You signed up for that AI writing tool three months ago. You used it heavily for two weeks. Now it auto-renews every month and nobody on your team even logs in. That subscription is bleeding cash every single month, going absolutely nowhere. Multiply that across every tool you've "tried," and you're looking at a number that would make your accountant wince.
You sat through a vendor demo last month. The salesperson talked fast. You bought the annual plan because they offered 20% off. You still haven't integrated it with anything. You don't even know what "integration" means in this context. You just know you wrote a check.
You've watched your competitor post on LinkedIn about their "AI-powered workflow" and felt that sick twist in your gut. Not because you're jealous. Because you're spending money too — maybe more than they are — and you have nothing to show for it. Your team asks you what the AI strategy is. You change the subject.
You've lost weekends reading blog posts and watching YouTube videos about AI for business. You've downloaded free guides. You've attended webinars. You have more information than ever and less clarity than when you started. Every hour you spend researching instead of deciding is an hour your business runs without direction.
Your real problem isn't that you're spending too much on AI. Your real problem is that you have no way to know whether you're spending too much, too little, or just wrong. And until that changes, every dollar you spend is a guess. This book kills the guessing.
Picture yourself six months from now. You've added two more AI subscriptions because a consultant recommended them. Your monthly AI spend keeps climbing. You still can't connect a single tool to a revenue number. Your bookkeeper has started putting it all under "miscellaneous technology" because there's no category for "stuff we hope works."
Your competitor — the one you've been watching — just landed your second-biggest client. They pitched faster. Their proposals looked sharper. Their turnaround time was half of yours. Not because they're smarter. Because they picked two tools that actually fit their workflow and skipped everything else, while you're juggling a half-dozen subscriptions that don't talk to each other. They had a budget. You had a credit card.
Here's the part nobody tells you: AI spending without a framework doesn't plateau. It compounds. Every tool you add creates a new monthly cost, a new learning curve, and a new reason to add another tool to fix what the last one didn't. Twelve months from today, you'll either have a spending plan that prints money — or a subscription graveyard that quietly drains it. There is no middle ground. But you're reading this page, which means you're ready for the fix.
AI Dollars and Sense is not a book about artificial intelligence. It's a book about money. Your money. It's the operating manual for spending it on AI tools in a way that's measurable, repeatable, and tied directly to your bottom line. You won't find hype in these pages. You'll find math, frameworks, and contract language you can use on Monday morning.
Here's exactly what you'll walk away with:
1. Your Personal ROI Calculator (Chapters 1 & 3)
Chapter 1 shows you why most business owners get AI spending wrong from the start — and Chapter 3 walks you through building a simple, one-page ROI framework tailored to your business model. Not a generic formula from a blog post — a calculation that accounts for your margins, your team size, and your actual revenue per customer. You'll know within minutes whether a tool is worth the trial, let alone the annual contract.
2. The AI Budget Blueprint (Chapters 2 & 4)
Chapter 2 lays out the AI spending reality most vendors don't want you to see, and Chapter 4 gives you a real AI budget — not a vague "percentage of revenue" number, but a dollar-for-dollar spending plan broken into categories: automation, content, customer service, and analytics. You'll see exactly where each dollar goes, what it should return, and when to cut it. This is the framework that turns "I think we're spending too much" into "I know exactly where the waste is."
3. The Vendor Negotiation Playbook (Chapters 5 & 11)
Chapter 5 shows you the questions to ask every vendor before signing anything — and the red flags hiding in fine print that most business owners miss. Chapter 11 goes deeper into managing those relationships long-term, with email templates for requesting better pricing, shorter lock-ins, and performance guarantees. You'll have more information than the person selling to you.
4. The Small Bets System (Chapters 6 & 8)
You'll never again commit serious money to a tool you haven't tested. Chapter 6 gives you a system for running short, low-cost experiments that tell you everything you need to know before signing an annual contract. Chapter 8 breaks down the real implementation costs nobody mentions in the demo. Your risk drops to nearly zero. Your data goes through the roof.
5. The Competitive Intelligence Framework (Chapters 10 & 12)
Chapter 10 shows you how to measure your competitive advantage from AI — not based on feelings, but on real outputs. Chapter 12 ties it all together into a quarterly spending plan that keeps you ahead. You'll know when to invest more, when to hold, and when to walk away.
Twelve fill-in-the-blank email templates for negotiating pricing, removing auto-renewal clauses, requesting performance guarantees, and cancelling without penalty fees. These are the exact scripts used by procurement consultants who charge $250/hour. You copy, paste, and send.
A pre-built spreadsheet that auto-calculates your ideal AI spend by category, tracks ROI per tool weekly, and flags any subscription below your minimum return threshold. Works in Google Sheets or Excel. No formulas to write.
A one-page evaluation rubric you hand to anyone on your team before they recommend a new tool. Scores every AI product on seven criteria: cost, time-to-value, switching cost, data risk, vendor reliability, and ROI potential. If it scores below 5 out of 7, you don't buy it. Eliminates impulse purchases permanently.
You won't find this book on Amazon, Google Play Books, or Apple Books. This is the only place to get it.
Right now it's $27 — marked down from $39.
Every week you wait is another week of guessing, overspending, or falling behind competitors who already have a plan.