Claude tips and tricks

Short, practical Claude tips for people who run a small business: one everyday job, a prompt to copy, what a good answer looks like and the mistake to avoid. Two to ten minutes each.

• Let Claude ask the questions first (Starter, 3 min): Get a reply or document right the first time
• Give it the job, the reader and the goal (Starter, 2 min): Turn a vague request into a useful draft
• Paste the real thing, not a description of it (Starter, 2 min): Reply to a customer, vendor or employee
• Tell it what you don't want (Starter, 2 min): Stop rewriting the same AI habits out of every draft
• Ask for three versions, then pick (Starter, 3 min): Find the right tone for a touchy message
• Make Claude check its own work (Starter, 3 min): Catch made-up facts before anything goes out
• Turn a long email thread into a decision (Starter, 5 min): Get to the point of a thread that went on for days
• Pull the numbers that matter out of a long PDF (Starter, 5 min): Read a contract, quote or report in two minutes instead of twenty
• Ask "what am I missing?" before you send (Starter, 3 min): Spot the problem in a proposal, policy or plan before someone else does
• Have it explain things like you're new (Starter, 3 min): Understand a term, clause or tech pitch without feeling lost
• Teach it your voice with three old emails (Next step, 10 min): Get drafts that sound like you, not like a robot
• Save your style once, use it every time (Next step, 10 min): Stop pasting the same instructions into every chat
• Give Claude your price sheet once, in a Project (Next step, 10 min): Get quotes and answers that use your real prices and policies
• Turn a voice memo into a proposal (Next step, 10 min): Get a proposal out the same day as the site visit
• Turn how you do a job into a checklist (Next step, 10 min): Write down the steps that live only in someone's head
• Let Claude build the spreadsheet (Power move, 10 min): Get a working tracker or calculator without building it yourself
• Connect your calendar and email, carefully (Power move, 10 min): Find a meeting time or get on top of your inbox without switching apps