The Three Claude Apps: Chat, Cowork, and Claude Code
The Claude desktop app has three separate applications inside it: Chat, Cowork, and Claude Code. For small business owners, one of them is the right choice and the other two can be safely ignored. This page covers the difference and what to focus on.
Source: Ryan Nolan Data - Claude For Small Business
The three apps explained
Chat: the familiar one
Chat works exactly like ChatGPT or any other AI chat tool. You type a prompt, Claude responds. Back and forth.
It's useful for quick questions, writing help, and one-off tasks. The limitation: it doesn't connect to your files, your tools, or your business data. Every conversation starts from scratch.
For small business owners: Chat is fine for occasional use but leaves most of the value on the table.
Cowork: the one to focus on
Cowork is Claude connected to your business. It can access files on your computer, connect to your tools (Gmail, QuickBooks, HubSpot, Slack, and more), run automated workflows, and remember context across sessions.
This is where the Small Business plugin lives. This is where skills and connectors live. This is the version that can automate your email inbox, chase invoices, produce weekly briefings, and prep you for meetings.
For small business owners: Cowork is the application to set up and learn. Everything in this playbook is about Cowork.
Claude Code: not for most owners
Claude Code is a terminal-based tool for writing and editing software code. It's built for developers who work in environments like VS Code.
If you don't write code professionally, you won't need this. Skip it entirely and focus on Cowork.
How to download and install
Three steps to get started
Step 1: Go to claude.com/download.
Step 2: Select your operating system. Windows and Mac are both available.
Step 3: Download, install, and open the app. You'll see the three apps in the top-left navigation: Chat, Cowork, and Claude Code. Click Cowork to start.
You need a Claude paid plan (Pro or higher) to get full use out of Cowork and the Small Business plugin.
Switching between the three apps
In the top-left of the desktop app, you'll see the three labels: Chat, Cowork, and Claude Code. Click any of them to switch.
For day-to-day business use, you'll almost always be in Cowork. You may start a new task in Cowork, run a skill, and close the app. That's the typical workflow.
How to Set Up Claude Cowork for Your Business in 10 Minutes
Before connecting tools or running any workflow, three settings decisions determine how well Cowork works for your business. Get these right from day one and everything downstream is cleaner.
Source: Ryan Nolan Data - Claude For Small Business
Folders: what to give Claude access to
How folder access works
Cowork can access files on your computer, but only inside folders you specifically allow. When you start a task, you see a "Work in a project" option. Click it to select a folder.
Claude then has access to all files inside that folder only. It cannot see anything outside it.
You can select multiple folders for a single task if you need Claude to pull from two locations. You can also star a folder to make it your default, so you don't have to re-select it every time.
Practical setup: Create a dedicated folder called something like "Claude Workspace" or "Business Hub" on your computer. Keep your frequently-used documents there: templates, client info, financial summaries, SOPs. Point Cowork at that folder as your default.
Permissions: ask before acting
Always use ask before acting until you fully trust the workflow
When you give Claude access to a folder, you see two options: ask before acting, or act without asking.
✅ Use ask before acting. This means Claude will pause and confirm before editing, deleting, or creating any file. You stay in control.
❌ Do not use act without asking until you've tested a workflow multiple times and are certain it's doing exactly what you want. Letting Claude act without asking means it could overwrite or delete files without your knowledge.
The Small Business plugin is also built with this principle: it says "you approve every step that touches money or customers." That's not a limitation, it's a safety feature. Always confirm before anything irreversible happens.
Model selection: Haiku, Sonnet, or Opus
Match the model to the task to control your token usage
Cowork lets you choose which Claude model runs your tasks. The three options you'll see:
Haiku (fastest): Use for simple, repetitive tasks. Categorising emails, filling in templates, quick lookups. Cheapest on tokens.
Sonnet (default): Use for most business tasks. Writing, analysis, summaries, workflows. The best balance of quality and cost. Start here for everything.
Opus (most capable): Use when the task requires deep reasoning. Complex financial analysis, multi-source synthesis, nuanced writing. Costs the most tokens.
The mistake most people make: running everything on Opus because it sounds better. You'll burn through your token allowance quickly. Default to Sonnet. Switch to Haiku for fast repetitive tasks. Save Opus for the handful of tasks that genuinely need it.
