Practical AI for small businesses on the Gold Coast.
AI tools can take real time off the admin in a small business: sorting the inbox, reading invoices, drafting quotes, writing up meetings. Most of that value comes from setting them up properly, connecting them to the systems you already use, and agreeing what the team should and shouldn’t put into them. That’s what I do. I don’t resell AI products or take commissions, so I’ll recommend what suits you, even if that’s no new tool at all.
Based on the Gold Coast. I visit businesses across South East Queensland.
Who this is for
Businesses with roughly 5 to 100 staff who can see AI might help but aren’t sure where to start, or who have started and aren’t sure it’s safe.
- Some of the team already use ChatGPT on personal accounts, and nobody knows what has been pasted into it.
- You pay for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and wonder whether Copilot or Gemini is worth adding.
- Every enquiry has to be read, sorted and answered by hand before anyone can act on it.
- Supplier invoices, forms and orders arrive as PDFs and emails, and someone keys them in.
- The answer to an everyday question is somewhere in the shared drive, so people ask the same colleague instead.
- Someone has pitched you an AI agent or a chatbot, and you’d like an independent view before you pay for it.
Where AI saves time
The jobs where AI earns its keep in a small business. In each one, AI does the first pass and a person makes the call.
Email and enquiries
New enquiries are read, sorted by type and urgency, and given a draft reply in your tone.
Someone reads the draft, fixes what’s wrong and sends it.
Invoices and paperwork
Supplier invoices, order forms and receipts are read and the details pre-filled in your accounts or job system.
Someone checks each one before it’s approved or paid.
Quotes and proposals
A first draft built from your price list, your templates and similar jobs you’ve done before.
You check the scope and the numbers, and decide what goes out.
Meeting notes
Calls and meetings turned into notes with decisions and actions, saved where the team already works.
The organiser corrects them before they’re shared.
Search your own documents
Questions answered from your own procedures, policies and past jobs, with a link to the document each answer came from.
The team checks the source when the answer matters.
Everyday writing
Letters, job ads, policies and website updates drafted from a few notes.
You edit and approve them, like anything else with your name on it.
What I do
From choosing the tool to the point where your team uses it without thinking twice.
Find where it’s worth it
I sit with the people doing the work and look for the repetitive reading, sorting and writing. We pick one or two jobs where the time saved is real, and leave the rest alone.
Choose and set up the tools
ChatGPT or Claude on a business plan, Microsoft 365 Copilot, or Gemini in Google Workspace. I recommend the one that fits what you already pay for, and set it up on accounts the business controls, with the data settings checked.
Connect it to your systems
AI is most useful when it can see the right information: the shared inbox, the shared drive, the CRM or the accounts. I connect it through official integrations, with access to what it needs and nothing more.
Automate the steps around it
An enquiry is sorted and drafted as soon as it arrives; an invoice is read and waiting for approval in your accounts. The AI step is usually small. Most of the time saved comes from the workflow around it.
Train the team
Short, hands-on sessions at your office, using your own work: how to ask for what you need, how to check the answer, and what stays out of AI altogether.
Keep it working
AI products change every few months. I write down what’s set up and why, check in when something changes, and make sure a failed step alerts someone instead of going unnoticed.
No AI needed, just two systems that should talk to each other, like your bookings and Xero? That’s systems integration.
Guardrails, agreed before anyone starts
Most of the risk with AI in a small business isn’t the technology. It’s the wrong information pasted into the wrong account. These are the rules I put in place with you.
Business accounts only
Everyone uses accounts the business controls, with the settings checked so your data isn’t used to train the vendor’s models. When someone leaves, their access leaves with them.
What stays out
A short list written for your business: customers’ personal details, health information, bank details and passwords, and anything you’ve agreed to keep confidential.
A person signs off
AI drafts, sorts and suggests. Anything that goes to a customer, moves money or changes a record is checked by a person first.
Privacy, in plain terms
Personal information is still personal information once it’s in an AI tool. If the Privacy Act applies to your business, it applies there too, and the privacy regulator (the OAIC) advises against putting personal information, especially sensitive information, into publicly available AI tools. I set things up with that in mind.
Written down
A one-page AI policy the team will actually read: which tools, which accounts, what stays out and who to ask. We go through it together in the training.
I’m not a lawyer. If you’re unsure what the Privacy Act or your contracts require of your business, ask your lawyer or accountant, and I’ll set things up to match their advice.
How it works
One job at a time, tried on your real work before the team relies on it.
A first conversation
Email me the jobs that take your team the most time, and which AI tools, if any, people already use. We talk it through at your office or on a video call.
A look at the work
I spend time with the people doing it, check which tools and accounts are already in use, and list the jobs where AI would genuinely help.
A plan and a quote
Which tools, which jobs first, the guardrails, and a quote for the first piece. Nothing starts until you’ve agreed to it.
Set up and try it
I set it up and we try it on real work alongside the way you do it now, adjusting until the results are good enough to rely on.
Train and hand over
Training for the team, the policy written down, and plain notes on what’s set up. I can check in afterwards as the tools change.
Where this experience comes from
I’ve built software for 18 years, much of it handling money and personal information. That’s what I bring to AI: make it useful, and be careful with your data.
Consulting engagements
My own consultancy. The AI work I’ve done for clients has always started with how their work actually flows, not with the tool.
- Mapped client workflows into delivery designs and integrated AI into them.
Trust accounting SaaS platform
I led the architecture of Homtrust, which Australian agencies use to hold their clients’ money. It’s where I learned to be strict about sensitive data: who can see it, where it’s kept, and what must never end up in a log.
I’ve worked with him and contracted him myself… Any business that has a chance to utilise him can expect to be revolutionised.
Questions I’m often asked
Which is better: ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or Gemini?
It depends mostly on what you already use. If the business runs on Microsoft 365, Copilot works inside Outlook, Word and Teams; on Google Workspace, Gemini does the same in Gmail and Docs. ChatGPT and Claude are strong general assistants that work alongside either. I earn nothing from any of them, so I’ll recommend whichever fits.
Is it safe to put customer information into AI?
Not into a free or personal account. On a business account with the right settings it can be, for the right information, but the safest default is to keep personal details out unless the job needs them. Deciding what goes in and what doesn’t, for your business, is part of the work.
Do we need an AI agent or a custom chatbot?
Usually not to start with. Most small businesses get more from the AI already included in tools they pay for, set up properly, than from a custom build. If a custom tool makes sense later, I can build that too.
Do you resell AI products?
No. I don’t resell software, take referral fees or earn commissions from AI vendors. You pay for the tools directly, on accounts in your business’s name.
Do you come to us?
Yes. I’m based on the Gold Coast and visit businesses across the Gold Coast, Tweed Heads, Logan, Redland City and Brisbane. Training works best in person; check-ins work well on a video call.
Also for Gold Coast businesses
Wondering where AI would actually help?
Email me the jobs that take your team the most time. I’ll tell you honestly whether AI would help, and where I’d start.