
Episode Summary In this solo episode, Cary Weston dives into how small business owners and entrepreneurs can use ChatGPT to start or grow a business. Speaking from behind the wheel en route to another marketing workshop, Cary outlines five specific...
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Kerry Weston
Hey there. Welcome to the Chat GPT Experiment, a podcast designed to help you better understand just what ChatGPT is, what features and functions it may have in store, and how you can get some value out of it, either for your personal or professional needs. My name is Kerry Weston. I'm your host. Welcome. I'm glad you're here. First time visitors. Thanks for joining the community. I'm on the road again and if you've listened to the show before, you know that I like to make best use of my windshield time. And I'm on the. I'm on the road headed to another ChatGPT for marketing workshop. So I thought I'd talk to you a little bit. But first I have a favor. I have a survey that I've put together. It's right on the homepage of the website. And the website is chatgptexperiment.com I have a question for you. I want to know what you are interested in. I want to know how I can add value and create some topics, discussions and guests that will best serve you from a value point of view. And I don't want to. Yes, I'd love to have your input. In fact, I'd love to diversify even from ChatGPT itself into other tools that you may be interested, that you may be using, that you want to know more about. I also want to know situations, problems, scenarios. What are some of the things that you're thinking about? What are some of the things you'd like to do? This all helps me mold the next round of interviews, topics, episodes, where the show goes in general. And the feedback that you give me is going to help me plan that out. It's going to help me plan that out based on what you want to know, what you want to hear and what you want to learn about. So I know that the last thing you want to do is fill out another survey. So I've got a hundred dollar Amazon gift card that's going to go to someone that fills this out. It's a thank you. Yes, it's an incentive, but it's a thank you. And I want to share with you that the only reason I'm asking for this information is to truly get a sense of what it is that you're curious about, what you're looking to do, what you want to do, what you want to hear about so I can make the show as valuable and meaningful to you. Okay, so the website is chat GPT experiment.com and right there on the homepage you're going to see a survey link. And that survey is pretty painless. Not too many questions. And all the information is going to go to me. It's not going anywhere else. And again, your input allows me to know where I take the show, what I can model, what I can talk about, who I can bring on for guests, and how I can expand what we're talking about to make it more meaningful to you. $100 gift card is the thank you. I'll take all of the folks that put their entry and information into the survey and pick a name and I'll announce it there in a couple weeks. So chatgpt experiment.com. i really, really would appreciate your input and you sharing your information. Okay. Hey, how did you like last week's episode with Mike and Paige? I've known them for a while, Great, great people. And it's been really interesting to watch them from a business point of view tackle some challenges both with and without ChatGPT and then to see how their approach changes when they take what they've been doing without ChatGPT and use it to model and use it effectively. And you could. And you could hear some of the results that were coming through their marketing campaigns, their paid social campaigns, three or four times more productive, more profitable, you know, the. The ability for them to target with messaging that's resonating with their audience. One of the things that, you know, there's only so much time in an interview, but one of the things that Mike shared with me offline is the way in which he's been able to use ChatGPT to communicate to employees and either tackle situations or just learn how to communicate to different personality styles. Communication styles. You may have heard me talk about this on previous episodes. I'm a fan of using tools like the DISC profile or the Myers Briggs Assessment to kind of better understand how people need to receive information, how they share information, how they process information, and with that, you can learn how to deliver. And he's been using, again, both with and without ChatGPT, his experience to try and connect and communicate with his employees as well as, as you heard, clients. And so good. I hope you got something out of that. Today's episode, I get asked a lot, if you were to start a business, what would you use ChatGPT for if you were starting over? And I know that there are entrepreneurs out there. I know there are folks that don't categorize themselves as entrepreneurs, but maybe you have a business idea. Maybe there are folks here that want to start something up. And so the advice I want to give you Today, I have five things that the next business that starts using ChatGPT, I think could think about use the tool effectively. So if you are thinking about starting a business, planning for a business, trying