Why this matters
Every time someone on the team asks ChatGPT to write for the business, they start by explaining it again: the prices, the tone, how to sign off. It takes a few minutes each time, and the day someone forgets, a wrong price or an off-brand reply goes to a customer.
A ChatGPT Project fixes that. It is one place that holds your instructions, a few reference files and every chat about the business, so each new chat starts out already knowing it.
In this module you set one up for a small business, then answer a customer’s price question and write an About Us, each in a fresh chat, without explaining anything.
What you’ll build
A Project for Brightwater Cleaning, a small made-up company. It has project-only memory, five lines of instructions (who they are, how they sound, which files to use, how to sign off) and two files under Sources: Brightwater price list.pdf and Brightwater brand voice.docx.
Inside it you start two chats with no prices or tone in the question. The first answers a customer: a deep clean for a 3-bedroom home is $289, supplies included, signed "Jess at Brightwater Cleaning". The second writes a three-sentence About Us in the same voice.
What you need
- Nothing to start the practiceChatGPT is a practice copy, and both files are already waiting in a practice file browser.
- A ChatGPT account, to do it for realProjects are on the Free plan too, with fewer files per project than paid plans.
- Your instructionsFive short lines: who you are, how you sound, which files to use, and your sign-off. The download has the lesson’s set and a fill-in version.
- Your price list, as a fileA PDF, Word doc or spreadsheet with one line per service and its price. Export it from wherever you keep prices, or type one up.
- A short brand voice guide, as a fileHalf a page in Word or Google Docs (downloaded as .docx): how you sound, words you use and avoid, one example message. The download has an outline.
Concepts
3 ideas you’ll use in the practice.
What a Project is
A folder inside ChatGPT for one business or one big client. It holds instructions, a few files and all the chats about that work.
Choose project-only memory when you create it. Then its chats draw only on each other, and your other chats cannot see them.
Instructions: a note to a new assistant
Who the business is, how it sounds, which files to use and how to sign off. They apply to every chat in the project, and they win over your general custom instructions.
Write them like a note to a new assistant on their first day: short, specific and in your own words.
Sources: the detail that does not fit
Files hold what is too long for instructions, like the full price list. Upload them once instead of pasting them into every chat.
Keep them current: when a price changes, remove the old file and add the new one, or the project will keep quoting the old price.
Practice
Do every step yourself in a practice copy of the real tool. It checks your work, and “Do it for me” finishes any step you get stuck on.
Do it for real
Now repeat it in your own account. Tick each step as you go.
Downloads
- Project instructions and file outline (.txt)The lesson’s five-line instructions and test questions, plus fill-in instructions, a price list layout and a brand voice guide outline.
Quick check
3 questions to check you’ve got it.
1. What goes in a Project’s instructions?
- Who the business is, how it sounds, which files to use and the sign-off
- The full price list, every word
- Your password
Show the answer
Who the business is, how it sounds, which files to use and the sign-off. Instructions say how to write. Long detail like the full price list goes in a file under Sources.
2. A price goes up. What do you change?
- Nothing, ChatGPT will notice
- Remove the old price list from Sources and add the new one
- Start a new project
Show the answer
Remove the old price list from Sources and add the new one. The project quotes what is in its files, so the file has to be current.
3. The reply quotes $289 and sounds right. Can it go straight to the customer?
- Yes, the project checked it
- Read it and check the price against your list first
- Only if it is short
Show the answer
Read it and check the price against your list first. The project saves the explaining, not the checking. You read it last.