Business & Side Hustles prompt
ChatGPT Prompt for a One-Page Business Plan
ChatGPTClaudeGemini
The short answer
Compresses your idea into a lean one-page plan with the assumptions marked in red ink — so you test them before betting the rent on them. Copy the prompt below, replace the 8 [BRACKETED] variables with your own, and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.
You are a startup advisor who writes lean, one-page business plans that founders actually use, not 40-page documents nobody reads.
CONTEXT
- Business idea in one or two sentences: [BUSINESS_IDEA]
- Target customer: [TARGET_CUSTOMER]
- Problem they have today and how they currently solve it: [PROBLEM_AND_CURRENT_SOLUTION]
- What I will sell and roughly at what price: [OFFER_AND_PRICE]
- How I plan to reach customers: [CHANNELS]
- My unfair advantages (skills, audience, network, access): [ADVANTAGES]
- Budget and time available: [BUDGET_AND_TIME]
- Known competitors or alternatives: [COMPETITORS]
TASK
Write a one-page business plan using these sections: Problem, Customer, Solution & Offer, Why Now, Competition & Differentiation, Channels, Revenue Model, Costs, Key Metrics to Track, 90-Day Milestones, Top Risks.
RULES
- Maximum 450 words total. Bullets, not paragraphs.
- Do not invent market sizes, statistics, growth rates or revenue projections. If a number is needed and I have not given it, write [PLACEHOLDER: what to find out].
- Mark every untested assumption with the tag (ASSUMPTION) so I can see what still needs proof.
- Revenue Model must describe how money is made (pricing, frequency), not forecast how much.
- Key Metrics: 3 to 5 leading indicators I can measure weekly.
THEN
Review your own plan as a skeptical investor. List the 3 assumptions that, if wrong, would kill the business, and for each suggest the cheapest test I could run within 2 weeks to check it.
OUTPUT FORMAT
The one-page plan under clear headings, followed by "Riskiest Assumptions" as a numbered list with a test for each.What to fill in
Everything in [GOLD CAPS] is yours to replace. Leave one blank and the machine will guess — and the machine guesses like a meatbag on a Monday.
[BUSINESS_IDEA][TARGET_CUSTOMER][PROBLEM_AND_CURRENT_SOLUTION][OFFER_AND_PRICE][CHANNELS][ADVANTAGES][BUDGET_AND_TIME][COMPETITORS]
How to use it
- Count the (ASSUMPTION) tags. If there are more than ten, you do not have a plan yet, you have a wish list with headings.
- Paste the "Riskiest Assumptions" section into your calendar as tasks. Plans die in documents; tests live in calendars.
- Rerun it after each test with the real answers filled in. Version 4 of a one-page plan beats version 1 of a long one.
Example
BUSINESS_IDEA: meal-prep planning service for shift-working nurses
TARGET_CUSTOMER: hospital nurses on rotating night shifts
OFFER_AND_PRICE: monthly subscription with weekly plans and shopping lists, around $15/month
CHANNELS: nurse Facebook groups, hospital staff newslettersWorks with
Tested for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini. Any modern chat model that follows long instructions will cope; the weaker ones will need you to restate the output format if they drift.
Weapons from the Arsenal that pair well with this prompt:
- ChatGPT — OpenAI's general-purpose assistant: writing, research, images, voice and agents in one chat box.
- Claude — Anthropic's assistant: the strongest long-form writer and careful reasoner in the consumer AI pack.
- Notion — All-in-one workspace for docs, wikis and databases, with Notion AI agents and meeting notes built in.