A guided set of AI prompts that take you from idea to a ready-to-launch business!
How to use this worksheet
1. Each week, you'll add your AI prompts to your chosen AI tool.
2. Copy a prompt into your AI assistant, then replace every orange tag with your own earlier answer.
3. Each answer will get you closer to your final business plan. Remember to save your outputs and use them to inform later prompts!
Tags look like this: [ PASTE YOUR WEEK 1 IDEA SUMMARY HERE ]
What's inside
1Find & articulate your idea 2 prompts
2Understand your customer 1 prompt
3Sharpen your proposition & plan 2 prompts
4Revenue, pricing & your first P&L 2 prompts
5Build your marketing plan 1 prompt
6Bring it all together 2 prompts
1
Week 1
Find & articulate your idea
Get the idea out of your head and onto one clear page you can explain to anyone.
Prompt 1
Coming up with your idea
I want to come up with a business idea but I have no idea where to start. Ask me questions one at a time — don't rush, and don't give me ideas yet.
Cover these four things: what I love and do in my spare time, what I'm actually good at, what frustrates me or feels missing in my life, and whether I've spotted anything that could be done better or differently.
If I'm vague, push me to be specific.
Once you feel like you know me well enough, suggest 2–3 business ideas that genuinely fit what I've told you — and explain why each one suits me. Then ask me more questions to help me assess each one.
Prompt 2
Articulate your idea
I want your help to write a one-page summary of a business idea I have. The goal is something I can use to explain the idea to others — written in plain human language, not business jargon. It should feel like me, not like a pitch deck.
Before you write anything, please ask me questions first. I want you to draw out the real story — including where the idea came from, what personally frustrated or inspired me, and why I feel like the right person to pursue it. Keep asking until you feel like you really understand it.
Once you have enough, draft using this exact format
— What's my idea?
— Where did the idea come from?
— What customer need or problem does it solve?
— What excites me about it?
— Why do I think I'm the right person to solve it?
A few things to keep in mind
— Use my words and phrases where you can, not polished AI language.
— Be specific — avoid vague phrases like "passionate about" or "unique solution".
— If something I've said is vague or generic, push back and ask me to be more specific. The goal is to clearly articulate what's unique and valuable about this idea.
— Short and honest beats long and impressive.
Let's start. Ask me your first question.
2
Week 2
Understand your customer
Turn the user in your idea into one specific, believable person you could pick out of a crowd.
Prompt 1
Understanding your customer
I want your help to build a customer persona for a business idea I've already been developing. I'm going to share the one-page idea summary I wrote in Week 1 — use that as your starting point, not a blank slate.
Here is my idea summary: [ PASTE YOUR WEEK 1 IDEA SUMMARY HERE ]
Before you build the persona, ask me questions to go deeper on the customer. You already know the idea — what I need now is for you to help me build a genuinely specific, believable person who would use it. Focus your questions on:
— Who specifically I had in mind when I came up with the idea.
— Whether I've spoken to or observed any real people who fit.
— Behaviours and frustrations I've actually seen or heard, not just imagined.
— What those customers are really trying to achieve underneath the obvious answer.
Don't ask me to re-explain the idea. You have it. Push me on the person.
Build the persona using this exact format
— Name, age, and a short "type" label (e.g. "The Reluctant Techie").
— A two-sentence profile: where they live, what they do, one telling personal detail that shows who they are.
Then six sections
— Wants: what are they trying to accomplish? What problem are they trying to solve?
— Says: what do they actually say out loud? Give these as short quotes in their voice, not paraphrases.
— Feels: what actually matters to them underneath? What are their underlying motivations?
— Fears: what worries them? What gets in the way of what they want?
— Does: what does a typical day look like? How do they shop and make decisions?
— Sees / Hears: who or what influences them? Where do they go for information?
A few things to keep in mind
— Make this one specific person, not an average of many people.
— The "Says" section should sound like a real human, not a marketing summary.
— If I give you vague answers, push back and ask for a specific example.
— The fears section is often the most valuable — don't let me skip past it.
— Look for connections back to my idea summary — if my origin story mentions a specific frustration, that frustration should show up in this persona.
— If anything I tell you about this customer contradicts my idea summary, point it out directly.
— Avoid phrases like "passionate about" or "values quality" — they're meaningless.
