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Most business owners I talk to have the same problem.
They're not short on revenue ideas. They're short on hours.
Their week disappears into Slack threads, follow-ups, half-built SOPs, and 47-tab Chrome graveyards. The business runs them, not the other way around.
So I pulled 5 Claude prompts I keep coming back to. Each one replaces a task you're probably doing manually right now. Copy them, swap the brackets for your context, and watch the hours come back.
Quick note: these are written for Claude (Sonnet 4.5 or Opus). They lean on Claude's longer reasoning and structured output. Paste them into a fresh chat for best results.
1 ▸ The SOP Extractor
Use when: You've done a task 50 times but never written it down. New hire is asking how it works.
"You are an operations consultant documenting a standard operating procedure. I'm going to describe a task I do regularly in my business. Your job is to convert it into a clean SOP that a new hire could follow on day one.
Here's the task: [describe in plain English, including tools used, decisions you make along the way, and what 'done' looks like].
Output the SOP in this structure: • Purpose (1 sentence) • Tools required • Inputs needed before starting • Step-by-step instructions (numbered, action verbs) • Decision points (if/then logic for edge cases) • Definition of done • Common mistakes to avoid
Ask me up to 5 clarifying questions before writing the SOP if anything is ambiguous."
2 ▸ The Bottleneck Diagnostic
Use when: Revenue is flat or your team feels stuck and you can't pinpoint why.
"You are a fractional COO with 15 years of experience scaling service businesses from $1M to $10M. I'm going to describe how my business currently runs. Your job is to identify the single biggest operational bottleneck.
Here's the context: • What we sell: [offer] • Monthly revenue: [$] • Team size and roles: [list] • The full customer journey from first touch to delivery: [walk through it] • Where things most often slow down or break: [your gut answer]
Do not give me a list of 10 things to fix. Identify the ONE bottleneck that, if removed, would unlock the most growth in the next 90 days. Explain your reasoning. Then give me a 3-step plan to remove it, with the first step being something I can do this week."
3 ▸ The Hiring Scorecard Builder
Use when: You're about to hire and you know last time you hired on vibes.
"You are an executive recruiter who specialises in placing operators into small business roles. I need a hiring scorecard for a role I'm about to open.
Role: [title] What this person will own: [outcomes, not tasks] What success looks like in 90 days: [be specific] What success looks like in 12 months: [be specific]
Build me a scorecard with: • 3 to 5 outcomes the hire must deliver (measurable) • 5 to 7 competencies required to hit those outcomes • Red flags to screen out in the first interview • 8 interview questions designed to test for the competencies above, with what a strong vs weak answer sounds like for each
Be ruthless. I'd rather miss a good candidate than hire the wrong one."
4 ▸ The Weekly Review Partner
Use when: Sunday night, you know you should review the week, you never do.
"You are my chief of staff. Every Sunday I'll paste in the past week's wins, losses, and open loops. Your job is to run a structured weekly review with me.
This week: Wins: [list] Losses or things that didn't move: [list] Open loops or unfinished decisions: [list] Next week's priorities as I see them: [list]
Give me back: • One pattern you notice across the wins • One pattern you notice across the losses • The single most important thing I'm avoiding (be direct, I can take it) • A re-prioritised list for next week with no more than 3 priorities, ranked • One question I should be sitting with this week
Don't be polite. Be useful."
5 ▸ The Process Audit
Use when: You suspect a workflow has dead weight in it but you can't see it clearly.
"You are a Lean operations expert. I'm going to walk you through a process in my business step by step. Your job is to audit it for waste.
The process: [name it] Why it exists: [outcome] Current steps, in order: [list every step, including handoffs, approvals, tools, waiting periods] Approximate time each step takes: [time per step] Who does each step: [role]
Audit the process using these waste categories: unnecessary steps, redundant approvals, manual work that should be automated, handoffs that lose context, and waiting time.
Output: • Each waste you found, with the specific step it lives in • Estimated time saved per week if removed • The redesigned process, leaner, with the same or better output • Which steps to keep human and which to automate or remove"
How to actually use these:
Don't just paste and pray. Spend 60 seconds filling in the brackets properly. The quality of your output is downstream of the quality of your inputs. Vague context in, vague answer out.
Run one this week. Pick the one that matches the part of your business that's hurting most.
Stay sharp.