Contributed by SBOC Member:
Founder of the Small Business Owners Community
“Everyone says AI is happening and you need to adopt it right now, but I’m not techie and I’ve played with it… where should I start?”
I get this question constantly. And if you’re feeling behind, you’re not alone. But here’s the thing: you need to address this. If you’re not playing with AI yet, you are falling behind.
Let me make it simple.
Today. Not next week. Today.
I don’t care which one you pick. ChatGPT. Claude. Gemini. Microsoft Copilot. Doesn’t matter. Just pick one and start having conversations with it.
Ask it to help you write an email. Ask it to brainstorm marketing ideas. Ask it a dumb question you’ve been too embarrassed to Google. Whatever. Just start talking.
The more you use it, the more you’ll understand what it can and can’t do. And when these systems get upgraded—which happens constantly—you’ll know how to take advantage of the new capabilities.
For what it’s worth, I’ve been a ChatGPT truther since March 2023. But I have to say—Claude has stolen my heart recently. It’s good. Really good.
SOP stands for Standard Operating Procedure. It’s a step-by-step list of how you get something done in your business.
Here’s why this matters: 2026 is the year AI agents become real.
I’ll use simple language. An AI agent is basically a robot that does stuff for you. Not just answers questions—actually does tasks. Repetitively. Without you directing every step.
By March or June, you’re going to have access to a team of robots that can do things you can’t even fathom right now. But they need instructions. They need to know how you do things.
That’s where SOPs come in.
Here’s my trick: I talk to myself all the time.
I use a tool called Whisper Flow (it’s incredible—I won’t business without it). It’s a narration tool that transcribes what you say.
When I’m doing a task, I narrate it out loud like I’m explaining it to a toddler:
“Open Restream. Click the button. Add the title. Toggle the channels. Create the logo. Open the scheduling tab…”
Every single step. Then when I’m done, I throw that narration into Claude or ChatGPT and say “turn this into a standard operating procedure.”
Boom. Done. Now I have documentation that I can hand to an AI agent when they’re ready to take over.
If you wait until AI agents are fully here to start building SOPs, you’ll be months behind everyone who started now. The businesses that have their processes documented will be able to deploy agents immediately. Everyone else will be scrambling.
Start now. Pick one task you do regularly. Narrate yourself doing it. Turn it into an SOP. Repeat.
You don’t need to be techie. You just need to start.
Pat spent two decades in broadcasting management and hosting. After leaving the radio industry, he spent time consulting small businesses and realized the support system for entrepreneurs was broken. Where could you find help for improving small businesses and building real connections with other like-minded people. In June of 2020, the Idea Collective Small Business Community was born.