AI prompts for small businesses and quick wins you can use today

You’ve heard about AI (how could you miss it?) and understand the basics. Now it’s time to build your confidence and start using these tools in your day-to-day work. 

The goal of this hands-on guide is to give you example prompts and the confidence to start using them in your business today. 

Your first steps with AI: keep it simple 

AI can take on a huge range of tasks, so it’s easy to overcomplicate things. 

The best approach is to build confidence by experimenting. Pick one small task to start with using the suggestions below and see what it can do. 

The anatomy of a good prompt 

The instructions or questions you give to generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Microsoft Copilot are called “prompts”. 

Good prompts have four key features: 

• Tell the AI what you want: share your goal. 

• Give it context: explain who and what it's for. 

• Specify the format: describe what the output should look like. 

• Tell it what good looks like: share examples or describe what you’re looking for. 

The first two, what you’re trying to achieve and why, are the most important. You can refine the format and output as you go. 

If you have a clear sense of what you want to achieve, it’s easier to write instructions and get a response that works. Here’s what that looks like in practice. 

Goal: write an email that increases weekend footfall

• Weak prompt: “Write me a marketing email for a bakery.”

• Stronger prompt: “Write a marketing email for the existing customers of a London-based bakery announcing a new seasonal product range. Keep the tone warm and conversational, and limit the email to 200 words. Include a clear call to action encouraging customers to visit the shop this weekend."

10 quick wins you can try today 

Here are 10 tasks where you can put this prompt structure into practice. Each one can be tried in less than 15 minutes: 

• Draft a customer email: Write an email that explains the products you’ve discussed with a customer. 

• Generate 10 social media post ideas: Get ideas to kick-start your content planning. 

• Create a blog outline: Plan the key points to cover in your next article. 

• Summarise a lengthy document: Get the key points from a long document, such as a government tender or policy, and ask follow-up questions. 

• Rewrite website content for a new audience: Update existing content for a new industry sector or type of customer. 

• Create a meeting agenda: Use notes from a previous meeting, an email or other context to create a clear structure. 

• Brainstorm solutions to a business challenge: Explore ideas and get a different perspective. 

• Build a simple customer FAQ: Use existing company information to create a draft FAQ for your website. 

• Analyse customer feedback themes: Identify common themes across customer questions and complaints. 

• Create a checklist: Turn an existing process into clear, repeatable steps. 

Copy-and-paste prompt templates 

Here are some everyday prompt templates you can adapt and try straight away. 

• “Turn these rough notes from our brainstorming session into a list of 10 ideas, so we can think about what to prioritise. Each item should have a title and a 100-word description.” 

• “We run a fabric, trimmings and haberdashery shop. Most people find out about the business from word of mouth or seeing our sign. Please give me 10 ideas to promote our events to people who live in Lewisham. Include a rating for the amount of time and money each idea is likely to involve.” 

• “I want you to rewrite this article into a post for my personal LinkedIn account to help drive traffic to our website. I’m the company founder and want to share the key lessons for our sector. Please start by listing 10 possible hooks, so I can choose how the post is positioned.” 

• “Please summarise the transcript from our recent introductory call with a potential client, so I can add notes to our CRM. Include a summary of what the company does, a bullet-point list of what was discussed and a section on follow-up actions.” 

• “We are considering raising seed investment for an AI-driven mobile app that gives parents access to consultations with experts. Please act as a sounding board. Ask me a series of questions one by one to explore our investment readiness.” 

• “Help me prepare for a one-to-one with a salesperson based on the attached notes from our previous conversations. The sessions have a standard format: ‘What went well?’, ‘What were the biggest challenges?’ and ‘What did we learn?’ Please include those headings with context on what’s been discussed in the last three sessions, prioritising the most recent.” 

• “I’ve attached our content marketing plan and a CSV with the top 100 pages on our website. Please identify gaps between our highest-performing content and the new content and updates we have planned. List your suggestions in order of importance.” 

• “We’ve just held a meeting to define the steps we need to take when a new client signs with us. Please turn the attached transcript into an onboarding checklist. Each step should include an action-based title and description.” 

• “We are considering tendering for a tourism campaign. It would be our first government contract. Please look at the attached tender notice and explain what they’re looking for in plain English.” 

You can adapt these prompts to make them relevant to your business. Find one quick win and test it in the next 15 minutes. 

Common prompting mistakes to avoid 

As you experiment with these prompts, there are a few common mistakes you need to avoid: 

• Being too vague: Be specific about what you’re trying to achieve and why, so the AI has enough context to give you a useful response. 

• Expecting perfect results the first time: It can take time to find an approach that works. Use follow-up prompts to refine the response. 

• Failing to review outputs: AI can make mistakes, so review the results and verify important facts before using them. 

• Trying to solve complex problems with a single prompt: In-depth work often requires a series of prompts, along with feedback and additional information. 

• Forgetting to specify audience, format and tone: Be clear about who the response is for and what you want it to look and sound like. 

Getting better results over time 

Your prompts will improve as you experiment and learn what works. That might mean adding more context or giving clearer instructions. 

Another area to focus on is what happens to the output once the AI has created it. Look for any additional formatting or administrative work you still have to do: 

• Can the AI automatically add the results to the system you use? That might mean connecting your CRM or using a similar prompt in your email client.  

• Does the AI’s output match your writing style or company tone of voice? Adding guidelines or a tone of voice document to a project or workspace can reduce editing time. 

Some AI tools let you create dedicated workspaces where you can save reference documents and instructions and keep related chats together. For example, ChatGPT and Claude offer features called Projects. 

Saving useful AI prompts 

Part of embedding AI into your day-to-day workflows is keeping useful prompts close at hand. 

Programs like Beeftext allow you to save text, including prompts, and insert it using a keyboard shortcut. Some AI tools also let you save instructions within projects or workspaces so you don’t have to repeat the same information each time. 

Over time, you can build up an AI toolkit of prompts and instructions that help speed up repetitive tasks and support more complex or strategic work. 

Read more about using AI 

Grow London Local has more resources available for business owners who want to understand AI and put it into practice: 

• Introduction to AI tools for everyday use (two-week course). 

• AI for SMEs: a practical guide for London business owners.
  
  

Get tailored support for your business 

Ready to unlock new opportunities for your business? The Business Success Check is a free tool designed to help you start or grow your business and find the areas where support could make the biggest difference.