Owner’s week
11 hours
- Admin 11h
- Growth 6h
Roughly how much time a small business owner spends on admin and finance tasks every week, nearly twice as much as they spend on actually growing the business.
$999
AI Tools Assessment: Identifies 5+ hours a week in real opportunities, or it's free.
See How It WorksAI consulting, BC Interior
You don’t need totransform yourbusiness overnight.You just need to start.
Find the one thing costing you the most time, and fix it. Start free with a quick check of where your business stands with AI.
5+ hoursOne thing
Who I work with
- Small business
- Band offices
- Non-profits
- Healthcare
- Professional services
- Local government
- Charities
- Public sector
The AI adoption gap
Canadian AI adoption
19.2%
19.2% of Canadian businesses were using AI in production as of Q2 2026, up from just 6.1% two years earlier. I close that gap. One business at a time.
4 out of 5
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Survey on Business Conditions, Q2 2026.
4 out of 5 businesses haven’t started yet.
Three figures, one gap
The numbers behind why this feels urgent
Paperwork drag
54%
More than half of small business owners say paperwork actively gets in the way of running their business at all.
Confidence gap
27%
Small biz
82%
Mid-sized
Only 27% of small businesses feel confident using AI effectively, compared to 82% of mid-sized firms. The tools are already everywhere. Confidence is not.
One thing
I help small business owners actually put AI to work, not just wonder where to start.
Where you start
You don’t have an AI problem. You have a starting problem.
There’s no shortage of AI tools, webinars, or hype. What’s missing is someone who will look at how your business actually works and say: here, start with this. The free AI Readiness Assessment is the fastest way to get that answer.
One thing
The best first move is almost never the biggest one. It’s finding one task your team spends too much time on, hates doing, and gets wrong often enough to cause real problems. Then automate just that. One thing. Done properly. That’s how it starts.
Two starting points
Which path fits you?
$999
01 / small business
Running a small business?
You’re watching competitors move faster on AI and you don’t have time to figure out where to start. Start free with the AI Readiness Assessment to see where you stand, or go straight to the $999 AI Tools Assessment, a diagnostic that finds 3 to 7 real opportunities in your business, backed by a guarantee: it identifies 5+ hours a week in real opportunities, or it’s free.
Governance
02 / organization
Running an organization?
You’re responsible for a team that’s already using AI, and that raises different questions: who’s allowed to use what, how your data stays protected, and how to get everyone working to one standard instead of a dozen different habits. That takes governance and training built for how your organization actually runs, not a quick diagnostic. Start with a clear, safe plan for AI across the organization, or bring your whole team up to one standard.
Services
What I do
Practical AI help and guidance if you’re busy and don’t know where to start, from your first free check through full implementation.
Free AI Readiness Assessment
A free, self-serve check that shows you where your business stands with AI and what your best first move is. A few quick questions, an instant read, no call required.
Take the AI Readiness AssessmentFree AI Mini-Assessment
Prefer to talk it through? A free 15-minute call, or a quick quiz, where I find one real bottleneck and hand you a specific tool you can use today. Personal, no pitch, no strings.
Book a CallAI Tools Assessment
I learn how your business runs and come back with a report and a review call: which tools fix which problems and what they'll save you. Backed by a guarantee: it identifies 5+ hours a week in real opportunities, or it's free.
Learn About the AssessmentImplementation & Growth
I don't just tell you what to do, I help you do it: choosing the right tools and fitting them into how your team already works, from one task to a fully custom AI agent. Priced by scope.
See Growth OptionsAI Concierge
An ongoing partnership: two working calls a month. Done with you if you want to be part of it, done for you if you'd rather I just handle it. You'll see exactly what I've built after every call. Limited spots.
Learn About ConciergeAI Training & Workshops
Your team is using AI, just not the same way twice. We build one system together, through half-day and full-day workshops, lunch and learns, and ongoing monthly training, so your whole team works from the same playbook instead of a dozen different habits.
Explore Training & WorkshopsAI Strategy & Governance
A clear plan for using AI safely and accountably across your organization: who's allowed to use what, how data is protected, how decisions get made as you grow, and how you stay compliant with Canadian privacy rules.
Explore Strategy & Governance
Not sure which one
Start with the free check
A few quick questions tell you where you stand and which of these is the right next step. It takes a couple of minutes and costs nothing.
Take the AI Readiness AssessmentFit
Who I work with
I work with small business owners who know they should be using AI but don’t know where to start, and organizations that need it done right, not just turned on.
Path 01
Small business owner? Here’s where I can help.
