You've seen the generic ChatGPT tutorials. "Ask it to write you an email!" "Use it for brainstorming!" "Create social media captions!"
That's not nothing — but it's also not what you're dealing with when you're running a business alone. You have client processes to document, customer complaints to handle carefully, competitors eating your lunch while you're writing proposals, and pricing conversations that feel awkward every single time.
This guide covers the ChatGPT use cases that actually matter at the solo founder level — the ones that take real tasks off your plate and make a difference you can feel this week. Each section has a copy-paste prompt you can use today.
Before the use cases: two minutes of setup that makes everything better
Most people open ChatGPT, type a request with zero context, get a generic output, and conclude the tool is overrated. The output was generic because the input was generic. ChatGPT doesn't know who you are, what you do, who your clients are, or how you communicate.
Fix this once and every prompt you write gets significantly better results.
At the start of any new ChatGPT conversation, paste in a short context block:
Context about my business (use this for everything in this conversation):
I run a [type of business]. My clients are [describe them: industry, size, situation].
My communication style is [direct / warm / professional / conversational — pick what fits].
I never sound [anything to avoid — corporate, salesy, overly formal].
My name is [name] and my business is called [name if relevant].
30 seconds to write. Paste it at the top of every new conversation. You'll notice the difference immediately — outputs start sounding like you instead of a generic marketing department.
Now the use cases.
Use Case 1: Writing SOPs for the things only you know how to do
Here's the problem with being a one-person business: everything lives in your head. How you onboard a new client. How you handle a revision request. How you deliver your work. It all runs on your memory — which is fine until you want to bring in a contractor, hand something off, or just stop reinventing the process every time.
SOPs sound like corporate bureaucracy. At your scale they're just documented steps — "here's exactly how we do this thing." Writing them from scratch is tedious. Getting ChatGPT to draft them from your rough notes takes 10 minutes.
The prompt:
[PASTE YOUR CONTEXT BLOCK]
I need to write a simple SOP (standard operating procedure) for [specific process].
Here's how I currently do it, in rough notes:
[Paste your notes — even messy bullet points work. Voice memo transcription works too.]
Turn this into a clean, numbered step-by-step SOP that someone unfamiliar with my business could follow. Include:
- What triggers this process (when does it start?)
- Each step in sequence, specific enough to follow without guessing
- Any tools, templates, or accounts needed at each step
- How to know when it's done correctly
Plain language. No jargon. Under 500 words.
What you get: Paste in rough notes like "client pays invoice → send onboarding form → wait for them to fill it out → book kickoff call → add to Notion" and you get back a clean 8-step SOP with triggers, tools, and completion criteria. Paste it into Notion or a Google Doc. Done.
The honest limit: ChatGPT drafts from what you give it. If your notes are thin, the SOP will be thin. Give it the messy, real version of how you actually do the thing — not a polished description. Messy input, clean output is where this shines.
Use Case 2: Writing difficult customer replies
Difficult client emails are time-consuming for two reasons. The obvious one is that they're draining. The less obvious one is that they require precision — say too little and the client escalates, say too much and you've created a problem, get the tone slightly off and a manageable situation turns into a bad review.
ChatGPT doesn't get emotionally involved. That's a feature here.
The prompt:
[PASTE YOUR CONTEXT BLOCK]
I need to write a reply to a difficult client email. Here's the situation:
What happened: [describe the situation factually]
What the client said: [paste their email or summarize it]
What I want to achieve: [de-escalate / offer a solution / set a boundary / part ways professionally]
What I'm NOT willing to do: [any concessions that are off the table]
Tone: [empathetic but firm / apologetic but not groveling / direct and clear]
Draft a reply that addresses their concern directly, doesn't over-apologize or under-apologize, and ends with a clear next step. Under 200 words.
The line that makes this prompt work: "What I'm NOT willing to do." Without it, ChatGPT defaults to maximal accommodation — offering refunds you didn't intend, making apologies that create implicit liability, or suggesting solutions that set bad precedents. Telling it what's off the table keeps the output in a range you can actually send.
The honest limit: Always read carefully before sending. ChatGPT may phrase something that sounds fine in isolation but is wrong for your specific client relationship. You know the relationship. It doesn't. Edit accordingly.
Use Case 3: Competitor research in under 20 minutes
You know you should understand your competition better. You don't do it because it takes a long time and you're not sure what you're looking for anyway.
Here's a faster approach: gather the raw material, let ChatGPT synthesize it.
