Ask a group of small business owners what they use ChatGPT for and I can almost guarantee one answer will come up.
Social media posts.
And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
ChatGPT can be incredibly useful when you’ve got a blank screen staring back at you and you’re trying to think of something vaguely interesting to post on Facebook or LinkedIn.
However, if that’s all you’re using it for, you’re probably missing most of what makes ChatGPT useful.
I use ChatGPT virtually every day in my own work now, and writing content is only a small part of it.
For example, I use it to analyse information, develop ideas, research subjects, plan projects, improve emails, create training materials and help me make sense of things I don’t completely understand.
But probably the biggest use for me is much simpler.
It’s my sounding board.
I can talk through an idea, challenge my thinking, look at something from a different perspective and gradually work towards a better answer.
That’s where I think ChatGPT becomes particularly useful for small business owners.
Rather than thinking of it simply as something that generates content, start thinking about it as a digital business assistant that you can work with.
Here are ten ways to do exactly that.
1. Use ChatGPT as a sounding board
This is probably the way I use ChatGPT more than anything else.
Running a small business can sometimes be quite isolating.
You have an idea, but you’re not sure whether it’s any good. Perhaps you’re considering changing something on your website. Or maybe you’re wondering whether to launch a new service. Something isn’t working and you can’t quite figure out why.
Instead of simply asking ChatGPT for an answer, talk the situation through.
For example, explain:
- What you’re trying to achieve
- What you’ve already tried
- What you’re worried about
- What your options are
- What you think the answer might be
Then ask it to challenge your thinking.
You could even say:
“I’ve explained what I’m considering. Don’t just agree with me. What am I overlooking, what are the risks, and what other options should I consider?”
That final part is important.
After all, you don’t need an AI that agrees with everything you say. You need something that helps you think.
2. Analyse your marketing results
This is one use of ChatGPT that has genuinely surprised me.
I’ve recently been running Facebook advertising campaigns and regularly use ChatGPT to help analyse the results.
Instead of staring at columns of numbers and trying to work out whether they’re good or bad, I can provide the campaign information and discuss what’s happening.
For example, we can explore what has changed and which advert appears to be performing better. We can also look at whether the cost per acquisition is moving in the right direction.
From there, I can consider whether there’s enough data to make a decision or whether I should simply leave the campaign alone for another few days.
Of course, ChatGPT doesn’t make the final decision for me.
That’s still my responsibility.
What it does do, however, is help me understand the information and give me another perspective before I decide what to do next.
You can apply the same idea to website analytics, email campaigns, sales figures, customer surveys or almost any other business data.
3. Improve your emails without losing your voice
I send a lot of emails.
My natural approach is usually to write exactly what’s in my head. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the most concise or grammatically perfect way of communicating!
So rather than asking ChatGPT to write every email from scratch, I often write the first draft myself.
Once I’ve done that, I’ll give it to ChatGPT and ask it to tidy it up.
That distinction matters to me.
The original thoughts are mine. The tone is mine. ChatGPT simply helps make the finished version clearer, more concise and easier to read.
For example, you could use the same approach for:
- Customer replies
- Quotations
- Follow-up emails
- Complaints
- Enquiries
- Proposals
- Difficult conversations
Essentially, think of it as having somebody proofread your email before you hit Send.
4. Research something you don’t understand
One of the biggest benefits I’ve found with ChatGPT is learning.
As a small business owner, you constantly encounter things you don’t completely understand.
SEO. Advertising. Accounts. Website terminology. Legal language. Analytics. New technology.
Previously, you might have spent an hour jumping between different websites trying to piece together an answer.
Now you can start by having a conversation.
First, ask ChatGPT to explain the subject simply. If something still isn’t clear, ask another question. You can then ask for an example or explain which particular part you don’t understand.
As a result, you can keep exploring the subject until it starts to make sense.
However, you should still check important facts against reliable sources, particularly where money, legal matters or other significant decisions are involved.
But as a learning tool, I find it incredibly useful.
5. Plan a project before you start it
ChatGPT is also very good at taking something that feels enormous and breaking it into manageable pieces.
Let’s say you want to launch a new website.
Instead of:
“Help me build a website.”
Give it some context.
Explain what the business does, who the customers are, what you want the website to achieve, what resources you have and when you want to launch.
Then ask it to help create the plan.
The same approach could work for:
- Launching a new service
- Organising an event
- Creating a marketing campaign
- Starting a newsletter
- Developing a course
- Planning a product launch
- Creating a lead magnet
In other words, you’re not asking ChatGPT to magically complete the whole thing.
Instead, you’re using it to help turn “I need to do this” into “here are the next five steps.”
That can make a big difference.
6. Brainstorm ideas when you’re stuck
We’ve all had those moments where the brain simply refuses to cooperate.
Perhaps you need a name for something. Maybe it’s an offer, a workshop, a blog article or simply a different way of solving a problem.
This is where ChatGPT can be brilliant.
However, don’t just ask:
“Give me 10 business ideas.”
Instead, tell it what you’re working on, who it’s for, what you’ve already considered and what you definitely don’t want.
The more context you provide, the more useful the ideas become.
