AI Prompts for Small Business Owners

Run your small business like you have a marketing team, a copywriter, and a strategist on call. These prompts help you write product descriptions, customer emails, simple business plans, social posts, and replies to reviews — all in your own voice.

What's inside

Part 1 — Money Clarity (8 prompts)
Profit Snapshot · Pricing Calculator · Cash Flow Forecaster · Expense Audit · Break-Even Finder · Emergency Fund Planner · Tax-Season Organizer · Pay-Yourself Planner

Part 2 — Customers & Sales (8 prompts)
Ideal Customer Refresher · Offer Tune-Up · Follow-Up System · Review & Referral Engine · Upsell/Cross-Sell Mapper · Lost-Customer Win-Back · Sales Conversation Guide · Slow-Season Plan

Part 3 — Operations & Team (8 prompts)
Weekly Ops Checklist · SOP Writer · Hiring Scorecard · First-Hire Planner · Contractor vs Employee Decider · Difficult Conversation Scripts · Supplier Negotiator · Time-Where-It-Counts Audit

Part 4 — Growth & Protection (6 prompts)
90-Day Growth Plan · New Revenue Stream Brainstorm · Risk Register · Insurance & Legal Checklist Organizer · Exit/Scale Thought Experiment · Owner Burnout Check

Try 2 prompts from this pack, free

Copy either prompt below into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini (free versions work), fill in the [brackets] with your own details, and send. The full pack has 30 prompts like these.

You are a plain-spoken small-business profit analyst. Build a monthly profit snapshot from MY real numbers, not industry averages. This is planning help, not accounting advice; I will verify major decisions with an accountant.
Business and month: [BUSINESS] — [MONTH]
Revenue received: $[AMOUNT]
Refunds or discounts: $[AMOUNT]
Direct costs tied to sales: $[AMOUNT AND BREAKDOWN]
Payroll and contractor costs: $[AMOUNT]
Overhead such as rent, software, insurance, and utilities: $[AMOUNT AND BREAKDOWN]
Owner withdrawals or pay: $[AMOUNT]
Taxes set aside: $[AMOUNT]
One-off costs: $[AMOUNT AND DETAILS]
Do the following:
1. Build a simple income statement: gross revenue, net revenue, gross profit, operating profit, and cash left after owner pay and tax set-asides. Show every formula.
2. Show each cost category as a percentage of net revenue.
3. Identify the three biggest drains, but do not call a necessary cost waste without evidence.
4. Compare this month with [COMPARISON MONTH OR NONE] and separate one-off changes from recurring changes.
5. Give me three actions for next month: protect, investigate, or reduce — each with a dollar target.
6. Flag missing or guessed numbers that could materially change the conclusion.
Output format: one summary table, a five-sentence diagnosis, three actions with owners and dates, and a missing-data checklist.

You are a plain-spoken business finance coach. Work out whether my pricing actually makes money — using MY real numbers, not industry averages. I am not an accountant and neither are you: this is a working estimate, and I'll verify big decisions with a professional.
My offer: [WHAT I SELL]
My price(s): [LIST THEM]
Per sale, my direct costs: [MATERIALS, FEES, SHIPPING, CONTRACTOR PAY — BEST ESTIMATES]
Hours of MY time per sale: [HOURS]
What I want my time to be worth: $[AMOUNT]/hour
Monthly fixed costs (rent, software, insurance, etc.): $[AMOUNT]
Sales per month (typical): [NUMBER]
Do the following:
1. Compute my true cost per sale: direct costs + (my hours × my hourly value). Show the arithmetic line by line.
2. Subtract from my price to get profit per sale and margin %. Then subtract my share of monthly fixed costs (fixed costs ÷ sales per month) to get the REAL margin.
3. Tell me plainly: at current sales volume, does this business pay me fairly for my time? Yes / barely / no — with the numbers that prove it.
4. Model 3 scenarios: raise prices 10%, cut direct costs 10%, double sales volume. Show which moves the monthly take-home most.
5. If the math says I'm underpriced, give me a concrete new price and a 2-sentence script for telling existing customers about the increase honestly.
6. Flag anything in my numbers that looks like a guess that materially changes the answer — tell me to verify it before acting.
Output format: a line-by-line cost table, current margin, three scenario tables, recommendation, and customer script. No hype, no “charge what you're worth” slogans without math. Just the numbers.

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