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Daily build note · May 1, 2026

AI Readiness Audit Sprint

A fixed-price ($2,500-$4,500), 5-business-day consulting engagement that delivers three concrete artifacts for SMBs: an AI Process Map (top 5 workflows with ROI potential), a plain-English...

Consulting Offers / Productized Services Build note published Public demo coming soon

What shipped

A complete, launch-ready productized consulting offer consisting of 8 content files across 3 directories. This is a documentation and methodology build — the product is a consulting service, not software. The files, when complete, constitute the full operational infrastructure for delivering the sprint to clients.

### File inventory

| File | Purpose | Status | |------|---------|--------| | methodology/sprint-runbook.md | 5-day delivery playbook with hourly task breakdowns, client input requirements, output definitions, and done criteria for each day | Complete | | methodology/roi-scoring-rubric.md | Workflow ROI scoring framework: 5 dimensions, scoring tables, formula, 3 worked examples (law firm, marketing agency, retail SMB) | Complete | | methodology/eu-ai-act-checklist.md | EU AI Act applicability decision tree covering 4 SMB-relevant high-risk categories; jurisdiction trigger; 3 quick-win mitigations | Complete | | templates/client-workspace-outline.md | Notion workspace blueprint with exact structure, column schemas, placeholder text, and sharing instructions | Complete | | templates/intake-form-questions.md | All 10 intake questions with field types, placeholder text, consultant use notes, and Calendly configuration instructions | Complete | | templates/engagement-agreement.md | Plain-English 1-page engagement agreement covering scope, timeline, revisions, payment, IP, confidentiality, and liability | Complete | | copy/landing-page.md | Full landing page copy for all 7 sections, paste-ready for Framer or Carrd, with placeholder markers for Stripe and Calendly links | Complete | | copy/linkedin-outreach.md | 3 cold outreach variants (EU Act, tool confusion, competition hooks) + follow-up message + post-audit upsell message + outreach tracker schema | Complete |

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Architecture

### No-code, service-first stack The brief explicitly positioned this as a service business, not a software product. The methodology files are the core IP — they are what gets sold at a premium. All tooling (Notion, Tally, Calendly, Stripe, Framer) is existing SaaS with free or near-free tiers. This keeps infrastructure cost near $0 for the first 10+ clients.

### Notion as the delivery vehicle Notion was the right choice for the client workspace because: (1) it supports embedded Loom videos natively, (2) clients can view without an account, (3) database tables handle the process inventory and roadmap formats, (4) templates are duplicatable without code. The alternative (a custom PDF or slides) would have been harder to update and less interactive.

### Fixed-price, fixed-scope The engagement agreement and sprint runbook are deliberately tight on scope. The "one round of minor revisions" limit and the $500/day scope change pricing are protecting the consultant's time model. At $2,500 for Async (~11 hours) the effective hourly rate is ~$225/hr — solid but not exceptional. Scope creep destroys this margin fast.

### EU AI Act as the urgency hook The August 2, 2026 deadline is the sharpest urgency signal available at launch. The checklist covers the 4 SMB-relevant high-risk categories (HR/recruitment AI, creditworthiness AI, biometrics, safety-critical) rather than attempting to cover the full Act. This is deliberate scope management — the full Act has 100+ articles; the checklist covers the 20% most likely to affect SMB clients.

### LinkedIn as the first sales channel Direct outreach to existing connections is the fastest path to a first paying client. No SEO lag, no ad spend, no cold calling. The three outreach variants (EU Act hook, tool confusion hook, competition hook) cover the three most common psychological states of the target buyer.

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Limitations

  1. **EU AI Act implementing acts are evolving.** The checklist reflects the Act's text and publicly available guidance as of May 2026. High-risk system registration requirements, technical standards, and enforcement timelines are still being finalized. Michael should verify the checklist against the latest EUR-Lex guidance before each engagement.
  1. **Engagement agreement is not reviewed by a lawyer.** Suitable for early clients and lower-stakes engagements. Before scaling to 10+ clients or high-value contracts ($10K+), have the agreement reviewed by a US attorney familiar with consulting agreements and EU regulatory exposure.
  1. **Tool recommendations in the rubric will date quickly.** The AI tool landscape is moving fast. The reference tools listed in Dimension 3 of the ROI Scoring Rubric (e.g., Reducto, Harvey, Nanonets) were accurate as of May 2026 but should be reviewed quarterly.
  1. **Loom free tier limit.** Loom's free tier limits recordings to 5 minutes each (or 25 total recordings). Three 5-minute recordings per client means the free tier is exhausted after 8 clients. Upgrade to Loom Starter ($12.50/month) before client #8.
  1. **No automation.** The first 3–5 clients require fully manual delivery. Intake form review, Notion workspace population, and pipeline tracking are all done by hand. This is appropriate for MVP validation but becomes a bottleneck above 2 clients/week.

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Suggested next steps

### Immediate (Week 1 — before first client)

  1. Build the Notion client workspace template following templates/client-workspace-outline.md
  2. Configure the Tally intake form using templates/intake-form-questions.md
  3. Set up Calendly event types (intro call + debrief call)
  4. Create Stripe products ($2,500 and $4,500) and copy payment links
  5. Build the landing page in Framer or Carrd using copy/landing-page.md
  6. Send the first 20 LinkedIn outreach messages using copy/linkedin-outreach.md

### First engagement (target: Week 2)

  1. Offer first sprint at $0 to a trusted contact in exchange for honest feedback and case study permission
  2. Complete the sprint end-to-end using the runbook
  3. Record what took longer than expected, what questions the client asked, what the deliverables were missing
  4. Update the methodology files based on findings before the second engagement

### After first 3 clients

  1. Add one real client quote to the landing page
  2. Write a 1-paragraph anonymized case study for each engagement
  3. Adjust pricing if demand exceeds capacity (raise Guided Sprint to $5,500; add a waitlist mechanism)
  4. Consider: intake form automation (Stripe webhook → Tally form email → Notion workspace duplication via Notion API)
  5. Evaluate: is the EU AI Act urgency hook still sharp, or has the compliance landscape shifted enough to require a pivot to "AI governance gap" framing?

### Phase 2 (after 5+ clients)

  1. Automate intake → Notion workspace creation using Make.com or Zapier
  2. Build the agency white-label tier (per brief: after methodology is stable)
  3. Write the first SEO blog post ("Does the EU AI Act Apply to Your SMB? 5 Questions to Find Out") and gate it behind email capture
  4. Add Fractional Advisory clients to MRR tracking; assess path to $10K MRR

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