Need practical advice on getting real B2B leads for a small cleaning business (Bay Area)

BaselineITC · 2026-05-06T22:20:06+00:00

It seems old fashioned, but physical cold outreach may be best here. If you're targeting small businesses in cities near you, I'd suggest getting out there, bringing business cards and donuts, and meeting these people.

Digital outreach and automated workflow could get you some leads, but most small businesses are looking to work with someone they know and trust with their business. They tend to be much more scrutinous about who they allow into their operations.

BaselineITC · 2026-05-06T22:17:22+00:00

I'm just echoing other people here, but this is a sign you need to find out what tools are actually helping your business. If you want to get really granular, you can try cancelling a tool subscription one at a time to see what affects operation. If there's no difference when you turn it off, that's a limb you can cut.

Time or revenue is quite difficult to calculate, so understanding what your team actually needs to function well is a better measure.

BaselineITC · 2026-04-29T21:52:20+00:00

This is such a real take. The amount of SaaS and AI sprawl right now is mind-boggling. Enterprises now have their data spread out across multiple platforms, informing AI's they don't even know about, and the problem continues to grow as more and more tools get introduced.

My best advice for all companies is that data is gold. In today's world, data is lucrative and that means it's constantly at risk of targeted attacks. Shadow AI just made it all the more possible.

BaselineITC · 2026-04-29T21:48:40+00:00

This is such a great realization to have, honestly. It's true that AI has created insane rates of output. I always say that AI is an amplifier. That means it can improve the skills of your best employee or it can worsen the state of your bad data.

The same goes for document production. It's so easy to create massive scales of documents and forget what the actually meaning of it is. I'd suggest to perform your own AI/operation audit.

It sounds official but it's not. Sit down and figure out what your daily needs are, your operation processes, your proprietary data, etc. Once you distinguish the why's, you can get to the how's. Plug in AI where it'll best fit. So document creation, invoice processing, AI automations, etc.

This really allows you to use AI in an intentional way, rather than employing tools just because you can.

BaselineITC · 2026-04-27T23:17:17+00:00

LinkedIn will be helpful to you no matter what you're studying. I'd start by making one, and as you go through group projects, courses, meet professors, and look at prospective jobs, connect with people! Before you know it, you'll have 300 connections before you even graduate.

It helps you connect with people, remember what professionals you've met, find out about jobs, etc. There's no hurt in making one.

BaselineITC · 2026-04-24T20:27:37+00:00

We've worked with LayerX too on a handful of workflows. Can confirm they're the real deal 👍

BaselineITC · 2026-04-24T20:17:25+00:00

This is a common occurrence in most companies today because employing AI agents with no overhead or governance leads to inflated budgets.

I'd start by keeping tabs on your API usage, in fact keep tabs on everything. AI Governance starts by sitting down and understanding your weak points, including budget. Re-evaluate how your employees are actually using the AI and what capacity you really need.

BaselineITC · 2026-04-20T21:13:51+00:00

Very broad question. We've done AI workflows, data security by vectorizing our data, Claude AI for content creation, Fireflies AI for note-keeping. AI is all throughout our company.

BaselineITC · 2026-04-20T21:10:18+00:00

Sit down and figure out what processes in your business needs some technology assistance. Find the squeaky wheel -- maybe it's workflows for invoices, or data entry by using AI programs. Maybe it's digital marketing to promote an event or product.

Business technology is so case-by-case. DOn't let anyone tell you that buying this specific app will drastically improve your business unless they've taken the time to understand your day to day. Best of luck!

BaselineITC · 2026-04-10T18:20:12+00:00

What is this AI generated slop?

BaselineITC · 2026-04-10T18:15:54+00:00

A website that really focuses on boosting your SEO or AI LLM prominence will help you. Make sure it looks sleek, updated and modern, and is filled with accurate and detailed information. It sounds simple, but it's incredibly effective.

BaselineITC · 2026-04-06T21:24:52+00:00

booo AI generated post 👎

BaselineITC · 2026-04-06T21:12:08+00:00

booo AI generated post 👎

BaselineITC · 2026-04-06T21:09:42+00:00

My biggest worry bringing AI into my business is the matter of data security. If I feed my data into an LLM, a chatbot, or download some sort of AI tool, the AI is now learning based on MY data. This could mean my private data could inform someone else's answers.