to model that out in your head, this episode is for you. It's the ability for you to have somebody at the table, a guide, a strategist, a consultant, if you will, that can help open the doors to some topics you might not know about and give you some guidance. Okay, so the five things that I think entrepreneurs should think about, and there's going to be nuggets here for business people in particular. But this is a startup, small business, solopreneur, entrepreneur type focus. Because I want to share what I've seen, learned and done with others, including myself. That can help you expedite some of the issues, some of the needs, and some of the things that get in the way of being successful. I can share with you just as quick background. I've probably helped dozens of companies go through this process. And as an agency, by the way, you know, there are four and five figure engagements that come from doing this kind of work, right? And the thought that right now, at this day and age, you've got the ability in your pocket or on your computer or wherever you might be using ChatGPT to have that expertise, to have that resource, and to have the ability of organizing, thinking, strategizing, planning, getting advice in a helpful way, just like that, right at its beck and call, you just ask. It is really, really a convenience and a luxury, I would say, that many folks wish they had earlier. But if you're at the phase of thinking about starting and planning a business, please just think for a second how useful this can be. Okay, so five different things that I would share with you if I were to start a business tomorrow or think about starting a business tomorrow. Here's five specific ways that I would use ChatGPT to be at my very best. Okay, so the first one is research and trends. And I'd done this. I'm using the landscape business, landscaping business, as a model and research and trends. I don't know anything about it. I mow lawns and I shovel and all that, but I don't know anything about the business side of it.
Podcast Guest
Right?
Kerry Weston
And so one of the things that I did in preparation for this conversation was using ChatGPT, experimenting with it. And I said, listen, I am thinking about starting a landscaping business, a landscape service business. I live in Maine and I think that's important for you to know. I live in Maine and I want to know what types of businesses, what types of services, what's happening right now that I should know about to help me better understand what this business would look like. Okay, and could you help me? And then I always say, listen, could you ask me any questions that will help you get as much information as possible so you can do your best work? A couple things I want to break down there, as I'm asking it to do, research as I'm asking it to do, planning as I'm asking it to go and give me some information. I want to make sure that I did a couple things and I think you heard me say this. I'm in Maine, so if I didn't say that, I hope it would come back and ask me geography. But because I presented it to them, they didn't have to. Geography is important for a business of this type anyway. Yeah. So that's an element that it needs to know. Second is at the end, I said I want you to ask me questions so you can best understand what I'm looking to do. So the information that you give me will be your best work. And as we research, we don't want to take for granted, we don't want to take into consideration that it knows what we're thinking or it knows what we need, okay? So we're giving it permission to talk to us. We're giving it permission to ask us questions, clarifying questions, additional information questions. We're giving it permission to work with us so that it can do its best work. Okay? And so that's the first step, is to give it some proper background and tell it what your goals are. You're trying to understand the business, you're trying to understand the types of businesses, and you're just trying to understand what the landscape looks like so you can find out if this is the type of work you want to get into. You know, what's interesting here is, as an aside, even if you have an established business, this is worth doing. And the bigger picture, the objective picture of knowing what's happening around you, thinking about things to add to your business.
Podcast Guest
Right?
Kerry Weston
These are, these are always good brainstorming, objective big picture exercises that can help a business of any size. But if I was starting a business, I'd want to know what I don't know.
Podcast Guest
Okay?
Kerry Weston
And so researching the industry, researching the trends and coming back in and really digging into the granular side of this is important to me. The second thing is a business plan, okay? And the business plan is really just putting your thoughts in an organized manner. Business plans take on all kinds of, of shapes and sizes. And when I say business plan, listen, I am the first one to tell you that you can build any spreadsheet you want, and then you should just crumple it up and throw it away. Because life does not go by a spreadsheet. However, there's terrific value in mapping something out and at least knowing what things are supposed to look like, could look like or how you want them to look like.
Podcast Guest
Okay?
