From Zero to AI Agency: Launch and Scale to $10K/Month in 90 Days

The clock starts now. You are not here to "learn about AI" or browse interesting theories about the future of automation. You are here to build a revenue-generating asset that replaces your current income and scales beyond it.

Most aspiring agency owners fail because they spend their first 90 days in "research mode." They watch tutorials, test every new tool that drops on Product Hunt, and tell their friends they are "getting into AI." Three months later, they have zero clients and $0 in revenue.

We are taking a different approach. Your first seven days are dedicated to foundational decisions that will allow you to execute with speed. By the end of this week, you will not just have an idea; you will have a sellable market position.

The 90-Day Targets: Reverse Engineering $10K

To hit $10,000 in monthly recurring revenue (MRR) within 90 days, we need to break the math down into tangible targets. Relying on "hope" is not a strategy; reliance on volume and conversion rates is.

If you are selling a monthly retainer service (e.g., AI lead nurturing or support automation) at $2,000/month, you only need five clients. If you are selling a setup fee of $3,000 plus a $1,000 retainer, the math changes, but the goal remains the same: High-ticket, low-volume.

Key Insight: You do not need 100 customers to quit your job. You need 4 to 6 high-quality partners who view your service as an investment, not an expense. This shifts your focus from "how do I get viral attention?" to "how do I solve expensive problems for a specific group of people?"

Your 90-Day Sprint Schedule:

• Days 1-30 (Validation): Secure your first 1-2 beta clients (paid or highly discounted in exchange for case studies). Validate that your technical solution actually works in a live environment.
• Days 31-60 (Systems): Document your delivery process. Turn your manual "figuring it out" phase into a repeatable SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). Raise prices to market rate.
• Days 61-90 (Scale): Ramp up outreach volume. You now have a case study and a system. This is where you hit the 4-6 client mark.

Step 1: Niche Selection Using the CAS Framework

The biggest mistake new agency owners make is positioning themselves as "AI Automation Experts for Everyone." If you market to everyone, you market to no one. A dentist has different problems than a logistics company. If you try to speak to both, you sound generic, and generic services command low prices.

You need to select a niche immediately. Do not spend weeks overthinking this. You are looking for a "good enough" market, not a perfect one. Use the CAS Framework (Cash, Accessibility, Severity) to score potential niches.

The Niche Scoring Matrix (Score 1-5 for each)

Analysis:

• Cash Capacity: Avoid businesses with low transaction values (restaurants, retail shops). Target businesses with high Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) like med spas, law firms, contractors, or B2B tech.
• Accessibility: If you cannot scrape their emails or find the owner on LinkedIn, do not pick them. You need speed.
• Severity: AI solves efficiency and communication problems. Look for businesses that rely on speed-to-lead (sales) or have high support ticket volume.

Pro Tip: If you are currently employed in a specific industry (e.g., logistics), start there. Your "insider language" and understanding of their acronyms gives you immediate credibility that no amount of AI knowledge can replace.

Step 2: Crafting Your Flagship Offer

Once you have a niche, you need a mechanism. Do not sell "Consulting." Sell a solution. Clients do not buy "AI"; they buy "freedom from checking email at 10 PM" or "doubling their lead conversion rate."

For your first 90 days, stick to one of these three proven offer types. Do not invent something new.

1. The 24/7 Sales Concierge (Chatbots):

   • Problem: Client pays for ads, leads come in at 2 AM, no one answers, lead goes cold.
   • Solution: An AI agent on their website or Instagram DM that qualifies leads, answers FAQs, and books appointments directly into their calendar.
   • Value: "We instantly engage every lead you generate so you stop wasting ad spend."

2. The Reactivation Engine (Database Automation):

   • Problem: Client has a list of 5,000 past customers but hasn't emailed them in six months because they are "too busy."
   • Solution: An automated SMS/Email sequence powered by AI that personalizes outreach to book appointments for new offers.
   • Value: "We turn your dead leads into $20k of revenue in 30 days with zero ad spend."

3. The Operations Architect (Internal Workflow):

   • Problem: Client's team spends 15 hours a week copying data from emails to spreadsheets.
   • Solution: Zapier/Make automations that parse emails, update CRMs, and generate reports automatically.
   • Value: "We save your team 60 hours/month so they can focus on selling."