Step 1 — Gather the inputs (10 minutes): For each competitor, collect their homepage copy, about page, pricing page (or any price signals), and 5–10 reviews from Google or Trustpilot. Copy and paste into a document. Don't read it carefully — just collect it.
Step 2 — Run the analysis:
[PASTE YOUR CONTEXT BLOCK]
I've collected information about a competitor: [name]. Here's their website copy and customer reviews:
[PASTE THE RAW CONTENT]
Analyze this and tell me:
1. How do they position themselves? What's their core message and who are they clearly targeting?
2. What do their customers love about them (based on reviews)?
3. What do their customers complain about? What gap does this reveal?
4. How do they compare to how I describe my own business?
5. What are they NOT saying that could be an opportunity for me?
Be specific. Quote their actual language where relevant.
What you get: A 5-point competitive brief that would normally take two hours of reading, done in 20 minutes. Question 3 is where the most value sits — competitor complaints are a direct signal of what the market wants and isn't getting.
The honest limit: ChatGPT analyses what you give it. If a competitor keeps pricing off their website, you won't get pricing intelligence here. For that you'll need to request a quote or find a review that mentions numbers.
Use Case 4: Pricing scripts for the conversation you dread
Pricing conversations are uncomfortable not because you don't know your numbers — but because you haven't rehearsed them enough to feel natural. You either under-price to avoid the discomfort, or you quote confidently and then stumble when the client pushes back.
ChatGPT can write the script for the whole conversation, including the objections.
The prompt:
[PASTE YOUR CONTEXT BLOCK]
Help me prepare for a pricing conversation.
My service: [describe it specifically]
My price: [the number or range you want to quote]
Who I'm talking to: [describe the client and their likely budget sensitivity]
The objection I'm most worried about: [e.g. "that's more than I expected" / "can you do it cheaper" / "I need to think about it"]
Write me:
1. A clear, confident way to present the price (2-3 sentences, no apologizing for it)
2. A response to that objection that doesn't discount immediately but also doesn't sound defensive
3. A way to close if they're interested — one clear next step
Why this works: Most pricing discomfort comes from not thinking through the objections in advance. When "that's more than I expected" catches you off guard, you either discount reflexively or freeze. If you've already rehearsed the response — even just once out loud — it comes out naturally. ChatGPT gives you the words. You say them in front of a mirror or record yourself before the call.
The honest limit: ChatGPT doesn't know your specific client's situation or your market's price sensitivity. Review every script against what you actually know about the person you're talking to.
Use Case 5: Turning rough call notes into a structured proposal
You've had the discovery call. You know roughly what you want to offer. But now you're staring at a blank page trying to turn a conversation into a professional document, and it's taking 90 minutes when it should take 20.
ChatGPT doesn't replace the thinking behind a proposal — what you're offering, why it's right for this client, what it costs. That's still yours. But it kills the blank page and structures your thinking into something you can send.
The prompt:
[PASTE YOUR CONTEXT BLOCK]
I need to write a proposal. Here are my rough notes:
Client situation: [what they told you about their problem or goal]
What I'm proposing: [your solution]
What's included: [deliverables, timeline]
Price: [what you're charging]
Why I'm the right fit: [anything specific that makes you the obvious choice]
Turn this into a clean proposal with:
- A short opening paragraph that reflects their situation back to them (shows I listened)
- What I'm proposing and why
- Deliverables and timeline, clearly laid out
- Investment (price), presented without apology
- One simple next step
Tone: [professional but warm]. Not salesy. No filler phrases.
What you get: A full proposal structure in 5 minutes. You review, adjust anything that doesn't sound right, and send. A 90-minute task becomes 20.
The one thing that makes all of these work better
Every prompt above gets better with more specific context. "I run a consulting business" produces worse outputs than "I run a brand strategy consultancy for early-stage founders, typical project size £3–8k, clients are usually first-time founders who've been burned by a previous agency."
The specificity feels like extra work at first. After a few uses you'll have a small library of context blocks — one for client communication, one for research, one for proposals — and you just paste the right one.
That shift — from typing a vague request and hoping for the best, to giving precise context and getting a usable output in one pass — is what separates founders who find ChatGPT genuinely useful from the ones who tried it twice and gave up.
Do this today: Pick the use case that matches the most painful task on your plate right now. Write your context block. Run the prompt on the actual next real instance of that task — not a test, the real thing. With a real use you find out whether it saves you time. With a test, you just find out whether it produces output.
Next in First Wins: 5 Things You Can Automate This Week Without Any Coding →
Or step back to: Your First AI Workflow as a Solo Founder →
Or go back to the pillar: ← First Wins: Get AI Working in Your Business This Week
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