How to Use ChatGPT to Start a Business

Key takeaways

ChatGPT is a useful tool for starting a business, from identifying a niche and brainstorming ideas to automating your processes. 

• According to a study, nearly 60 percent of small businesses were using generative AI (GenAI) tools such as ChatGPT during 2025, which is a 20 percent increase from the year before [1].

• In the initial stages of business development, ChatGPT can save you time, money, and resources.

• You can use ChatGPT prompts to generate ideas, create marketing materials, and automate processes.

Learn how to use ChatGPT to start a business and the importance of mastering prompt writing. Afterward, consider enrolling in the Google Prompting Essentials Specialization. You’ll have the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of AI prompting and how to create actionable steps and strategies that you can apply to personal development goals. Upon completion of the course, you’ll earn a career certificate from Google.

How to use ChatGPT to start a business

You can use ChatGPT to brainstorm business ideas and strategies, perform market research, support business planning, build your brand and workflows, and scale your business. ChatGPT can be a helpful partner across all stages of business development, and many companies already use it in some capacity. According to a 2025 US Chamber of Commerce report, Empowering Small Business: The Impact of Technology on US Small Business, 58 percent of small businesses used generative AI tools such as ChatGPT in 2025, marking a 20 percent increase in usage from 2024 [1].Â

To begin building your business, it's essential to use effective prompts to take you from ideation to marketing strategy development and beyond. ChatGPT can save you time and money and help you navigate areas of business you might previously have had to outsource or hire experts for.

Step one: Brainstorm business ideas and find your niche

The first stage of setting up your business involves deciding what you want to do. Your idea is the key to moving on to market research and business planning. You may already have an idea, or you can use technology to generate a few options based on your interests. ChatGPT can help you come up with potentially profitable ideas that meet a demand and serve a sufficiently specific market segment to consider a niche.

Specificity is key when asking ChatGPT for ideas, because the response you get depends on the information you provide. Feed it information such as your target audience, industry, budget, and anything else that you know at this stage that is relevant to making your business idea feasible. The more specific you are, the more ChatGPT can tailor answers to your business.

Example prompts

1. Help me come up with business ideas to support cafes and restaurants in producing less waste. My target audience is small-business owners on limited budgets in Upstate New York.

2. Generate 10 low-startup-cost businesses using ChatGPT automation that can be implemented remotely. 

3. Identify five business ideas that would allow me to leverage my background in project management and marketing. 

Step two: Perform market research and validation

ChatGPT can also support your market research and idea validation. Traditionally, market research can be a lengthy process, often taking weeks or even months to complete. With generative AI, you can save time and resources, accomplishing your goal in a fraction of the time. Ask ChatGPT to research buyer trends in your field or any shifts in buyer behavior, identify competitor sales campaigns, and even explore media coverage. 

To engage directly with your audience, you can ask ChatGPT to design market research surveys and to list relevant people to approach in your area. Keep in mind that you may need to ask follow-up questions to build on the initial prompt. You may also need to verify information independently using survey data or social listening, or ask ChatGPT to simplify the results.

Example prompts

1. Build a survey for small hospitality business owners that collects and collates insights on waste disposal, attitudes toward waste, and the cost of waste disposal.

2. List competitors in the online retail space selling handmade products.

3. Summarize customer pain points for small coffee shops in downtown areas.

Step three: Use ChatGPT for business planning and strategy development

Business planning and strategy development are key parts of creating and growing a successful business. The processes you put in place will depend on your business offering, and while it's important that you take the lead on this, ChatGPT can be an excellent tool for planning, setting goals, and researching what has worked in the past. Your business strategy may include elements such as your core values, competitive opportunities in your industry, and your business's strengths.

Example prompts

1. Create a company waste strategy based on our objective to support small hospitality businesses to reduce waste and our mission to become an environmentally sustainable business on a small budget.

2. Help me create a summary for the first page of my business plan that aligns with my start-up. The company name is [business name], and the vision is [company vision]. I am using a [name of financial modeling] financial model and intend to target [customer demographics]. 

Step four: Build and market your brand

Branding and marketing are often areas that require specialist services. However, ChatGPT can help you with this to an extent. You may use ChatGPT to aid you in:

• Brainstorming marketing ideas

• Writing marketing copy

• Designing a business logo

• Writing taglines and slogans

• Writing an email marketing funnel

• A/B testing

Example prompt

1. Write an engaging email header that includes [target keyword] and copy that centers on businesses saving money by reducing waste. Keep the header to no more than 12 words, the email to 500 words or less, and include a soft sell at the end that features our product.

2. I want to create a marketing slogan for a new product with a target audience of [customer demographics. It is [Product name and description]. Can you provide five slogan ideas and 10 engaging taglines to use in marketing copy and emails? 

Step five: Build business workflows

Building and improving workflows is another way to use ChatGPT. As long as you feed it relevant knowledge and instructions through effective prompts, ChatGPT can aid you by creating templates and steps to use as a starting point.

