OpenAI’s Small Business Prompt Pack has 30 prompts in six areas, but it is written for businesses with teams. For a one-person business, ten of them matter most: planning, cash flow, pricing, customers and repeatable processes. Use the pack’s task, context and output structure, rewrite each prompt with your own numbers, and treat any savings or forecast figure ChatGPT gives you as a guess to check.
Editorial research checked September 17, 2026 against OpenAI Academy’s Small Business Prompt Pack (last updated May 30, 2026) and OpenAI Help Center guidance. The prompts below are our own solo-business rewrites, not copies of OpenAI’s text. This article contains no affiliate links.
What is in OpenAI’s pack
OpenAI Academy published the Small Business Prompt Pack in November 2025 with DoorDash and last updated it on May 30, 2026. The downloadable guide groups 30 sample prompts into six sections of five: business planning and strategy, financial management, marketing and customer growth, team management and productivity, operations and process improvement, and branding and communications. It closes with advanced examples that use Projects, data analysis, charts, image generation and a Gmail connector. Source: OpenAI Academy, Small Business Prompt Pack
The guide’s own guardrails are worth keeping: ChatGPT can be wrong, so verify results; model knowledge can be months old, so use browsing when it matters; and follow your business’s rules about what data goes into ChatGPT.
Before you buyChatGPT Plus vs Claude Pro vs Google AI ProWhich AI subscription to pay for: plans, data settings and a five-step choice.See the plans →Manual baseline: what this replaces
A solo owner usually writes these documents from a blank page or an old template: a budget in a spreadsheet, a marketing plan in a notes app, a review reply typed from scratch each time. The prompts below do not remove that work. They give you a structured first draft to correct with your real figures.
The structure every prompt below follows
OpenAI’s pack says a good prompt has three parts: the task, the context ChatGPT needs, and the ideal output format. It also recommends giving examples, asking for several options, setting limits on tone, length and format, and naming the audience. OpenAI’s help center adds two habits: be clear and specific, and refine the prompt after reading the first answer. Source: Prompt engineering best practices for ChatGPT
Replace every word in curly braces with your own details before you send the prompt.
Which 10 we picked, and why
| No. | Pack section | Based on | Why it matters solo |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Planning and strategy | One-Year Growth Roadmap | No manager sets your goals |
| 2 | Planning and strategy | Risk and Contingency Plan | You are the single point of failure |
| 3 | Financial management | Break-Even Analysis | Pricing decisions need the math |
| 4 | Financial management | Cash Flow Forecast | Irregular client payments |
| 5 | Financial management | Monthly Budget Builder | Tax and tool costs pile up |
| 6 | Marketing and growth | Ideal Customer Profile Generator | Limited time for outreach |
| 7 | Marketing and growth | Customer Review Responses | Reviews drive referrals |
| 8 | Operations | SOP Template | Lets you hand work to a contractor |
| 9 | Operations | Time-Saving Task Audit | Your hours are the capacity limit |
| 10 | Branding | Testimonial Request Message | Social proof without a sales team |
We left out the team-focused prompts, such as job descriptions, onboarding checklists and performance frameworks, because they assume employees.
1. A 12-month plan you can actually follow
I run a one-person {type of business} serving {type of client}.
Current monthly revenue: {amount}. Hours I can work per week: {hours}.
Goal for the next 12 months: {goal}.
Create a month-by-month plan in a table with columns:
Month, One main goal, Actions (max 3), Metric to check.
Keep every month realistic for one person working {hours} hours a week.Adding your weekly hours is the solo-specific change. Without it, plans tend to assume staff.
2. A risk plan for when you cannot work
I am a solo {type of business}. List the 5 risks most likely to stop
my income for a month or more, including illness, a lost main client
and a tool or account failure. For each, give a table row with:
Risk, Early warning sign, What to prepare now, Who could help.
Do not suggest hiring staff.3. Break-even for a price change
My monthly fixed costs are {amount}. Each project costs me {amount}
in direct costs and takes {hours} hours. I charge {price} per project.
Calculate how many projects I need per month to break even, then show
the same calculation at {new price}. Show the formula and each step,
then a short table comparing the two prices.Check the arithmetic yourself or in a spreadsheet. The value is the laid-out calculation, not the answer alone.
