How to Use Claude for Your Small Business: A Practical Setup

The short version

The difference between “Claude is OK” and “Claude saves me hours” is setup. Twenty minutes building a few Projects with your real policies and examples means every draft starts in your voice, with your rules.

Set up three Projects

Free accounts can create up to five Projects, which is enough for this.

1. Customers. Knowledge: your FAQ, returns and cancellation policy, opening hours, price list. Instructions:

Draft replies to customers of [business]. Use only our policies in project knowledge.
Warm, brief, plain English. If something isn't covered, write [ASK ME]. Never promise refunds or dates outside policy.

2. Marketing. Knowledge: your best past posts and newsletters, your product list, upcoming events. Instructions: match the voice of the examples, keep posts short, no invented claims.

3. Admin. Knowledge: your staff handbook or rules, supplier list, templates. Use it for checklists, rotas, job ads and summarizing contracts.

Jobs to hand over first

1. Customer replies and review responses.
2. Social posts and newsletters from a list of what’s happening.
3. Product or service descriptions from your notes.
4. Summaries of contracts, quotes and reports. See summarize a PDF.
5. Sales analysis from a spreadsheet export. See analyze a spreadsheet.
6. Checklists and one-page guides for staff, as Artifacts. See use Artifacts.
7. Meeting notes into actions. See meeting notes.

A prompt for any job

Using our project knowledge, [task] for [who]. Keep it [length/tone].
Where you'd need a fact I haven't given, write [ASK ME] rather than guessing.

Mistakes to avoid

• No setup. Without your policies and voice, drafts are generic.
• Outdated knowledge. Update the price list when prices change.
• Customer data you don’t need. Remove names and contact details from what you share.
• Publishing unread. Read every customer-facing word.

Keep these for yourself

Prices and discounts, contracts, hiring and firing, tax and legal questions, and anything involving customers’ private information. Use Claude to prepare, then decide yourself or with your advisor.

Related: keep your data private in Claude.