Hey Nick, quick question if you don't mind. So, of course, this will depend on the niche you're getting into, but about how many and what kind of services would you recommend offering as you're starting out? Seems like you wouldn't want so many of the potential clients you're overwhelmed, but also not so few that you're seen as a non-option, if that makes sense. But I could definitely be looking at this from the wrong angle here. Truly appreciate all you do, my man. God bless. Thank you.
I recommend offering services that solve money-based needs for people who have money and are willing to spend it. Compliance-related needs are money needs but not as direct a path as getting more leads, converting leads, talking to more people, or solving administrative issues costing a company $1,000–$2,000 a month. Focus on money services. As an AI-enabled business, you have many options; anything that solves a need and can have AI sprinkled on top is a good bet. AI doesn't create possibilities; it makes pre-existing solutions faster and easier to implement. The key is knowing how to solve money needs for real businesses, not just knowing about AI. Don't worry about having too many or too few services; start with three offers, put them in front of people, see what they say. If they like the offers and ask for more, naturally create another and upsell to the most sensible offer. Avoid trying to get everything right from the start; don't put the forest before the trees.
I have three major rules for picking a niche. The first is it needs to be high ticket — a single customer that I gain for the client has to make the client a lot of money. Can't do 20 bucks a month SaaS here; you need to do things like $5 to $10,000 a month retainers. Number two, it needs to be not compliance-heavy. I don't want to enter into a niche as a beginner if I have to deal with HIPAA or SOC 2 or a bunch of regulatory compliance stuff around fintech — that just doesn't make sense. My only goal as a beginner starting an AI business is to gain as much experience as quickly as possible and then roll that over into some sort of bootstrappable income. And the third thing is I want data that is easy to scrape. I don't want to work with industries where I actually have to consult the freaking yellow pages or something like that. I want data on businesses that typically have websites, typically have easily accessible email addresses or phone numbers, and so typically that means digital businesses. So that's the way to do it.
In general, the best niches for an AI service are high ticket, so these are services that themselves get a lot of money when they close a deal. They also tend to be digital, meaning services that you can scrape online fairly easily. And finally, they tend to be really low compliance need — services that don't require you to check a bunch of HIPAA boxes or do a bunch of SOC 2 compliance in order to enter the space. The reason why: high ticket means if you get them a single client, you pay for yourself for a long time. Digital means it's really easy to scrape, so low friction. And low compliance needs means you're not going to screw anything up — there are a lot of hidden risks that people constantly consider before accepting a project with an outside vendor if they are in a compliance-heavy industry.
Niches that work in 2026 for AI and automation share three traits: you can digitally scrape decision makers, they are high ticket, and they have low compliance needs. For example, general contractors lack online listings, making them hard to scrape. A dog walker might charge $1,000/month, but an MSP can charge $1,000–$10,000/month. Landing one more MSP client can generate tens or hundreds of thousands over the engagement, whereas a dog walker yields far less. Marketing effort is similar for both, so target the high‑ticket clients for greater social proof. High‑compliance niches like finance, healthcare, or insurance are difficult because regulations change quickly with AI and beginners lack the expertise to handle PII, data anonymization, and warehousing. Beginners should focus on digitally scrapable, high‑ticket, low‑compliance industries. In those niches you can sell any front‑end offer—client acquisition—and succeed.
Don't overthink the exact method—pick a few approaches and test them. Choose three different ways of reaching people, set a minimum daily outreach for each, and stick with it for a month or two (30‑60 days). See what works, then double down.