10 Practical Ways Small Business Owners Can Use ChatGPT in 2026

Most people use ChatGPT like Google.

They type a question, read the answer, and move on.

But what if ChatGPT could ask you questions before answering? What if it could explain complicated business concepts in plain English, evaluate your website against expert advice, or build a personalized learning plan?

It can do all of those things.

And you don't need to be a programmer or an AI expert to get started.

I'm Alex Kanan, a software engineer with over seven years of professional experience and the founder of Hard2Simple. My goal is to make technology easier for small-business owners to understand and use.

Here are 10 practical ChatGPT techniques you can start using today, including prompts you can copy, paste, and customize for your own business.

1. Use ELI5: Explain Like I'm Five

Have you ever asked ChatGPT a question and received an answer full of technical terms you didn't understand?

There's a simple solution: ELI5. You can use it in your first prompt or after ChatGPT gives you an answer that's hard to follow.

ELI5 stands for "Explain Like I'm Five." It's a way of asking ChatGPT to explain a complicated topic as simply as possible.

You don't literally need an explanation intended for a five-year-old. You're asking ChatGPT to remove unnecessary complexity and help you understand the fundamentals.

Try this prompt

ELI5: Explain [topic] in simple language. Avoid technical jargon, use an everyday analogy, and give me an example relevant to a small-business owner.

Real-world example

Imagine you own a landscaping business and want to understand search engine optimization (SEO).

Instead of asking:

What is SEO?

Try:

ELI5: Explain SEO and how it helps a landscaping business get more customers. Use simple examples and avoid technical jargon.

ChatGPT might compare SEO to making your landscaping business easier to find in a large directory, where customers are searching for someone who offers your services.

Once you understand the basics, you can ask follow-up questions to learn more.

If you've already received a confusing answer, try this follow-up:

ELI5 the answer you just gave me. Define any technical terms, use an everyday analogy, and show how this applies to my business.

Pro tip: Adjust the explanation to your knowledge level. Try "Explain like I'm 12," "Explain for a beginner," or "Explain for someone who already understands the basics."

The goal isn't to stay at the beginner level forever. It's to build enough understanding to tackle more complicated questions.

2. Ask ChatGPT to Ask You 5 Clarifying Questions

This is one of the most useful prompting techniques for business owners.

Most people ask ChatGPT for advice without giving it enough information.

For example:

Create a marketing strategy for my business.

That's a very broad request.

ChatGPT doesn't necessarily know what your business sells, how much you can spend, or who your customers are.

Instead of expecting it to guess, make ChatGPT interview you first.

Try this prompt

I need help with [your goal]. Before giving me recommendations, ask me five clarifying questions, one at a time, to better understand my business, situation, budget, and goals. Wait until I've answered all five questions before presenting your recommendations.

Real-world example

Let's say you own a residential cleaning business and want more customers.

Ask:

Help me create a marketing plan to get more cleaning customers. Before giving me a plan, ask me five clarifying questions, one at a time.

ChatGPT might ask:

1. What geographic area do you serve?
2. Who is your ideal customer?
3. What's your monthly marketing budget?
4. Where do most of your current customers come from?
5. How many additional customers can your business realistically handle?

Now, instead of receiving a generic marketing plan, you'll get recommendations based on the information you supplied.

Pro tip: After receiving your answer, ask: "Which of your recommendations depends on assumptions, and what additional information would improve your advice?"

You can use this technique when planning a new service, hiring employees, evaluating software, developing a business plan, or making other important decisions.

3. Use "Everything You Know About Me" to Get Personalized Answers

If you've been using ChatGPT regularly, you may have already shared information about your business, experience, goals, and preferences.

Depending on your memory settings and available conversation context, ChatGPT may be able to use relevant details from previous interactions.

That means you might not need to explain your entire business every time you start a conversation.

Try this prompt

Using everything you know about me and my business, recommend five ways I could improve [specific goal]. Consider my experience, business model, resources, and past conversations. Tell me which information you're using and identify anything you're assuming or missing.

Real-world example

Imagine you've discussed your online store, products, and marketing challenges with ChatGPT over several conversations.

You could ask:

Using everything you know about me and my business, suggest five realistic ways I could increase repeat purchases without spending much more on advertising.

When relevant context is available, the answer may reflect your existing business instead of treating you like someone starting from zero.

Important: ChatGPT doesn't know everything about you

Even when memory is enabled, ChatGPT doesn't necessarily retain every conversation or detail. It can also work from outdated or incomplete information.