— Before we finish, ask me: "What's the thing about this customer you're most uncertain about — and what would it mean for your idea if you're wrong?"
Let's start. Ask me your first question.
3
Week 3
Sharpen your proposition & plan
Pressure-test what makes you different, then turn rough workbook answers into a real business plan.
Prompt 1
Sharpening your value proposition
I've written a value proposition for my business and I want you to pressure-test it hard. I'm going to share my idea summary, my customer persona, and the value proposition I've drafted.
Here is my idea summary: [ PASTE YOUR WEEK 1 IDEA SUMMARY HERE ]
Here is my customer persona: [ PASTE YOUR WEEK 2 PERSONA HERE ]
Here is my value proposition: [ PASTE YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION HERE ]
Based on this information, give me your analysis: where is the value proposition genuinely strong, where is it weak, and what's the single most important thing I need to fix?
Then help me rewrite it — but only using what I've actually told you in my earlier outputs. Don't invent strengths I haven't established yet.
A few things to keep in mind
— "We help people" and "a better way to" are red flags — push me past them.
— If my differentiation could be claimed by a competitor, it's not differentiation.
— Check for consistency with my idea summary and persona — if there's a gap, name it.
— Short and specific beats long and impressive.
— Before we finish, ask me: "What's the part of this you'd find hardest to defend in front of a sceptical customer?" Then help me work on exactly that.
Prompt 2
Building your business plan
I've been working through a business planning workbook and I want your help to turn my rough answers into a proper business plan. I'm also going to share my idea summary and customer persona from the previous two weeks — use everything as your starting point.
Here is my idea summary: [ PASTE YOUR WEEK 1 IDEA SUMMARY HERE ]
Here is my customer persona: [ PASTE YOUR WEEK 2 PERSONA HERE ]
Here are my workbook answers for Week 3 — paste your own under each heading:
Mission and vision[ PASTE YOUR ANSWER HERE ]
Industry[ PASTE YOUR ANSWER HERE ]
Customers[ PASTE YOUR ANSWER HERE ]
Competition[ PASTE YOUR ANSWER HERE ]
Team[ PASTE YOUR ANSWER HERE ]
Value proposition — what will you sell and what benefits does it offer? [ PASTE YOUR ANSWER HERE ]
Competitive advantage and differentiation[ PASTE YOUR ANSWER HERE ]
Operations — how will you create and deliver your product or service? [ PASTE YOUR ANSWER HERE ]
Read everything first. Then do three things in order:
Step 1 — React
Before building anything, tell me honestly what you see. Where is my thinking strong and specific? Where is it thin, vague, or optimistic without evidence? Where do my workbook answers contradict or drift from my idea summary or persona? Be direct — I need to know what needs work before we build anything.
Step 2 — Ask
Based on what you've found, ask me the questions that matter most. Don't ask me to repeat things I've already written — only ask what's genuinely missing or unclear. Focus especially on any section where my answer was weak or where something doesn't add up.
Step 3 — Build
Once you have what you need, write my business plan using this structure:
— Mission and vision: what this business exists to do and where it's going.
— Industry: the market context and why now is the right time.
— Customers: who they are, what they need, and what will make them choose this.
— Competition: who else is in this space and how I'll compete.
— Team: why I'm the right person to do this.
— Value proposition: what I'm selling and why it's genuinely different.
— Operations: how I'll actually deliver it.
A few things to keep in mind
— Use my own words and thinking where they're strong — don't replace good raw material with polished AI language.
— Where my answers were weak and my responses to your questions filled the gap, use those.
— If there are still gaps after Step 2, flag them clearly in the plan rather than papering over them.
— The plan should be clear enough for someone outside my industry to understand — no jargon.
— Before we finish, ask me: "Which section of this plan are you least confident in — and what would it take to feel genuinely solid on it?"
Let's start with Step 1. Read everything and tell me what you see.
4
Week 4
Revenue, pricing & your first P&L
Work out how the business actually makes money — and build your first profit & loss statement.
Prompt 1
Revenue, pricing and testing
In my session today I worked through some questions about how my business will make money. I want your help to take those rough answers and turn them into something more solid. I'm going to share my idea summary, my business plan, and what I came up with in the discussion.