The CLAUDE.md file: your business context
Teach Claude about your business once, so it applies that context every session
Claude reads a file called CLAUDE.md every time it starts a session in your workspace. This is where you put information about your business that Claude should always know: what you sell, who your customers are, your tone and communication style, things it should always or never do.
A basic CLAUDE.md for a small business:
Business: [Your business name]
What we do: [One sentence description]
Target customers: [Who you serve]
Tone: [Professional, friendly, direct - describe your voice]
Tools I use: [Gmail, QuickBooks, HubSpot, etc.]
Rules:
- Always ask before sending any email or message
- Always ask before creating or deleting any file
- Never share financial figures in external-facing drafts without my approval
Save this as CLAUDE.md in your main workspace folder. Claude loads it automatically every session.
The Small Business Plugin: 31 Skills and 12 Connectors
The Small Business plugin is a pre-built package of 31 skills and 12 connectors specifically designed for small business workflows. It had 382,000 downloads in its first day. This page covers what's inside, how to install it, and what each skill does.
Source: Ryan Nolan Data - Claude For Small Business
How to install the plugin
Four clicks from zero to installed
Step 1: In Claude Cowork, click Customize in the top sidebar.
Step 2: Go to Personal Plugins and click the plus (+) icon.
Step 3: Click Browse Plugins and search for "small business" or scroll until you see it.
Step 4: Click the plus (+) icon next to the Small Business plugin. Click Install.
The plugin appears at the top of your Personal Plugins section. It's ready to use immediately.
What a plugin actually is
Skills plus connectors in one package
A plugin is a bundle of two things: skills and connectors.
Skills are pre-built prompts you can run with a single slash command. Each skill knows how to do a specific job for your business: pull financial data, draft invoice reminders, produce a weekly briefing. You don't write the prompt from scratch. You invoke the skill and it runs.
Connectors are the links between Claude and your existing tools. Gmail, QuickBooks, PayPal, HubSpot, Slack. When a skill needs to pull your invoice data, it uses the QuickBooks connector to get it. When it needs to send an email, it uses the Gmail connector.
The Small Business plugin ships with 31 skills and 12 connectors already configured to work together.
The 12 connectors included
Every major small business tool is covered
The Small Business plugin connects to: QuickBooks, PayPal, HubSpot, DocuSign, Slack, Stripe, Square, Microsoft 365, Canva, Google Suite (Gmail, Drive, Calendar).
You don't need all of these. Connect only the tools you actually use. Each connection takes under 60 seconds via OAuth (same as "Sign in with Google"). You connect once and the credential is stored. Every skill that needs that tool can use it from that point forward.
You're not limited to these 12. You can browse additional connectors and add any others your business uses. The connector library is large and grows over time.
The 31 skills: full list
What's available across every business function
Financial operations: Business Pulse, Friday Brief, Invoice Chase, Close Month, AR Aging Reporter, Customer Payment Scorer, Vendor Payment Scheduler, Expense Categoriser, Budget Vs Actual Tracker, Profit and Loss Summariser, Tax Prep Organiser, Receipt Logger.
Sales and client work: Quote Generator, Proposal Builder, Client Onboarding Checklist, Pipeline Campaigns, Customer Feedback Summariser.
Operations and team: Project Status Reporter, Team Task Assigner, Time Tracker Summary, HR Policy Drafter, Job Description Writer, Candidate Screener, Performance Review Builder, Benefits Explainer, Small Business Router.
Marketing and growth: Social Media Planner, Email Campaign Builder, Competitor Snapshot, Market Research Brief.
Reporting: Business Health Dashboard, Weekly Briefing.
The five skills worth running first: Business Pulse, Friday Brief, Invoice Chase, Close Month, and the Small Business Router (which helps you identify which other skills are most useful for your specific business type).
Connectors: How to Link Claude to Your Business Tools
Connectors link Claude to your external tools. Without them, Claude can only work with files on your computer. With them, it can read your Gmail, pull QuickBooks data, send Slack messages, and draft DocuSign contracts. Each connection takes under 60 seconds to set up.
