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AI Consulting Starter Pack

Become The
AI Consultant
SMBs Actually Call

OpenAI just put $4 billion behind sending engineers into Fortune 500 firms. Every business below them still needs help and has no one to call. This is the 5-step playbook to step into that gap, with the exact prompts to run at every step.

Before you start

AI consulting is a real, fast-growing service business. Specialists who pick one industry charge 30 to 40% more than generalists and close clients faster, because trust is built into the vertical. New AI consultants in 2026 are landing flat install fees between $2,000 and $10,000, plus monthly retainers of $500 to $3,000 per client. Five clients on retainer is a real income.

This is the 5-step process. Each step has one prompt you can copy straight into Claude and run today.

Step 01 Pick the one niche you already understand

Greg Isenberg called it best in 2026: "superniche is the new niche." Don't be the AI consultant for small businesses. Be the AI consultant for real estate brokerages in Texas, or dental practices with one to three locations, or local HVAC companies. The narrower the niche, the higher the trust and the higher the price.

The highest-paying SMB niches for AI consulting in 2026 are financial services ($3K to $7K per month retainers), healthcare and dental ($2K to $5K), real estate, and trades like HVAC, plumbing, and roofing. But the right niche for you is the one where you already understand the work. Past job, past industry, family business, a hobby you obsess over. Context beats expertise every time.

Run this prompt

The niche-finder

Adapted from Greg Isenberg's viral 2026 thread. Run it once, screenshot the output, and pick the niche that makes you nod three times.

You are my AI consulting strategist. Your job is to help me pick the ONE specific SMB niche where I'll build my AI consulting practice. Niche choice is the most important decision I'll make this year. Be honest with me, not flattering. My background (be specific, paste everything that gives me real-world context): - Jobs I've held in the past 10 years (title, industry, what I actually did): [LIST] - Industries I've sold to, supported, or built for: [LIST] - Family business or close relatives' businesses I've watched up close: [LIST] - Hobbies or side projects where I have nerd-level depth: [LIST] - Communities I'm already in (industry Slack, FB groups, trade associations): [LIST] - Geographic edge (places I have on-the-ground network): [LIST] - Anything I have a credential or license in: [LIST] - My current main income source: [DESCRIBE] Do five things. 1. List 10 candidate verticals where I have real context, ranked 1-10 on the strength of my edge. Be honest, not flattering. If my "edge" is "I worked in fashion retail 8 years ago" rate it accordingly. Show your reasoning in one line per vertical. 2. For my top 5 verticals, list the 5 most tedious, repeatable, weekly workflows the typical business owner in that vertical does. Be SPECIFIC (not "marketing" but "drafting follow-up emails to past leads after they ghost"). Rate each workflow 1-10 on AI-automation potential. 3. For my top 5 verticals, estimate the typical business's annual revenue and whether they can pay $2K-$10K for an install + $500-$3K/month retainer. Be honest. Some of these will be too small to support real consulting. 4. Pick the 2 verticals with the strongest mix of (a) my edge, (b) clear AI workflows, (c) businesses big enough to pay real money. Defend each pick in 3 sentences. If neither of my top 2 hits all three criteria cleanly, say so and tell me what to do about it. 5. For each of the 2 finalist verticals, write the one-sentence positioning statement I should use everywhere. LinkedIn headline, intro DM, cold email subject line: "I help [exact niche] use AI to [specific outcome] without [specific friction the niche knows]." End with one paragraph of pushback: if any part of my background is wishful thinking versus real lived context, name it. If I'd be better off picking a niche I didn't list because of a specific gap in my background, say that too. Voice: warm but ruthless. I'd rather hear hard truths now than spend 12 months building in the wrong vertical.
Step 02 Build real AI fluency inside that niche

Plan for 150 to 300 hours over 3 to 6 months, at 10 to 15 hours a week. That is the honest range to go from curious to paid-consultant fluency. You are not becoming an ML engineer. You are becoming the most AI-fluent person in your vertical.

Learn in this order. First, daily Claude and ChatGPT for your own work (you need the reps). Second, prompt and context engineering (Anthropic's own docs are the best free resource on the planet). Third, connectors so Claude can reach into Gmail, Calendar, QuickBooks, your CRM. Fourth, one no-code platform (Make, Zapier, or n8n) so you can hand off automations to clients who do not pay for Claude themselves.

Paid communities people are actually buying in 2026: Liam Ottley's AAA Accelerator, Nick Saraev's Maker School, and Justin Welsh's Creator MBA. None of them are required. Anthropic's docs plus Claude itself will get you 80% of the way there for free.

Run this prompt

My 90-day fluency plan

Paste this once you have your niche locked in. Claude builds you a week-by-week curriculum so you stop guessing what to study next.

