Claude Prompts for Small Business: 7 Jobs to Hand Over This Week
12 min read
These seven Claude prompts for small business cover the jobs owners hand over first: the inbox, a quote, a late invoice, meeting notes, the weekly report, a job post and a difficult email. Each one is ready to copy, with a note on which Project it belongs in.
A prompt list is only as good as the context behind it. Run these in a plain chat and you'll get tidy, generic output. Run them inside the Projects you built in Chapter 2, where Claude already has your prices, policies and voice, and the same words produce something you can send.
Each prompt carries one guard line: use only the facts given, and mark what's missing. That line keeps a helpful draft from turning into an invented promise.
1. Clear the inbox
Project: Customer replies. Paste the emails, or use the Gmail connector from Chapter 3.
Here are today's unanswered customer emails. For each one:
a one-line summary, urgency (today / this week / no reply
needed), and a draft reply in our voice.
Use only facts from the Project files and the email itself.
Where you need something from me, such as a price, a date
or a decision, leave a [BLANK] and list the blanks at the
top so I can fill them in one pass.
[PASTE EMAILS, OR: "Use Gmail, unreplied since Monday"]Good output puts your decisions first. You answer four blanks, and twelve replies are ready. For a fuller routine, see the inbox triage prompt.
2. Turn site notes into a quote
Project: Quotes and proposals.
Turn these notes into a quote. Price only from the rate
card in this Project. Any item without a rate: write
PRICE NEEDED. Include scope, exclusions, payment terms,
and a list of questions I should ask before sending.
[PASTE NOTES OR DICTATE THEM]The questions list is the part owners undervalue. A quote that goes out with "budget didn't come up" unresolved tends to come back as a negotiation. If quoting is most of your week, the Proposal Studio skill stores your rates and winning proposals permanently.
3. Chase a late invoice
Project: Money.
Invoice [NUMBER] for [AMOUNT] was due [DATE]. The customer
is [ONE LINE: HOW LONG THEY'VE BEEN WITH US, ANY HISTORY].
Write three short emails: a friendly reminder for today,
a firmer one for 7 days from now, and a final notice for
14 days that states our late-fee terms from the Project
files. Do not threaten anything our terms don't allow.Three drafts in one go means the awkward second email is already written when the day comes. The Invoice Chaser covers longer sequences and phone scripts.
4. Meeting notes into actions
Project: Operations.
Below are my notes (or a transcript) from a meeting.
Give me: decisions made, action items with an owner and
a date for each, and open questions. If an action has no
clear owner or date, say so. Do not assign one.
[PASTE NOTES]"Do not assign one" matters. An assistant that guesses an owner creates a task that person didn't agree to. More on this in meeting notes to action items.
5. The weekly report
Project: Operations.
Here are this week's raw updates: [SALES FIGURES, JOBS
COMPLETED, ISSUES, ANYTHING ELSE]. Write a one-page weekly
report: three headline numbers, what went well, what
slipped and why, and decisions I need to make. Compare
with last week's report in this Project if one exists.
Do not round or estimate a number I did not give you.Save each report into the Project as a file. By week four, the comparison line starts earning its keep. The Weekly Report Automator is the longer version.
6. A job post that says what the job is
Project: Operations, or a Hiring Project if you have a slot.
Write a job post for a [ROLE] at our business. Hours:
[HOURS]. Pay: [RANGE]. The three things this person does
most days: [LIST]. What makes someone good at it: [LIST].
Plain language, under 300 words, pay range stated near
the top. No requirements we don't need. End with how
to apply.State the pay. Since January 1, 2026, Ontario employers with 25 or more staff must put the expected pay or a range in a public job posting, and a smaller shop that does it anyway saves itself interviews with people who can't take the job at that rate. The job description writer goes deeper.
7. The email you've been avoiding
Project: Customer replies.
I need to tell [WHO] that [THE HARD NEWS: A PRICE INCREASE,
A DELAY, A NO]. Background: [TWO OR THREE LINES]. What I
can offer: [ANYTHING]. Write it in our voice: direct in
the first two sentences, no grovelling, no blame, and a
clear next step. Give me two versions, one warmer, one
shorter.Two versions is a small trick with a large effect. Choosing between drafts is easier than judging one, and the email goes out today.
Making these your own
Change one thing at a time and keep what works. When a prompt has earned a place in your week, save it in a document called Prompts inside the Project, so a colleague can run it too. When your edits pile up, paste the prompt into the free Prompt Improver for a second opinion on its structure.
Seven is enough to start. If you want more, 25 free AI prompts for small business has them sorted by department, and they all run in Claude.
Where this breaks
A prompt drafts. It has no idea that the customer in email six is your landlord's sister, or that the invoice is late because you shipped the wrong part. Read before you send whenever money or a relationship is involved.
And don't judge a prompt by its first run in an empty chat. Judge it inside a Project with real files, after two rounds of correction. That's the version you'll be using.
Try it now
Pick the one job of the seven that you did by hand this week. Run its prompt in the right Project on real material, fix what's off, and send the result. Then save the prompt in that Project.