Try asking:

What do you currently know about my business? List the information you're using, and tell me what you still need to know.

Review the results and correct anything inaccurate.

You can also review available memory settings under Settings → Personalization → Memory. The controls you see may vary by plan and workspace.

Pro tip: Share useful background information intentionally, but avoid entering confidential customer records, passwords, financial account details, or other sensitive business information unnecessarily.

For more information, see OpenAI's guide to ChatGPT Memory.

4. Apply the 80/20 Rule to Learn What Matters Most

Small-business owners rarely have unlimited time to learn something new.

Sometimes you just want to understand enough to make a useful decision or get started.

That's where the 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto principle, can help.

The general idea is to focus on the smaller group of activities or concepts responsible for a large share of the useful results.

The 80/20 ratio isn't a guaranteed mathematical rule for every situation. Think of it as a way to prioritize your learning.

Try this prompt

I want to learn [topic]. Identify the 20% of concepts, skills, or activities that are most important for a beginner and likely to provide the greatest practical value. Explain why you chose them and give me examples I can apply immediately.

Real-world example

Suppose you want to learn Google Ads but don't have time to take an entire advertising course.

Ask:

Teach me the 20% of Google Ads concepts that matter most for a small local plumbing business. Prioritize what I should understand before spending money on my first campaign.

ChatGPT might focus on:

• Search intent and choosing relevant keywords
• Targeting the geographic areas you serve
• Understanding campaign budgets
• Writing relevant advertisements
• Tracking calls, leads, and conversions

Instead of trying to master every feature immediately, you can learn the fundamentals and build from there.

Pro tip: Follow up with "Now put these topics in the order I should learn them, and tell me what I can safely ignore for now."

5. Use a YouTube Video or Website as a Benchmark

This is one of my favorite ways to make AI feedback more useful.

Instead of asking ChatGPT whether your website, business plan, advertisement, or sales pitch is "good," give it something specific to evaluate your work against.

For example, you might find a helpful YouTube tutorial about designing landing pages or an article explaining how to create effective advertisements.

You can ask ChatGPT to extract the advice from that reference and use it as a benchmark when evaluating your own work.

Try this prompt

Use this video or website as a reference: [URL].

First, confirm whether you can access its actual content. If you cannot, ask me to provide the transcript or relevant text.

Identify the key principles and recommendations from the source.

Then evaluate my [website, business plan, advertisement, sales pitch, or other work] against those principles.

Tell me:

1. What I'm doing well.
2. Where my work falls short.
3. What important elements are missing.
4. The three changes I should prioritize.
5. Why each change matters.

Distinguish recommendations from the source from your own suggestions. Be specific and constructive.

Real-world example

Imagine you've just built a website for your home remodeling business.

You find a YouTube video explaining what makes a high-converting service-business landing page.

You can give ChatGPT that video, along with your website, and ask it to evaluate your homepage using the video's recommendations.

It might identify issues involving unclear service descriptions, confusing navigation, missing trust signals, or weak calls to action.

However, there's an important distinction: the video's advice is your chosen benchmark, not necessarily an objective standard.

You should still evaluate whether that advice is reliable and appropriate for your business.

Also, ChatGPT cannot always retrieve and understand the contents of a YouTube video from its URL alone. If the video isn't accessible, supply the transcript or your notes.

Bonus: NotebookLM + Codex for advanced users

If you're comfortable experimenting with more advanced AI tools, you can take this technique further.

Google's NotebookLM allows you to create notebooks using sources such as documents, webpages, and public YouTube videos with captions. For YouTube sources, it imports the transcript rather than the video itself.

Here's an example workflow:

1. Create a notebook containing helpful videos and articles about website design.
2. Ask NotebookLM to identify the important design principles and create an evaluation checklist.
3. Copy that checklist and relevant source excerpts.
4. Provide them to OpenAI Codex along with your website's source code.
5. Ask Codex to evaluate your website against the checklist and suggest or implement improvements for your review.

Codex is particularly useful when you're working with actual code, not just discussing a website concept.

If you have configured a compatible NotebookLM integration for Codex, you may also be able to reference notebook content directly. That connection is not automatic and may require a third-party tool or additional setup.

Codex access and usage limits vary by ChatGPT plan; a paid subscription isn't required for every Codex feature.

Pro tip: You can apply this technique to nearly anything: sales scripts, job listings, customer onboarding processes, marketing campaigns, and more. The key is to supply a useful reference instead of relying entirely on generic AI opinions.

