Strategic Advisor to Founders and CEOs. Took a specialty food manufacturer from capital raise to exit sale. Turnaround CEO. Food safety expert. Built five USDA inspected food manufacturing facilities.
The main thing is reputation - check deep because it is your reputation that is on the line. After that comes metrics and then cost.
You always start first with getting recommendations from people you trust. After that for each firm:
1) Google them
2) Call BBB
3) Ask them for references involving similar jobs
4) Make sure you have a detailed contract
The best strategy is to meet with a few different agencies in person and interview them for how they match your personality and business. Then look at their claimed results and see how realistic they are. Then ask for a quote with payment based on results.
Of those that are still in play - pick the one that you feel has the most integrity, not the cheapest.
The problem is that there is not one. $ 1,000/month will take real work and in the beginning will be like a full-time job.
The answer to that is what Palantir calls "Ontology" and basically that forces you to clean up your data and then put a layer on top of it which makes sure that all agents are consistant in how they get/update data and permissions. The big plus is that you don't have to train them individually. Here is a detailed explanation: https://www.applayerai.com/ontology
It broadens your horizons and shows you how other people handle similar problems.
You need to check what their burn rate is on domains. The best ones like Mailchimp or Constant Contact will limit your daily email count so that their domains do not get burned. So pick the one with the best reputation and the most restrictions even so this sounds contrarian.
You should not because everybody signing up after you will loose money. The numbers don't make sense. For more detail as to why:
https://www.z-niche.com/when-mlms-go-wrong
AI is already impacting construction, specifically in the permitting segment and environmental impact regulations. I know of 2 start-ups that are creating the database and the agent for reducing permiting time and cost. I do not know if it is already impacting structural engineering yet, but I know that several startups are working on it plus autocad is pushing there also.
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