Source: Ryan Nolan Data - Claude For Small Business
How connectors work
A one-time connection that every skill can use
Connectors use OAuth, the same authentication flow as any "Sign in with Google" button. You click Connect, sign in to the external tool, and the credential is stored. You never set it up again.
Once a connector is active, any skill that needs that tool can use it without you doing anything extra. The Invoice Chase skill can pull from QuickBooks. The Friday Brief can read your Gmail. You connect once and everything just works.
For tools that don't support OAuth, you paste an API key or access token manually. Same result once it's stored.
Connecting Gmail: step by step
The fastest connector to set up and one of the most useful
Step 1: In your Small Business plugin, find Gmail under Connectors. Click Connect.
Step 2: A browser window opens. Select your Google account.
Step 3: Click Continue twice.
Step 4: Click Open. Gmail shows as Connected.
The entire process takes under 30 seconds.
After connecting, you'll see permission settings. For each action (read emails, send emails, delete emails), you can set: Always Allow, Needs Approval, or Blocked.
Recommended settings for Gmail:
- Reading emails: Always Allow (low risk, gives Claude context)
- Sending emails: Needs Approval (never send without you confirming)
- Deleting emails: Blocked (no need to give this permission at all)
This approach gives Claude full read access to your inbox for context while keeping you in control of what actually gets sent.
Which connectors to set up first
Connect in order of how often each tool appears in your day
Priority 1 (everyone): Gmail or Outlook, Google Calendar. These two connectors unlock the morning brief, meeting prep, and email drafting. Almost every skill benefits from calendar and inbox access.
Priority 2 (if you use them): QuickBooks or FreshBooks (unlocks all financial skills), HubSpot or your CRM (unlocks sales and client skills), Slack (unlocks team communication skills).
Priority 3 (specialist use): Stripe or Square (for invoice and payment work), DocuSign (for contract workflows), Canva (for content creation).
❌ Do not connect tools you don't actively use. Every extra connector gives Claude more access than it needs and can cause it to pull irrelevant data into tasks.
Setting permissions correctly for sensitive tools
For QuickBooks and any financial tool: set all write actions to Needs Approval. Claude should be able to read your financial data freely, but should never move money, create transactions, or modify records without you confirming first.
For HubSpot and CRM tools: reading contact data and deal status can be Always Allow. Updating records or sending emails to clients should be Needs Approval.
For DocuSign: everything should be Needs Approval. Sending a contract is irreversible once the recipient receives it.
The 5 Built-In Skills to Run in Your First Week
Five built-in Small Business plugin skills that every owner should understand and run in their first week. Each one does in minutes what used to take an hour.
Source: Ryan Nolan Data - Claude For Small Business
Business Pulse
One command. One page. Every number that matters today.
Slash command: /business-pulse
What it does: pulls live data in parallel from every connected tool, synthesises it into a single scannable brief, surfaces the single most important thing for you to act on today.
The skill doesn't ask you to help find the data. It goes and gets it from QuickBooks, PayPal, HubSpot, your calendar, and any other connected tool. It then computes key metrics, flags risks proactively, and delivers one page of output. It only surfaces it to you once.
When to run it: first thing in the morning as a health check, or whenever you need a fast snapshot of where the business stands before a decision.
You can also ask for a narrow cut: "Run business pulse but just show me cash position and outstanding invoices." The skill handles scope variations.
Friday Brief
A clean end-of-week picture: what went right, what to watch
Slash command: /friday-brief
What it does: runs the wins and watches briefing for the week. Pulls revenue, sales breakdown, what worked, what needs attention, any connector failures, and approval gates that were hit. Defaults to 7 days lookback. Use /friday-brief 14 for a two-week comparison.
The output is structured as: wins (what went well this week and by how much), watches (what underperformed or needs attention), and your starting position for next week.
When to run it: every Friday afternoon, ideally after 4pm when the working week is wrapped. Set it as a scheduled task to run automatically if you want it waiting in your inbox by end of day.
Invoice Chase
AR aging report, scored, drafted, ready for your approval
Slash command: /invoice-chase
Requires: QuickBooks + PayPal connectors
What it does: pulls your AR aging report, scores each customer by payment history, drafts a tone-matched reminder for each overdue invoice, and presents them to you. Nothing sends until you say so.
