Every time some new tech rolls out, people start panicking that it's the end of human business. Remember when everyone said the internet would kill small stores? Then Amazon would kill them? Then social media would kill them? People are still buying from people. The panic just moves to a different button every few years. Now the villain is AI.

Letting an AI chatbot handle your customer conversations sounds brilliant until it introduces itself as "Greg" and promises someone a lifetime supply of free coffee mugs. AI doesn't understand context, sarcasm, or the fact that "I'm furious" isn't an invitation to upsell. Yet somehow, every small business owner is being told that chatbots are the key to customer satisfaction. Sure, if your goal is to confuse everyone equally.

Somewhere along the way, the phrase "powered by AI" became the new "as seen on TV." Every tool, plugin, and Chrome extension suddenly claims to use "artificial intelligence" to revolutionize your business. Translation: they want to charge you a monthly fee to do something you could have done faster with a brain and a cup of coffee.

You know that feeling when you've been "working" all day, but somehow your to-do list looks longer than when you started? You're exhausted, you've clicked a thousand things, maybe even answered an email or two, but you can't name a single task that made you money. Welcome to the Home Business Hamster Wheel, population: everyone who mistakes motion for progress.

There's a certain breed of seller who lives by the phrase, "I'll figure it out." They say it like it's a badge of honor. They'll launch products with no plan, guess their prices, and write down supplier info on a sticky note they'll lose by lunch. Then, three months later, they wonder why everything's on fire.

Everybody wants to play boss. You know the type. They fire up the laptop, take a big sip of overpriced coffee, and say, "I really need to build a team." Sure, because nothing says "I've made it" like managing five freelancers who all disappear the second their Wi-Fi hiccups.

Somewhere out there, right now, someone's A/B testing the color of a checkout button for the 400th time. They'll spend all week obsessing over whether blue converts better than green while their customers quietly disappear because the site feels like a carnival ride that keeps changing mid-spin.

Ah, automation. The siren song of lazy entrepreneurs everywhere. Push a button, sit back, and let the robots run your business while you sip iced coffee and pretend you're "scaling." Sounds perfect, right? Until your autoresponder starts sending "Welcome!" emails to people who unsubscribed six months ago and your order fulfillment software decides everyone in Ohio gets free shipping.