Kerry Weston
One of the things that I have been surprised at how often it comes up is the person that gets really optimistic, puts numbers in a Spreadsheet and then says, look, this is my business, this is what is going to happen. And so what we think is going to happen really does. And so that's why I give you that caution on the spreadsheet. However, we need to get there, we need to put this stuff down so we can get and organize our thoughts and organize our plan and be really purposeful for the work we're about to do. So one of the things I did in this particular exercise in the business plan is I gave it two things. I said, one, I don't know what I'm going to need for equipment, I don't know what I need for expenses, I don't know what I need for considerations. Could you help map this out for me? I want you, and this is where I gave it a role playing kind of exercise. I said, I want you to be a strategic advisor, specifically in the area of landscaping businesses. Now what I want you to do is tell me the things that I need to know from an equipment point of view, from a budgeting point of view, and from a planning point of view for both hard costs and soft costs. And what I mean by that are trucks and equipment as well as soft cost things that we need to think about from an employee point of view or from office supplies point of view and help me understand the capital needs, right. And the asset needs for me to be successful. Again, I want you to ask me any questions to help get you as much information as possible so you can do your best work. Okay, So a couple things there. I repeated the, at the end, I repeated the ask me questions, right? Because again, I always want it to have as much information as possible. But at the beginning, you heard me say I want you to take on the Persona of. That's a really important criteria here, whether you're working in a business plan or whether you're working for any problem. ChatGPT has the function of taking on the Persona, the experience, the role playing capabilities and attributes of something. And so in this case, I said I want you to be the business planning expert, specifically around landscaping businesses. Now, you've heard me mention perhaps narrowing the band. So what I'm doing here is I'm narrowing the band of its interest. I'm narrowing the band on its focus. And I only want you to be this person in this role with this set of skills. So we can use that to my advantage.
Podcast Guest
Okay?
Kerry Weston
And what I like about this is when I did this exercise, it came back and it starts giving me tips on things that I should consider Right. It talks to me about costs, it talks to me about equipment. It talked to me about ongoing and one time costs.
Podcast Guest
Right.
Kerry Weston
It also came back and I'm looking at it now, it came back and it said, I want to give you some key advice before you start. Right. Which I think that's awesome. I didn't ask it specifically to give me key advice before I started, but because I gave it direction and permission to take on the role of that advisor, it knew it intuitively that it should give me some stuff to advise me in the right direction. And so here I'm going to read off the screen, it said, start small and price it with profit in mind.
Podcast Guest
Right.
Kerry Weston
Track everything. From day one was tip two, you know, and it says, use simple tool like QuickBooks or Jobber to track everything. And this is build recurring work as soon as possible. Get into contracts and predictable income as quick as you can. And then number four, don't forget about taxes. Right? Set aside 20 to 30% of your net profit every month for taxes. Don't wait.
Podcast Guest
Okay.
Kerry Weston
And so it's walking me through tips, it's walking me through budgets. It gave me a whole pnl, the things that I need to buy once, the things that I should think about on a recurring basis. And it's doing that because again, I gave it the direction to take on that Persona of an expert. Okay, so first is research and trends, or trends. Number two is the business plan from both a strategic and financial point of view. The third is at some point we have to convince somebody of our business value.
Podcast Guest
Okay.
Kerry Weston
So in this case, this could be a bank. Oftentimes we do it with customers, don't we? We have to convey, and we'll get to that in a minute, but we have to convey our value. But if you have to convince somebody of your value now that you've done your trends and your business planning, oftentimes we have to talk to somebody else to get help from the outside world. And they don't have as much information or passion or knowledge of our business as we do. And this is hard. And so I would say, number three, let's just go from a financing pitch financing plan. If you need to talk to a bank, if you need to talk to a small business funding advisor, if you need to talk to some sort of entity or organization to help get funding for your business, ChatGPT can help in a meaningful way. Now let's take the tip that we had about becoming a business expert in landscaping. Let's switch it now. Let's tell ChatGPT that we want you to be a funding, a business funding expert or a lender, specifically in startups or new businesses. Okay. And I am going to practice talking to you because I need money for my business.
Podcast Guest
Okay?
Kerry Weston
Now you can give them if you want because you've already done research and trends and if you've already done the business planning like we've talked about here, you could say, I have this information I can give you and I encourage you to do that first because that's exactly what's going to happen.
Podcast Guest
Right?