"Nothing sends until the owner says so" is written directly into the skill. Claude drafts every message and waits for your approval on each one before it goes anywhere near your Gmail send button.
The tone matching is worth noting: a customer who is 5 days late gets a softer reminder than one who is 60 days late and has a history of slow payment. The skill handles this automatically based on payment history data from QuickBooks and PayPal.
When to run it: weekly, typically Monday morning so you start the week knowing exactly what's overdue and have reminders ready to send.
Close Month
Month-end reconciliation in one command
Slash command: /close-month
What it does: runs the month-end close workflow. Reconciles financial data, flags gaps in your records, identifies transactions that need categorisation, and surfaces anything that doesn't add up before you formally close the books.
Run this on the last business day of the month or the first of the new month. Review what it surfaces before your accountant or bookkeeper closes the books. Catching gaps here is far cheaper than finding them at tax time.
Add context when you run it: /close-month then on the next line add any notes like "we had an unusual refund this month of $X" so Claude factors that in.
Tax Prep
Organise your tax position before you hand anything to an accountant
Slash command: /tax-prep
What it does: pulls financial data from connected tools, organises receipts, categorises deductible expenses, flags anything missing or potentially problematic, and produces a structured summary ready to hand to your accountant or input into your tax filing software.
Run this quarterly rather than waiting until annual filing season. A quarterly tax prep review means no surprises, no scrambling, and a cleaner handoff to whoever handles your taxes.
How to Customise Skills and Build Your Own
Every built-in skill can be edited to fit your specific business. And once you know how skills work, you can build new ones from scratch. This page covers both.
Source: Ryan Nolan Data - Claude For Small Business
Customising a built-in skill
The guided customisation flow
In the Small Business plugin, open any skill and click Edit. Then click Customize with Claude.
Claude will prompt you with questions: what do you want changed, what does your business actually do, what tools do you use, are there any rules the skill should always follow? You answer conversationally and Claude rewrites the skill to match.
Example: Invoice Chase is built around QuickBooks and PayPal. If you use FreshBooks and Stripe instead, tell Claude: "I don't use QuickBooks. I use FreshBooks. I don't use PayPal. I invoice through Stripe. Rewrite this skill for my stack." It rewrites the full skill prompt for your tools.
The customised version replaces the default. Check version history (visible in the skill editor) to see both the original and your version side by side. You can revert if needed.
What to customise in your first session
Three changes worth making before your first serious use of any skill:
1. Your tool stack. If you use different tools than the ones the skill was built for, update that first. A skill referencing the wrong tool will fail.
2. Your output format. If you want the Business Pulse as bullet points rather than a narrative, or the Friday Brief to include a specific section, add that.
3. Your approval gates. Every skill that touches money or customers should explicitly state that you must approve before anything is sent or changed. Most already do, but verify.
Building a skill from scratch
The build-once, run-forever principle
A skill is a saved prompt you can invoke with a slash command. The investment: describe the process once in enough detail that Claude can run it consistently. The return: you never write that prompt again.
How to build one: go to Skills (outside of the plugin, in the main Customize section), click Create a New Skill, and start describing what you want it to do. Claude will ask clarifying questions and help you refine the skill over the conversation.
The questions to answer when building a skill:
- What is the task? (one sentence)
- What triggers it? (when do you run this?)
- What data does it need? (which tools or files?)
- What does good output look like? (format, length, sections)
- What must never happen without your approval?
Three small business skills worth building yourself
Weekly client update skill. For businesses with recurring clients: pull this week's work, status, and any issues from your project management tool. Draft a weekly update email in your voice for each client. Pause for approval before sending.
New enquiry response skill. When a potential client emails in, pull context on them, draft a warm reply that matches your tone and answers their question, and suggest a next step. Save the draft to your Gmail drafts folder rather than sending.
SOP generator skill. Describe a process you do repeatedly (onboarding a client, closing a sale, running payroll). Claude turns your description into a formatted standard operating procedure you can save, share, and train new team members from.
How skills improve over time
After every skill run, ask yourself one question: was there anything in the output I had to manually correct? If yes, update the skill so it handles that automatically next time.
Review what we just did after running this skill. Update the skill so [the specific issue] is handled automatically going forward.
