Start using AI
the right way

Pick one AI tool and set it up properly

Pick one and stay with it for the week. ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini are all capable. The settings matter more than the brand.

Choosing

• If your company already runs on Microsoft 365, check whether Copilot Chat is already included with your accounts. For a lot of businesses it is.
• If more than one person will use it, look at the business or team plan. The major AI companies don’t use business and team accounts to train their models by default.
• If you’re starting on a personal account, that’s fine for this week. Just do the next step before you type anything about your business.

Turn off training on your chats

On personal accounts, most AI tools are allowed to use your conversations to improve their models unless you turn that off. Open Settings, look under Data Controls or Privacy, and turn off the option that lets your chats be used to improve or train the model. The exact wording differs by app and changes now and then, so if you can’t find it, search the tool’s help pages for “data controls.”

Decide what never gets pasted in

Even with training turned off, these don’t belong in a chat window:

• Passwords, login codes and anything from your password manager
• Bank account, routing and card numbers
• Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers and tax IDs for employees or customers
• Payroll, medical or disciplinary details about anyone on your crew
• Anything a customer or GC gave you under a confidentiality agreement

Names, job addresses, scopes of work and your own pricing are usually fine to use on a business account. When you’re unsure, swap the real name for “the homeowner” and the address for “the Lebanon job.” The AI does just as well.

Brief it like a new hire on their first day

You wouldn’t hand a new office admin a sticky note that says “write a follow-up.” They’d ask who it’s for, what happened, and how you like things written. AI needs the same answers and won’t ask unless you tell it to.

I own a small deck and fence company in Albany, Oregon. A week ago I sent a homeowner in Lebanon an estimate for a 400 square foot composite deck and haven't heard back. Write a short follow-up email from me. Friendly, not pushy, under 100 words. Mention that our spring schedule is filling up and offer a 15 minute call to go over material options.

The four things every request needs

1. Who you are and what kind of business you run.
2. What you need it to make: an email, a list, a schedule, a summary.
3. What’s going on: the job, the customer, what already happened.
4. What finished looks like: how long, what tone, what to include or leave out.

Make it ask you questions first

For anything bigger than an email, end your request with:

Before you write anything, ask me any questions you need answered to do this well.

It’ll ask things you hadn’t thought of. Answer them and the first draft is usually close.

Then push back on it

Tell it what’s wrong in plain words, like “Too formal. Make it sound like I’m talking to them in their driveway.” It adjusts as many times as you need.

Build a small folder of notes about your business

Yesterday you typed out who you are and what you do. Today you write it down once, in a file, so you never type it again.

What a .md file is

A file ending in .md is a Markdown file. It’s plain text with a couple of simple marks: a line starting with # is a heading, and a line starting with a dash is a bullet. It opens in Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on a Mac. Every AI tool reads it cleanly, and it’ll still open in twenty years.

Why it matters

Your business notes live on your computer, in a folder you own, and they don’t belong to any AI company. Attach the same file to ChatGPT today and Copilot next year and you get the same head start in both. This is the same idea we build for businesses at a bigger scale: keep what the AI needs to know in one place you control, and let the AI on top change.

The folder

Documents/
  AI Notes/
    00-about-my-business.md      who you are, where you work, how you talk
    01-how-we-write.md           three real emails that sound like you
    02-services-and-pricing.md   what you sell and how you price it
    03-customers-we-want.md      the jobs you want more of, and the ones you turn down
    prompts/
      estimate-follow-up.md
      job-recap.md
      review-reply.md
    jobs/
      2026-lebanon-deck/
        notes.md                 scope, changes, what was promised

The numbers at the front keep the main files in order. Start with 00 today and fill in the others over the next few weeks. Every one of these files is at the bottom of this page, ready to copy or save.

Keep the folder somewhere that’s backed up, like OneDrive or Google Drive. Day 1’s never-paste list applies here too.

Making the file

The quickest way: make a folder called AI Notes in your Documents, then press Save as .md file on the template below and move the file into that folder. Open it in Notepad or TextEdit and fill it in.

To make one by hand instead:

• Windows: open Notepad, type your notes, choose File, then Save As. Set “Save as type” to All files and name it 00-about-my-business.md.
• Mac: open TextEdit, choose Format, then Make Plain Text. Save it as 00-about-my-business.md, and when it asks, choose Use .md.

What goes in the first file

Fill in what you can in fifteen minutes. A half-finished file still beats starting every chat from nothing.

# About my business

## Who we are
- Company name:
- What we do:
- Where we work: (towns, how far we drive)
- Size: (owner, office, field crews)
- License: (CCB number, insurance)

## Who we work for
- Typical customer:
- Jobs we want more of:
- Jobs we turn down, and why:

## How we talk
- Tone: (plain, friendly, formal?)
- Phrases we use:
- Phrases we never use:

## Things the AI should always know
- Payment terms:
- Our busy season:
- How far out we're booking:

Using it

Start a new chat, attach the file with the paperclip or plus button, then ask your question. You’ll see the difference in the first answer.

Most tools also have a Projects feature that loads your notes into every chat. Use it, but keep the master copy in your folder and update it there first.

Save the prompts that work, and check what it gives you

When a request gets you a good result, don’t let it disappear into your chat history. Save it in the prompts folder with blanks where the details change.

The job-recap.md template turns a voice memo from the job site into an update for the customer:

# Job recap for the customer

Here's a transcript of my voice memo from the [job name] job today.
Turn it into a short update for [customer name].

- What got done today
- What's happening next, and when
- Anything we need from them (decisions, access, payments)

Keep it under 120 words. Plain and friendly.
Don't add anything I didn't say. If something is unclear, ask me.

[paste transcript here]

Record the memo on your phone on the drive home, paste the transcript in, and the update is ready to send. The line about not adding anything matters. It tells the AI to ask instead of filling gaps on its own.

Check everything it gives you

Before anything goes to a customer, read it line by line and check:

• Numbers: prices, quantities, square footage, dates, times
• Names: people, streets, products, suppliers
• Anything about code, permits, law or taxes. Look those up yourself.
• Promises: make sure it didn’t commit you to a date or a price you never gave it

Hand off one weekly task

Pick one thing you do every week that follows the same pattern, and that you’d check before it goes out anyway. That’s your first real handoff.

Good first tasks

• A Friday recap of every open job, written from your notes and voice memos
• Follow-ups on estimates that went out more than a week ago
• Replies to Google reviews, good and bad
• Turning meeting or site-walk notes into a to-do list with names on it
• A first draft of a job posting when you’re hiring

Save the prompt and put a reminder on your calendar for the same time every week. After a month you’ll know what it saves you.

Signs you’ve outgrown copy and paste

Everything in this guide runs on you carrying information to the AI by hand. These are the signs it’s time for more:

• You export the same report from your accounting or scheduling software every week just to paste it in.
• You want to ask “who still owes us money?” and get an answer from your real books instead of a guess.
• Three people in the office are using three different AI tools, with no rules about what goes in them.
• You want the AI to draft the reminders and queue them up for your OK, not just help with the wording.

That’s the point where the AI needs a real connection to your systems, with rules about what it can see and what it can do. It’s the work we do in our AI and Automation service. We connect your accounting, scheduling, email and phones to one backbone we build and host, any AI model plugs into it, and nothing sends, pays or deletes without a person approving it. Your AI Notes folder carries straight over.