Three AI Tests Every Small Business Owner Should Run

8 Oct 2026

Small businesses can start with AI faster than a large company. My new LinkedIn newsletter shows how.

Lately, small business owners in and around Zürich have asked me to help them set up AI.

They all say something similar. There is so much on AI out there, and very little of it gets practical for a business like theirs.

I had to teach myself too.

So this edition is what I look at first when I sit down with an owner. At their desk, on their laptop.

Inside:
→ Three tests for your business (no tool needed)
→ How one of my AI agents collects my receipts (step by step)
→ Five data rules before any customer name goes into AI (storage in Switzerland or the EU)
→ What a big company can borrow from a small one (one team, one job, four weeks)

Which test would you fail?

I have put together a dedicated AI setup resource for small business owners, including a free Small Business Check you can run in about 30 minutes. See it here.

https://www.thechangerepublic.com/ai-setup-small-business#small-business-check

The one data rule most small businesses get wrong first

Of the five data rules in this newsletter edition, the one I repeat most often with owners is the simplest to state and the easiest to break: decide where customer data is stored before you decide which AI tool to use, not after.

Most owners do the opposite. They find a tool that solves a real problem, start using it the same day, and only think about data storage once a customer asks where their information went. By then the data is already sitting on a server they never checked.

This is not really a technical problem. It is a sequencing problem, and it is exactly the kind of thing a small business can fix faster than a large one, once someone points it out. No committee needs to sign off on checking a privacy policy before week one instead of month six.

→ Before trying any new AI tool, check one line: where is the data stored, Switzerland, the EU, or elsewhere.
→ Write down which customer data categories you are comfortable putting into AI at all. Some should never go in, full stop.
→ Revisit the list every time you add a new tool. The rule does not hold if you only check it once.

I built my own AI receipts agent with exactly this rule in mind. It only ever touches my own bookkeeping data, nothing from a client.

If you want to work through this yourself, I have a free AI Tools & Tips Guide, the actual tools and workflows I use as a coach and small business owner. Leave your email here and I will send it over: https://www.thechangerepublic.com/free-resources