6. Turn Complicated Information Into Visual Mind Maps and Sticky Notes

Not everyone learns best by reading paragraphs of text.

Sometimes complicated information becomes easier to understand when it's broken into smaller pieces or organized visually.

You can ask ChatGPT to turn a topic into virtual sticky notes, a mind map, or a structured diagram.

Try this prompt

Teach me [topic] using two formats.

First, summarize the eight most important concepts as short, easy-to-read sticky notes. Give each note a title, a one-sentence explanation, and an example.

Then create a mind map connecting those concepts and showing how they relate to one another.

Use a visual diagram if supported. Otherwise, give me a clearly organized text-based map.

Real-world example

Suppose you want to understand the process of acquiring and retaining customers.

Ask:

Create eight sticky notes explaining the most important parts of customer acquisition and retention for a small lawn care business. Then create a mind map showing how advertising, customer inquiries, estimates, bookings, service quality, reviews, and repeat business connect.

The sticky notes help you remember individual concepts.

The mind map helps you understand how those concepts fit together.

Together, they can turn a complicated business process into a more manageable picture.

Pro tip: Ask ChatGPT to organize the sticky notes into "Start Here," "Learn Next," and "Advanced" categories.

Depending on the available features, you can also request a downloadable or printable visual, or move the structured text into your preferred diagramming tool.

7. Make ChatGPT Quiz You Until You Understand

Reading an explanation doesn't always mean you've understood it.

One way to test what you've learned is to try explaining it back or answering questions about it.

You can turn ChatGPT into an interactive tutor that quizzes you and adjusts the difficulty based on your answers.

Try this prompt

Act as a patient tutor helping me understand [topic].

Quiz me one question at a time.

Wait for my answer before continuing.

If I answer incorrectly, explain what I misunderstood and ask a related question to help reinforce the concept.

If I answer correctly, gradually increase the difficulty.

Continue until I demonstrate a practical understanding of the topic. Give me a brief summary of the areas I should review.

Real-world example

Imagine you're learning how to interpret your business's profit and loss statement.

After ChatGPT explains revenue, expenses, gross profit, and net profit, ask it to quiz you.

It might ask:

Your business generates $8,000 in revenue and has $5,500 in expenses. What is your profit before any additional adjustments?

After you answer, ChatGPT can explain the calculation and introduce more advanced examples.

For complicated topics, you can even ask ChatGPT to simulate real-world scenarios.

Pro tip: At the end, ask "Give me a realistic business scenario that combines everything we covered, and let me solve it without hints."

Remember that ChatGPT can make mistakes too. For financial, legal, or other high-stakes subjects, check its explanations against reliable sources.

8. Ask ChatGPT About Common Beginner Mistakes

Sometimes knowing what not to do is just as valuable as knowing what to do.

When learning a new skill, beginners often encounter predictable challenges.

Instead of discovering every mistake through trial and error, you can ask ChatGPT to identify potential problems before you begin.

Try this prompt

I'm a beginner learning [topic].

What are the 10 most common mistakes beginners make?

For each mistake, explain:

• Why it happens
• What can go wrong
• How to avoid it
• What to do instead

Prioritize the mistakes that would have the greatest impact on a small-business owner, and distinguish well-established risks from general advice.

Real-world example

Imagine you're preparing to run Facebook advertisements for your business for the first time.

Ask:

What are the most common mistakes small-business owners make when running Facebook Ads, and how can I avoid wasting money?

ChatGPT might highlight problems such as:

• Targeting the wrong audience
• Using unclear advertising messages
• Not tracking conversions
• Sending customers to confusing landing pages
• Making campaign decisions without enough performance data

You can use the resulting list as a checklist before launching your campaign.

Pro tip: Ask ChatGPT to turn the mistakes into a simple pre-launch checklist that you can review before spending money.

9. Learn Difficult Concepts Using Three Different Mental Models

Have you ever heard someone explain something three different ways before it finally made sense?

That's the idea behind this technique.

A mental model is a way of thinking about or understanding a concept.

Some people understand an idea through comparisons. Others prefer numbers, stories, or step-by-step explanations.

Asking ChatGPT to explain a concept from several perspectives can help you understand it more deeply.

Try this prompt

Explain [topic] using three different mental models or ways of thinking.

For each one:

1. Explain the concept in simple language.
2. Use a different analogy or perspective.
3. Give a practical small-business example.
4. Explain when that mental model is useful and where it has limitations.