A skill you run 50 times should be significantly better than the one you built on day one. This compounding is what makes Cowork more valuable over time.
Skills Borrowed From the Pros: Apply These to Your Business
The best Cowork skills are not always the ones built specifically for small business. Six skills developed for GTM engineers and Cowork power users apply directly to running a small business and are worth stealing. Each one is a copy-paste slash command you can install in your own Cowork setup.
Source: Conigma lead mag library - Claude Code and Cowork for GTM Engineers + My Full Claude Cowork Setup
/today: your morning situation brief
Know exactly what needs your attention before opening a single app
Slash command: /today
/research: deep-dive any company, person, or topic in 3 minutes
Know who you're meeting or calling before you pick up the phone
Slash command: /research [name or topic]
This skill takes a company, person, or topic and produces a structured research brief in under 3 minutes. For small business owners, the highest-value use is pre-call research on a prospect, supplier, or new client before any conversation.
For a company: overview, recent news, what they do, any signals relevant to your work with them.
For a person: role, background, recent activity, what they care about professionally.
Build this skill:
/RESEARCH SKILL
Description: Use this skill when I type /research followed by a company, person, or topic. Also use when I ask to research something before a call or meeting.
Instructions:
1. Read the research target from: /research [target]
2. Search for: overview and what they do, recent news or activity, any signals relevant to my business (see CLAUDE.md for my business context)
3. Produce a research brief: summary, key facts, relevant angle, open questions
4. Save the brief to research/[target]-[date].md
5. Ask: do you want me to draft a first message based on this research?
/prep: full context brief before any meeting
Walk into every meeting knowing exactly who is in it and why it matters
Slash command: /prep [meeting name or person]
This skill reads your calendar, finds the matching meeting, pulls background on every attendee, and produces a brief before you join. Especially useful when clients or suppliers book directly into your calendar and you don't know them well.
Build this skill:
/PREP SKILL
Description: Use this skill when I type /prep followed by a meeting name or person name, or when I mention an upcoming call and want context.
Instructions:
1. Search Google Calendar for the matching event
2. Pull: attendees, their companies, any prior email threads with them from Gmail
3. Search for recent news about their company
4. If an existing client: pull their context from my clients/ folder
5. Produce: who is attending and what they do, prior context with them, likely agenda, 3 suggested questions to ask
Output: meeting prep brief in chat. Ask if they want it saved to a file.
Email triage skill: process your inbox in batches
Classify every unread email and draft a response for each one that needs it
Slash command: /email-triage
Use this when your inbox is backed up or at the start and end of each working day.
Build this skill:
/EMAIL TRIAGE SKILL
Description: Use this when I ask to triage, process, or clear my inbox.
Instructions:
1. Read unread emails from Gmail
2. Classify each as: urgent response needed today, can wait until tomorrow, FYI only (no response needed), spam or irrelevant
3. For every email needing a response: draft a reply in my voice (see CLAUDE.md for tone)
4. Present: urgent emails first with draft replies, then the others
5. Wait for my approval on every draft before saving to Gmail drafts
6. Nothing goes to my outbox without my explicit approval
SOP generator: turn any process into a written procedure
Describe a process once. Get a formatted standard operating procedure you can hand to anyone.
Slash command: /sop [process name]
For small business owners who want to document how things are done, train new team members, or build systems that don't rely entirely on them being present.
Build this skill:
/SOP SKILL
Description: Use when I ask to write an SOP, document a process, or create a procedure for something.
Instructions:
1. Ask me to describe the process step by step (I will dictate or type it)
2. Clarify: who does this? what tools are needed? what does done look like?
3. Format into a standard SOP with: process name, when to use it, prerequisites, numbered steps, common mistakes to avoid, definition of done
4. Save to sops/[process-name].md
5. Ask if I want to add any screenshots, examples, or decision points
Client onboarding brief: know everything about a new client before day one
Produce a complete client intelligence brief from your intake form and first call
Slash command: /client-brief [client name]
For any business that takes on new clients: this skill turns intake form answers and first-call notes into a structured brief covering everything you need to deliver great work.
Build this skill:
/CLIENT BRIEF SKILL
Description: Use when I'm onboarding a new client and want to build a complete reference document.
