Small business owners do not need a course on artificial intelligence. They need the quote written, the job posting up, the follow-up sent, and the week planned.
These AI prompts are written for that. Each one is built to be pasted into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini with your details dropped in.
The 5 parts every good prompt has
- Role — who the AI should act as.
- Goal — what the output is for, in one sentence.
- Context — who your customer is, what you sell, what you already tried.
- Format — bullets, table, 200 words, three options, plain English.
- Constraints — tone, reading level, what to avoid, what to never claim.
Marketing you can send today
Local offer post: "Act as a local marketer. Write a 90-word Facebook post for a [business type] in [city]. Audience: [customer]. Mention [specific offer or season]. Plain language, no hype, one clear call to action."
Website hero rewrite: "Here is my current homepage headline: [paste]. Give me five replacements that say exactly what I do, who it is for, and why someone would pick me. No slogans."
Referral ask: "Write a short text I can send to happy customers asking for a referral. Friendly, no pressure, under 300 characters."
Sales and follow-up
Quote follow-up: "Write a follow-up email to a customer who received a quote for [service] eight days ago and has not replied. One question, no discount, no guilt."
Objection prep: "My customers usually hesitate because [reason]. Give me three honest ways to respond, and one thing I should stop saying."
Proposal skeleton: "Turn these notes into a one-page proposal with scope, timeline, price and what is not included: [notes]"
Pricing and money
Price sanity check: "I charge [price] for [service]. It takes me [hours] and costs [materials]. Walk me through my effective hourly rate and three ways to raise margin without losing customers."
Package builder: "Turn this single service into good/better/best packages. Explain what changes between tiers and what stays the same: [service description]"
Hiring and delegation
Job post: "Write a job post for a part-time [role] at a [business type] in [city]. Include realistic day-to-day duties, must-haves, nice-to-haves, and how to apply. Honest tone, no corporate filler."
Interview questions: "Give me eight interview questions for a [role] that reveal how someone actually works, not how well they interview."
Handoff document: "Turn this process into a step-by-step document a new hire could follow on day one: [describe process]"
Admin and operations
Inbox triage: "Here are today's messages. Sort them into: reply now, reply this week, ignore. Draft the reply-now responses: [paste]"
Meeting to actions: "Turn this transcript into decisions, owners and deadlines: [paste]"
Weekly reset: "I have [hours] of working time this week and these open items: [list]. Give me a realistic plan and tell me what will not get done."
The rule that makes these work
Never ask the AI to invent facts about your business. Give it your prices, your services, your city, your actual customer message — and ask it to shape, sharpen or structure them.
The moment you start pasting in real material, AI stops sounding like a chatbot and starts sounding like a very fast assistant who knows your business.
Start with the task you repeat most
Pick the one thing you write over and over — quotes, follow-ups, job posts — and build one solid prompt for it. Save it. That single reusable prompt usually saves more time in a month than experimenting with fifty new tools.