What are the Best Prompts for Outlining Business Plan on ChatGPT?

The Best prompts for outlining business plan on ChatGPT will help you optimally use the artificial intelligence (AI) to draw up an effective plan for your business growth.

In this Innocams blog post I’ll discuss what a good business plan looks like and what should be the best prompts to get the best business plan outline from ChatGPT.

Let’s roll..

What is a Prompt in ChatGPT?

A prompt in ChatGPT context is a question or instruction you ask or give this AI chatbot to get a response from it. 

For example, you can ask (type in the dialogue box) ‘What is a blog post?’ The chatbot will give you a detailed answer. 

Your question was the trigger that prompted the machine to come out with an appropriate answer and this question was a prompt. Clear?

Okay, we’ll now take a quick look at how a chatbot like ChatGPT works. It will help us identify the Best prompts for outlining business plan on ChatGPT.

How ChatGPT Works

AI assistants or chatbots primarily utilise a special type of AI namely generative AI. 

This technique helps ChatGPT gather appropriate information from the Internet against each prompt as per instructions it was given during its development process.

These instructions are called training data. This is the grammar a chatbot follows in to-to to produce appropriate responses.

Generative Pre-Trained Transformer

The GPT in ChatGPT stands for Generative Pre-Trained Transformer. 

This is a generative AI model that uses a special algorithm based on an AI model called large language model (LLM).

There are many details and subsets of this AI model but for our present discussion they are not essential.

Simply put, this large language model provides ChatGPT with a kind of artificial neural network that helps it ‘think’ and ‘act’ like a human brain and improve its efficiency itself, without much human interference.

It also helps the chatbot to understand the intent of a prompt, analyse its training data to ascertain how to get you the best answer, scour the Internet and bring you the most appropriate response against your prompt.

What is a Business Plan

This discussion is important in that it will help us decide what should be the best prompts for outlining business plan on ChatGPT.

Definition of a Business Plan

A business plan is a written document that outlines the strategies a company will use to meet its business objectives.

Elements in a Business Plan

A business plan usually has the following elements:

Executive Summary

This section provides an introduction to the company that includes its leadership, location, employees, mission and vision statements.

Product and Service

This section deals with the details of product or service the company wants to offer, including production details, types of machineries, unique selling points, research and development and product lifespan.

Market Analysis

The best prompts for outlining business plans on ChatGPT will provide in this element a market analysis including the market potential of its product or service, the competition, how it plans to market its offerings, how it will beat competition etc.

Financial Plans

This section deals with the financial projections, estimations etc. Any funding appeal should also be included in this section, if any.

Crafting Best Prompts For Outlining Business Plan on ChatGPT

One thing you must understand, despite the fancy technical terms like ‘artificial neural network’, GPT. LLM and et al, ChatGPT cannot think and act like human brains.

It has some set rules (training data) it must abide by. It cannot break rules or create new rules. Not yet. 

So your prompts must help it give you an appropriate answer while following the training data guidelines.

Vague prompts will get vague responses from even a human being, let aside a machine. So the first principle:

Call a Spade a Spade

While identifying the Best prompts for outlining business plan on ChatGPT, always be specific in your prompts.

The more specific your prompts are, the easier it would be for a chatbot to provide you with the best answers.

When you ask ChatGPT a question, it first checks out its training data to understand the intention of your question. 

It then decides where and what to look for on the information superhighway to give you the best answer. 

It then collects data, compiles them into a coherent answer and gives it to you.

A complicated job. 

You’ll make it even more complicated if you ask vague questions.

Suppose you are planning to start a garment business. ‘Give me a business plan outline for a garment business’ will elicit a response containing lots of unnecessary information.

Ask instead, give me a business plan outline for a garment business in New York. It will produce a more focused response.  

Use Formal Tone and Structure in Prompts

ChatGPT often gives various answers to the same prompts used by different persons. This happens largely due to the diction, tone and structure of the prompt.

A prompt that has informal diction, construction and tone will probably elicit an informal and somewhat shallow response from the chatbot. 

On the other hand, a question structured in formal words, phrases and style is likely to produce a more substantial and in-depth formal response.

A business plan outline is a serious business. So a formal tone, diction and structure in prompts should produce better responses.

Divide your Prompts into Small Chunks

It has also been seen that instead of asking ChatGPT for a whole business plan outline, it is better to divide your question into small chunks and ask them one by one. 

So the best way to get the best prompts for outlining business plan on ChatGPT should be 1. worded and structured formally and 2. divided into chunks like executive summary, financial plan etc.