Defining Scope Boundaries To avoid scope creep (working endlessly for the same fee), your offer must have hard boundaries.

• Bad Scope: "I will automate your business."
• Good Scope: "I will build one Lead Qualification Bot, integrate it with HubSpot, and provide 30 days of monitoring."

Step 3: Positioning and The "Proof Plan"

You likely do not have case studies yet. That is normal. You do not need past success to sell; you need Present Competence.

In the AI space, the technology is so new that "10 years experience" is impossible. If you can demo a working bot today, you are the expert. This is your "Proof Plan."

The Agency One-Liner Strip your LinkedIn bio and website of generic titles like "AI Enthusiast." Use this formula:

• "I help [Niche] add [Revenue/Time Saved] by installing [Specific AI System] in under 30 days."

• Example: "I help Dental Practices add $15k/month in booked appointments by installing AI lead-response systems."

How to manufacture credibility without clients:

1. Build a Demo: spend 3 hours building a functional chatbot for your specific niche.
2. Record a VSL (Video Sales Letter): A 5-minute Loom video where you say, "I built this agent for [Niche] businesses. Watch how it handles a difficult customer objection."
3. Host it publicly: Put this video on your LinkedIn Featured section or a simple landing page.

When a prospect asks, "Who have you worked with?", you respond: "We are launching this specific program this month, which is why I am offering a founder's discount. However, let me show you exactly how the system works right now so you can see the capability yourself."

Important: High-paying clients care about risk mitigation. A live demonstration eliminates risk better than a generic testimonial does. If they can see it working, they believe it.

Action Checklist: Days 1-7

Day 1-2: Market Selection

• List 10 potential niches based on your interests or background.
• Run them through the CAS Framework table above.
• Select ONE winner. This is your focus for the next 90 days. No changing allowed.

Day 3-4: Offer Construction

• Choose your mechanism (Chatbot, Reactivation, or Ops).
• Write down the specific deliverables (e.g., "1 Make.com scenario," "1 OpenAI Assistant setup").
• Set your "Beta Price" (suggested: $1,000 setup + $500/month, or free setup in exchange for a video testimonial + higher retainer).

Day 5-7: Digital Real Estate

• Optimize your LinkedIn profile with your new One-Liner.
• Build your "Proof Asset" (the demo bot or automation).
• Record your 5-minute Loom video demonstrating the asset.

Coming Up Next: Validating Through Outreach

You now have a target, a solution, and a demonstration of competence. But the best product in the world is worthless if nobody sees it.

In Section 2, we will leave the planning phase and enter the market. You will learn the "Low-Volume, High-Personalization" outreach strategy designed to bypass gatekeepers and get your offer in front of decision-makers without spending a dime on ads. We will cover exactly how to scrape lead lists, write scripts that get replies, and handle the "how much does it cost?" question.

Welcome to Week 2. By now, you should have defined your niche, clarified your positioning, and drafted your first high-ticket AI offer from Section 1. You know who you are helping and what you are selling.

Now, we build the machine that allows you to deliver it.

In Days 8-14, we are focusing on infrastructure. However, we are not building a bloated corporate structure. We are building a Minimum Viable Agency (MVA). The goal is not perfection; the goal is speed and credibility. You do not need a $5,000 website or a custom-coded platform to sign your first client. You need a way to get paid, a way to schedule calls, and a way to show you are legitimate.

Part 1: The Lean Tech Stack (Days 8-9)

One of the biggest friction points for new agency owners is "Tool Paralysis." There are thousands of AI tools, CRMs, and automation platforms on the market. You could spend months testing them all and make zero dollars.

To hit $10k/month in 90 days, you need a stack that handles four specific functions:

1. Lead Management (CRM): Tracking who you are talking to.
2. Scheduling: Getting prospects on a Zoom call.
3. Payments: Sending invoices and collecting money.
4. Fulfillment: The tools used to deliver the work (e.g., automation builders).

We recommend two distinct paths depending on your current budget. Choose one and stick to it. Do not mix and match yet.

Pro Tip: If you can afford the roughly $97-$297/month for GoHighLevel (GHL), it is generally worth it because it combines CRM, landing pages, scheduling, and email automation into one tool. However, do not let the cost be a barrier. You can absolutely scale to your first $10k using just Notion, Calendly, and Stripe.