Example prompts

1. Create a spreadsheet detailing all business processes, with columns for who is responsible, how often they use the process, and how it can integrate with similar processes.

2. Design a social media marketing strategy focused on coffee, with a soft sell to [product name and description].

Step six: Leverage ChatGPT for automation, operations, and scaling

To scale your business, implementing, streamlining, and automating processes are key, and generative AI is particularly helpful in this area. You can give ChatGPT information about business operations and ask it to perform a SWOT analysis(identifying potential strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) providing you with ideas to improve efficiency or reduce costs [2]. You can also use ChatGPT to automate different systems, such as workflows and daily communications, to scale a business quickly. 

Example prompts

1. Perform a SWOT analysis on the production side of the business, and provide a list of ways to save money.

2. I spend about 75 percent of my time on [work activity(s)] and want to free up [X] hours to focus on [scaling activity]. Can you suggest ways I might incorporate automation into my workflows to save time, and give me an estimate of the time I could save by automating each? 

Read more: What Is Prompt Engineering?

Can you use ChatGPT to create a business?

Yes, you can leverage ChatGPT to help you start a business. It helps to think of it as a tool or assistant of sorts that can help you 24/7 with everything from brainstorming business ideas and finding your niche to performing market research and creating marketing materials. You can also use it to help with scaling your business once you’re ready to grow.

Types of businesses to consider starting with ChatGPT

If you’re creative, you’ll find unlimited ideas for businesses ChatGPT can help you create, but remember that ChatGPT is only a tool to aid the skills and knowledge you already have. If you’re going to set up a business with ChatGPT’s help, make sure you choose an area you know well and have some expertise in. 

Then, use ChatGPT to help you with the parts that you are less skilled in. ChatGPT cannot create a business in its entirety, nor can it replace your own critical thinking and creativity. Instead, think of it as an assistant to help you manage the start-up and expansion of your business.

• Content-based businesses: Use ChatGPT to create content such as blogs, newsletters, and AI-assisted writing services. ChatGPT can generate the basics, but you will need to edit it and ensure it uses reliable sources and statistics. 

• Service businesses: Build a service-based business such as consulting, social media management, translation, or tutoring. These types of businesses rely on your knowledge and skills to deliver a service, with ChatGPT creating processes to help you.

• E-commerce and digital product businesses: You might create online stores, courses, guides, and templates to sell. ChatGPT can help create online stores, outline courses, automate payments, and manage an abandoned cart system.

• Tech and AI-powered tools: If you’re very technical and understand AI to an advanced level, you can use it to create and sell AI-powered tools such as chatbots, automation services, and apps.

How can ChatGPT help you create a business plan?

You can use ChatGPT to help you create a business plan using a series of prompts that build on each other:

• Explain that you want ChatGPT to create a business plan by giving an overview of the business’s mission and objectives.

• Ask ChatGPT to create an executive summary.

• Use ChatGPT to create a survey for market research.

• Create a marketing strategy using ChatGPT.

• Use ChatGPT to work out budgets and costs.

• Produce a business timeline with the help of ChatGPT.

Understanding what ChatGPT can and cannot do for entrepreneurs

While ChatGPT is effective at helping entrepreneurs set up businesses quickly, with fewer resources and less reliance on external services, it's important to remember that generative AI is a tool. Using AI alone won't result in a profitable, authentic business. To be successful, ChatGPT must complement your existing skills, knowledge, and experience and support you, rather than do everything for you. It's really more of a 24/7 assistant than a do-it-all solution. 

Key features and benefits of ChatGPT for business start-ups

The key features and benefits that ChatGPT offers all relate to efficiency. According to a 2025 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, more than 40 percent of surveyed employees who use generative AI saved three to four hours per week of work time [3]. Think of what you could accomplish by freeing up that amount of time.

ChatGPT is an excellent tool for streamlining processes and optimizing efficiency, allowing employees to focus on more “human,” high-value tasks, like providing personalized customer service, strategizing, and working on innovation. Whether you are using ChatGPT for customer engagement, marketing copy development, bookkeeping, or business report generation, it frees you up for other tasks and supports you in the tasks you undertake. Seeing ChatGPT as a tool, rather than a replacement, is key.

Common ChatGPT challenges and solutions

ChatGPT has impacted the business landscape significantly since its release, particularly for entrepreneurs. Still, it does pose challenges and limitations that require a combination of awareness and a human touch to overcome.

Explore free resources to learn how to use ChatGPT for business development

Subscribe to Career Chat, our weekly LinkedIn newsletter for updates on skills, tools, and certifications to aid your personal and professional development. Then, consider checking out some of these free resources:

• Learn AI vocab: Artificial Intelligence Glossary: Learn AI Vocabulary 

• Watch on YouTube: How to Use ChatGPT (Beginner to Power User)

• Hear from a pro: Future-Proofing Your Business Strategy with GenAI

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