ChatGPT Workflows for Business: How Do You Build One Around a Task You Repeat?

Most weeks contain the same jobs. A quote written up from site notes. The reply you have sent forty times. The report someone is waiting on. You build a ChatGPT workflow for business by taking one task your business repeats, writing the instructions and source material that task needs, then checking the draft against that source before it reaches a customer. That gives you back the drafting time and leaves the judgement with you. We teach business owners and teams how to use AI on the work their business repeats, and we help you build and test a workflow you can use again.

Key takeaways

• A workflow is written instructions plus your own source material, built around a task your business repeats. We build training around your business tasks, source material and the output you need.
• Five inputs carry the instructions: Context, Task, Source, Rules and Output.
• Test the workflow on a safe example and check the result against the information your business supplied.
• OpenAI reports that ChatGPT Work is available to all plans on desktop and to Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu on web and mobile, so confirm what your account has before you design around it. 1
• Our four-hour public Sunshine Coast workshop is A$495 including GST per person, with the date to be announced and a waitlist open now.

What makes a ChatGPT workflow different from one-off prompting?

A workflow is written down and reusable. One-off prompting starts from an empty box every time, so the quality moves with your mood and the result is hard to repeat. A workflow fixes the instructions, attaches the source material the job needs, and gives the same shape of output on Monday and on Friday.

The other difference is the material. A one-off prompt asks the assistant to guess your prices, your tone and your scope. A workflow supplies them. AI can draft quotes, replies, reports and admin documents from information you hand it, and you check that work before it reaches a customer. We build training around your business tasks, source material and the output you need, so what you leave with fits the job you actually do.

Which repeated task should you turn into a ChatGPT workflow first?

Start with the task that repeats often and wastes the most of your time. Pick a specific piece of work rather than a category: a quote from one site visit, a reply to one customer question, a weekly update for one property. Then bring the information that task needs.

If the job runs across several stages, take the drafting step first. You can write the instructions for that step without connecting every system in your business. We helped automate Radiant Roof Repairs' internal processes using AI. We used AI to automate SEO, enquiries and admin for Glen House Homoeopathy. In our own business, Searchmaxxed, we built AI workflows for creating blog posts, doing SEO and preparing custom proposals. Your business task determines the training example, whether you work in roofing, plumbing and electrical, real estate or accounting and bookkeeping.

How do you write instructions ChatGPT can run again?

You write five inputs: Context, Task, Source, Rules and Output. Together they describe the job and give you a basis for checking the draft. Write them before you add your source material.

• Context describes the business, the customer and the situation.
• Task names the job the AI assistant needs to do.
• Source supplies the notes, documents or approved facts for that job.
• Rules set the limits and identify the missing information to flag.
• Output describes the format and the information the finished draft needs to contain.

Applied to a quote, that reads as a service business preparing a quote for a homeowner, a task of turning site notes into a draft quote, a source of those notes plus measurements and the attached price list, rules that hold the supplied prices unchanged and flag anything missing, and an output of a scope summary, an itemised table for labour and materials, a total including GST and a list of questions for you. Once those five are written, you run them again on the next job and only the source material changes.

How do you check a ChatGPT draft before it reaches a customer?

You check the output against the information your business supplied. Compare names, dates, figures and claims with your source. Recalculate the totals. Check that the draft answers the request and stays inside your scope. The person responsible for the work approves the final version.

When the draft states something your source does not support, point to that claim. Supply the missing fact, or ask the assistant to leave it as a question for you to answer. Then check the next draft for the same problem. In our sessions, participants test the workflow on a safe example and check the result against their own source material, so the review habit is built at the same time as the instructions.

What do ChatGPT's current work features change about business workflows?

They change how much of the job the assistant carries, and they change what you need to confirm before you design around them. OpenAI reports that ChatGPT Work is available to all plans on desktop and to Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu on web and mobile. 1 Check your own plan and device first, because the workflow you write has to run where your team works.

ChatGPT Work turns the ordinary chat window into an agent that completes tasks such as websites, spreadsheets, presentations and inbox work while you do something else. 2 It also puts a plan in front of you: you can suggest changes or approve the plan to start the work. 3 That approval point is where your written instructions earn their keep. Clear Context, Task, Source, Rules and Output make the plan easy to judge, and your source material stays the thing you check the finished draft against.

How do you get your whole team running the same ChatGPT workflow?

You agree on three things and write them down: the source material, the instructions and the review process. When each person keeps their own version of a prompt in their own notes, you get five different quotes with five different tones. One agreed workflow gives you one output shape and one standard for approval.

We help your team agree on the source material, instructions and review process for a repeated task, and we work with business owners and teams across a range of industries. The aim is workflows your team can use together, on the same job, in the same way.

Where can you get hands-on help building your ChatGPT workflow?

You have two options with us. We bring private AI training to your workplace, scoped around your team's tasks, experience and location. You can also travel to the Sunshine Coast for our public workshop, which gives you four hours to work on one repeated business task. You build on your own laptop with hands-on help, and you keep the instructions and the example you tested during the session.

What you take home is the written workflow and the tested example. Run them on your next quote, reply or report, and check the draft against your source before it goes out.

Frequently asked questions