You are my AI fluency coach. Your job is to build me a real, weekly study plan that takes me from current skill level to paid-consultant fluency in [MY NICHE] inside 12 weeks. No fluff, no theory I won't apply. My inputs: - The niche I picked in Step 1: [PASTE NICHE + POSITIONING STATEMENT] - Hours I can commit per week: [NUMBER, realistic] - Current AI fluency: [beginner who's used ChatGPT a few times / intermediate, comfortable with Claude / advanced, already building skills and connectors] - Tools I already pay for: [Claude / ChatGPT / Make / Zapier / n8n / none] - The ONE thing I'm most intimidated by: [e.g. "I've never written code", "I don't understand connectors", "I'm scared of pricing"] - A milestone that would prove I'm ready to ship: [e.g. "I'd feel confident pitching a $5K install if..."] Build me a 12-week fluency plan with FIVE phases. PHASE 1: REPS (WEEKS 1-2) The 5 prompting skills I need to drill daily and the 30-minute daily habit that builds reps. List the 3 Anthropic docs I should read first (link or describe). End each week with a self-check: 3 questions I should be able to answer with confidence. PHASE 2: NICHE IMMERSION (WEEKS 3-5) List the 20 most-tedious recurring workflows inside [MY NICHE] that an SMB owner does every week. For EACH workflow: - The workflow in one sentence - The rough Claude prompt that would automate it (placeholder prompt, ~80 words) - The connector(s) involved if any - AI-automation potential 1-10 with a one-line reason By end of Phase 2 I should be able to pitch ANY workflow on this list from memory in 60 seconds. PHASE 3: BUILD (WEEKS 6-8) Pick the 3 workflows from Phase 2 with the highest pain-to-effort ratio. For each: - Full buildable spec: which Claude features (skills, connectors, scheduled tasks, artifacts), which third-party tools, the order I'd build - What I'd charge for it as a standalone install - The metric the client would care about By end of Phase 3, I have ONE workflow fully built in my own Claude, end to end. PHASE 4: PROOF (WEEKS 9-10) Build my portfolio asset. Two parts: - A 90-second Loom demo of my installed workflow (script the Loom for me) - A one-page case study template I'll fill in with my free pilot client (Step 4) PHASE 5: SHIP (WEEKS 11-12) The exact 5 outreach actions I take per week to find my first free-install client. Specific: Reddit subreddit and the kind of comment to leave, LinkedIn DM script, local-niche-FB-group post copy, one networking coffee per week (with how to find the right person), one publicly-offered free workflow audit (the post copy). End EVERY week with: - 3 specific micro-deliverables I should have produced - A 5-question self-check - One "if you're behind, here's the minimum viable version of this week" fallback Voice: like a coach who's done this before and is rooting for me but won't let me bullshit myself.
Step 03 Build one repeatable workflow you can install

Don't sell consulting hours. Sell an install. Same workflow, same scope, same price, every time. Hourly billing caps your income and punishes you for getting faster.

The five highest-demand SMB workflows in 2026, ranked by the speed they pay back:

1. AI inbound lead response and qualification. Every lead that hits the website gets a personalized reply in under 5 minutes, qualified, and routed to the right person. This is the #1 retention driver because clients see new revenue inside 90 days.
2. Customer service triage or front-desk chat.
3. CRM hygiene and lead scoring.
4. Content and SEO engine.
5. AI-drafted vendor and operations emails.

Real receipt: an AI consultant named David installs AI chatbots for dental practices at $800 setup plus $200 per month. Fifteen active practices puts him at $3,000 in recurring revenue plus 2 to 3 new installs every month, on about 15 hours of work per week.

Run this prompt

Design my one install

Pick one workflow from the list above. Run this prompt. The output is your installable product, ready to demo.

