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ChatGPT one-page business plan prompt: eight lines you can defend

Reports and planningFinanceSalesWorks in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot

Updated · By Robert Breen

To write a one-page business plan with ChatGPT, copy the prompt below, fill in your company and numbers, and paste any rough notes. It returns eight lines: company, problem, solution, market, traction, model, team and ask. It is short enough to read in a minute and to feed into a pitch deck tool later.

The risk with AI plans is invented numbers. The prompt blocks that by allowing only your figures and writing "Number needed" for the rest. A plan built on made-up market sizes or growth rates will not survive a single investor question.

Have a professional review it. This prompt helps you explain your own numbers, not give financial advice. Have your accountant or financial advisor review anything you will act on.

The prompt

Copy it into ChatGPT (or Claude, Gemini or Copilot) and replace every [BLANK] with your own details. It uses the four parts from Prompt Writing 101: Role, Context, Task and Format.

Role: You are helping the founder of [COMPANY] write a one-page business plan to share with a possible investor or lender.
Context: Use only the notes below. Do not invent market sizes, revenue, growth rates, customers or funding amounts. If a number is missing, write "Number needed" and list it at the end. Do not make claims about results I have not given you.
Task: Write the plan as eight lines: Company, Problem, Solution, Market, Traction, Model, Team and Ask. Each line is one or two plain sentences. Then list every number I should confirm.
Format: Eight labeled lines in that order, then a list called Numbers to confirm. Plain words, no buzzwords, under 250 words.

Here are my notes:
[YOUR NOTES]

Fill in the blanks

[COMPANY]
Your business name and what it does in a few words.
[YOUR NOTES]
Rough facts: who your customers are, what you charge, how many clients, revenue, team and what you are raising. Messy is fine.

Example, filled in

A made-up example from the free lesson Turn a One-Page Business Plan into an Investor-Ready Deck using Slidebean. Ledgerly is the made-up bookkeeping startup in the Slidebean lesson, where the one-page plan feeds a 13-slide draft. The notes below mirror the lesson's plan as an illustration.

Role: You are helping the founder of Ledgerly, a monthly bookkeeping service for small professional firms, write a one-page business plan to share with a possible investor or lender.
Context: Use only the notes below. Do not invent market sizes, revenue, growth rates, customers or funding amounts. If a number is missing, write "Number needed" and list it at the end. Do not make claims about results I have not given you.
Task: Write the plan as eight lines: Company, Problem, Solution, Market, Traction, Model, Team and Ask. Each line is one or two plain sentences. Then list every number I should confirm.
Format: Eight labeled lines in that order, then a list called Numbers to confirm. Plain words, no buzzwords, under 250 words.

Here are my notes:
We serve law, design and consulting firms with 2 to 20 staff. Owners spend 6+ hours a month on books. A bookkeeper plus AI reconciles bank feeds daily and sends a plain-English report by the 5th. 84 paying clients, $21k MRR, 4% monthly churn. $250 a month per client. Two founders, a CPA and an engineer. Raising $750k seed for 18 months of runway to reach 400 clients. Market size: not sure.

What a good answer looks like

  • Every number matches your notes: 84 clients, $21k MRR, 4% monthly churn, $250 a month, $750k.
  • The Market line says "Number needed" instead of a made-up count, because you said you were not sure.
  • The Ask names the amount, the runway and the goal in one sentence.
  • No filler such as "revolutionary" or "disruptive."

How to check it before you use it

An AI draft can sound right and still say something you never told it. Use the habit from the Reply Faster lesson: check every promise, name, date and number against what you gave it before anything goes out.

  • Check each figure against your books or bank records, not against the AI's version of them.
  • Fill in the market number from a source you can cite before you show the plan to anyone.
  • Make sure the Ask matches what you will say out loud in the meeting.
  • Have your accountant or advisor review any plan you will use to raise money.

Why this prompt works

Eight lines force you to say the business plainly. When you later paste the same lines into a deck tool, every slide traces back to a number you can defend.

Practice it in the free lesson

Turn a One-Page Business Plan into an Investor-Ready Deck using Slidebean: A founder with a one-page plan and an investor meeting next week needs a pitch deck. Slidebean drafts 13 slides from the plan in two minutes. Then you catch the numbers the AI made up and fill the blanks it left, so… You do every step yourself in a practice copy of Slidebean, and nothing touches your real accounts.

Start the free lesson

Also useful: Prompt Writing 101: Role, Context, Task, Format

Terms used here

Pitch deckExecutive summaryGroundingHallucination

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Frequently asked questions

Can ChatGPT write a business plan?
It can draft the structure and wording from your facts. It should not supply market sizes, revenue or growth figures, so give it your own numbers and check the result.
What goes in a one-page business plan?
The company, the problem, the solution, the market, traction, the business model, the team and what you are asking for.
Can I turn this plan into a pitch deck?
Yes. The free Slidebean lesson shows how to paste a one-page plan into a deck tool and catch any number the AI invents.

All free prompt templates · AI glossary