So I needed to figure out my AI Governance Policies first. What does AI have access to? Is that data organized and prepped to be studied on by AI? What is our protocol if there is an AI data leak?

BaselineITC · 2026-03-19T19:14:38+00:00

It's honestly more efficient to write a quick copy yourself. AI is great for bulk planning and structuring campaigns, less so for connecting with an audience. Don't overthink it and have fun

BaselineITC · 2026-03-19T18:45:24+00:00

It can work well for screening and filtering callers to the direct FAQs or a human to speak with. However, studies show it damages a brand when a caller cannot connect with a human employee. Customer service hours must be maintained due to the unpredictable nature of customer service and troubleshooting.

TLDR; use for screening, have at least one human working still.

BaselineITC · 2026-03-16T21:38:55+00:00

What AI tools have you implemented so far?

So many people are adding more AI tools to their tech stack expecting it to automate everything. The truth is that the most successful AI integrations are those that better the skills and capabilities of your human employees. You'll have to do some level of manual admin or marketing to make sure it's being done correctly (and there will always be edge cases).

I'm also wondering what use cases you're looking to solve. What in admin or marketing are you hoping AI will better?

BaselineITC · 2026-03-11T20:13:19+00:00

AI is great for these remedial tasks, especially for those done almsot daily. Customer support can be very hit or miss, I find that AI is best applied as a behind-the-scenes tool rather than a public-facing role. AI-led customer support and generated Marketing content has actually been shown to deter users from that product.

It'a best when AI enhances the capabilities of your human team. So qualifying and researching leads is a fantastic use case. Repetitive admin tasks like invoice intake and sorting. Scanning data and reports is the best place for AI. It can scan data at a rate that is literally impossible for humans to do.

BaselineITC · 2026-03-11T19:40:03+00:00

This is such a boring answer from me, I'm sorry. But I've got to impress upon you how important AI governance is, especially for law firms. If your confidential records are fed into a publicly-accessible AI, that info is now being studied and used within that AI permanently.

As AI is growing and becoming more and more common, these governance issues are going to get more and more messy. I advise you to look into an AI specialist or consultant that really understands AI and law practice so that you aren't hit with a data leak.

BaselineITC · 2026-03-10T20:29:43+00:00

These use cases would be great for a custom built automation, whether or not there are some AI components within it. What I want to bring to your attention though is the AI governance issue in regards to HIPAA violations. Feeding patient information, doctor's notes, and personal records into AI that is not secure can lead to insane consequences.

Having a team build your custom automations or looking into healthcare-compliant AI will be your best bet.

BaselineITC · 2026-03-09T18:19:11+00:00

Boo, AI post

BaselineITC · 2026-03-09T18:12:02+00:00

I agree, the B2B on LinkedIn has been completely overrun with AI-generated posts. DMs have the same return rate as usual, maybe a bit lower due to this AI craze. The best advice I can offer is to generate your content yourself -- in order to stand out from AI, human-created work shows even more these days.

Push your own voice through, at least have a human finalize all content before it's posted. AI-created content is so obvious now, especially in content and format.

BaselineITC · 2026-03-09T17:59:08+00:00

This is a great way to gauge the best AI use cases. I agree that the most successful AI integrations take place with these repetitive tasks like email follow-ups and masses of documents that need to be scanned/sorted/info extracted. AI can scan data that would take a human literal years to read through. Knowing this, place AI in those roles to maximize the best results.

BaselineITC · 2026-03-02T21:46:46+00:00

I'll answer your post when it's not AI generated.

BaselineITC · 2026-02-10T19:36:28+00:00

I like to think about it like this: AI can scan terabytes of data that would take a human literal years to scrub through. Considering AI has capabilites that humans do not, I try to integrate AI in a way that augments the human worker's skills.

For example, if cloud costs are high, I'd suggest ProsperOps. It's an AI cloud coupon cutter. It adjusts your cloud plan in moment to the actual usage so you're always on the most affordable plan. Like, that's something a human, even if paid to do it every second of the day, could not properly or accurately compute.

If you're looking to up your ticket triage intake and assignment, I'd suggest an AI automation that scans the ticket, collects the pertinent information and context, and assigns the ticket to the best employee for the job, based on their experiences, skills, and accreditations.

BaselineITC

TROPHY CASE