Kerry Weston
And in this case, what I would say is I've never done this situation. This is where you need to be honest and vulnerable with ChatGPT. I've never had this conversation before. I've never pitched my business for funding. I've never asked somebody for help like this. I've never asked somebody for money. I'm nervous, okay? So I'm going to give it human emotions, I'm going to give it real world scenarios. I'm going to say, I've never done this before. I'm nervous. I don't know what they're going to ask. I don't know what I'm going to need. Could you take on the role, could you take on the Persona of that small business funding person that I need to talk to and walk me through how this conversation might go?
Podcast Guest
Right?
Kerry Weston
And what that's going to do is it's going to put you in the room. A couple episodes ago, I talked about my daughter Maddie prepping for her business, her, sorry, her first job, right, that job interview, and practicing using ChatGPT in that scenario. And this is the same exact scenario. This is going to put you in the room with that, with that financing person, with that bank advisor or that funding advisor, and you're going to give it directions to take on that Persona. And then you're going to say, listen, I want you to ask me questions. I want you to practice this scenario. I want you to be as realistic as possible so that I know what you're thinking, what you're asking for, what I need to be prepared for, what I need to show you, what I need to know. You know, knowing your numbers is important and knowing the logic and context behind the numbers is important. So as you do your research and plan and your P and L and your spreadsheet and your budget, you know, you're putting numbers in there, but knowing why you're putting those numbers in there is important. And a lot of the times when it comes down to funding, it's not so much how good the numbers look, it's do you understand what they are? Do you understand what happens if something changes?
Podcast Guest
Right.
Kerry Weston
Are you overstretched from the beginning? Are you too optimistic? But oftentimes they're looking at at you. They want to invest in you specifically. And if you know what you're doing, if you understand, if you're prepared, if you can answer questions in a meaningful and confident way, that goes a long way towards funding. Because I have found from experience, people miss things. They're overly optimistic with their budgeting. You know, the expenses are real, but the revenue oftentimes is not out of the gate. Right. And so these people want to protect their investment. And the more that you can convey that you understand that you may have heard me say, use the empathetic position of your audience as you are creating messaging and writing.
Podcast Guest
Right.
Kerry Weston
Using the empathetic position. Well, in this case, role playing as a bank advisor or a small business lending institution and taking on the empathetic position of how they look at the scenario versus how you look at it is going to allow you to understand what they're thinking, what they're concerned about, what they're worried about, what they need to see, what they need to hear. And practicing that conversation and preparing for that conversation is going to go a long way to you being confident in the room and being at the ready when they have questions that needs answers. Right, so we've got three things so far that I think ChatGPT can be helpful for startups, research and trends. And then the business planning from both the financial and structural point of view and strategy point of view. And then role playing and practicing those hard conversations when you need to convince somebody to believe in what you're doing to fund what you're doing. Okay, so since we've introduced the empathetic position, let's keep that up and let's go to the audience. Right? So we understand our company, we understand what our services are going to be, we understand the revenue model. Who are we going to do this for? Right. Who are we going to try and sell to?
Podcast Guest
Right.
Kerry Weston
And get revenue from? So again, I would take the information. If you're doing this chronologically, I think you're going to be more successful. And so if you were to take your research and trends and your business plan and give that back to ChatGPT and say, Listen, this is the company I'm thinking of doing and these are the services I'm looking to provide and these are the details about the company I want to Find out what the best customer would be. What's the best fit.
Podcast Guest
Right.
