AI Here, AI There, AI Everywhere
-By Laurann Franco
Have you noticed the formula?
“Hey customers! <insert megaphone emoji>
[A slightly funny, but not actually funny sentence here.] <insert laughing face emoji>
Emoji bullet point [Here’s why we’re great!]
Emoji bullet point [Here’s why you need us!]
Emoji bullet point [Here’s why you should buy NOW!]
It’s not that we’re doing [this]—it’s that we’re doing [this other thing].
[Cheesy punch line telling you to think this is the best business ever.]”
It’s especially great when the copy and pasting went a bit too far and caught the final line of, “Tell me more about x, y and z, and I can add in a special detail with ‘Here’s what most people miss’.”
<Insert forehead smack emoji here>
I’m making a point of not using any AI tools for editing or idea generation in this particular post. I feel myself overthinking how to make sure it actually sounds human, which feels more difficult now that I’ve been reading AI posts over and over for the past year. It’s as if the AI writing style is becoming expected as the standard way to present a business online, and it almost feels wrong to break the new mold.
It has started to seem like every business has the exact same tone and look to every post. It feels like the way we think business posts sound should have a certain cadence or rhythm even.
I understand why AI is so heavily used, and how it has caught on so quickly. And I use it myself. Usually, I try to use it as a second set of eyes, or as a supercharged spellcheck.
“Back in my day” we only had Word Docs or PowerPoints with those cheesy 3-D fonts. No one would have dreamed of using them in a professional setting like an advertisement or on a logo.
Admittedly, my own logo for FeatherNote is currently AI-generated. I couldn’t afford to hire a graphic design artist right away, and I didn’t have the software to design things like it myself. I do hope that in the next couple of years, I can have a real human help us with a re-design for FeatherNote to give it a more personal touch.
Of course, we also have the ethical side to consider with using AI (environmental impact, loss of jobs for humans, potential for world takeover by the robots etc.) but I can’t get into all of that here.
I’ve found that AI is especially useful for difficult or highly detailed email exchanges. The more you use a certain AI platform, you can also ask it to make it sound more like your own natural style, rather than the generic-sounding original text that it automatically generates. This has saved me a lot of time and mental energy.
As an experiment, I am also plugging in the above text of this blog post to see how my AI platform of choice would change it. Does it sound better? About the same? Like a whole different person?
After redacting the part about avoiding using AI (I don’t want it to think I’m a liar!), here’s what it spit out. I hate to say it, but I prefer this version overall:
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
AI Here, AI There, AI Everywhere
By Laurann Franco, Owner of FeatherNote Bookkeeping Services LLC
Have you noticed the formula?
“Hey, customers! 📣
[Insert a slightly funny, but not actually funny, sentence here.] 😂
👉 Here’s why we’re great!
👉 Here’s why you need us!
👉 Here’s why you should buy NOW!It’s not that we’re doing [this]… it’s that we’re doing [this other thing].
[Insert cheesy punch line telling you this is the best business ever.]”
You know the one.
And it's especially great when the copy-and-pasting goes just a little too far and accidentally includes the AI's final instructions:
“Tell me more about X, Y, and Z, and I can add a special detail with ‘Here’s what most people miss.’”
Oops.
I’ve started to wonder if I’m overthinking all of this.
Lately, I find myself trying to make sure the things I write actually sound human. And somehow, that has become more difficult the more AI-generated content I read.
It’s almost as if AI writing has become its own recognizable style—and we're beginning to treat that style as the standard for how a business is supposed to sound online.
Every business seems to have the same cadence. The same structure. The same enthusiastic punctuation. The same three bullet points explaining why you absolutely need whatever is being sold.
After seeing enough of it, you start to wonder: Is this what professional business communication is supposed to sound like now?
And I get it. I really do.
AI is incredibly useful, and I use it myself.
I usually think of it as a second set of eyes or a supercharged spellcheck. It can help me organize a thought, catch something I missed, or take a painfully awkward email and turn it into something that actually makes sense.
For difficult or highly detailed email exchanges especially, it can be a lifesaver. And the more you use a particular AI platform, the better you can get at asking it to sound more like you rather than the generic version of “Professional Business Person™” it might produce on the first try.
That has saved me a lot of time and mental energy.
But I think there’s a difference between using AI to help communicate your ideas and letting AI decide what your communication should sound like in the first place.
And maybe that's the part that bothers me.
“Back in my day,” we only had Word documents and PowerPoints with those wonderfully cheesy 3-D fonts.
Nobody would have dreamed of putting those things in a professional advertisement or slapping them on a logo.
…Okay, some people absolutely did.
And, admittedly, I have my own bit of irony here.
My FeatherNote logo is currently AI-generated.
When I was getting started, I couldn't afford to hire a graphic designer, and I didn't have the software or skills to create what I had in mind myself. AI gave me a way to get something together and move forward.
But I hope that in the next couple of years, I'll be able to have a real human designer help me redesign the FeatherNote brand and give it an even more personal touch.
Because I think that's what I'm really getting at.
I don't think AI is inherently bad.
I think it's a tool.
And like any tool, what matters is how we use it.
There are also plenty of bigger ethical questions surrounding AI—environmental impact, the effect on jobs, copyright, privacy, and the possibility that the robots will eventually decide we've been terribly inefficient and replace us all.
But that's probably a whole different blog post.
For me, the biggest concern is much simpler:
I don't want everything to start sounding the same.
I don't want every small business owner, artist, consultant, plumber, bookkeeper, coffee shop, and dog groomer to sound like they were all handed the same marketing template.
I want people to sound like themselves.
I want the occasional awkward sentence. I want a little personality. I want someone to say something that isn't perfectly polished but feels genuine.
Because sometimes the most professional thing you can do is simply sound like a person.
And if AI can help us do that—great.
Just don't let it do all the talking.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Here’s the real Laurann again… snapping back into the reality of how I actually sound. Which isn’t as catchy by any means…
I hadn’t written a real ending yet. Now all I can think of is the ending line the AI has prompted me with.
How can we make sure AI isn’t doing “all the talking”?
At this point in time, nearing the end of 2026, it’s harder and harder to stand out online when it feels like everyone is doing the same things with the same tools. It’s part of why I haven’t made a blog post in a few months. I’ve been overthinking what to say and how to say it, and how to not sound the same as every other business post out there.
I think the most endearing side of any business will be the familiar feeling of interacting with another human mind. Maybe we’ll end up making some more “mistakes” by not sounding perfectly polished, but I think maybe that’s okay.
Here’s to being Human <insert little TM because real Laurann has no idea how to format that without a lot of Googling or using AI first>.
What is a Business Consultation?
A business consultation is a time to meet and go over the specifics of your business activity, and where things can be made more efficient. Before your consultation, we ask for as much information that you can think of to give us the context. This helps us to know how things are going, and where those things can be improved.
We recently came across a food-truck owner who is on the brink of bankruptcy after 1.5 years. Despite $15K in sales each week, there's never money in the bank, and they are in debt.
They are especially desperate now that the most recent payroll bounced.
With only knowing those few details, we have enough to get some traction on where things can be turned around.
Our initial response to start helping this business owner went as follows:
-First, take a day off to really sit with all your financials.
See exactly which items are your best sellers, and which items are your best for profit margin. (Typically soda, if you have a fountain, or fries we would assume)
-Which 5 items are your slowest sellers? Which 3 items are your lowest for profit margin?
Permanently 86 those as soon as they run out. Don't order more from your supplier.
-Which day is your slowest for sales?
How much revenue would you give up if you stayed closed that day? And how does that compare with the payroll you'd have to pay out for employees on that same day? Is it worth it? Could this be a day for you to focus on business operations and reduce burnout?
-What is your slowest hour of the day? Can you run the truck by yourself until the lunch rush?
-Can you find cheaper straws, cups, napkins, paper plates? Even saving just a few cents per customer would help!
Just guessing here, but assuming you operate 6 days/per week with $15K in sales, that's $2500/day. If each customer averages $15 for their meal, we’ll assume you serve about 166 meals each day.
Say you can save $0.05/meal, that would save you $8.30/day and $49.80/wk or $200/month. Not a lot, but it’s something, a babystep in the right direction.
-Are you able to increase prices by $0.50-$1.00 per meal? Perhaps increasing each individual item by $0.17 (soda, fries, burger, = $0.51 increase per meal). That’s roughly $500 more per week, and a full $1.00 increase would be nearly $1,000, assuming customer habits remain the same.
-Can you consolidate your debt?
-Can you increase the deductible on your insurance to reduce the overall premium?
All of these questions are framed to help you “see the forest through the trees” as they say. It can be hard to gain a deeper perspective or insight when you can’t seem to keep up with the onslaught of day-to-day needs. Just doing the next thing as it comes up is survival-mode, and isn’t sustainable. We’re here to help you out of chaos and into a steady business rhythm.
Learn more about our consulting services by clicking here.
Prepping for Your First Tax Season
~This is not tax advice~
Something I consistently see among newer business owners is the shock once they file taxes after their first year in business.
“My LLC only generated $20,000 all year, how is my tax bill pushing $4,000?”
It’s a big chunk of change, and it hurts to have it feel like it’s being taken away.
In reality, they aren’t paying that much more in taxes than they did as an employee percentage-wise. Take a look at your last year of pay-stubs while working as an employee.
If you can find one from December, look at the difference between your “Total Pay” and your “Net Pay.” There’s a big difference in those two numbers!
While some of those missing dollars may have gone to a retirement account, most of it went to taxes.
The biggest difference from working as an employee for someone else vs being a business owner is that instead of paying your taxes in smaller increments, now you are being asked to hand it over all at once. It hurts in a whole different way to see that money come into your account, feel like it’s yours to keep, only to have it taken away.
