How to Use Claude to Run Your Company: The 5-Part Prompt
Most owners try Claude once, type one line, get a bland answer and decide AI is overhyped. The tool isn’t the problem. The brief is.
Think about the last time you handed someone a sticky note that said “fix marketing.” You didn’t get much back. Claude is brilliant and fast, but it starts from zero on your business. Brief it the way you’d brief a sharp new hire and it will save you hours every week.
This is post one of six. Learn the formula here, then grab the department-by-department prompts in the posts that follow.
The 5-part prompt
Every prompt that gets real work done has the same five parts.
Context. Who you are, what the business does, who it serves and what’s happening right now. This is the biggest lever you have.
Goal. What done looks like and what it’s for. “A job post” is a task. “A job post that brings in five qualified applicants in two weeks” is a goal.
Inputs. The real material: the email thread, the spreadsheet, the meeting notes, last year’s version. Claude can’t read your mind, but it reads fast.
Constraints. Budget, tone, length, deadline, legal rules and anything off-limits.
Format. Exactly what you want back: a table, a checklist, a draft email, three options with pros and cons.
Then add one line that changes everything: tell Claude to ask you questions before it starts. It will find the holes in your brief before they become holes in the work.
Before and after
Here’s the prompt most people write:
Write a job post for a front desk person.
That gets you the same post as every other listing online. Here’s the same ask with all five parts:
Context: I run a 9-person dental practice. We see about 60 patients a day, and the front desk is the first impression for every one of them. Our best front desk person leaves in 30 days.
Goal: Write a job post that attracts warm, organized people who stay for years. I want 5 strong applicants within 2 weeks.
Inputs: Pay is $18 to $21 an hour based on experience. Hours are Monday to Friday, 7:30 to 4:30. Here's what our departing star does well: [paste your notes].
Constraints: Under 350 words. Friendly, plain language with no corporate buzzwords. Make it clear we train on our software, so dental experience is a plus, not a must.
Format: A headline, a short opening that sells the job, bullets for responsibilities and requirements, and a closing line that says exactly how to apply.
Before you write it, ask me up to 5 questions that would make this post better.
Same tool. Completely different result.
The copy-paste template
Context: I run [business], a [size and type] company that serves [who]. [Two or three sentences on what's happening right now.]
Goal: I need [the outcome] so that [the decision or result it supports].
Inputs: [Paste the document, data, notes or email thread.]
Constraints: [Budget, tone, length, deadline, rules, anything off-limits.]
Format: Give me [a table / a checklist / a draft / 3 options with pros and cons].
Before you start, ask me any questions you need answered to do this well.
Give Claude your company once, not every time
Retyping your backstory into every chat gets old fast. Three Claude features fix that.
Projects. A Project is a workspace with its own files and instructions, and every chat inside it starts with that context. Load it with your company brief, price list, brand voice and key procedures. Projects are on every plan, including free accounts, which get up to five. (Anthropic)
Memory. Claude can remember what you tell it from one chat to the next, and each Project keeps its own memory. It’s on by default for Free, Pro and Max plans, and you control it under Settings > Your Claude. (Anthropic)
Connectors. Connect Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Drive so Claude can pull the actual thread or file instead of you copying and pasting. (Anthropic)
No company brief yet? Have Claude interview you for one:
Interview me to build a one-page company brief I can reuse with AI. Ask one question at a time and wait for my answer before the next. Cover what we sell and what it costs, who our best customers are and why they buy, how we're different from competitors, our brand voice, who owns what on the team, our top 3 priorities this quarter, and the numbers I watch every week. When we're done, write the brief in under 600 words with clear headings.
Save the result, drop it into a Project, and every prompt after that gets smarter.
Edit it like a boss
When a draft misses, don’t hit regenerate and hope. Tell Claude what’s wrong, the way you’d mark up an employee’s work:
“Too formal. Write it the way I talk to customers.”
“Cut it in half and lead with the price.”
“Give me three versions: safe, bold and a little weird.”
Then make it argue with itself:
Read your draft as a skeptical [customer / employee / banker]. List the 5 biggest objections or weak spots, then rewrite the draft to fix them.
Make it show its work
Claude is fast and usually right. Usually isn’t always. For anything involving numbers, legal weight or real money, add this:
Before you answer, list the assumptions you're making, flag anything you're unsure about, and tell me what I should double-check before I act on this.
Claude does the legwork. You own the decision.
What to keep out of the chat
Never paste passwords, card numbers or Social Security numbers into any AI tool. If you run a healthcare practice, keep patient health information out unless your organization has an approved, compliant setup for it. Swap names for placeholders and most tasks work just as well.
Keep the prompts that work
When a prompt nails it, save it. Put your winners in a shared doc or in a Project’s instructions so the whole team runs them the same way. For workflows you repeat every week, Claude’s Skills feature packages the steps so Claude follows them consistently. (Anthropic)
The bottom line
The owners getting real leverage from AI don’t have secret tools. They brief well. A minute of context saves an hour of rework.
Your time is the one resource you can’t make more of. Hand Claude the drafts and the digging, and spend yourself on the work only you can do.
Next in the series: 10 Claude Prompts to Run Your Operations.
Want AI working in your business, not just in a chat window? SowBold Creative builds and runs AI front desks, follow-up and ads for healthcare practices. Get your free site analysis.
“The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but of every one that is hasty only to want.” (Proverbs 21:5, KJV)
