If you run a small business, the work that actually pays you is rarely the problem. It's the admin around it. The process you keep meaning to write down, the awkward customer email, the invoice nobody's chasing, the bad review you have no idea how to answer. That's the stuff that quietly piles up and eats your week.

These eight prompts hand all of it to AI. Think of it like hiring an operations manager, except it's free and it answers in about ten seconds. They run in Claude or ChatGPT, and every one is copy-paste ready.

How to use them

Three steps, that's the whole thing:

  • Open Claude or ChatGPT.
  • Copy a prompt below and swap the [BRACKETS] for your real details.
  • Answer its follow-up questions and let it do the work. The more honest detail you give it, the better the output.

One line makes every single one of these sharper. Add this to the end: "Before you answer, ask me anything that would make this better." It turns a one-shot guess into a quick back-and-forth, and the final answer is almost always worth it.

1. The SOP Machine

Turns a task that only lives in your head into a step-by-step process your team can follow without pinging you every five minutes.

You are my operations manager. Turn this recurring task into a clear, step-by-step SOP my team can follow without asking me a single question: [DESCRIBE THE TASK].

For each step, give me: the action, who owns it (role), how long it should take, and what "done" looks like. Flag anything that commonly goes wrong and how to avoid it. Format it as a numbered checklist I can paste straight into a doc.

2. The Diplomat

Writes the calm reply to an upset customer that owns the issue and keeps them on the books instead of losing them.

A customer just sent me this upset message: [PASTE THE FULL MESSAGE].

Write a calm, professional reply that owns the issue without grovelling, explains what happened in one line, gives a specific fix with a deadline, and keeps them as a client. Match a [warm and casual / formal and polished] tone and keep it under 120 words. Then give me a shorter version I could send as a quick text.

3. The Collector

Chases an overdue invoice, firm but friendly, so it actually gets paid without torching the relationship.

Write a payment reminder for an overdue invoice. Details: invoice [#], amount [$X], now [#] days overdue, client [NAME], and the work I delivered was [WHAT YOU DID].

Make it firm but friendly so it gets paid without hurting the relationship. Give them an easy way to pay and offer to split it into two payments if that helps. Write three versions: a gentle nudge, a second reminder, and a final notice.

4. The Pricing Brain

Builds you three price tiers with the margins worked out, and tells you which one to push.

Help me price a new offer. I want to sell [SERVICE OR PRODUCT]. My costs are about [COSTS], it takes me roughly [TIME], and competitors charge [PRICE RANGE].

Build three pricing tiers: good, better, and best. For each one give me the price, what's included, the rough profit margin, and a one-line pitch. Then tell me which tier to lead with and why, and one upsell I am probably leaving on the table.

5. The Recruiter

Writes a job post that sounds like a human wrote it and splits the must-haves from the nice-to-haves.

Write a job post to hire a [ROLE] for my business. We do [ONE LINE ON WHAT YOU DO]. It's [part-time / full-time], [remote / onsite in CITY], and pays [PAY].

Make it sound human, not corporate. Include a short hook, what they'll actually do day to day, must-haves and nice-to-haves kept in separate lists, and a simple way to apply that filters out low-effort applicants. Keep it under 250 words.

6. The Reputation Fixer

Replies to a bad review so the next person who reads it trusts you more, not less.

Write a public reply to this review: [PASTE THE REVIEW]. It is a [#]-star review on [Google / Yelp / etc].

Stay calm and never defensive. Acknowledge it, take it offline with a real way to reach me, and write it so future readers trust us more after reading it, not less. Keep it short. Then write a separate private message I could send the reviewer directly to make it right.

7. The Week Planner

Takes the mess in your head and turns it into a real week, with the three things that actually matter protected first.

Here is everything on my plate right now, in no particular order: [DUMP YOUR WHOLE LIST].

Organize it into a realistic Monday to Friday plan. Flag the three things that actually move my business forward this week and protect time for them first. Tell me what I can delegate, what I can drop, and what I am spending too much time on. End with a one-line focus for the week.

8. The Spy

Tears down a competitor and hands you three concrete ways to win their customers.

Do a competitor teardown on [COMPETITOR NAME OR WEBSITE].

Tell me their pricing and how they package it, what they push hardest in their marketing, their three biggest weak spots, and where their customers complain. Then give me three specific, realistic things I can do to win those customers over, starting with the easiest one.

Where to start

None of these need you to be technical. They just need you to be honest about your situation and willing to answer a couple of follow-up questions.

Pick the one that's been annoying you the longest. The SOP you keep not writing, the invoice you keep not chasing, the review still sitting there unanswered. Run it once and you'll feel why this is like having an extra person on the team.

The admin isn't hard. It's just boring, and it never ends. That's exactly the kind of work AI is best at taking off your plate.

Steal these, swap in your details, and let AI handle the stuff you keep putting off. Then go do the work only you can do.
– Anir

If this is the kind of AI thinking you want working on your own business, apply to work with me. And to catch the next breakdown, join the newsletter.