Start with AI
Brand new to AI?
Start here.
Most "AI for business" content is written for AI nerds or for enterprise CIOs. This page is for the Melbourne cafe owner, the Bondi physio, the Brisbane tradie who keeps hearing that AI is the future and wants to know what to actually click first.
Pick a track
Three honest doorways in.
Track 1
I'm completely new.
You've heard the noise. You haven't tried Claude or ChatGPT. You want a quiet walk-through that doesn't assume anything. Open a free account, try one real prompt about your business, and decide if any of this is worth your attention.
Start here →
Track 2
I want to install Claude Code.
You're comfortable enough with a terminal. You want the CLI running on your laptop, the VS Code extension wired up, and your first agent saying hello. Windows + Mac both covered. Common gotchas (PowerShell, paths) noted.
Install track →
Track 3
I want AI in my business.
You don't want to learn AI. You want it running parts of your business. Skip the courses, pick the industry guide closest to what you do, or one of our productised services. Or book a free 30-minute audit and we'll do the mapping for you.
Business track →
Track 1 · I'm completely new
Your first 10 minutes with AI.
You don't need to read 50 articles. You need to try one thing and decide if it's worth your time. Here's the 10-minute version.
01
Open a free Claude account.
Go to claude.ai and sign up. Use a Google or email login. Free tier is fine, no credit card needed. (Or use ChatGPT at chatgpt.com if you already have one. Both work for this test.)
02
Try ONE real prompt about your business.
Don't ask it to "write a poem about Melbourne". Ask it something you'd actually pay a person to do. Three examples that work, copy and paste:
- For a cafe / restaurant: "Write me three Instagram captions for my Melbourne cafe's new winter menu (mushroom toast, hot chocolate, dumpling soup). Each caption should be 30-50 words, include a hook line, mention we're on Sydney Road Brunswick, and end with two hashtags."
- For a tradie: "I'm a plumber in Sydney. Write me a polite SMS to send to a customer 48 hours after I finish a job, asking for a Google review. Don't be pushy, mention the work I did (replacing a hot water system), and make it sound like I wrote it."
- For any service business: "Here are three customer enquiries [paste yours]. For each one, write a draft reply in a friendly Australian tone, including pricing for [your service], availability this week, and a call to book a 15-minute call. Don't sound like a chatbot."
03
Decide.
If the output is something you'd actually use (maybe with a 30-second edit), you've passed the test. AI is going to be part of how you work. From here, the question is: what else do you stop doing manually?
If the output is rubbish, that's almost always a prompting issue, not a model issue. Read our prompt engineering masterclass for the ten patterns that fix 90% of bad outputs.
Done with the basics?
Pick a business track →Track 2 · Install Claude Code
Claude Code on your laptop in 20 minutes.
Claude Code is the CLI tool. It runs in your terminal (Windows PowerShell, Mac Terminal, or VS Code's built-in terminal) and lets Claude read your files, write code, run shell commands, and chain everything into agents. This is the path that opens up custom builds, not just chat.
01
Make sure Node.js is installed.
Claude Code runs on Node. Open a terminal (Windows: type "PowerShell" in the Start menu, Mac: press Cmd+Space and type "Terminal"). Type node --version and hit Enter. If you see a version number 18 or higher, you're set. If not, install it from nodejs.org (pick the LTS version, defaults are fine).
02
Install Claude Code.
In your terminal, run:
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-codeOn Windows, if you get "permission denied" or the install fails, run PowerShell as Administrator (right-click, "Run as administrator") and try again.
03
Run Claude Code.
In your terminal, navigate to a folder where you keep your work (e.g. cd ~/Documents on Mac or cd C:\Users\YourName\Documents on Windows). Then run:
claudeFirst time, it'll ask you to sign in via your browser. