How AI and the skills you already have can help you test a business idea before you borrow
BY Chisom Obiudo
Most people delay starting a business because they believe they need funding first. Imagine Ndapewa, an office administrator in Windhoek.
The businesses she considers all seem to require rented premises, stock and a loan she is reluctant to take. So, she keeps postponing her plans.
Yet at work, she follows up on outstanding invoices and turns piles of receipts into organised records. She could offer the same help to small business owners, using resources she already has to test whether someone would pay for it.
You may have heard that starting a business now requires only a phone and a skill AI can’t fake.
That’s true, especially for services you can deliver using skills and resources you already have. You may be able to find your first customer without renting premises or buying stock.
AI can help you take those first steps. You can use it to explore business ideas, plan competitor research, work through pricing, and draft customer messages.
You still need to check its suggestions against local conditions and customers’ actual needs. AI may also help you deliver parts of the service, but you remain responsible for the quality of the work you sell.
Starting small still has costs. You may need data, transport or basic tools, and the work takes time. The question is how to test whether someone will pay for your service while keeping those initial costs manageable.
Find a skill someone will pay for
If you start with a service, the first question is what you can already do, not what you can buy. Enjoying something is not the same as being good enough to sell it: you may love baking, but can you deliver fifty identical cupcakes on the promised day?
Write three short lists. First, what you do well and have done many times. Second, who you can reach: colleagues, church members, traders on your street.
Third, what those people complain about. Look for a problem you can solve for someone you can reach.
Ndapewa is good with records. She knows a salon owner and a taxi operator who struggle to organise their records when a bank or supplier asks for them.
Whatever you choose should be a skill AI can’t replicate. That does not mean any job is permanently beyond AI’s reach.
It means the value customers can experience and verify comes from work done reliably by someone responsible for checking and correcting it. A polished report does not prove the records behind it are accurate.
Let AI help you find a business idea
If you are unsure which idea to pursue, AI can help you connect what you know to the problems people need solved. Rather than asking for “ten profitable businesses”, give it your three lists and ask it to interview you first. Copy and paste this prompt into your preferred AI tool, then answer its questions one by one:
“Help me identify business ideas I could test in my area. Ask me one question at a time about my skills, experience, available time, resources, budget and the problems people around me face. Then suggest three specific services. For each, explain who might pay, what I would deliver, what extra skills or tools I would need and how I could test demand cheaply. Do not assume there is demand or promise earnings.”
For Ndapewa, suggestions might include organising receipts, setting up appointment reminders for salons, or using invoice trackers for tradespeople, including options she had not considered. AI generates possibilities; she decides which she can deliver well and which customers want.
What this looks like in practice
Ndapewa decides to offer monthly record-keeping, starting with the salon owner and taxi operator as potential customers. Each month, she collects their sales records and expense receipts, enters the amounts into a simple spreadsheet, and prepares a one-page summary showing how much money came in, how much went out, and what it was spent on.
Why wouldn’t the salon owner simply use a receipt-scanning app? They could, and Ndapewa might use one herself. But the owner still needs someone to collect the information, verify that amounts have been entered correctly, and follow up when something is missing. That is the work Ndapewa takes off their hands.
For example, if the owner says they paid a supplier in cash but cannot find the receipt, Ndapewa asks whether the supplier can provide a copy or confirm the payment.
If the supplier cannot confirm it, she marks the entry as unverified rather than presenting it as checked. Clients send photographs of their records via WhatsApp, and she uses a laptop she already owns.
Her immediate expenses include data costs and taxi fares when she needs to collect paper records.
The same principle applies to tutoring. A teacher or university student with strong subject knowledge could help parents whose child is falling behind in Grade 11 or 12 mathematics.
An AI tool can explain a calculation, but parents may value someone who works regularly with their child, checks understanding and reports honestly on progress. The phone arranges sessions; transport, materials and preparation time are the costs.
Similarly, someone who knows plants could maintain gardens for busy households that pay for reliability, knowledge of what survives a Namibian dry season, and trust in their property. It needs basic tools and transport. An app can tell a homeowner when to prune; it cannot do the pruning.
Use AI again to prepare your offer
The AI that helped Ndapewa find her idea can also help her prepare to sell it. Now that she has chosen monthly record-keeping, she can use it to research the market, understand her customers’ problems, and draft her introduction. Copy and paste the prompts below, adapting them to your own service. Answer their questions in detail, but without sharing names or confidential records.
To research the market:
“I want to offer monthly record-keeping to small businesses in Windhoek, including salons and taxi operators. Ask me up to five questions about my skills, resources and intended service before answering. Then suggest what a basic package could include and how to research local competitors. If you identify businesses or prices, provide current sources; if you cannot verify them, say so. Do not invent names or rates.”
To understand customers’ problems:
“Ask me up to five questions about the small business owners in Windhoek I can reach. Then suggest five neutral questions about how they manage records now, what goes wrong and what it costs them in time or money. Avoid questions that encourage them to agree with my business idea.”
To tailor your message to different customers:
“Help me write two WhatsApp messages introducing my record-keeping service, one for a salon owner and one for a taxi operator. First ask what I can deliver, my price and what each customer has said they need. Keep each message under 60 words in plain English. Use only benefits I can support, and do not add services or qualifications I have not mentioned.”
Tailoring matters because customers care about different things: a salon owner may want less time spent on paperwork, while a taxi operator may want a clearer picture of fuel and repair costs.
However, treat all AI suggestions as ideas to test. Check factual claims against reliable sources and confirm local prices directly, as general answers may overlook how informal traders in your area operate. Only conversations with customers reveal which problems matter to them.
Check the draft messages carefully. If a draft offers “tax filing and financial advice”, Ndapewa should remove that claim, as it falls outside her competence and the agreed service. As her name appears on the message, she must read every line and be able to deliver what it promises.
Test one small offer before you spend
Checking AI’s work matters, but the most useful test of all is a paid first job, meaning a small, clearly defined piece of work that a customer pays for.
Before buying equipment or borrowing, speak to five or six potential customers about their experience: “How do you track receipts now, and what happened the last time someone asked for them?” A recent example tells you more than a polite “That sounds useful”.
Then offer your first paid job. Ndapewa could organise one month’s records and deliver a one-page summary by an agreed date, with any missing information clearly identified.
To set a starting price, estimate the total time the job will take, including preparation and follow-up. Multiply that by the minimum you would accept for an hour of your time, then add expenses such as data and transport. For example, four hours at N$100, plus N$80 in expenses, gives N$480. This is a calculation, not a suggested market rate, so compare it with local offers.
Agree in writing, even via WhatsApp, on what is included, what the customer must provide, the delivery date, the price, and when payment is due. For Ndapewa, this includes what happens if receipts arrive late.
After delivery, ask what could be improved and whether the customer would pay for the service again. One payment beats fifty likes but repeat work at a worthwhile price shows whether the business can last.
Keep your own income and expenditure records from your first job, and check your tax obligations with the Namibia Revenue Agency.
If you handle clients’ records, agree on how they will be shared and stored, protect your devices, and limit access. Never upload clients’ private financial information to AI; use made-up examples instead.
Your next seven days
This week, write your three lists and ask AI to help you explore potential services. Choose one you can deliver and describe it in a single sentence. Speak to five people who might need it, work out your costs, and offer one a clearly defined paid first job.
If they decline, ask why. You may need a different offer, price or customer.
If someone pays, check how much time and money the job took before offering it again. Those results tell you whether to expand, and whether you need to borrow at all.
Not long ago, starting a business meant paying for advice, research and design before earning anything, which favoured those who already had money. AI hasn’t removed every cost, but it has narrowed that gap.
Ndapewa can now research her market, refine her offer and draft her first message using a phone, some data and a free AI tool. AI hasn’t changed what customers pay for: someone who does the work well and stands behind it.
So, before you take that loan, take a smaller step. Find out whether someone will pay for the skill you already have.
Chisom Obiudo is an admitted legal practitioner of the High Court of Namibia specialising in corporate governance and AI governance. She trains boards on AI oversight, equips professionals with practical AI skills and develops customised AI assistants to support their work.
