If it seems like everyone’s talking about AI these days, it’s because they are. 

Within a few months, AI-powered tools popped up everywhere, becoming accessible to everyone in every industry.

Now, hair stylists, gym owners, and massage therapists are all utilizing AI to streamline day-to-day tasks — and, well, make life a little easier. 

While we don’t yet know AI’s full impact on the world, there are a ton of ways you can start using it to help your small business.

From drafting business plans and social media posts, AI can be incredibly impactful for your salon, gym, or studio.

Plus, we’ll share a few of our favorite AI tools you can start using today!

How to Use AI for Your Small Business

Streamline Business Management Tasks

Writing your business plan/vision

Most of us haven’t gone to business school, so coming up with a business plan or mission statement seems overwhelming.

Use AI to help you get started.

Ask it to write a business plan outline or mission statement using keywords you want your business to focus on, like environmentally conscious, community oriented, or inclusive.

Potential Prompt: Write a mission statement for a new aesthetician clinic that focuses on all-aged skincare and long-term care plans to meet clients’ goals.

Creating contracts, waivers, and policies 

Whether you use contracts with your clients, require liability waivers, or simply need help articulating your policies (like no-shows or cancellations), AI can create an outline for these legal documents.

Potential Prompt: Create a liability waiver for my yoga class that includes typical physical risks.

Heads up! Contracts and waivers should be double-checked by a lawyer before your clients sign them. It’s one of the few jobs you should outsource as a small business owner.

Making you sound more professional

Writing business emails just got easier. AI can help you write and lay out professional communications for your business.

Potential Prompt: Write an email to my employees explaining the new salon rules and expectations.

Helping you with the hard conversations 

If you need to tell a client about your no-refund policy or are having a dispute with a supplier, AI can help you professionally write out an email (or practice what to say) that expresses your concerns and helps you come to a resolution.

Potential Prompt: What can I say to an upset client who has questions about my pricing and fees?

Dial In Marketing Efforts

Describing your services and products

Writing about your services or products may seem straightforward, but AI can help you ~elevate~ the narrative to better entice your audience to book or buy.

Why say “Hair Braiding service that last 60-90 minutes and includes X, Y, and Z”, when you can say… 👇

Generated from Grammarly’s GrammarlyGo, AI text generation.

Coming up with provider bios

Sometimes, the hardest thing to do is write about yourself.

Instead, tell AI about yourself, including your training and areas of expertise. Prompt it to come up with a bio.

Potential Prompt: Write a personal bio for a nail artist who has 4 years of experience in Bozeman, is a licensed cosmetologist in the state of MT, loves her dog and hiking, and is best at custom nail art.

Promoting sales and bookings

Writing convincing and persuasive copy is easy with the switch of tone for AI.

Got a sale coming up?

Want to promote a new service?

Announcing a change in business hours?

These are are all good examples of when to ask AI help you get started on a marketing plan.

Potential Prompt: Help me promote the new product line I have at my business to encourage sales and share about the 10% off for this month, using a fun tone.

Grow Social Media Reach

Generating content ideas

It’s hard to know what to post and how often. (Social media can be so overwhelming, we offer a class on how to make it easier.)

AI can help you come up with a list of content ideas you can use for your industry.

Potential Prompt: Give me 30 ideas for social media content posts for barbershops that specialize in X, Y, and Z.

Writing your Instagram captions

Now that you have the content ideas, what’s the next hurdle? Writing captions for those posts!

AI can get your captions started, then you edit for your specific business.

Potential Prompt: Write a light-hearted, friendly caption for an Instagram carousel post that describes no-show policies for my salon. 

Transcribing your podcast videos

As accessibility (the ability for people with disabilities to consume online content) becomes the standard online, AI can transcribe your videos, so everyone can enjoy your content.

AI can also write the Alt Text (the text describing the image that’s read aloud for someone with visual imparities) for the image/video. 

Many social media platforms are integrated with AI to help you auto-generate transcriptions and Alt Text.

Creating eye-catching images

While it’s best to remain authentic and showcase your unaltered work, AI can help you generate more generic images for your social media:

• Announcement images
• Arranging your product into a flatlay
• Changing the background of the set of nails you just painted

Potential Prompt: Showcase my new balm in a medicine cabinet among other nameless skincare products.

Disclaimer: You > Artificial Intelligence

AI cannot replace the rapport you’ve built with your clients.

At the end of the day, it’s you and your client together, and that’s the most important relationship.

While AI can help aid in that, you are still your biggest asset for your business.

At the risk of sounding cliche, you have to keep the “person” in personal. Your clients love you for you.

Clients can sniff out false promises from a mile away.

While AI can help you better express and showcase your services and products, your skills will always tell the truth. Don’t overpromise or create false narratives for your clients.

Bonus: AI-Powered Tools to Try

• ChatGPT: AI-powered language model developed by OpenAI, capable of generating human-like text based on context and past conversations.
• Rytr: AI writing assistant that helps you create high-quality content in just a few seconds.
• Grammarly: Grammarly helps you write mistake-free in Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and any other app you use.
• Copy.ai: An AI-powered copywriter that generates high-quality copy for your business.