Kerry Weston
Fit customer for this business. Can you help me model that out? And again, I'm going to repeat here, ask me any questions that you need to get the information so you can do your best work. Okay. In this case, it's going to analyze the information that you gave it and it's going to take a look at your services and your company and your details, and it's going to come back with some attributes about the type of customer. Now, you're going to get more than one type of customer here, which is great because most businesses have more than one sets of customers. Right. And the ability for it to ask you questions is going to clarify some things that maybe either aren't said yet or, you know, might be not as defined as it needs to be. So there's your audience Persona. Now, one thing that I would do is you're building your audience Persona. And there is another episode of the ChatGPT experiment podcast that gets into this specifically. So I've got one episode that's dedicated solely towards this exercise of modeling out your best fit customer. So you want some more details? That's absolutely where I would go. But in this case, we talked about empathetic position as it starts to mold out the details and attributes of those audiences. I would say, listen. Okay, now that I've got these audiences, I'd like you to share with me. From their point of view, what do they need to see? What are they worried about? What are they looking for? What kind of questions are they going to ask? What kind of information are they going to be looking for? How do I put my best foot forward? Forward so I can stand out from the competition and make meaningful connections to these audiences that you've helped me define. Okay, now, from a research point of view, this is going to give you kind of the mindset to consider as you are talking about your company, which of course will lead to the marketing messages that you use, perhaps the stuff you put on Facebook or your website or any print materials or whatnot, the ability for you to understand, again, the empathetic position. The other side of the story here, the ability for you to understand not only who this audience is or what they're thinking, what they're feeling, what they need to see, what they need to hear. How you can stand out from the competition. Right, is a. An advantage that you have. This is a very powerful way of using the tool and gives you insight. Again, practicing for that financial pitch gives you insight to Some of the things that customers may bring up or need to hear. Right. That if you haven't been down this path before, that's going to be terrifically valuable. Okay, so in that vein, by the way, I think that there's an opportunity for you to say, listen, I'm in this market, right? So this is a. This is an additional way in which you can use research and trends now that you've got this far. I am in this market, and this is my business, and these are my customers that I want to go after. Can you tell me who else is in my market that is offering the same thing? I want to do a competitive analysis because I want to see if I was a customer from the other point of view and I was looking for these services, who would I see, who would I find? And I want you to give me some information about what they offer versus what I'm looking to do so I can understand where I can either fit in or stand out against my competition. You know, right now I want to pause for a second because someone shared this with me once, and it's one of the most valuable marketing pieces of advice I've received is every potential customer has three options. In most cases, they have three options. Number one, whatever it is, they can do it themselves. Number two, whatever it is, they can hire someone to do it, and whatever it is, they can do nothing. Those are your three options.
Podcast Guest
Okay?
Kerry Weston
Do it yourself, hire somebody, or do nothing. So in the case of this business, let's take do nothing off the ground because you want to make sure that you get hired. So let's just consider about doing it themselves or hiring somebody else. As you go through the audience Persona and as you go through an understanding of who these people are going to be and what they're looking for, take that into consideration.
Podcast Guest
Right?
Kerry Weston
And what I mean is, share with them what it looks like, the details behind it, the process behind it, why does it cost the way it costs? How long does it take?
Podcast Guest
Right.
Kerry Weston
What's needed? Think ahead of time of the questions that you would have if you were that person and work with ChatGPT to find information about either those questions or the answers around them, and it'll help you connect better to that audience. And then I would use your competitive research and I would say, hey, ChatGPT, here are the questions and concerns that I know my ideal audience is going to have. Could you go to these three competitors and tell me if they are addressing them on their website? And then rate them 1 through 10 in terms of take the position of the audience. Look at my competition. And if I had this question, you know, one being the worst and 10 being absolutely answering it in full, transparent, objective, honesty, one through 10. Take this question, look at my three biggest competitors, and tell me your feeling about how they answer that question, how they approach that question. So, and the audience Persona, the competitive analysis, and then the research behind it, ChatGPT offers you the ability of looking at not only who your audience is, but turning it around and looking at your customer and your competitors through the eyes of that audience. Okay, and then the fifth one, the fifth use here that I would say ChatGPT has for any business really is at some point you're probably going to have to hire. And the job description, the job hiring process can be a pain. I've talked to many HR directors and business owners that are trying to. In fact, I just talked to one yesterday that said, I don't understand it. I have had two sales positions open for a month and I'm hardly getting any interest. And it's not because there's no folks looking for work when I look at it. It's because we're just putting up job details, the tasks, right? We're not telling a story, we're not connecting. And we've evolved to the point of we can't just put out a help wanted sign anymore and expect the world to flood to our door. It doesn't work that way. We've got to tell a story, we've got to be a little bit more convincing. And so ChatGPT can help. And so what I would do is I would just like we did with the audience Persona. And again, I've got another episode of the ChatGPT experiment, one of the earlier ones, probably within the first 15, if you go back, that talks about job descriptions and hiring using ChatGPT, so you can get a lot more detail there on this particular topic. But I would do the same types of thing as you did with the audience Persona. And I would say these are the types of people that I like to hire. These are the attributes that I look for. These are the skill sets, these are the abilities, the capabilities of the people that I need to be in this position. And then because you can add documents to ChatGPT, I would say now that you understand the type of person that I'm looking to hire, right? And again, if you need to ask me any questions, you need to get as much information to do your best work. So we can build out a profile of our best applicant of our best employee.