Instructions:
1. Ask me to share the intake form, first-call notes, or any emails from the client
2. Produce a client brief covering:
- What they do and who their customers are
- The problem they came to us to solve
- What success looks like to them in 90 days
- Their communication preferences (how often, what format)
- Known constraints (budget, timeline, tools they use)
- Any risks or concerns flagged in the first conversation
3. Save to clients/[client-name]/brief.md
4. Ask: is there anything you want to add or change?
For businesses using the CLAUDE.md setup, also add the client to a clients/ subfolder in your workspace. That way /research, /prep, and any other skill can automatically pull their context when you're working on their account.
The DNA file builder: teach Claude your entire business in one session
The most important skill to run before anything else
This is not a slash command skill. It's a one-time setup conversation you run when you first set up Cowork, and again whenever your business changes significantly.
The setup prompt:
Build my business DNA files. Ask me the following questions one at a time:
1. Business name and what we do in one sentence
2. Who we help and what outcome we deliver
3. How we're different from our competitors or alternatives
4. What our voice and tone sounds like (ask me to describe it or give examples)
5. Our top 3 clients and what they value most about working with us
6. What we never do or say (what would embarrass us if Claude said it)
7. The tools we use day to day
8. What a great week looks like for this business
Then produce:
- BRAND.md (what our business is, who we serve, how we're different)
- SOUL.md (our voice, tone, and communication style with examples)
Save both files to my workspace folder.
Once BRAND.md and SOUL.md exist in your workspace, every skill that references your business context (email drafts, client briefs, social posts, proposals) will automatically write in your voice and for your specific customers. This is the single highest-leverage setup step in Cowork.
Your First Week With Claude Cowork: A Simple Daily Routine
The hardest part of any new tool is building the habit. This is a simple daily and weekly rhythm for using Claude Cowork as a small business owner, starting from your first week and compounding from there.
Day 1: the foundation
Three things to complete before running any skill
1. Install the Small Business plugin (5 minutes). Customize, Personal Plugins, Browse, search Small Business, install.
2. Connect your first three connectors (10 minutes). Gmail, Google Calendar, and whichever financial tool you use (QuickBooks, FreshBooks, or similar). These three unlock the majority of the most useful skills.
3. Run the DNA file builder (20 minutes). Build your BRAND.md and SOUL.md so every skill you run from this point works in your voice and for your business. This is the most important step and most people skip it. Don't skip it.
Daily rhythm: what to do each morning
The 5-minute morning routine that replaces 30 minutes of inbox-checking
Every morning:
/today
This one command gives you: today's calendar, the emails that need a response with draft replies, and your top 3 priorities. Review it, approve the email drafts you agree with, and you know exactly what your day looks like in 5 minutes.
If you have a meeting you're not prepared for:
/prep [meeting name]
If you need to know more about someone you're meeting:
/research [company or person name]
Weekly rhythm: what to do each Friday
A 10-minute end-of-week close that keeps you on top of the numbers
Every Friday afternoon:
/friday-brief
Week's wins and watches. Revenue, what moved, what needs attention next week.
/invoice-chase
Review overdue invoices and approve the reminders to go out. Do this on Friday so clients receive reminders at the start of the following week.
Optionally:
/business-pulse
For a complete snapshot of where the business stands going into the weekend.
Monthly rhythm: what to do at month-end
Close the month clean before it becomes a problem
Last working day of every month:
/close-month
Reconcile, flag gaps, identify anything that needs fixing before the books close.
Every quarter:
/tax-prep
Organise your tax position quarterly rather than scrambling at year end.
The compounding rule: one skill improvement per week
Small improvements to your skills add up to a fundamentally better system
Every week, pick one skill that produced output you had to manually correct and update it:
Review what we just did after using the /[skill name] skill. Update the skill so this is handled automatically going forward.
At week 4: your daily brief is sharper. Your invoice reminders sound more like you. Your client briefs include the right context.
At week 12: the system you're running is meaningfully different from the one you started with. The skills have learned your preferences, your voice, and your edge cases.
This compounding is the single biggest reason to invest in setting Cowork up properly rather than just using it ad hoc. A well-maintained Cowork setup gets better every week you use it.