Real AI Solutions For Your Business
| Industry | Where it hurts | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Trades & Home Services | You're spending hours every week on job scheduling, chasing quotes, and catching up on invoicing, on top of the actual work | The right tool for scheduling, quoting, and follow-up, matched to your trade |
| Manufacturing | Production scheduling, inventory, quoting custom jobs, and order paperwork keep pulling you off the floor | Tools that forecast, quote, and keep orders tracked, so more of your day goes to building |
| Professional Services | Research, memos, and client correspondence eat hours and follow the same patterns every time | AI drafts the repetitive work, with a usage policy your clients can trust |
| Real Estate & Property | Listings, social posts, and client emails eat the time you should be spending with buyers and sellers | AI drafts them in your voice, with a verified-data and review step so what goes out stays accurate |
| Retail | Inventory, customer questions, and marketing content are all competing for the same few hours in your day | Off-the-shelf tools for the repetitive parts, so your time goes back onto the floor |
| Health & Wellness practices | Insurance verification, claims denials, and staffing gaps are eating into your margins faster than you can keep up | Careful, privacy-aware automation for the admin load, never the patient relationship |
| Hospitality & Food Service | You can't find enough staff, and scheduling the people you do have is a weekly headache | A scheduling and staffing system built around the reality of a thin crew |
Not your exact industry? Take the Free AI Readiness Assessment and we’ll find your version of this.
Path 02
Running an organization? Here’s where I can help.
Real AI Solutions For Your Organization
| Who | Where it hurts | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Band offices & Indigenous organizations | You're buried in grant reporting, housing waitlists, and admin that never seems to shrink | Automated reporting and waitlist tracking, so paperwork stops eating your week |
| Non-profits & charities | You're understaffed and overwhelmed with admin no one has time for | AI tools that take on the admin load your team doesn't have time for |
| Healthcare & social services | Privacy concerns have kept you from using AI at all, even though your team could use the help | Compliant AI tools, chosen and set up with your privacy rules built in from the start |
| Local government & public sector | You're under pressure to modernize, but your budget doesn't stretch to enterprise tools | Practical AI tools priced for a public-sector budget, not an enterprise one |
Not sure which one fits? Start with Strategy & Governance for compliance and oversight, or Training & Workshops to get your team using AI consistently. I’ll help you figure out which one you need.
The process
Simple by design
Three steps. Plain language the whole way through.
Plain language
Step 01
Find the one thing
I start with a conversation about how your business works, where time gets lost, where errors happen, what you dread on Monday morning. From that, I find your best first move.
Step 02
Build it properly
I help you put AI in place so it's safe, compliant, and actually used, not just demoed once and forgotten.
Step 03
Grow from there
Once one thing is working, the next step gets easier. I stay with you as an ongoing advisor through the Concierge retainer, or hand off a system you can run independently.
Free
Not sure where you stand with AI?
Take the free AI Readiness Assessment for a quick read on exactly where your business stands and what your best next move is. Prefer to talk it through? Book a free Mini-Assessment call instead. No sales pitch either way, just a clear picture of where you are and what’s possible.
Questions
FAQ
Still unsure? Ask me directly on your free Mini-Assessment call.
Where do I even begin?
Start with the free AI Readiness Assessment, a quick self-serve check of where you stand and what to do first. Prefer to talk to a person? Book the free Mini-Assessment call instead. Either way, no pitch.
Can't I just use ChatGPT or Claude myself?
You can, the same way you could do your own taxes. But you're not paying for AI access, you're paying for someone who knows exactly which workflows to fix first and how to make them actually work.
I'm a small business, is AI actually relevant for us?
Yes, and in many ways you benefit more than a larger company would. You don't have layers of bureaucracy to work through, so when you automate one task, everyone feels it immediately.
I've tried AI tools before and didn't get much out of them.
You're not alone. Only 27% of small businesses feel confident using AI effectively, compared to 82% of mid-sized firms. The tools aren't the problem, the missing piece is knowing how to use them properly and which ones are right for your situation. That's exactly what the Assessment is built to find.
How long does it take to see results?
You'll get your report and a 4-day quick-start plan within about two weeks of your discovery call: small, immediate changes first, bigger projects after.
Is my data safe when I use AI tools?
It depends on the tool and how you use it, and that's exactly why this question matters. Canadian privacy law compliance (PIPEDA, and the incoming AI-specific rules under Bill C-27) is built into everything I recommend.
Do you only work with businesses in the BC Interior?
The BC Interior is home base and where the deepest local knowledge is, but the assessments are delivered remotely, by call and a written report, so I work with small businesses across British Columbia. Strategy, Governance, and Training engagements are available to organizations across Canada.
What does it cost to work with New Direction AI?
The AI Tools Assessment is $999, with a guarantee: it identifies 5+ hours a week in real opportunities, or it’s free. Implementation and Expansion projects are priced by scope, typically $1,000 to $10,000+. The AI Concierge retainer runs $1,200 to $2,000 a month with limited spots. Training workshops and Strategy engagements are scoped to your organization.
Two free ways to start
Ready to find your one thing?
Two free ways to start: a quick self-serve check of where you stand, or a 15-minute call where I look at how your business works and help you find your best first AI move. No pitch. No pressure. Just a clear next step.
- 15 minutes, no obligation
- An honest answer on fit
- One free tool recommendation
No pitch. No pressure. Just a useful next step.