Podcast Guest
Okay.
Kerry Weston
That's an exercise that you can do both with customers and applicants.
Podcast Guest
Okay.
Kerry Weston
So once you build out a profile, however deep you want to go with, these are the employee attributes that I want, then I would say, hey, can we use this list that we just created? I'm going to feed you the job description. I want you to look at the job description through the lens of the employee or the ideal employee that we just modeled. And I want you to do a couple things. Number one, I want you to help me rewrite this so I can inspire that best fit applicant to be excited about this job and to increase the likelihood of them applying. Number two, I want you to think of the questions that this person would have about this position that they would most likely ask me. And I want to work that into the revised job description because I want to make this be as thorough as possible, as detailed as possible, and as valuable as possible. Now, that benefits you for two different reasons. Two or in two different ways. Number one, always thinking about the person. Right. The empathetic position. Let's go back there again. You know what it's like to be looking for a job and to have questions that are not answered.
Podcast Guest
Right.
Kerry Weston
So wouldn't it be great if we could fast forward that and be proactive and give those questions the answers that they deserve, Right. To make it as easy as possible for that job applicant to see value in your position. And number two, from the business point of view, it cuts down the time needed to answer those questions when it comes to interviewing these people.
Podcast Guest
Right.
Kerry Weston
Because you already know the first 15, 20 minutes is going to be the same for everybody. They're going to ask the same questions, the same repetitive questions. And if we can fast forward that and get that out ahead of time, that's a, that's a really, really valuable use of ChatGPT and it's a really value add to the job description. So once you've modeled again, once you've modeled the best fit employee, take a look at the job description, have it be rewritten to inspire and to excite that person, and then think about the questions that they're going to ask. And let's work those answers in.
Podcast Guest
Right?
Kerry Weston
We want expectation management. We really want to get the person that we'd love to have work for our company. Say, this was written for me. This is for me, this is a company you need to talk to.
Podcast Guest
Right.
Kerry Weston
And again, that works for any size company. But if you're starting up, especially if your resources are thin and you're doing, you know, 15 different things in any given hour. The time that you can save talking to the right people instead of just tire kickers, both from an employee and an audience point of view and a potential customer point of view, is going to be highly valuable and the use of your day. Okay, so I know there's a ton of other ways in which starting a business and planning a business can benefit from using ChatGPT, but those are a few that I came up with this morning that I think happen time and time again. And the reason I think these are highly important is they're very common, they're necessary, they're repetitive. So there's models in here, there's standards and models in here that ChatGPT can help you right fast forward. And there's a significant amount of time saving and value add here when you ask it to be or to take on the Persona to play the role of somebody else and look at your business right from both an employee and a prospect point of view. Starting a business is never fun or as fun as we want it to be. You know, it's not easy and it's supposed to be fun. I guess I'll say that is. Starting a business is supposed to be fun. We're supposed to do something we love. And oftentimes we get caught up in the minutiae of all the details that go along with it that, you know, we get pulled away from the thing that really drives us and sparks us. And so planning the business can create some anxiety, can create some nervousness. And if ChatGPT can be used to offset that and to prevent it, then I think that's a great use of the tool. It's a great use of the tool. So I hope that was helpful. I hope that was valuable. As I bring this episode to a close, a couple things again, the survey on the chatgpt experiment.com website. If you could let me know what you're thinking, what you want to know more about tools, you want to know more about that kind of thing. It'll help you plan in the future. If you have any questions, shoot me a note. You can contact me there. If you want to get into a personal or group training like the one I'm driving to now, you can reach out and find more information on chatgpt experiment.com but staying curious, as I say, is always the key to getting the most out of this tool and any tool, really. So until we talk again, do stay curious. Okay? We'll talk soon.
