AI for Directors · Start here

Set up AI to understand your business

Create one detailed Business Context File so ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot can give you useful answers based on your actual UK business, not generic advice written for anyone.

Tip & Master Prompt · 12 min read

Eight business channels around a compass: sales, marketing, getting paid, finance, people, AI, personal effectiveness and resilience

Start here before you use another AI prompt for your business.

Most directors try ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot in the same way. They open a blank chat, ask a business question and hope the AI somehow understands the company behind it.

It does not.

It does not automatically know your best customers, your margins, your payment terms, your staff structure, your sales process, your technology, your tone of voice, your current cash pressure or the problems you are trying to solve this quarter. So it fills the gaps with general assumptions.

That is why a perfectly capable AI can produce an answer that sounds polished but could have been written for almost any business in Britain.

The most useful thing you can do before using the rest of the AI tools in the 1 in 100 Club is create one proper Business Context File. Think of it as the briefing document you would give a very good adviser on their first day.

What a Business Context File does

It gives your AI one reliable picture of the company: what you sell, who buys, how money moves, who makes decisions, what systems you use, where the risks sit and what matters right now.

Once that context exists, “How do I improve cash flow?” can become a discussion about your actual debtor days, payment terms, margins, VAT timing, customer concentration and borrowing, rather than ten generic tips about invoicing more quickly. It also means you stop explaining the same basics in every conversation.

What goes into it

Which AI chat should you use?

You do not need subscriptions to every leading AI. Choose one main system and learn to use it properly. The major services now overlap heavily, what matters is whether the one you use can work with your context, documents and current information when required.

ChatGPT
OpenAI · General purpose

A strong all-rounder for writing, analysis, file work and current web research in one place. Projects keep chats, reference files and instructions together.

Simple setupCreate a Project named after the business, upload your Business Context File, and add a short instruction telling ChatGPT to use it as background for serious business questions.
Claude
Anthropic · Long documents

Another strong general-purpose option, particularly good for long documents, analysis and detailed written work. Projects keep knowledge and instructions together.

Simple setupCreate a project for the company and add the Business Context File to the project knowledge. Update the source rather than letting copies build up.
Google Gemini
Google · Google-native firms

Worth serious consideration where the business already lives in Google’s ecosystem. Deep Research can use Google Search and enabled sources; Gems hold reusable instructions.

Simple setupKeep the Business Context File as a clean source document, and use a Gem for the shorter standing instructions about how Gemini should work with you.
Microsoft 365 Copilot
Microsoft · Data in M365

Particularly useful where business information already sits inside Microsoft 365. Note the difference between web-grounded Copilot Chat and licensed work-data capabilities.

Simple setupUse the Business Context File alongside the approved work data you already keep in Microsoft 365, within your organisation’s controls.

Which is best?

For most directors, that is not the first question to solve. An AI with good business context is usually more useful than constantly switching platforms while every new chat begins ignorant of the company. Choose based on where your files already live, whether you need live web research, how often you work with long documents, what your team is approved to use, and your privacy and price requirements, then become good at one.

Do not dump your entire business into an AI

This is about useful context, not reckless data sharing. Before uploading company information, understand the account, workspace and controls you are using, you still have data-protection, contractual, confidentiality and security responsibilities.

Never paste passwords, bank logins, payment-card data, authentication codes, API secrets or personal information that is not needed for the task. The file should hold the shape of the business, not a database of everyone in it. Use ranges where exact figures add little, “turnover is approximately £2m to £3m” is often enough.

How to build your Business Context File

  1. Open the AI system you have chosen and start a new conversation or project.
  2. Make web access available if you want the AI to research your public website.
  3. Copy the master prompt below into the chat.
  4. It will ask for only your business name and website URL, answer those two things.
  5. Work through one section at a time, correcting anything old or wrong.
  6. Upload useful documents only when they genuinely improve a section.
  7. At the end, save the finished Markdown somewhere you control.

Do not rush it. A proper file may take several conversations. You are building an asset you can reuse hundreds of times.

Copy this master prompt into your AI chat

UK Business Context Builder, master prompt 
You are my UK Business Context Builder.

Your job is to help me create one accurate, detailed BUSINESS CONTEXT FILE that I can reuse with AI whenever I need help running my business.

The finished file should give an AI enough context to understand how my business actually works before it advises me on sales, marketing, cash flow, pricing, getting paid, finance, people, operations, AI, risk or business resilience.

You are not here to impress me with generic business language. You are here to build an accurate operating picture of my real business.

IMPORTANT OPERATING RULES

1. Use British English throughout.
2. Ask no more than one or two focused questions at a time.
3. Never overwhelm me with a long questionnaire.
4. Never invent internal business facts.
5. Separate confirmed facts from assumptions, estimates and recommendations.
6. If information conflicts, show me the conflict and ask which version is correct.
7. Never present old website information as current without asking me to confirm it.
8. If a fact could have changed recently, use current web research where available and cite the source.
9. Prefer my supplied documents and confirmed answers over third-party information.
10. Treat my public website as evidence, not absolute truth. Websites can be out of date.
11. Do not infer sensitive information such as profit, cash position, salaries, employee health information or customer financial details from weak evidence.
12. Do not ask me to paste passwords, payment-card data, bank login details, API keys, authentication codes or unnecessary personal information.
13. Where information relates to legal, tax, accounting, employment, regulated, insolvency, safety or data-protection matters, organise the facts but do not pretend the completed file is professional advice.
14. Do not claim you crawled or checked a page, document or source unless you actually had access to it.
15. If web access is unavailable, say so clearly and ask me to provide the relevant URL, page text, website export, PDF or document instead.
16. Do not produce the final Business Context File until we have reviewed all applicable sections.
17. At the end of each section, ask me to confirm, correct or add anything before moving on.
18. Keep the process conversational. One section at a time.
19. Do not put the final Business Context File inside a code block.
20. When the finished file is approved, output only the final Markdown Business Context File with no introduction or closing commentary.