Finish with a short story that makes the main lesson easy to remember.

Real-world example

Let's say you want to understand customer retention.

You could ask ChatGPT to explain customer retention using three perspectives:

The relationship model: Customers are more likely to return when they trust you and have good experiences.

The financial model: Keeping customers may reduce your dependence on constantly paying to attract new ones.

The systems model: Scheduling, communication, consistent service, and follow-ups work together to influence repeat business.

Each model offers a different way to approach the same problem.

The short story at the end can make those ideas easier to remember.

Pro tip: Ask "Which of these three mental models is most useful for my particular business, and why?"

10. Create a Personalized 7-Day Learning Plan

One of the biggest challenges with learning something new isn't finding information.

It's knowing where to begin and what to study next.

ChatGPT can help you organize a large topic into smaller daily lessons.

You can also incorporate spaced repetition, which involves reviewing material at intervals instead of trying to memorize everything in one session.

Try this prompt

Create a seven-day beginner learning plan for [topic].

I can dedicate [number] minutes per day.

For each day, include:

1. A specific learning objective.
2. A beginner-friendly explanation of the topic.
3. One practical exercise.
4. Three questions to test my understanding.
5. A short review of previously learned material.

Use spaced repetition to reinforce important concepts throughout the week.

Adjust the difficulty based on my experience, and finish with a practical project that demonstrates what I've learned.

Real-world example

Suppose you want to learn how to use ChatGPT for your small business, but only have 20 minutes per day.

You could request a plan like this:

Instead of jumping between random tutorials, you'll have a clear learning path.

Pro tip: At the end of each day, tell ChatGPT what you found easy and what you struggled with. Ask it to adjust the remaining lessons accordingly.

Bonus: Combine Multiple ChatGPT Techniques Into One Powerful Prompt

Here's where things become interesting.

You don't have to use these 10 techniques separately.

You can combine several into one conversation.

For example:

I'm a small-business owner who wants to learn how to use AI to improve my business.

Using what you know about me and my business, identify relevant background information.

Before making recommendations, ask me five clarifying questions, one at a time.

Once I've answered, explain the three most valuable opportunities using simple, ELI5-style explanations.

Apply the 80/20 rule to show me where to focus first.

Identify the common mistakes I should avoid.

Finally, build me a seven-day action plan with practical exercises.

Notice what this does.

Instead of simply asking ChatGPT for ideas, you're giving it a process:

• Understand your situation.
• Gather missing information.
• Explain recommendations clearly.
• Prioritize the most important opportunities.
• Identify potential mistakes.
• Help you take action.

The result should be more useful than a generic response because the AI has more relevant context and clearer instructions.

That doesn't guarantee accuracy, though. Always review recommendations before making significant business decisions.

The Biggest ChatGPT Tip: Keep the Conversation Going

If there's one thing I'd encourage every beginner to remember, it's this:

Your first prompt doesn't have to be perfect.

You can keep asking questions.

If ChatGPT's answer is too complicated, ask it to simplify.

If the answer is too generic, give it more information.

If you're unsure about a recommendation, ask for the reasoning and supporting sources.

And if you don't understand something, ask it to explain the concept another way.

Think of ChatGPT as a tool you can have an ongoing conversation with, not a search engine that gives you only one opportunity to ask a question.

The more clearly you communicate what you're trying to accomplish, the better positioned ChatGPT is to help.

Ready to Start Using AI in Your Business?

You don't need to master all 10 techniques at once.

Start with one.

My recommendation? Try #2: Ask Me 5 Clarifying Questions.

The next time you need business advice, let ChatGPT ask a few questions before giving you an answer.

Then experiment with the other techniques as you become more comfortable.

Need Help Learning How to Use AI?

At Hard2Simple, I help small-business owners learn and apply AI through hands-on coaching.

Whether you're completely new to ChatGPT or looking for more practical ways to use AI in your everyday work, my goal is to make the technology easier to understand.

Learn more about AI coaching.

Additional Resources

• OpenAI: ChatGPT Memory — How personalization and memory work.
• Google NotebookLM — Work with information from documents, websites, and supported videos.
• OpenAI Codex — AI assistance for software development and code review.
• YouTube: 10 AI Learning Techniques — Inspiration for several learning techniques featured in this guide.

Written by Alex Kanan, founder of Hard2Simple. Examples and prompts are educational illustrations, not guarantees of business performance. AI tools and their features may change over time.