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Summary of "Ep 74: Thinking of Starting a Business? ChatGPT Can Help"
The ChatGPT Experiment - Simplifying Chat GPT For Curious Beginners
Host: Cary Weston
Release Date: June 17, 2025
In Episode 74 of The ChatGPT Experiment, host Kerry Weston delves into the transformative role ChatGPT can play for aspiring entrepreneurs. Titled "Thinking of Starting a Business? ChatGPT Can Help," the episode serves as a comprehensive guide for beginners eager to harness the power of AI in launching and managing a business.
Kerry begins by reflecting on the previous episode featuring guests Mike and Paige, highlighting how they leveraged ChatGPT to enhance their marketing strategies. Kerry notes, “[...] their approach changes when they take what they've been doing without ChatGPT and use it to model and use it effectively” (08:15). This sets the stage for discussing how ChatGPT can similarly benefit new business ventures.
Kerry outlines five key areas where ChatGPT can significantly aid entrepreneurs in planning and executing their business ideas.
Kerry emphasizes the importance of understanding the industry landscape. Using his example of a landscaping business in Maine, he explains how he instructed ChatGPT to gather relevant data: “I want you to be a strategic advisor, specifically in the area of landscaping businesses” (15:00). This approach ensures the AI provides tailored insights, including current trends and necessary equipment, enhancing the entrepreneur’s foundational knowledge.
Notable Quote:
“ChatGPT can help you better understand what this business would look like.” – Kerry Weston (09:29)
Creating a structured business plan is crucial. Kerry advises using ChatGPT to organize thoughts and outline both strategic and financial aspects: “I want you to be the business planning expert, specifically around landscaping businesses” (14:30). This allows entrepreneurs to receive comprehensive guidance on budgeting, equipment needs, and capital requirements, ensuring a solid business foundation.
Notable Quote:
“There's terrific value in mapping something out and at least knowing what things are supposed to look like.” – Kerry Weston (12:41)
Securing funding is often a daunting task for new businesses. Kerry demonstrates how ChatGPT can simulate a conversation with a funding expert to prepare for pitches: “Could you take on the role of that small business funding person…” (18:16). This role-playing exercise helps entrepreneurs anticipate questions and confidently present their business propositions.
Notable Quote:
“Practicing that conversation and preparing for that conversation is going to go a long way to you being confident in the room.” – Kerry Weston (20:22)
Understanding the target market is essential for effective marketing. Kerry uses ChatGPT to define his ideal customer and analyze competitors: “Can you help me model that out?” (22:48). By creating detailed audience personas and conducting competitive analyses, entrepreneurs can tailor their marketing strategies to meet specific customer needs and stand out in the market.
Notable Quote:
“Every potential customer has three options. They can do it themselves, hire somebody to do it, or do nothing.” – Kerry Weston (27:02)
Building a competent team starts with crafting compelling job descriptions. Kerry explains how ChatGPT can assist in this process: “Help me rewrite this so I can inspire that best fit applicant” (30:50). By focusing on the ideal employee attributes and preemptively addressing common applicant questions, entrepreneurs can attract and retain top talent more effectively.
Notable Quote:
“We've evolved to the point that we can't just put out a help wanted sign anymore and expect the world to flood to our door.” – Kerry Weston (31:00)
Kerry summarizes the episode by reiterating the versatility of ChatGPT in addressing common entrepreneurial challenges. From research and planning to pitching and hiring, ChatGPT serves as a valuable ally in streamlining processes and enhancing confidence.
Notable Quote:
“Starting a business is supposed to be fun. Planning the business can create some anxiety, can create some nervousness. And if ChatGPT can be used to offset that and to prevent it, then I think that's a great use of the tool.” – Kerry Weston (34:50)
Kerry encourages listeners to participate in a survey available on chatgptexperiment.com to shape future episodes and receive a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card. He also invites those interested in personal or group training to reach out via the website.
Notable Quote:
“Stay Curious as you explore real-world applications tailored for varied professions and backgrounds.” – Podcast Description
By leveraging the insights and practical applications discussed in this episode, beginners and seasoned entrepreneurs alike can harness ChatGPT to navigate the complexities of starting and growing a business with greater ease and confidence.