The five-part prompt every business owner should memorize

Most disappointing AI output comes from one-line requests. Professionals structure prompts. The five parts:

1. Role — "You are an experienced customer-service manager for a small e-commerce brand."
2. Context — your business, the situation, the audience. The model knows nothing you don't tell it.
3. Task — one specific job: "Write a reply to this complaint."
4. Constraints — length, tone, what to avoid: "Under 120 words, warm but not grovelling, no discounts."
5. Format — exactly what the output looks like: "Subject line, then body, then one internal note."

Compare "write a reply to this angry customer" with the structured version — it's a different tool. Two power moves: give an example of an answer you loved (one example beats three paragraphs of description), and end with "Ask me up to 3 questions before answering if anything is unclear."

Save your best prompts. That document becomes your company's first AI asset.