Here is my idea summary: [ PASTE YOUR WEEK 1 IDEA SUMMARY HERE ]
Here is my business plan: [ PASTE YOUR WEEK 3 BUSINESS PLAN HERE ]
Here are my answers from today's discussion:
What are my revenue streams?[ PASTE YOUR ANSWER HERE ]
How will I price?[ PASTE YOUR ANSWER HERE ]
How can I model and test this?[ PASTE YOUR ANSWER HERE ]
Read everything first. Then do three things in order:
Step 1 — React
Tell me honestly what you see. Where is my thinking on revenue and pricing specific and credible? Where is it vague, assumed, or inconsistent with the business I've described in my plan? If my pricing doesn't match the customer I described in my persona or the positioning I've established, name it directly.
Step 2 — Ask
Ask me only the questions that are genuinely missing from what I've shared. Focus on:
— Whether my revenue streams are realistic given where I'm starting from.
— Whether my pricing reflects what my customer would actually pay — not just what I'd like to charge.
— Whether my testing ideas would give me real signal or just comfortable confirmation.
— What I'd need to believe to be true for this model to work.
Step 3 — Build
Once you have what you need, help me build a simple one-page revenue model that includes:
— My revenue streams ranked by which will come first and which will come later.
— My pricing rationale and how it compares to my competition.
— The assumptions I'm making that most need to be tested.
— Two or three specific, low-cost ways I could test my pricing and revenue thinking right now — before spending any significant time or money.
A few things to keep in mind
— Most early-stage founders set prices based on what feels comfortable, not what the market will bear — push me on this.
— "I'll figure out pricing later" is not a plan — if I haven't thought about it seriously, don't let me skip past it.
— Testing ideas should be specific and actionable, not theoretical.
— Before we finish, ask me: "What's the number in this model you're least confident in — and what are you assuming to get there?" That's the assumption we most need to examine.
Let's start with Step 1. Read everything and tell me what you see.
Prompt 2
Building your first P&L
I need to build a basic profit and loss statement for my business for the first time. I've never done this before and I want your help to do it properly — not just fill in a template, but actually understand what I'm building and whether the numbers make sense.
I'm going to share my idea summary, my business plan, and my revenue and funding thinking from this week.
Here is my idea summary: [ PASTE YOUR WEEK 1 IDEA SUMMARY HERE ]
Here is my business plan: [ PASTE YOUR WEEK 3 BUSINESS PLAN HERE ]
Here is my revenue model: [ PASTE YOUR WEEK 4 REVENUE MODEL HERE ]
Here is my funding plan: [ PASTE YOUR WEEK 4 FUNDING PLAN HERE ]
Don't build anything yet. Start by asking me questions to gather the numbers and assumptions I'll need. Work through these areas one at a time — don't overwhelm me with everything at once:
First — Revenue. Ask me about my expected sales. How many customers do I think I'll have? How often will they buy? At what price? Build this up from realistic assumptions rather than a single hoped-for number.
Then — Cost of goods sold. Ask me what it actually costs me to deliver each product or service. What do I spend per unit or per customer?
Then — Operating costs. Ask me about my fixed costs — the things I'll need to pay regardless of how many customers I have. Prompt me to think about categories I might have missed.
Then — Timeline. Ask me what I think months 1, 6, and 12 might look like — so we can build something that shows a journey, not just a snapshot.
If my numbers seem inconsistent with the business I've described, or if my assumptions seem optimistic without evidence, push back before we build anything.
Once you have everything, build me a simple P&L in this format — Month 1 / Month 6 / Month 12:
— Revenue [number of customers × price]
— Cost of goods sold [cost per unit × volume]
— Gross profit
— Operating costs broken down by category
— Total operating costs
— Net profit / loss
— Cumulative cash position
Show your workings clearly — I want to see the assumptions behind every number, not just the totals. Then tell me:
— At what point does the business break even?
— Which single number has the biggest impact on whether this works?
— What's the most optimistic assumption baked into this model?
— What would the P&L look like if my first three months were slower than I'm expecting?
A few things to keep in mind
— If I don't know a number, help me make a reasonable assumption — but flag it clearly so I know what I need to go and validate.
— Most first-time founders underestimate costs and overestimate how quickly customers will come — build in that challenge.
