Claude for Trade Owners: What It Does, How to Set It Up, What It Costs
If you have heard the word "Claude" and quietly wondered what it is, this is the version I wish I could hand you. No jargon. No homework. Five minutes to read.
What Claude does
Claude is an AI assistant from a company called Anthropic. You type in a box. It types back. That is the whole thing.
For trade owners, that means it does the writing and thinking you usually do at the kitchen table at 9pm:
Drafts customer emails. The angry one about a warranty, the scheduling one, the follow-up.
Turns voice memos into clean client texts.
Writes the first version of a quote from your messy notes.
Reads a 12-page permit document and tells you the 3 things you actually need to do.
Drafts Google review replies.
Helps you think through pricing changes before you commit.
It is not magic. It is a faster way to do the work you already do.
How to set it up in 5 minutes
Open a web browser. Go to claude.ai.
Click Sign up.
Use your email or sign in with Google.
Verify your email.
You see a text box. You are in.
No credit card. No app to install. No software to download. If you can sign up for a Costco membership online, you can do this.
If you want it as an app on your iPhone or desktop later, download from the same site. Not required.
What it costs
Two tiers.
Free. Web access. Conversations, writing, summaries. Daily usage limit. For most trade owners trying Claude for the first time, this is plenty.
Pro. Around $20 USD per month. Higher daily limits. Faster responses during busy hours. Access to Projects, which lets you save your business context once so every chat already knows your tone, your services, and your customer types.
Start free. Use it for two weeks. If you hit the daily limit more than once or twice, upgrade. If not, stay free.
The trap I see owners fall into is paying for a tool before they have used it enough to know if it fits. Do not do that.
How to organize your work in Claude
Start in Chat. That is the regular text box on the homepage. Every new question or task opens a new conversation. Treat it like texting an assistant about whatever is in front of you right now. This is where you should live for your first two weeks.
Once you are paying for Pro, graduate to Projects. A Project is a folder Claude remembers. You drop in your business context once, and every chat inside that Project already knows it.
The move that changes everything is breaking your business into separate Projects. One per area. Each one holds the context it needs and nothing else.
Suggested Projects for a trade business:
Marketing. Holds your brand voice, customer types, services list, past social posts. Use this Project to draft Instagram captions, Google Business posts, ad copy, email blasts.
Customer Service. Holds your refund policy, warranty terms, response tone, your most common customer complaints. Use this to draft Google review replies, email responses, refund decisions.
Quoting and Proposals. Holds your pricing structure, scope language, terms and conditions. Use this to turn messy job-site notes into a real quote in under 5 minutes.
Accounting and Admin. Holds your invoice format, payment terms, common expense categories. Use this for invoice reminder scripts, late-payment follow-ups, expense write-ups.
Staffing and Resourcing. Holds your job descriptions, interview questions, performance review format. Use this for hiring posts, candidate evaluations, team check-in scripts.
Operations. Holds your standard processes, safety procedures, supplier list. Use this for SOPs, permit summaries, contractor briefs.
Set each Project up once. After that, you stop re-explaining your business every time you open Claude. The output sounds like your business because Claude already knows it.
Three things to try in your first 20 minutes
Pick one. Try it on something real.
1. Reply to the email you are avoiding. Paste it into Claude with this prompt above it: "Help me write a reply. Friendly but professional. Here is the rough version: [bullet points]." Edit, send.
2. Turn a voice memo into a client text. Open Notes on your iPhone, tap the mic, talk for 60 seconds. Paste the transcript into Claude with: "Turn this voice note into a short client text. Keep my voice. Cut the rambling."
3. Summarize a long document. Grab the longest permit or contract you got this month. Paste it in: "Give me the 3 most important things in this. Then tell me what action I need to take."
What Claude is bad at
Math. Use a spreadsheet.
Today's news. It does not browse the web in real time.
Anything that must be 100% accurate. Always read before you send.
Making decisions for you. It drafts. You decide.
What to do next
Go to claude.ai. Sign up. Free is fine. Pick one exercise above. Try it on something real.
If it does not help, you lost 10 minutes. If it does help, you found a tool that saves you hours every week for the rest of the time you run your business.
John
Comments