Action Step: Spend Day 8 signing up for your chosen stack. Connect your Stripe account to your bank immediately, as verification can take 2-3 days.

Part 2: The One-Page Portfolio (Days 10-11)

You do not need a 10-page website with a "History of our Company" section. In the AI agency space, clients buy outcomes, not history.

For Days 10-11, you will build a Single-Page Funnel. The purpose of this page is not to inform the visitor; it is to convert them into a booked call. Whether you use Carrd, Framer, Webflow, or the GHL page builder, the structure remains the same.

The High-Converting Anatomy:

1. The Headline (Hero Section): Direct callout to your niche.
   • Example: "We Help Real Estate Agents Automate Lead Qualification Using AI."
2. The Agitation: Clear articulation of the pain point.
   • Example: "Stop wasting 10 hours a week texting leads who never reply."
3. The Mechanism: A simple visualization of your process (e.g., "Lead In -> AI Chatbot Qualifies -> Booked Appointment").
4. The Offer: What they get (The deliverables from Section 1).
5. Social Proof: Even if you have no clients, use "Concept Proof." Show a screenshot of an automation working or a video demo of a chatbot conversation.
6. The CTA: An embedded calendar to book a "15-Minute Discovery Call."

Important: Do not use a contact form. Contact forms are where leads go to die. Force the booking or nothing. In Section 3, we will discuss how to drive traffic to this page, but for now, it simply needs to exist to establish credibility when you start outreach.

Part 3: The Delivery Blueprint (Days 12-14)

The fastest way to fail is to sell a service you cannot deliver efficiently. If every client requires a custom-built solution that takes you 40 hours, you have created a low-paying job, not a business.

To scale, you must productize your service. This means defining the scope rigidly. You are selling a specific outcome, delivered in a specific way.

Your Delivery SOP (Standard Operating Procedure):

Create these three documents in Google Docs or Notion. These will be your "Bible" for fulfilling client work.

1. The Intake Form Never start work without data. When a client pays, they should immediately receive a form collecting everything you need to start.

• Key fields: Logins for their current tools, brand voice guidelines, specific FAQs (if building a chatbot), and access to their CRM.
• Why this matters: It prevents the "back-and-forth" email hell that kills project momentum.

2. The Build Checklist This is a step-by-step list of exactly what you click and configure to build the solution.

• Example Step: "Connect Client OpenAI API Key to Make.com Scenario #4."
• Benefit: This allows you to eventually hand this work off to a junior developer (which we cover in Section 6).

3. The Handoff Protocol How do you give the work to the client? Do not just email them saying "it's done."

• The "Loom" Video: Record a 5-minute screen share walking them through what you built.
• The Testing Period: Explicitly state, "We will monitor this for 48 hours to ensure stability."
• The Offboarding: Remove your admin access or transition it to a maintenance retainer (discussed in Section 5).

Key Insight: Clients feel safer when you have a process. During the sales call, showing them your "Delivery Roadmap" proves you aren't figuring this out as you go. It justifies premium pricing because they are paying for a proven system, not an experiment.

Why This Infrastructure Matters

By the end of Day 14, you will have removed the three biggest psychological barriers to selling:

1. "How do I get paid?" (Stripe is ready).
2. "Do I look legitimate?" (Your landing page is live).
3. "What do I do if they say yes?" (Your Delivery Blueprint is ready).

You are no longer just a person with an idea; you are a business open for trade.

What You'll Build On

This section is the final preparation step before we switch to aggressive revenue generation.

• In Section 3 (Outreach): We will take the landing page you built here and drive targeted traffic to it using LinkedIn and Cold Email systems.
• In Section 4 (Sales): You will use the scheduling links set up this week to fill your calendar and the CRM to manage your pipeline.
• In Section 5 (Retainers): We will expand your "Delivery Blueprint" to include recurring maintenance packages so you get paid monthly, not just once.
• In Section 6 (Scaling): You will hand over the "Build Checklist" created in this section to a virtual assistant, removing yourself from fulfillment entirely.

Moving Forward

You have the offer. You have the tech stack. You have the delivery system. The car is built and the tank is full.

In the remainder of this course, we turn the key. The next section focuses entirely on Client Acquisition. You will learn the specific outreach scripts and "Trojan Horse" marketing methods to get your first 5 booked calls next week.

Get your infrastructure set up by Sunday night. Monday morning, we go to market.