The reusable ask
- You are helping a Central Alberta [business type].
- Job: [post / email / reply / handout].
- Facts you may use: [only true notes].
- Voice: [plain / warm / firm]. Length: [words].
- Do not invent hours, prices, towns, reviews, or promises.
Student resources · cheatsheet
Keep this beside the keyboard.
Prompts, context packing, and what to do when the chat goes long or the AI is wrong. Print it. Tape it. Ignore the rest of the internet.
Small Business AI Workshop
Take-home cheatsheet
Pack the context
- Give the job, the facts, the voice, and the “do not” in the same ask.
- Paste only what you would put on a postcard — hours, a true special, what you already said.
- If the helper cannot see your shop, say the town, the service, and what happens next.
- A short true list beats a long brand story.
When it gets fluffy
- Cut the slogans. Use only the facts I gave.
- Give me two versions: 80 words and 30 words.
- No emojis, no fake urgency, no “limited time” unless I wrote it.
When the chat is long or the AI is wrong
- Stop the tired thread. Write a short handover.md (template below).
- Open a new chat. Paste the handover, then say what you want next.
- Do not keep arguing. A clean start is cheaper than another fluffy paragraph.
handover.md template
- # Handover
- Job: [the thing I still need]
- Facts you may use: [only true notes]
- What I already tried: [one or two lines]
- What went wrong: [invented a sale / too fluffy / wrong town]
- Do not: [hours, prices, towns, promises I did not write]
- Next: [one short version / a review against these facts]
Be direct when it is not working
- Say so: “This is wrong. Use only the facts I gave. Cut the slogans.”
- Name the miss. Ask for one short version, not a new essay.
- If it invents a detail, throw that line out. Do not negotiate with a made-up special.
Ask it to review — or ask a fresh window
- Ask the same chat to review its own work against your facts and the “do not.”
- Or ask for a summary, open a new window, and ask that chat to review the work.
- You still decide what goes out.
Do
- First draft of a post from a photo caption.
- Shorten a quote follow-up you already wrote.
- Turn spoken aftercare into a one-screen note.
- Suggest three subject lines — you pick one.
Don’t
- Set prices, hire, or fire.
- Diagnose, give legal advice, or promise a date.
- Book the calendar without you.
- Paste private customer files or payment details.
Sales scripts you can reuse
- After-hours: “Thanks — we are with customers. Tell us what you need and the best number. We will reply during [hours].”
- Quote follow-up: repeat the scope in plain words, then the next step. You add the price.
- Review reply: thank them for the specific thing they named. If something went wrong, take it off the public thread.
- Reminder: time, one true instruction, how to change. No guilt. No invented coupon.
Protect checklist
- Paste only what you would put on a postcard.
- No customer files, card numbers, staff SIN, medical notes, or other people’s private arguments.
- A first name and a situation is usually enough for a draft.
- If a sentence would look wrong in your window, it does not go out.