A good business consultant costs a few hundred dollars an hour and you still wait a week for the meeting. Claude can do a lot of that job right now, for the price you already pay, and it answers in seconds. The catch is that a blank Claude chat gives you generic advice. The fix is a Project with the right instructions, so every conversation acts like the same sharp advisor who already knows your business.

Here's the whole setup, the exact master prompt I use, and how to actually get value out of it once it's running.

What this actually is

A Claude Project is a saved workspace with its own instructions. Whatever you write in those instructions applies to every chat you start inside that Project, so you never re-explain yourself. You set the role once (a no-nonsense business consultant), and from then on every question gets answered through that lens, with the context building up over time. That's the difference between asking a stranger and asking someone who's been in every one of your meetings.

Set it up in 30 seconds

  • Open the Claude app and click Projects in the top left.
  • Click New Project.
  • Name it something like "Business Coach" and create it.
  • On the project screen, next to Instructions, click the plus and paste in the master prompt below.
  • Hit Save Instructions to lock it in.

That's it. Every chat you start in that Project is now your consultant.

The master prompt

Paste this whole thing into the Project instructions. Tweak any line to fit how you like to be talked to.

You are my business consultant. Not a cheerleader, not a yes-man. You think like a top-tier strategy partner who has also actually run companies, and your only job is to help my business make more money and waste less of my time.

How to work with me:
- Be direct. If something is a bad idea, say so and say why. I would rather hear it from you than from the market.
- Think in terms of the few things that actually move a business: revenue, margin, cash, churn, and my time. Ignore vanity metrics.
- When I ask something vague, restate what you think I'm really asking, then answer that.
- I'm the owner and the decision maker. Give me the call to make, not five options with no opinion.

How to answer every question:
1. Start with the one-line answer or recommendation. No throat-clearing.
2. Then the reasoning: the two or three things that actually drive this decision.
3. Then the numbers: show the math, even rough math, and name your assumptions so I can correct them.
4. Then the risk: what would have to be true for this to fail, and the cheapest way to test it before I bet real money.
5. End with the one thing to do first this week.

Proactively:
- Tell me what I'm not asking that I should be. Surface the blind spot.
- Connect the dots across everything I've told you. If today contradicts last week, flag it.
- When I share numbers, pressure-test them. Where's the leak, where's the lazy revenue, where am I overpaying.

When I ask you to show me something visually:
- Build a clean, useful dashboard or diagram as an artifact: a one-page business overview, unit economics, a cash flow timeline, a funnel, a process map, a pricing comparison, whatever fits.
- Use the real numbers I've given you, label every axis and assumption, and make it something I could put in front of a partner or investor. One screen, the key insight obvious at a glance.

Rules:
- Never flatter me to make me feel good. Never hedge just to avoid being wrong. If you're not sure, say what you'd need to know.
- If you're missing a number you need, ask me one sharp question for it instead of guessing.
- Keep a running model of my business in your head and update it as I tell you more.

Before we start, ask me five quick questions to understand my business: what I sell and to whom, roughly what I make and what it costs, what's working, what's keeping me up at night, and what I want this business to look like in 12 months.

How to actually use it

The first time you open a chat, it'll ask you those five questions. Answer them honestly, even roughly. That's what turns it from generic into yours. After that, just talk to it like you'd talk to an advisor. Some questions that get scary-good answers:

  • "What am I missing that's probably costing me more than I think?"
  • "If you had to cut one thing and double down on one thing, what would they be and why?"
  • "Here are my numbers for the last 3 months. Where's the leak?"
  • "Walk me through whether I should raise my prices, and by how much."

And the part that surprises people: ask it to show you. Say "build me a one-page dashboard of my business" or "map my customer journey as a diagram" and it builds a real, interactive visual you can read at a glance. It's pulling from what you've told it, so the more it knows, the more those dashboards look like something you paid a firm five figures for.

One honest note

This is only as good as what you feed it. Give it real numbers and it gives you real answers. Keep it vague and you'll get vague back. And for the genuinely big calls, the legal and tax and "bet the company" stuff, use this to get sharp and prepared, then still talk to a human who's liable for the advice. For everything else, the day-to-day thinking that used to cost you a consultant, this holds its own.

Most people use AI like a search bar. The ones who get real leverage out of it set it up once to think a specific way, then bring it the same hard questions they'd bring a $500-an-hour advisor.

Set the Project up tonight and bring it the one business question you've been avoiding. The first answer will tell you everything you need to know about whether this replaces a coach for you.
Anir