Importantly, you don’t have to accept any of them.
Sometimes one mediocre suggestion sparks a completely different idea of your own.
And that’s still useful.
7. Create training and educational materials
This has become another important part of how I use ChatGPT.
I create workshops, guides, community resources and training materials through AI Growth 101.
ChatGPT can help me take something I understand and work out the best way to explain it to somebody else.
For instance, I might explore what a beginner should learn first and in what order the information should be presented.
From there, I can consider practical exercises that demonstrate the idea, areas somebody might misunderstand and ways to explain the subject without technical jargon.
That last question is particularly useful!
So, if you provide training, consultancy, coaching or education in your own business, AI can help you structure your knowledge without replacing the experience and expertise behind it.
8. Give ChatGPT some context about your business
This is one of the biggest opportunities I think many people are missing.
When I’ve run AI workshops, I’ve noticed that many people treat ChatGPT almost like Google.
They open it and type:
“Write me a Facebook post.”
The problem is that ChatGPT knows virtually nothing about what they actually want.
It doesn’t necessarily know what the business does, what they’re selling or who the customer is. Likewise, it doesn’t know the purpose of the post, the tone you’d like to use or what action the reader should take.
Without that information, ChatGPT has to guess.
And that’s often why people get generic AI-sounding results.
Personalising ChatGPT gives it a much better starting point. For example, you can provide information about who you are, what you do and how you’d like it to communicate.
Then improve individual prompts by explaining why you want something and who it’s for.
In my experience, context is probably one of the biggest differences between getting a mediocre answer and getting something genuinely useful.
9. Create Projects for different areas of your business
Once you start using ChatGPT regularly, things can get messy surprisingly quickly.
Fortunately, that’s where Projects can help.
A Project gives you a dedicated space for a particular business, client or area of work. You can add specific instructions, relevant files and conversations so ChatGPT has more of the context it needs.
For example, you might create separate Projects for:
- Your main business
- Marketing
- A particular client
- A new product
- Your website
- A training programme
If you run two different businesses, you could create a Project for each one and give them completely different instructions.
As a result, you don’t need to repeatedly explain the same background every time you start a conversation.
OpenAI describes Projects as dedicated spaces that keep chats, files, instructions and related context together. Consequently, they’re particularly useful for work that continues over time.
The important shift is that ChatGPT gradually becomes part of the way you organise the work, rather than somewhere you occasionally go when you need a paragraph written.
10. Use ChatGPT to help you stay on top of your day
This is probably the use that has surprised me most.
I’ve created a dashboard that updates each day and helps me review what’s happening.
For example, it can look through things such as my emails and diary and surface information that needs my attention.
More importantly, it has picked up things I probably would have missed.
For somebody running a small business, that’s potentially incredibly useful.
After all, there’s usually a lot going on.
There are customers to reply to, meetings coming up, tasks you’ve promised somebody and important messages buried underneath another 30 emails.
Increasingly, AI tools can work across this information rather than waiting for you to manually copy everything into a chat.
This is where the idea of a digital business assistant starts becoming much more real.
It’s not something running your business for you.
Instead, it’s something helping you stay on top of it.
One thing that has completely changed how I use ChatGPT
There’s one final tip that isn’t really another business use, but has probably made the biggest difference to the way I personally interact with ChatGPT.
I talk to it.
Increasingly, I use the microphone rather than typing everything.
For me, it’s much easier.
When I’m typing, I can lose my train of thought or start editing what I’m saying before I’ve properly explained it.
When I dictate, however, I just talk.
That means I can explain what I’m trying to do, what has happened, what I’m thinking and what I need help with.
As a result, ChatGPT naturally gets far more context.
I’ve found the answers are often much better because of it.
So don’t worry about creating the world’s perfect prompt.
Instead, explain what you want as if you were talking to somebody helping you with the task.
Start by telling them what you’re doing. Then explain why you’re doing it and who it’s for. Finally, describe what a good result would look like.
From there, have a conversation.
ChatGPT is much more than a content generator
Social media posts are useful.
Blog articles are useful.
Marketing copy is useful.
However, if that’s where your use of ChatGPT starts and finishes, I think you’re missing the most interesting part.
For me, its real value comes from having something available that can help me think, analyse, learn, plan and create.
It’s still a tool.
I make the decisions. I check the information and decide what’s appropriate for my business.
But it’s a tool I now use virtually every day.
And perhaps that’s the best place to start.
Don’t try to suddenly “AI-enable” your entire business.
Instead, pick one thing you already do regularly.
The next time you have to do it, ask yourself:
Could ChatGPT help me do this a little better, faster or more confidently?
Then try it.
Ultimately, that’s how I’ve learned most of what I know about using AI.
Not by becoming an AI expert.
Simply by using it.
Want to get more from ChatGPT in your business?
If you’re experimenting with ChatGPT but feel you’re probably only scratching the surface, come and join us inside the AI Growth 101 community.
It’s completely free and designed for small business owners, freelancers and anyone who wants to understand how AI can actually be useful in everyday work.
Inside, you’ll find practical guidance, workshops, resources and other business owners learning as they go.
You don’t need to become an AI expert.
Just start using it to help you do something useful.