You are my AI install product designer. Your job is to take one workflow and design the full, repeatable, packageable install I can sell over and over to businesses in [MY NICHE]. Same scope, same price, same deliverable every time. My inputs: - Niche: [PASTE NICHE] - The one workflow I'm installing: [PICK FROM LIST: inbound lead response / customer service triage / CRM hygiene / content engine / vendor + ops emails] - What I already know about the niche's tools (their CRM, their phone system, their email provider, their booking software): [LIST OR "STILL FIGURING OUT"] - My current AI build skill level: [beginner / intermediate / advanced] Build the full product spec. Seven sections. 1. THE BEFORE-AND-AFTER PICTURE Two paragraphs. The "before" paragraph describes how the business handles this workflow today, in vivid specific detail (e.g., "Right now, leads come into the contact form on your site and sit in an inbox no one is monitoring closely. Sarah at the front desk gets to them within 4 to 6 hours, drafts a reply, and 30% of the time forgets to follow up after the first message."). The "after" paragraph describes the same workflow with my install running. Use the business owner's own language, not consultant-speak. 2. THE EXACT DELIVERABLES Bullet list. Be concrete: "one Claude project named 'Front Desk', three saved skills (/qualify-lead, /draft-reply, /escalate-urgent), two connectors (Gmail + [their CRM]), one Slack alert when a high-value lead comes in, a written SOP doc for the team, and a 60-minute training session." 3. THE TECHNICAL BUILD Step-by-step. Which Claude features to use (skills, connectors, scheduled tasks, artifacts), which third-party tools, and the EXACT order I build them. Reference the real connectors that exist in the Claude directory. Never invent one. If I need to connect to a tool that's not a one-click connector, describe the actual workaround (paste from app, drop into Drive, etc.). 4. THE CLIENT-FACING ONBOARDING (DAY 0 TO DAY 14) - Day 0: kickoff call agenda (15 min) + what to ask the owner to gather - Day 1: 5 specific things I need from the client to start the build - Day 3-7: build and test - Day 10: dry-run with the owner watching - Day 14: go-live + 60-minute training with the team 5. THE METRICS I REPORT AT DAY 30, 60, 90 Three specific numbers per check-in that prove the install is working. Be quantifiable (e.g., "average response time to a new lead", "number of qualified leads passed to sales per week", "estimated revenue from leads that wouldn't have converted with the old workflow"). Add ONE qualitative win to surface alongside the numbers. 6. THE EXACT ONE-PAGE PROPOSAL COPY Sections in this order: their problem in their words, what I'm installing (deliverables list), the 30/60/90 outcomes, the price (install fee + monthly retainer), the 30-day money-back guarantee, the next-step call-to-action. 7. WHAT WILL TRIP ME UP Three predictable problems I'll hit on install #1, with the workaround for each (e.g., "their CRM is custom and doesn't have a Claude connector. Fallback: nightly CSV export from CRM into Drive, Claude reads from Drive"). Keep the whole package simple enough that I can deliver it the same way every time without bespoke work. The whole point is repeatability.
Step 04 Land your first 3 clients with the case-study ladder

The credibility trap is real. You need case studies to get clients, and clients to get case studies. The fix is doing three installs in 60 days. Three is the threshold where your positioning shifts from "I did this once" to "I do this."

The ladder that works: install #1 is free for a friend or local business in your niche, in exchange for a written outcome and an intro. Install #2 is at 50% off. Install #3 is full price. Run each as a 30 to 60 day scoped pilot on one specific workflow, not "AI for your whole business."

The most-cited 2026 quote from the University of Miami's career center on AI consulting: "The most common failure point is the inability to describe a specific AI project with a named business outcome that you personally built or led." The whole point of the ladder is buying that proof.

Run this prompt

Turn the install into a case study + outreach engine

Run this the day install #1 wraps. The output is your portfolio piece, your sales asset, your social proof, AND a 5-piece outreach package. All from one conversation.

You are my case-study writer and outreach strategist. Your job is to take one finished install and turn it into the sales engine that brings me clients #2 and #3 in the next 30 days. My inputs: - The install I just finished: [WORKFLOW + NICHE + CLIENT TYPE] - The client (named or anonymized): [CLIENT NAME OR "anonymized small dental practice in Austin"] - Hard numbers from the project (be specific): - Hours saved per week: [NUMBER] - Dollars saved per month: [NUMBER] - Revenue gained per month: [NUMBER OR "not tracked"] - Response-time improvement: [BEFORE → AFTER] - Error or miss rate change: [BEFORE → AFTER] - Owner quote (paste exact words from a call or email): [QUOTE] - Anything the client did NOT love about the install (be honest): [DESCRIBE OR "NONE"] Build me FIVE deliverables. 1. THE ONE-PAGE WRITTEN CASE STUDY Sections: - Client snapshot (one paragraph: name or type, size, location, what they do) - The problem in their own words (use their quote or paraphrase tightly) - What I installed (the deliverables list, plain language) - The named outcome (one big number front and center) - Three supporting numbers - A one-sentence owner quote - A "what's next" line on what they're scaling next with me - Total length under 400 words. Plain language. No consulting jargon. 2. THE LINKEDIN POST Under 200 words. Tells the story so other [NICHE] owners DM me. - Open with the specific number, not the vague claim - Three short paragraphs middle (the situation, the install, the result) - End with a soft CTA ("if you run a [niche] business and want me to look at where AI could earn back 10+ hours a week, comment INSTALL or DM me") - No emojis. No "thread below". No "follow for more". Real voice. 3. THE COLD EMAIL TO 10 NICHE PROSPECTS Under 100 words. Friendly tone. References the case study. - Subject line that names the dollar or time number, not "Quick question" - One sentence on who I am (positioning statement from Step 1) - One sentence on the case study with the named outcome - One sentence on what I'd want to do with them - One clear next step (15-minute call this week or next?) 4. THE 60-SECOND LOOM DEMO SCRIPT A word-for-word script I record over a screen recording of the install in action. The script has 4 beats: - Beat 1 (0-10s): the before-state in the client's words - Beat 2 (10-30s): the install, demoed live - Beat 3 (30-45s): the after-state, with the specific numbers on screen - Beat 4 (45-60s): the call to action ("if this is your version of this problem too, comment or DM") 5. THE PRICING + TERMS UPDATE Given I now have one case study, what should I raise install fees and retainers to for client #2? Defend the new pricing with two reasons. Then give me the exact language I'll use to tell client #2 the price ("Standard install is $X. For early customers in [niche], I'm running it at $Y this quarter only"). Be SPECIFIC. Generic case studies are useless. The whole point is named outcomes in real numbers.
Step 05 Package and price like an installer, not an hourly worker

