How Small Business Owners Can Use AI to Save Time and Grow Faster

Need to Know

• TAP partnered with the Apollo Opportunity Foundation to host the Summer Small Business Summit, a full day of workshops on AI, marketing, and financial management. Apollo Global Management employees led the day for 23 small business owners. 

• Attendees walked away with concrete next steps, from using AI for bookkeeping and financial forecasting to building loyalty programs for their best customers. 

• Entrepreneurs left feeling seen, heard, and valued. As one attendee put it:

— Lorena Mardones, Jade Garden Design 

Watch the highlights from the Summit, including more from the AI, marketing, and financial management workshops, here.

For many small business owners, their growth pathways converge at the intersection of artificial intelligence, financial clarity, and real peer support. The Acceleration Project (TAP) and Apollo Opportunity Foundation brought this approach together in a single day at the Summer Small Business Summit. Small business owners moved between hands-on workshops, candid conversations, and direct access to the Apollo team, which sponsors and supports TAP's work.

TAP is a nonprofit that pairs under-resourced small business owners with skilled volunteer consultants for free, customized support. The goal is simple: help business owners strengthen their companies, create jobs, and build wealth in their own communities. The Apollo Opportunity Foundation partnership gives TAP clients an added layer of support, connecting them directly with a company that meets them along their journey and champions their growth.

Why AI Adoption Is The Way Forward for Small Business Owners

Julie Kalish, Partner, Human Capital at Apollo Global Management and a TAP Board member, opened the day with a direct message for the room: the real risk to a small business is not experimenting with AI. It is waiting too long to start while competitors move ahead. In her words: 

— Julie Kalish, Partner, Human Capital, Apollo Global Management

That framing landed with a room full of entrepreneurs who already pressed for time and resources. As one speaker put it, showing up to learn is itself a sign of moving forward, since the real risk sits with the business owners who stay on the sidelines.

Marketing as Storytelling: How to Find and Keep the Right Customers

The marketing session reframed a topic many small business owners find overwhelming. Rather than treating marketing as a list of tactics, the facilitator described it as a discipline built on storytelling: figuring out where your customers are, meeting them there, and building relationships. From there, the session walked through buyer personas and how a clear picture of your ideal customer should inform every decision that follows, from the channels you use to the offers you promote. 

Leveraging AI to Reclaim Time While Raising a Family

Some of the most memorable moments of the day came from the entrepreneurs themselves, including the owners of 2 Girls and a Cook Shop and Island Pops. Their stories captured something every small business owner in the room recognized: being an expert in your product does not automatically make you an expert in running a business.

One owner described the tradeoffs that come with entrepreneurship, and how tools like AI are starting to give some of that time back, time that goes toward family and toward catching up with competitors who have had a head start. By the end of the day, that sense of catching up had turned into something closer to confidence and the courage to push forward.

Using AI to Strengthen Financial Management and Bookkeeping

One question from the audience captured a problem many small business owners quietly wonder about: if you already have a forecast built in Excel, is it still worth uploading it to an AI tool to see what it can add? The Managing Finances workshop answered that in practical terms, walking through how AI can tighten up bookkeeping and budgeting rather than replace the spreadsheet work owners have already done.

One attendee came away with a clear plan:

— Alexandra Giel, La Llamita Vegana 

Scaling Strategically, Not Just Quickly

The Scaling Operations workshop gave attendees a framework for one of the hardest questions in business: when is it actually time to grow? The slides in particular helped owners assess whether their systems, infrastructure, and resources could support the next stage.

For one attendee, the session put years of experience into perspective:

— Joel Sanchez, Legacy Volleyball Club 

The Appetite for More

The most common request we heard after the Summit was simple: more. Attendees told us the day felt too short and that in-person connection fills a real need. One attendee said it best:

— Katja Frazier, My Kindergarten Pocket 

How to Apply for a Future TAP and Apollo Small Business Summit

TAP and Apollo plan to continue this partnership with future events centered on connecting Wall Street talent to Main Street. Small business owners interested in attending, or in TAP's free 1:1 consulting more broadly, can learn more and apply here.

Watch the full conversation from the Summit, including more from the AI, marketing, and financial management workshops, here.