One Prompt, Five Questions, a Real Map
If you run a small business, you have probably heard that AI can help you. What nobody tells you is where. So you sit there thinking "help with what, exactly?" and nothing happens.
This guide fixes that in one short session. You answer five plain questions about your business, paste them into Claude, and it hands back two things: a wide list of every place AI could realistically help you, and a short, honest shortlist of the five worth doing first. No tech background needed, no jargon, nothing to install.
You do not need to know anything about AI to use this. That is the whole point.
What You Will Walk Away With
- The Wide View. Every realistic way AI could help your business, sorted by department (marketing, sales, service, admin, finance), so nothing gets missed.
- The Shortlist. The five best opportunities for a business your size, ranked, with an honest read on how hard each is and what you get out of it.
- An Honest Gut-Check. Claude tells you straight when an idea sounds good but would be a heavy lift for a small team, so you do not chase the wrong thing.
- A Clear First Move. You finish knowing exactly which one to start with, instead of "I should probably do something with AI someday."
What You Need
Just one thing: a Claude account. Go to claude.ai and sign up, you can start free. That is the entire toolkit. No other software, no credit card to try it, no setup beyond making an account. The whole thing takes about five minutes.
Step One, Open a Fresh Chat
Start with a clean slate. A fresh, empty chat keeps Claude focused only on your business and nothing else.
- Go to claude.ai and sign in. No account yet? Click Sign up, it is free to start.
- Click the New chat button, usually top left.
If you can send a text message, you can do this.
Step Two, Paste the Prompt and Fill in Your Five Blanks
Copy everything in the prompt below and paste it into your new Claude chat. Before you hit send, fill in the five blanks at the bottom with your own short answers, a sentence or a few words each is plenty. Then press send and let it run. It takes under a minute.
You are a practical business advisor who helps small business owners find realistic, high-payoff ways to use AI. I run a small business and I want you to help me see the AI opportunities I am probably missing.
Use the details at the bottom of this message as the source of truth for my business. Everything you suggest must fit it. Do this in two passes.
PASS 1, brainstorm wide. Go department by department (marketing, sales, customer service, admin and operations, finance) and list every realistic way AI could help my specific business. Do not filter yet, I want the full range so I can see what is possible. For each idea, give me one plain sentence on what it would do for me.
PASS 2, filter to a real shortlist. Now cut the list down to the five best opportunities for a business my size. Rank them. For each one, tell me:
- What it does, in plain language.
- Roughly how much effort it takes to set up (low, medium, or high).
- The payoff if it works (time saved, money made, or headache removed).
- Whether it is realistic for a team my size and my tech comfort, honestly.
Rules:
- Match everything to my actual answers below. No generic advice that could apply to any business.
- Be honest about effort. If something sounds great but would be a heavy lift for a small team, say so.
- If you are not sure an idea would work for me, say "this one is a maybe" and tell me why.
- Plain language only. Assume I am not technical.
MY BUSINESS
1. What my business does: [fill in yours]
2. My team size: [fill in yours]
3. Tasks that eat the most time each week: [fill in yours]
4. My biggest bottleneck, the thing that slows us down most: [fill in yours]
5. My comfort level with tech and AI (beginner, some experience, or confident): [fill in yours]How to Answer the Five Blanks
You already know all of these. No research required.
- What your business does. One sentence, the way you would tell a stranger at a party. "We do residential lawn care" is perfect.
- Your team size. "Just me," "me and two part-timers," "eight people." Simple.
- Tasks that eat the most time. What do you dread? What do you do over and over? Invoicing, answering the same questions, chasing quotes, posting on social.
- Your biggest bottleneck. The one thing that, if it vanished, would free you up most. Follow-up? Scheduling? Paperwork?
- Your comfort level. Be honest. "Beginner" is a fine answer, it makes the advice better, not worse.
Step Three, Read Your Two Lists
Claude gives you a wide list, then a shortlist. Here is how to read each.
The Wide List (Pass 1) is there to open your eyes. You will likely think "I did not know AI could do that." That reaction is the point. Skim it, do not act on all of it.
The Shortlist (Pass 2) is where the real decision lives. For each of the five, look at:
- What it does. Does this solve a real problem you actually have?
- Effort (low, medium, high). Low-effort wins are the best place to start when you are new to this.
- Payoff. Does it save real time, make real money, or kill a real headache?
- Realistic for you. Claude flags the ones that are a stretch for a small team. Trust that flag.
Look for the sweet spot: low effort, high payoff, and a real problem you have today. That is your starting point.
Step Four, Pick One and Take the First Step
The mistake here is trying to do everything at once. Do not. Pick a single low-effort, high-payoff item from the shortlist and start there, the one that makes you go "oh, that would actually help." One win builds confidence for the next.
Not sure how to set it up? Ask Claude in the same chat: "Walk me through how to start with number one, step by step, like I have never done this before." It will break it down for you.
Do not love the list? Tell Claude what felt off, "too generic," "you missed that most of my day is X," "we do not do social." It gets closer on the next round.