4. A cash-flow forecast with late payments
Build a 6-month cash-flow table for my solo business.
Expected invoices by month: {list}. Typical payment delay: {days} days.
Fixed monthly costs: {list}. Tax set-aside: {percent} of income.
Columns: Month, Cash in, Cash out, Tax set-aside, Ending cash.
Flag any month where ending cash drops below {amount}.The pack’s version asks for a growth rate. Swapping that for real invoices and payment delays is more useful when income is lumpy. If you invoice through Stripe, our Stripe Payment Links vs invoicing guide covers how payment timing changes.
5. A monthly budget including tools
Create a monthly budget table for a solo {type of business}.
Income categories: {list}. Software subscriptions: {list with prices}.
Other fixed costs: {list}. Variable costs: {list}.
Add a row for tax set-aside at {percent}. Show profit and margin.
Format it so I can copy it into a spreadsheet each month.6. An ideal client profile from your best clients
Here are notes on my three best clients, with names removed: {notes}.
From these, write an ideal client profile: situation, main problem,
what triggers them to hire someone, objections, and where they look
for help. Keep it under 250 words and mark anything that is a guess.Starting from your own client notes, rather than “common trends”, keeps the profile grounded. Remove names and anything confidential first.
7. Review replies in your voice
Write three short replies to customer reviews for my {type of business}:
one positive, one mixed, one negative about {issue}. Each under 80 words,
warm and specific, no discount offers, and the negative reply should
invite the customer to contact me at {contact method}.8. An SOP a contractor could follow
Write a step-by-step procedure for {recurring task}, such as client
onboarding or monthly invoicing, so a freelancer I hire could do it
without asking me. Include: the tools used, each step, what "done"
looks like, and two quality checks. Use a numbered list.For the automation side of the same idea, see our weekly automation checkup.
9. A time audit of your own week
Here is how I spent last week: {list of tasks with hours}.
Sort the tasks into: keep doing myself, automate, hand off, stop.
Give a table with Task, Hours, Category and One-line reason.
Do not estimate hours saved; I will measure that myself.OpenAI’s version asks ChatGPT to estimate hours saved. We removed that on purpose: an estimate that ChatGPT has no way to check is easy to over-trust.
10. A testimonial request that does not feel pushy
Write two short messages asking a happy client, {client type}, to leave
a testimonial or a Google review after we finished {project}.
One email under 90 words and one text message under 40 words.
Mention one specific result from the project: {result}.Cost, limits and privacy
- Plan. These prompts work on any ChatGPT plan. ChatGPT Plus is $20 a month; the pricing page served this connection yen, so the USD figure comes from our earlier same-day check. Confirm the price for your own region. Source: ChatGPT pricing
- Accuracy. The pack itself warns that ChatGPT can be inaccurate and that its knowledge can be months out of date.
- Data. Remove client names, account numbers and anything under a confidentiality clause before pasting notes or figures.
- Money decisions. Budgets and forecasts are drafts. Check them against your bank records and, for tax, with your accountant.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I download OpenAI’s original pack?
It is on OpenAI Academy’s Small Business community page as a PDF guide, linked in the first section above.
Why not just use OpenAI’s prompts as written?
You can. They are written for a business with a team and use general placeholders. The rewrites here add solo-specific context such as your weekly hours and payment delays, and remove steps that ask ChatGPT to invent savings.
Can I save these so I do not paste them every time?
On paid plans, ChatGPT Projects keep instructions and files together; OpenAI’s pack shows a Project example. Skills in ChatGPT are currently limited to business-type plans.
Do these prompts work in Claude or Gemini?
The task, context and output structure works in any chat assistant, but we only checked OpenAI’s guidance for this article.
Sources and method
The pack’s sections, prompt names, structure and guardrails were read on September 17, 2026 from OpenAI Academy’s Small Business Prompt Pack page and its embedded PDF guide. Prompting guidance comes from the OpenAI Help Center article linked above. The ChatGPT pricing page served Japanese yen to this connection, so the USD Plus price comes from our earlier US-region check the same day. The ten rewritten prompts are our own wording and selection.
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