Of course, paying taxes is never fun. But it that much more painful if you haven’t been saving a portion of your earnings throughout the year in preparation. Some have found themselves in a tough situation, having to scramble to pay Uncle Sam between 15%-20% of all their profit when they’re nothing left in the business bank account.
How can it be handled in a better way?
From the very start, we recommend setting up a business checking account, and 2 business savings accounts. The checking account is used for all transactions as a funnel for everything your business does. At the end of each month, set aside roughly 20-30% of your net profit (revenue minus your business expenses) into one of the savings accounts. Label that account as the "Tax Savings Account." Don't get emotionally attached to the money in that account.
Think of it as already gone. It doesn't belong to you.
If your business has very few expenses (say, a service-based business where most of what comes in is profit), a percentage of revenue and a percentage of profit will look pretty similar. But if you're carrying real costs like inventory, contractors, equipment, then saving based on revenue alone can be much different than what you actually owe. Profit is the number that matters.
Hopefully with this approach, you’ll have saved a little extra compared to the amount due come tax time. The leftover can be seen as your “tax refund”, and a small bonus is you’ll also have been gaining a tiny bit of interest from your savings account.
Once you've got the saving habit down, the next step is to consult your CPA. Your business may need to start sending that money to the IRS quarterly instead of all at once. An upside here is that the tax payments may feel slightly less painful too.
Ask us how to set up your business registration to be ready to open your business bank accounts today.
What’s an LLC? Do I need one?
Most likely, yes! We needed one, and are an LLC here at FeatherNote. (Our full government name is “FeatherNote Bookkeeping Services LLC”.)
Depending on the type of business you run, and the ownership, there may be a different type of business filing that would be a better fit. But today, we’re focusing on the most common type of registration:
The lovely LLC!
An LLC (or Limited Liability Company) is a popular business structure because it combines liability protection with relatively simple management and tax flexibility.
Main Benefits of an LLC
1. Personal Liability Protection
The biggest advantage is that your personal assets (home, savings, personal vehicles, etc.) are generally protected if the business is sued or incurs debts.
For example:
If your LLC owes money to a supplier, creditors usually can only pursue business assets.
Your personal bank account is typically protected, provided you keep business and personal finances separate.
2. Pass-Through Taxation
By default, LLC profits "pass through" to the owners' personal tax returns, avoiding the double taxation often associated with traditional corporations.
This means:
The LLC itself usually doesn't pay federal income tax.
Owners report profits and losses on their individual returns.
3. Flexible Tax Options
An LLC can choose how it wants to be taxed:
Sole proprietorship (single-member LLC)
Partnership (multi-member LLC)
S Corporation
C Corporation
This flexibility can create tax savings as the business grows.
4. Credibility
Having "LLC" after your business name can make the business appear more professional and established to:
Customers
Vendors
Banks
Potential partners
5. Simple Management
Compared with corporations, LLCs generally have:
Fewer formal requirements
No requirement for annual shareholder meetings
Less paperwork and record-keeping
6. Easier Separation of Business and Personal Finances
An LLC helps establish a clear distinction between you and the business, making:
Accounting easier
Tax filing cleaner
Business banking more straightforward
Potential Drawbacks
Formation and annual state fees can apply.
Owners may owe self-employment taxes on profits.
Some states impose additional franchise or annual taxes.
Who Should Consider an LLC?
An LLC is often a good choice for:
Freelancers and consultants
Real estate investors
E-commerce businesses
Contractors
Small business owners seeking liability protection
Does this sound like you? Get in touch with us for registering your business today.
What is FeatherNote?
Bookkeeping is where we were starting, and found that we couldn’t stop there!
Bookkeeping
Web Design
Business Consultation
Business Registration
What does all this mean? How can one company offer so many aspects of service?
We know it sounds like a lot of disjointed areas, but really, they all come together quite naturally.
Whenever someone has a business question about bookkeeping, we’re automatically starting to give consultation on how to help things be a bit smoother, or more profitable. The more we get to know how your business operates, we immediately begin thinking of how to help make your life a little easier. We say it all the time, “Work SMARTER not harder!”
Some people say it’s lazy to look for an easier way to do something. We say they’re just jealous that they haven’t found the most efficient way!
Once we’ve gotten this far, half of the time it’s discovered that the business doesn’t have an LLC or S-corp, much less business insurance. They don’t realize just how important it is to have a business entity and insurance to help protect their personal assets. (For the love of your cat, PLEASE get business insurance!)
The owner also may not be sure how to set up credit card payment portals or track invoices, so there's a need for helping with a website.
We realized that if we start bookkeeping, we’ll inevitably want to help people with all these other things too. We can’t just match your business transactions and call it a day if we see something that could help improve your business.
Financial Records —> Really Seeing Business Operations —> Wanting To Help the Business Owner Grow
“I get all nerdy and excited about all things business and just can't help it!” - Laurann Franco, Owner