How to use Claude for small business: 7 jobs to hand over.
Most owners try an AI assistant, ask it a few questions, and stop. The value starts when you give it a job with clear rules. These are the seven jobs we think a small business can hand to Claude, and the one we have already tested on camera.
Short answer: use Claude like a new employee, not like a search box. Give it one job, a page of rules for that job, and the material it needs. Keep the instructions in one place, for example a Claude project, so you do not repeat yourself. Start with the job that eats most of your week.
The 7 jobs
- Sort your inbox and draft replies. Tested Ten emails sorted and drafted in 39 seconds, a scam caught. See the full test and get the free kit.
- Answer the same customer questions. Give it your opening hours, prices and policies, and let it draft answers to the questions you get ten times a week.
- Plan a month of social posts. Coming episode From one list of what you sell this month to a calendar of posts in your voice.
- First drafts of quotes and proposals. Paste the notes from a call and your price list, get a clean first draft to check.
- Tidy receipts and expenses. Coming episode Turn a pile of receipt text into a table you can hand to your bookkeeper.
- Follow up with people who went quiet. Coming episode Short, polite follow-ups for quotes that never got an answer.
- Turn a voice note into a checklist. Talk for two minutes about how you do a task, get a step by step checklist your team can follow.
We only call a job tested when we have run it on camera with real numbers. The others are on the episode list and will get their own test.
How to set it up in 15 minutes
- Pick one job. Not five. The one that takes the most hours.
- Write the instruction page. Who you are, what good looks like, the boxes or steps, and a never list. Plain English is enough.
- Keep it in a project. Claude lets you keep instructions and documents together in a project, so every new chat starts with your rules.
- Run it on real material. Ten real emails, ten real questions, one real call note. Judge the result on your own work, not on a demo.
- Fix the page, not the answer. When it gets something wrong, add one line to the instructions. Next time it will be right.
What to keep for yourself
Anything with money, law, tax or health in it gets a human decision. So does anything that leaves the building: emails, posts and quotes are drafts until you approve them. The AI does the reading, sorting and first drafts, and you keep the calls. That is the whole idea of the show: AI does the work, you make the calls.
Claude or another assistant?
We use Claude in the show because it follows long plain-English instructions well. The method in this guide works with any good assistant: the instruction page is the part that matters, and it is yours to keep.
Questions
Is Claude good for small business owners?
Yes, when you give it specific jobs with clear instructions. It is strong at reading, sorting and writing first drafts. Keep decisions about money, law and customers with a person.
Do I need to code to use Claude for my business?
No. Everything in this guide uses plain English instructions in the normal chat. Claude Code is optional and only useful if you are comfortable with files and commands.
What should I automate first with Claude?
The job that takes you the most hours each week and follows a pattern. For most small businesses that is the inbox: sorting emails and drafting replies.