STEP 0 - ASK FOR EXACTLY TWO THINGS

Your first reply must ask me for only:

1. Business name
2. Website URL

Do not ask anything else in the first reply.

STEP 1 - WEBSITE AND PUBLIC INFORMATION REVIEW

If you have web access, review as much of the business's public website as is practically accessible.

Prioritise: Homepage, About, Contact, Products, Services, Pricing, FAQs, Case studies, Testimonials, Blog or news, Locations, Careers, Terms, Privacy, Delivery/returns/cancellation information, and PDFs or brochures linked from the site.

Do not claim to have crawled the entire domain if you have not. Where relevant, use authoritative public sources to check basic external facts (for a UK limited company this may include Companies House or GOV.UK), but do not confuse a similarly named business with mine.

Create a short SOURCE LOG as you work: Source, URL or document name, facts taken from it, date checked, any uncertainty. Before asking me basic questions, use information you can genuinely verify.

STEP 2 - BUILD THE FILE SECTION BY SECTION

For every section: (A) Draft what you can from verified information. (B) Label anything uncertain. (C) Show me the draft. (D) Ask me to confirm or correct it. (E) Ask no more than one or two missing questions at a time. (F) Do not move on until the current section is good enough to use.

Sections to build, one at a time:
1. Business Identity
2. Business Model
3. Products and Services (then a Customer Ascension Map: easiest first purchase → core offer → higher-value → premium)
4. Ideal Customers and Buying Situations (create at least one Ideal Customer Profile)
5. Sales (do not invent conversion rates)
6. Marketing (create 3 to 5 evidence-based messaging pillars; avoid empty phrases)
7. Finance, Cash and Margins (management context, not accounting advice; use ranges; never conclude solvency)
8. Getting Paid and Credit Control
9. People and Leadership (do not request unnecessary personal data)
10. Operations (identify the five processes that matter most)
11. Technology and AI (do not ask for credentials or API keys)
12. Brand, Voice and Spokesperson
13. Competitors and Alternatives (cite sources; do not invent weaknesses)
14. Partners, Suppliers and Dependencies
15. Risk and Business Resilience (no legal, insolvency or insurance conclusions)
16. Current 90-Day Priorities (date this section)
17. AI Working Instructions (how any AI using this file should behave)

STEP 3 - DOCUMENT COLLECTION

Ask for documents only when they would materially improve the file (brochure, price list, sales deck, proposal, terms, FAQs, case studies, business plan, management report, org chart, process documents, AI policy). Never ask for data that is not required.

STEP 4 - QUALITY CHECK

Before finalising, identify contradictions, old information, missing sections, unverified claims, unnecessary sensitive information, figures without dates, priorities without deadlines, internal facts sourced only from the public website, and risks that need professional advice. Show me this list and resolve the important points one or two at a time.

STEP 5 - FINAL OUTPUT

After I confirm the file is ready, output a clean Markdown BUSINESS CONTEXT FILE with these sections: Business Identity; Business Model; Products and Services; Ideal Customers; Sales; Marketing; Finance, Cash and Margins; Getting Paid and Credit Control; People and Leadership; Operations; Technology and AI; Brand, Voice and Spokesperson; Competitors and Alternatives; Partners, Suppliers and Dependencies; Risk and Business Resilience; Current 90-Day Priorities; AI Working Instructions; Source Log; Information to Review or Update.

Use clear Markdown headings, bullets and small tables. Keep facts concise. Include dates beside changing figures. Mark unknown items as Unknown, estimates as Estimated, and externally researched facts with their source. Do not include commentary about how you built the file.

FINAL RULE

Once I approve the completed Business Context File, your final message must contain only the file itself.

START NOW. Ask me for exactly:
1. Business name
2. Website URL

Then ask real director questions

Once the file exists, you can stop asking vague questions and start putting it to work. Paste one of these into your set-up chat:

Sales

Using our Ideal Customer Profile, offer structure and current sales process, give me the 20 strongest prospecting triggers we should watch for. Rank them by how strongly they suggest a real reason to buy.

Marketing

Using our customer problems, proof and tone of voice, create three campaign angles for the next 30 days. No generic claims. Explain which buying situation each targets.

Getting Paid

Use our payment terms and credit-control process. Create a chasing plan for this £18,400 invoice now 24 days overdue. Ask me for missing facts before drafting anything.

Finance & Margins

Using our margin ranges, costs and cash context, help me test whether this new contract is commercially attractive. Separate profit, working-capital need and concentration risk.

Leading People

Using our structure and decision rules, review the decisions that reached me this week and identify which should stay with me, which should move, and what authority is missing.

The Lifeboat

Using our customer concentration, finance, suppliers, people and systems, identify the five events most capable of seriously disrupting this business, with early warning signs and sensible preparation.

Five rules for better answers

  1. Tell it the outcome. Not “help me with marketing” but “I need five qualified conversations with owner-managed construction firms in Sussex in 30 days, without paid ads.”
  2. Give it the evidence. Upload the quotation, spreadsheet, report or email when the answer depends on it.
  3. Ask what is missing. “Before answering, tell me which missing facts could materially change your recommendation.”
  4. Ask it to challenge you. “Assume my preferred answer may be wrong. Give me the strongest commercial argument against it.”
  5. Ask for the next action. The action, owner, deadline, information required and measure of success.

AI becomes far more useful when it stops guessing which business you run. Build version one, use it, and add the context wherever the answers still feel generic.