How To Leverage AI In Your Side Hustle: A Beginner’s Guide
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has come a long way in the last few years. What was once a novelty is becoming an integral part of our daily lives. Do you own an Alexa device or use chat boxes to interact with your favorite online retailers? If so, you’re already using AI. AI can also be useful in making your side hustle, your way of earning a little extra income, a lot easier. Below are a few suggestions on how to harness this power to make your side business more lucrative and efficient.
Leveraging AI for your side hustle
Nearly 40 percent of Americans earn extra money on the side by doing things like selling things online, offering services, renting out their homes or cars and/or freelancing. Since the object of a side hustle is to make money, you don’t want to have to invest a lot of money in the project. That’s where AI technology can be invaluable in saving you from having to pay an employee or outside contractor to help you. Below are a few suggestions. All of the tools we suggest are affordable on a limited budget. Most also offer a free trial period.
1. Automate your marketing
One of the best things that AI can offer you for your small side gig sales efforts is to automate your marketing efforts. This allows you to do more with the limited time you have available to devote to your side business. For example, AI can write email marketing messages for you and even target and personalize them to appeal to different segments of your customers. Tools like MailChimp and Cortex can be very useful for those working side gigs.
2. Offer “big company” customer service
It’s not expensive to install a chatbot on your e-commerce website and offer your customers answers to all but the most complex questions 24/7. Affordable customer relationship management (CRM) software can provide this service as well as help you manage other customer inquiries. Good, affordable CRM tools for freelancers and those working side gigs include Monday.com and Hubspot.
3. Give your customers a better way to view your products
Another big asset of AI for small entrepreneurs is the ability to offer 3D virtual views of your products, turning your 2D drawings into 3D models. Tools like 3DFY let your customers view your products from all angles and better visualize what the finished product will look like.
4. Use AI as your personal assistant
If your side hustle involves appointments, let AI keep your calendar for you. You can use this technology to allow customers/clients to schedule time slots for things like piano lessons, massages, online tutoring or landscaping. AI tools, such as Vagaro, manage your calendar and handle things like reoccurring appointments and rescheduling. Most tools also send out confirmation reminders, which reduces your rate of “no-shows”.
5. Help you communicate better with clients and customers
One of the challenges to freelancing or offering services as a side gig is keeping in contact with your customers while you are working your primary job or working for other of your side gig customers. AI platforms like Slack offer an affordable way for you to consolidate all of your communication methods, such as text, instant messaging, email and others, on one dashboard, so you never lose a message. The free version of Slack permits you to integrate up to 10 applications.
You shouldn’t view AI as this mysterious concept that’s only applicable to computer geeks and scientists. Use AI to your advantage in your side business by using this technology to help you better connect with customers 24/7, showcase your products and improve your marketing.