— The goal isn't a perfect spreadsheet. It's for me to understand my numbers well enough to talk about them confidently and know what to watch.
— Before we finish, ask me: "If revenue in month 1 was half what you've projected — what would you do?" My answer will tell us both something important.
Let's start. Ask me your first question about revenue.
5
Week 5
Build your marketing plan
A simple, focused plan that fits your customer, your brand and the time you actually have.
Prompt 1
Building your marketing plan
You should have context about my business from our brand conversation earlier in this session. If you don't, ask me to paste my brand foundations before we start.
I'm also going to share the outputs I've built across the programme — use all of it as context. The more you understand about my business, my customer, and my thinking so far, the more specific and useful the plan you help me build will be.
Here is my idea summary: [ PASTE YOUR WEEK 1 IDEA SUMMARY HERE ]
Here is my customer persona: [ PASTE YOUR WEEK 2 PERSONA HERE ]
Here is my value proposition: [ PASTE YOUR WEEK 3 VALUE PROPOSITION HERE ]
Here is my USP: [ PASTE YOUR WEEK 5 USP HERE ]
Once you have everything, read it all carefully before asking anything — only ask for information that genuinely isn't already there.
Now I want to build a simple marketing plan on top of that. Ask me these three questions one at a time:
1. What's the single most important thing your marketing needs to do right now — get more people to know you exist, get people who've heard of you to actually buy, or get existing customers to come back?
2. Right now your target customer thinks or feels one thing — and you need to shift that. Complete this: "Right now they think/feel… but I want them to think/feel…"
3. How much time and money can you realistically put into marketing each week?
Important
If any of my answers are vague, generic or unclear, don't move on. Gently push back and help me get more specific — ask a follow-up question, give me an example of a stronger answer, or reflect back what I've said and ask if it really captures it. Be warm but honest. The goal is to get to answers that are clear and distinct enough to build a real plan from.
If anything I tell you contradicts or sits in tension with my persona, my USP, or my brand — point it out before we build anything. A marketing plan that's inconsistent with the brand and customer I've already defined won't work.
Once you have clear answers to all three, give me a simple one-page marketing plan with these clearly labelled sections:
— Objective: what I'm trying to achieve and the customer shift I need.
— Strategy: the overall approach that fits my business, my brand, and my budget.
— Top 2 tactics: just two things to focus on and do well — chosen specifically because they fit the person in my persona and the brand I've defined. No more than two.
— How I'll know it's working: 2–3 simple things to measure — no vanity metrics.
— 30-day action plan: presented as four weekly actions — what to do in week 1, 2, 3 and 4.
— Review: end with one sentence prompting me to set a date in my diary to review progress in 30 days.
Start with question 1.
6
Week 6
Bring it all together
Pull every output into one coherent plan — then turn it into a realistic 90-day plan of action.
Prompt 1
Bringing it all together
I've just completed a six-week programme developing my business idea. Over that time I've built up a set of outputs that together tell the full story of my business. I want your help to bring all of it together into one complete, polished business plan — built on the foundation I started in Week 3 but now enriched with everything I've learned and developed since.
Read everything carefully before doing anything else. Then do three things in order:
Step 1 — Audit
Before you write a single word of the plan, tell me honestly what you see across all of these outputs:
— Where has my thinking sharpened and developed most since Week 3?
— Where are there contradictions or tensions between outputs that we need to resolve before we build?
— What has changed since my original Week 3 plan that needs to be reflected in the final version?
— Are there any sections that are still thin or underdeveloped that we should strengthen before we write?
Step 2 — Ask
Based on your audit, ask me only the questions that genuinely need answering before you can build. Don't ask me to repeat things already covered in my outputs. Focus only on real gaps.
Step 3 — Build
Once you have everything you need, write my complete business plan using this structure:
Executive summary
Two to three sentences that capture what the business is, who it's for, and why it will work. Written last but placed first.
The opportunity
— What problem am I solving and for whom?
— Why does this matter and why now?
— What does the market look like?
The customer
— Who is my ideal customer — brought to life as a real person, not a demographic?
— What do they need, fear, and want?
— Why will they choose me?
The proposition
— What am I selling?
— What makes it genuinely different?
— My USP in one clear sentence.
The business model
— How will I make money?
