The Fieldnotes blog

Free, practical playbooks for starting an AI services agency: picking a niche, pricing, outreach, discovery calls and your first delivery. Written from the Agency Fieldnotes Launch Kit.

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AI Automation for Marketing Agencies: 10 Workflows to Productize
Ten repeatable marketing-agency workflows that can become narrow AI automation offers, plus how to pick a safe pilot and turn it into a productized service. Read more...
AI Automation for Property Management: 9 Workflows to Validate
Nine property-management workflows that can be tested with AI, from maintenance triage to lease-document intake, plus the review and risk questions to ask first. Read more...
AI Automation for Accounting Firms: 8 Workflows to Validate First
Eight accounting-firm workflows worth investigating for AI automation, with the buyer questions, review points, and pilot boundaries to validate before building. Read more...
How to Get AI Agency Clients Without Paid Ads: 7 Free Channels
Seven no-ad acquisition channels for a new AI agency, plus a simple weekly schedule and the metrics that matter before you scale. Read more...
AI Automation Agency vs AI Consulting: Which Model Fits?
Compare implementation-heavy AI automation agencies with advisory-focused AI consulting, including proof, delivery risk, and the best first offer for each. Read more...
How Much Does It Cost to Start an AI Agency in 2026?
A lean budget for starting an AI agency, what to buy at each stage, and which software expenses to delay until the offer is validated. Read more...
Readiness checklist pages
How to Validate an AI Service Offer Before You Build It
Find a task someone already does, check for real friction, confirm permissions and risk, then run a bounded 7-day test before you build anything. Read more...
Pages from the field guide on delivery
AI Agency Proposal and Scope Template (The 14-Day Sprint)
A one-page scope lock and a 14-day delivery sprint that keep AI projects on time, plus the exact reply for "can it also do this?" Read more...
Inside the AI Agency Builder prompt pack
10 ChatGPT and Claude Prompts for AI Agency Owners
Copy-and-paste prompts for picking your agency type, writing your niche, pricing, outreach and scope. Works in ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. Read more...
Inside the 7 mistakes guide: sample pages
7 Mistakes That Kill New AI Agencies Before the First Paid Client
Vague pitches, three agency types at once, custom quotes, comfort pricing, script-hopping, loose scope and skipping the post-delivery loop. And the fix for each. Read more...
Sample lessons from the 9-lesson course
How to Run a Discovery Call for AI Services (Questions and Script)
A 30-minute discovery call structure for AI agencies: the questions that surface real pain, the two that set your price and how to close on a paid Audit. Read more...
Pages from the discovery calls guide
How to Get Your First AI Agency Client in 60 Days
Three outreach channels, a fixed weekly volume and one rule: don't change the script before day 30. Here is the 60-day plan. Read more...
Inside the discovery calls guide: outreach pages
Cold Email Templates for AI Agencies (That Don't Sound Like Spam)
A four-part cold email built around a real event at the prospect's company, a 3-7-7 follow-up rhythm and copy you can adapt today. Read more...
Inside the readiness checklist: sample pages
The AI Agency Tool Stack You Actually Need (Six Tools, Under $250 a Month)
One tool per job, six jobs, roughly $140 to $250 a month. Everything else is a distraction until you have paying clients. Read more...
Pages from the AI agency field guide
How to Price AI Automation Services (Without Guessing)
Price from the value you create, then stress-test it against the hours it really takes. Two tests, one menu, no more "it depends." Read more...
Inside the field guide: table of contents and a sample page
How to Pick an AI Agency Niche: The Four Types and the One-Line Test
A niche is not an industry. It is one buyer, one measurable outcome and one AI capability in a single sentence. Here is how to write yours and test it... Read more...
The AI Agency Launch Kit resources laid out on a desk
How to Start an AI Agency With No Experience (A 90-Day Plan)
You don't need a portfolio to start an AI agency. You need one buyer, one offer, a price you can defend and a daily outreach rhythm. Here is the 90-day... Read more...