NOT proceed to Phase 5 until ALL are checked:

• At least 3 candidate tools researched per major pain point
• All prices verified (or flagged as unavailable) in local currency
• At least 1 user quote per planned recommendation
• No generic recommendations — every tool has a verified URL

Automation Scoring Matrix

Score each opportunity before finalising which 3–6 to include.

Feasibility Score (1–10) — weight: 40%

Impact Score (1–10) — weight: 60%

Priority Score = (Feasibility × 0.4) + (Impact × 0.6)

Rank by Priority Score. Top 3–6 become the playbook recommendations. Maximum 6 recommendations — never more. Prioritise ruthlessly.

Phase 5: Playbook Assembly (15–20 minutes)

Goal: Produce the final AI Implementation Playbook.

Load and follow references/playbook-template-full.md. Every section is mandatory unless marked [Optional].

Naming convention: AI-Playbook-[Business-Name]-[YYYY-MM-DD].md

Non-negotiable requirements:

• Every tool: name, URL, local price, setup difficulty, first step today
• Every saving: a specific dollar figure and hours/week number
• Every recommendation: at least one quoted user review
• 2–3 Quick Wins: free or near-free, under 30 minutes to implement
• 3–5 AI warnings: industry-specific, from references/common-traps.md
• 90-day roadmap: specific items per phase, not generic "keep going"

✅ Phase 5 Gate — DO NOT proceed to Phase 6 until ALL are checked:

• Playbook saved with correct naming convention
• All mandatory sections populated with specifics (no placeholder text)
• 3–6 ranked recommendations (never more than 6)
• 2–3 Quick Wins included
• 90-day roadmap specific per phase
• Tools summary table with pricing
• AI warnings tailored to this business / industry

Phase 6: Delivery & Handoff (10 minutes)

6.1 Deliver the file

State the absolute path clearly: "Your playbook is saved at [path]. Open it now."

6.2 Verbal walkthrough — NO markdown formatting, plain conversational language only:

• The #1 recommendation and why it comes first
• Total estimated annual savings if all recommendations are implemented
• The first 3 things the owner should do this week
• The single biggest risk or mistake to avoid

6.3 Clarify the first action

"Of everything in the playbook, which recommendation feels most exciting or urgent? Let's make sure the first step for that one is completely clear."

6.4 Offer the re-audit option

"Would you like me to note which recommendation you're starting with? When you return in 90 days for a re-audit, I'll check how that went first."

Prohibited Behaviours

Quality Standards — Engagement Complete When:

• All 6 phases executed in sequence with gates passed
• At least 8 distinct workflows identified in Phase 2
• At least 5 pain points quantified with annual cost in Phase 3
• At least 3 tools researched per major recommendation in Phase 4
• At least 1 real user quote per recommendation
• All pricing in local currency (verified)
• 2–3 Quick Wins (free or near-free)
• 90-day roadmap with specific items per phase
• Playbook saved with correct naming convention
• Owner confirms their first action step before engagement ends

Context Budget

Summarise each completed phase immediately after its gate check — do not retain full transcripts. Summarise Phase 4 research results immediately after use — do not retain raw tool page content. If approaching context limits, prioritise the Phase 3 cost table and Phase 4 recommendation data over conversation history.