Free guide · works with ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini

Chatgpt prompts for business plan

Turn your idea and your own numbers into a bank-ready one-page business plan and a 12-month cashflow forecast you actually understand, with every step producing a named artefact you can reuse. Built for first-time founders and upgraders who want a practical, minimal, and honest workflow.

Step 1, free.

Copy this, paste it into your AI, and swap the [BRACKETS] for your own details.

Setup: Define business context

Provide: [BUSINESS IDEA SUMMARY], [OWNER(S) NAME], [LOCATION], [INDUSTRY], [BUSINESS MODEL IN ONE LINE], [GOAL FOR 12 MONTHS], [CURRENT STAGE], [TARGET CUSTOMER IN A PHRASE], [CONSTRAINTS (TIME/CASH/CAPABILITY)], [ASSUMPTIONS YOU’RE MAKING], [NON-NEGOTIABLES], [KEY DEPENDENCIES], [DECISION HORIZON (E.G., 90 DAYS)], [BANK/PARTNER REQUIREMENTS IF ANY].
Act as a pragmatic business planner and turn raw context into a crisp brief we can reuse without rework.
Work through it like this:
1) Clarify the scope: what you will and won’t do in the first 12 months, tied to your constraints. 2) Translate goals into 3-5 measurable success metrics founders can actually track monthly. 3) List assumptions that would materially change the plan if wrong. 4) Surface top 5 risks at this stage and a practical first mitigation for each. 5) Define decision rules for the next 90 days (go/hold/kill triggers).
Give me the output as: Business Context Brief with sections: Snapshot; Objectives (12 months); Scope Boundaries (In/Out); Constraints; Assumptions to Validate; Success Metrics (with target and owner); Key Dependencies; Top Risks & First Mitigations; Decision Rules (next 90 days).
Quality bar: A bank manager can read it in 5 minutes and see what you’re doing, why, and the guardrails—no jargon, each point traceable to your inputs.
If anything is missing or unclear, ask up to 3 targeted questions; if still unknown, mark MISSING and proceed.

How to get a good answer.

01Fill every [BRACKET] with real detail. Vague in, vague out.
02Read the answer, then reply with what's wrong or missing. The AI fixes it in seconds.
03Check facts, prices and anything legal or safety-related yourself before you use it.

The rest of the workflow.

Step 1 gets you started. The full Small Business Plan Builder takes you all the way, 14 steps in order:

01Setup: Define business context (free above)
02Setup: Gather personal and financial baseline
03Discovery: Customer profile & problem statement
04Discovery: Market scan & competitor table
05Discovery: Field test questions & quick validation plan
06Design: Offer outline & scope
07Design: Cost model & price ladder
08Design: Marketing channels & message map
09Financials & Operations: Sales funnel & monthly assumptions
10Financials & Operations: Operating plan & key risks
11Financials & Operations: 12-month cashflow forecast builder
12Review & Delivery: Red-team & scenario stress test
13Review & Delivery: One-page business plan assembly
14Review & Delivery: Metrics dashboard & update cadence

Get the full kit · NZ$24.50

Pay once, keep it. Delivered instantly with a copy button on every prompt.

Questions

Does this work with the free version of ChatGPT?

Yes. The prompt works in the free versions of ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, on a phone or a computer.

What do I put in the [BRACKETS]?

Your real details: notes, numbers, names, whatever the bracket asks for. The more specific you are, the better the answer.

Is the AI's answer always right?

No. Treat it as a strong first draft: check facts, figures and anything legal or safety-related before you use it.

What's in the full Small Business Plan Builder?

14 steps run in order, a system prompt that sets the AI up for the job, worked examples, fix-it prompts and a quality checklist. It's NZ$24.50 once, no subscription.

Know someone who'd use this?

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