— My revenue streams and pricing rationale.
— When do I expect to break even?
The financials
— My P&L summary across months 1, 6 and 12.
— My funding plan and what the money is for.
— The key assumptions I'm making and how I'll test them.
The brand
— What my brand stands for.
— How I want customers to feel.
— Tone of voice and personality.
Go to market
— My marketing objective and the customer shift I need to create.
— My strategy and top two tactics.
— How I'll measure success.
— My 30-day action plan.
Why me
— My background and what makes me the right person to build this.
— What I bring that nobody else does.
A few things to keep in mind
— This should read as one coherent document, not a collection of separate outputs stapled together — find the thread that runs through all of it and make sure it shows.
— Use my own words and thinking wherever they're strong — don't replace good raw material with polished AI language.
— Where there were contradictions or tensions between my outputs, show how they've been resolved.
— Where something is still genuinely uncertain or unproven, say so clearly in the plan rather than papering over it — honesty makes a business plan more credible, not less.
— The plan should be clear enough for someone outside my industry to understand immediately.
— Before we finish, ask me: "Reading this back, what feels most true — and what feels like you're still trying to convince yourself?" That gap is worth paying attention to.
Let's start with Step 1. Read everything and tell me what you see.
Prompt 2
Creating your 90-day action plan
I've just completed a six-week business programme and I want to build a realistic 90-day action plan to start making my business happen. You have my completed business plan and my marketing plan and I'm going to share the goals I identified in the final session.
Here is what I identified as my goals in my final session: [ ADD YOUR GOALS HERE ]
Read everything carefully. Then before building anything, ask me these questions one at a time — don't move on until you have a clear answer to each one:
1. What does your week currently look like? Are you employed full time, part time, running another business, or something else — and roughly how many hours a week do you realistically have for this?
2. Of the goals you identified in your session, which one would make you feel most confident that this is really happening if you achieved it in the next 30 days?
3. What's already in motion — is there anything you've already started or committed to?
4. What's the thing you're most likely to deprioritise when life gets busy? Be honest.
5. Do you work better with a lot of small tasks or a few bigger focused efforts?
If any of my answers are vague or unrealistic given what's in my business plan, push back gently before we build anything. The goal is a plan I'll actually follow, not one that looks good right now and gets abandoned in week two. Once you have clear answers to all five questions, do the following:
Step 1 — Set my 90-day goals
Based on my business plan, my marketing plan, my session goals, and what I've told you about my life, define three to five clear goals for the 90-day period. These should be:
— Specific enough that I'll know when I've achieved them.
— Ambitious enough to represent real progress.
— Realistic given the time I've told you I have.
— Sequenced so that earlier goals create the conditions for later ones.
For each goal explain why it matters at this stage and what it unlocks.
Step 2 — Build the 90-day overview
Working backwards from those goals, map out the 90 days in three phases:
Days 1—30 · Prove it. What do I need to test, validate or put in place before anything else? What are the assumptions that most need real-world testing right now?
Days 31—60 · Build it. Based on what I've learned in the first 30 days, what do I start building more seriously? What commitments make sense now that didn't make sense before?
Days 61—90 · Grow it. What does early traction look like? What should I be doing consistently by this point and what should I be starting to scale?
Step 3 — Build the detailed 30-day plan
Break days 1—30 into four weeks with specific actions for each. For every action include:
— What it is and why it matters at this stage.
— Roughly how long it will take.
— Whether it can be batched or combined with something else to save time.
Present it clearly so I can lift each week directly into my calendar or to-do list.
Step 4 — Help me work efficiently
Based on everything I've told you about my workload and how I work best, give me three to five specific suggestions for how to make progress without burning out. Think about:
— How to protect time when I'm also employed or running something else.
— How to batch similar tasks together.
— How to make the most of small pockets of time.
— What I should stop doing or deprioritise to make space for this.
A few things to keep in mind
— This plan should fit around my real life, not an idealised version of it.
— Early actions should generate learning and momentum, not just feel productive.
— If I'm trying to do too much at once, cut it down — a shorter plan I'll follow beats a longer one I won't.
— Flag clearly which actions are dependent on others so I can see the critical path.
— Before we finish, ask me: "What on this plan are you already thinking of as optional?" That's probably where we need to start.