The best way is to get a general response and then divide that response into small chunks and ask pointed questions.

Provide Context and Background

You should provide context and background in your prompts. This will help ChatGPT give you a clearer and appropriate answer.

For example, if yours is a garment startup based in New York, giving the location, name of the leaders, employee strength and the type of garments will produce a more specific executive summary on ChatGPT.

Give ChatGPT a Personality

ChatGPT is a machine and it seems unhappy about it. 

Allow it to think that it is a human being, it will thank you through a detailed and comprehensive response.

For example, you can say, ‘You are the CEO of a new garment startup in New York that has 10 employees, 20,000 USD working capital and Mr X as your company’s owner. What should be your business plan outline?”

You will be amazed how happy ChatGPT feels when such statements prompt it into action.

Applying the Insight to Practical Use

All right. We now know the elements in a business plan outline. We have also learned how to craft the best prompts for outlining business plan on ChatGPT.

Now let’s put these theories to practice. 

We’ll take each element in a business plan one by one and apply our theories to get the best prompt for each of them.

Remember two things, this post is dealing with new businesses. An established business will need different prompts.

You want to start a garment business dealing in garments for kids in New York, USA. Now let hit ChatGPT for an outline of your business plan with the following prompts:

Example of Best Prompt for executive summary

Tell ChatGPT: 

“You are the best strategic business planner for startups. I want you to give me an executive summary of a business plan outline for a garment startup specialising in kids’ apparels in New York.

Your response should include a mission statement, vision statement, leadership and product overview.”

Example of Best Prompt for Product and Service

Next item in our best prompts for outlining business plan on ChatGPT is the product and service section of the business plan outline.

Tell ChatGPT: 

“You are a master financial strategist for startups. Outline an effective product and service plan for a kids’ garment startup in New York as part of its business plan outline. 

Your response should address product details, product life span, product USP and market potential,”

Example of Best Prompt for Market Analysis

Tell ChatGPT:

“You are an ace marketing strategist of international repute. Draw a market analysis as part of a business plan outline for a kids’ garment startup based in New York.

Your response must include competition, competitor analysis, marketing strategies to tap maximum market potential and detailed advertisement strategies.”

Example of Best Prompt for Financial Plan

Finally, we need a financial plan as part of the best prompts for outlining business plan on ChatGPT.

Tell Chat GPT:

“You are a genius financial strategist specialising in kids garment startups. Draw a financial plan as part of a business plan outline for a kids’ garment startup in New York. 

Your plan should include working capital, expenditure, revenue projection for the next five years and appeal for fundings.

Why Should You Use ChatGPT for Business Plan Outlines

ChatGPT is an AI-powered assistant with access to an unimaginably large data and speed and efficiency of a digital system.

These abilities of this AI assistant are often misused by immoral persons who use it to paraphrase copyrighted material and pass it off as their own. 

But in some cases, like this one, its use is very well justified because–

• You are not stealing anyone’s intellectual properties. Data on business plans are usually in public domain and not copyrighted.
• It can save you a lot of time by analysing vast amounts of data and producing an effective business plan outline within seconds.
• Since it has the precision of a digital system, its analysis and projection will be based on information from multiple sources and give you a compact and comprehensive plan.
• It will let you fine-tune your plan by offering editing tools like spell and grammar checkers.
• It can remember your last session and you can start where you left off without losing the flow or continuity of your business plan outlining.

Cons of Prompting ChatGPT for Business Plan Outlines

However, you should be always on your guard while using this AI assistant to formulate a business plan outline for your startup. The reasons for this are discussed below.

It May Not be Accurate

AI is a new concept and not well developed yet. While ChatGPT can give you a decent business plan outline, its responses may be incorrect and biased due to the faults in its training data.

So even the best prompts for outlining business plan on ChatGPT may elicit responses containing incorrect information.

It May Not be Valid Always

Business environment and industry situation change rapidly and AI-powered chatbots like ChatGPT may not keep up with the changes. 

As a result, chatbots may give you plans based on outdated information that may not have validity when you take the plan to the execution stage.

It May Provide Incoherent Plan Structure

Since ChatGPT is a machine, it doesn’t have the logical thinking ability of a human being. 

Therefore its business plan outline may highlight unnecessary elements while neglecting crucial ones in its structure.

Conclusion

The best prompts for outlining business plan on ChatGPT must be specific and must be in a formal tone. 

They should also hint at the context and background of the proposed business and address the AI assistant as if it is a human being.

But you must not take whatever it produces as gospel as ChatGPT often produces invalid, incorrect and incoherent business plan outlines.

FAQs.