Oren Kandel

82% of US small businesses have no employees. Not one. So the marketing team, the front desk and the bookkeeper are the same person. Usually after the last job, on a phone. Any advice that starts with "have your team" skips almost all of them.

A big travel site's CEO says AI agents bring in almost no bookings. 80% of its users like doing the research themselves. They swipe through 25 photos and message the host. People like picking. A barber, a contractor, a dinner spot. So your photos and reviews are still doing the selling. Keep them fresh.

"Strikes and gutters, ups and downs." Best review advice ever heard at a bowling alley. 74% of people only care about reviews from the last 3 months. Your great 2023 doesn't count anymore. Neither does that one bad night in April. Keep bowling.

A big card network tested AI shopping agents on everyday buys like TVs and laptops. They got it right 57% of the time, and plenty of the misses still bought something. The agents that asked more questions did better. Same rule as the best person behind any counter. Ask first, ring it up second.

A US state is drafting rules so a company can be run by AI agents, with one human on the books for capitalization. For a local shop the question is simpler. When a customer calls angry, whose phone rings? Keep a human on the last click.

About 1 in 5 new US businesses closes in year one. After five years, more than half are gone. Startup lesson I keep relearning: the survivors rarely had the best launch. They had a boring weekly routine they never skipped. Launch day is one day. Tuesdays are forever.

A top AI CEO says half of entry-level office jobs could disappear within 5 years. Nobody's asking where the next senior people come from. Judgment comes from doing the boring work first, badly, for a few years. Hire the junior. Give them the AI too.

A founder said he talks to his AI agents more than his own team, and called it dystopian. I'd worry about something else: nobody reading what the agents send back. Hand off the work. Keep the judgment.

Half of people say a templated review reply makes them less likely to pick a business. "Thank you for your feedback! We value every customer." That was slop before AI ever wrote it. Use their name. Mention the job. Say one true thing. Thirty seconds.

A major trading app just opened accounts for AI agents, with spending caps and approval steps built in. The caps are the feature. They're why anyone will trust it. Same for any AI near your business. Decide what it does alone and what needs your yes.

Almost half of people won't use a business with fewer than 20 reviews. Only 9% will try one with 5 or fewer. Plenty of shops have 50 happy regulars and 6 reviews. Nobody ever asked. Your best marketing is already in your customers' heads. Ask this week.

A new tool lets anyone generate hundreds of AI models for their ads. Online, people are fighting about whether real models lose work. For a local business the question is simpler. Would you let someone who doesn't exist into your kitchen to fix the sink? People hire the face in the ad. Make it the one who shows up.

Small Business Saturday is 4 weeks out. Last year shoppers said they spent about $18 billion at small shops that day, down from $22 billion the year before. One Saturday can't rescue a quiet November. The day goes to the shops people already saw all month.

A big tech CEO says AI isn't stalling at work because it's dumb. It's stalling because it doesn't know how the company actually runs. Same at a local shop. Which customers hate phone calls. Why Tuesday stays slow. It all lives in the owner's head. Write ten of those down once. That's your head start.

A guy with a three-person business had an AI assistant file a small claims case over a contract dispute. The other side settled 20 minutes later. Most owners have a list like that. The unpaid invoice. The vendor who stopped answering. Not worth a lawyer, so it sits. That's where AI should earn its keep.

Weekend rule for owners, from a bowling alley: "This is not 'Nam. This is bowling. There are rules." Posting has rules too. Show up every week. Sound like yourself. Never post anything you wouldn't say to a customer's face.

AI made posting cheap. So now everyone posts the same thing. The owners who win this year won't post more. They'll post what only they have. The job. Their face. Their opinion on the cheap fix the last guy did.

Researchers at a big AI lab say today's AI is great alone and bad at working in teams. That's why the economy hasn't moved much yet. Same in a local business. A bot that books the job but can't hand it to the guy with the truck isn't help. The handoff is the product.

Gen Z job seekers told reporters they'd take a personal rejection over silence. Your customers feel the same. The quote request that never got an answer. The DM from last Tuesday. "We're booked till March" is a fine reply. No reply isn't.

Year one of a startup: what should we build? Year three: what should we stop building? The second question is harder. It's also the one that decides if year four happens.