Claude for Small Business: the free setup and 3 workflows to run first
Hey, it's Cindy 🌱 Anthropic quietly gave every small business a free AI operations team, and most owners have no idea it exists. Below is the exact setup plus the three workflows I would run first.
btw the waitlist for AI System Club is now open! If you're keen on using AI to automate your content, video editing, job search, business or build AI agents, feel free to sign up (only if you want to hehe). Ps. the waitlist gets first dibs:)
It is genuinely free if you are already on Claude Pro, Max, or Teams. There is nothing extra to buy, and it ships with a free mini-course, "AI Fluency for Small Business", made with PayPal. Full announcement: Claude for Small Business.
what it is
What you're actually installing
It is a pack that drops ready-made business tooling straight into Claude, so you are not building anything from scratch. Here is what comes in the box.
15 workflows Agentic, ready-made routines for the 15 most common jobs a small business runs on, like follow-ups and content.
15 skills Reusable capabilities Claude applies on demand, so you type what you need instead of re-explaining it each time.
10+ connectors Hook it up to the tools you already use so it can act on your real email and calendar, not just give advice.
Free mini-course "AI Fluency for Small Business", made with PayPal, to get you actually using it rather than poking around.
step one
Install it (no code, about 2 minutes)
🖥️ Open the Claude desktop app. This lives in the desktop app, not the browser tab, because it runs through Cowork.
🤝 Click Cowork. Then scroll down to Customize.
➕ Hit the plus next to Personal Plugin. A search box appears.
🔎 Search "small" and select Small Business. Then click Install in the top right. That is it, no developer required.
🗂️ Click Manage. Now you can see the 15 skills and the connectors that came with it, all in one place.
Two things people miss. You need the desktop app, because Cowork is where this lives. And you have to actually connect the connectors (your email, calendar, and so on) you want it to work with, or it can advise you but it cannot act for you.
run these first
3 starter workflows to run first
Do not try all 15 at once. These three pay for themselves fastest. First, chase every proposal that went quiet, because that is money already on the table:
💸 chase unanswered proposals
Look through my email from the last two weeks and find every proposal, quote, or pitch I sent where the client has not replied yet. For each one, write me a short, warm follow-up email that references what we discussed and gives them one easy next step, and keep my tone friendly, not pushy.
Leave them as drafts so I can skim and send, and list them in order of which deal is worth the most to me.
Then turn a messy week of email into a plan you can act on before your coffee is cold:
📥 inbox to to-do list
Read my unread and flagged emails from this week and turn them into a single prioritised to-do list. Group them into three buckets: needs a reply today, waiting on someone else, and can wait, and for each one write the specific action I need to take in a few words.
Flag anything time-sensitive or involving money at the top so I do not miss it, and keep the whole thing short enough to read in one screen.
Then stop rewriting the same answers to customers over and over:
💬 draft customer replies
Here are the five questions customers ask me most: [paste them]. Draft a clear, on-brand reply to each that I can reuse, in a warm but professional voice, and keep each one short enough to send from my phone.
Then turn the best answers into a simple FAQ I can paste onto my website, ordered from the question I get asked most to least.
make it yours
Connect it to your real tools
The difference between "a chatbot" and "an assistant that actually does things" is the connectors. Turn on the ones for the tools your business already runs on so Claude can read and act, not just suggest.
Gmail So it can find your unanswered proposals and draft real follow-ups in your voice.
Google Calendar So "what's my week look like and what should I prep for" actually pulls your schedule.
Google Drive So it can pull your real docs, proposals, and price lists into an answer.
Slack So team questions and updates can flow in without you copy-pasting them.
Do not try to automate everything on day one. Pick the one task that eats your week, the follow-ups, the inbox, the same customer replies, and let this handle that first. Momentum beats a big plan you never finish.
the waitlist is now open
AI System Club is launching soon
Build AI systems with me through recorded lessons you can follow at your own pace. Join the waitlist for first access and the founding price.
btw this list gets first dibs the moment doors open :)