If you're starting an AI services business with $0 and no portfolio, don't pick a niche until you read this most people picking a niche just go with whatever their guru told them or whatever looked cool on twitter. wrong approach entirely here's how I actually rank a niche before touching it: the 4 filters that matter: - seasonality - does revenue die for 3 months a year - recession resilience - do people still buy this when money's tight - accessibility - can you actually get the owner on the phone - ticket size - is there enough margin to sustain a retainer run every niche through this before you pitch a single person what I'd actually avoid (despite what gurus push): - real estate - top 5% of agents take 80% of the commission, everyone else avoids retainers because it eats their cut - roofers - every roofer in the US has been cold-called 500+ times since 2022, the market's burned out - personal trainers / social media agencies - low ticket, no budget, or they'll just reverse-engineer what you sell them and cut you out what I'd actually start with: - HVAC - recession-proof, seasonal peaks in BOTH summer and winter, $5K-15K installs, this is the one I'd pick with zero experience and zero portfolio - landscaping - recurring revenue built in, easy to find on the street, easy to cold call - electricians - miss constant calls, recession-proof, just harder to find ones with real volume the pricing formula that removes all the guesswork: cost per lead ÷ response rate = what they're already paying per appointment then undercut that by 20-30% for reactivated leads, 30-50% for fresh ones this way you're never guessing, you're pricing off numbers they already have the part people skip: close with a proof-of-concept demo and a full refund if it doesn't convert. zero risk for them = no reason to say no