Stop quoting hourly rates. Flat install fee plus monthly retainer is how every consultant making real money does this in 2026.

Anchor for new consultants (zero or one case study): $2,000 to $5,000 install fee + $500 to $1,500 per month retainer. With 3+ case studies in your niche: raise install fees to $10,000 to $15,000 and retainers to $2,000 to $5,000 per month. A landscaping company in 2026 paid a single AI consultant $12,000 flat for one quote-automation install that now handles 80% of their quotes and saves 15 hours a week. Real receipt.

The next move once you have 5+ installs: value-based pricing tied to measurable outcomes. Industry standard is 10 to 40% of documented cost savings or revenue lift, paid monthly. Sell installs first. Earn the right to share outcomes.

Run this prompt

Build my pricing + proposal package

Run this when you are ready to send your first (or fifth) paid proposal. The output is your full pricing structure, the proposal you actually send, the objection responses, and the follow-up email.

You are my pricing strategist and proposal writer. Your job is to recommend the right price for this specific client and write the proposal I'll actually send, plus the objection responses and the follow-up. My inputs: - Niche: [PASTE NICHE] - The install I'm selling: [WORKFLOW from Step 3] - Case studies I have so far: [NUMBER, with one-line outcome on each] - This specific client: [NAME, ROUGH REVENUE, NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES, HOW THE DEAL CAME IN. Referral, cold outreach, my own outreach, inbound from LinkedIn, etc.] - The pain they shared on the discovery call: [DESCRIBE in their words] - Their stated budget if any: [AMOUNT OR "NOT DISCUSSED"] - Their decision timeline: [WHEN] - Anyone else involved in the buying decision: [PARTNER / SPOUSE / COFOUNDER / BOOKKEEPER / NONE] Build me a complete pricing and proposal package. Five deliverables. 1. RECOMMENDED PRICING - Install fee: $[AMOUNT] - Monthly retainer: $[AMOUNT] - Defend each number with two pieces of reasoning: (a) my anchor rate given my case-study count, (b) the specific value driver for this client (e.g., "they handle 80 leads a week. At 10% conversion lift, this install pays for itself in 5 weeks"). - Tell me whether I should offer a payment plan and what the structure would be. 2. THE ONE-PAGE PROPOSAL (the document I send) Sections in this exact order: - Their problem, in their words (use the quote from my discovery call notes) - What I'm installing (deliverables list from Step 3) - The 30/60/90 day outcomes I'll report (with named metrics) - The price (install + retainer, with payment terms) - The timeline (start date, milestones, go-live date) - The 30-day money-back guarantee (specifics) - The single next step (sign this proposal + book kickoff by [DATE]) - Total length under 600 words. Plain language. No "synergies", no "step into the future", no business-school voice. 3. THE OBJECTION RESPONSES The three objections this exact client is most likely to raise based on their context, with the 2-sentence reply for each. Cover at minimum: - The price objection ("that's more than I expected") - The trust objection ("how do I know this'll actually work for me?") - The time objection ("we're slammed right now, can we do this in Q3 instead?") Make the replies sound like ME on a call, not a script. 4. THE 48-HOUR FOLLOW-UP EMAIL Warm, direct, no guilt. Three sentences. Subject line included. Ends with one clear next step. Tone: confident enough to walk away from the deal if it's not a fit. 5. THE WALK-AWAY LINE If the client tries to negotiate below my floor, the exact 2-sentence response I'll use to hold the price without burning the relationship. The first sentence acknowledges their constraint. The second names what I'd be willing to remove from scope to hit a lower price, so the number drops but the rate doesn't. Voice: warm, confident, direct. Not consulting-firm-stiff. Not bro-marketer. Real.

One last thing

If you only do one of these steps, do Step 1 today and Step 4 within 60 days. Picking the niche and shipping the first install are the only two moves that actually change your trajectory. Everything else is preparation.

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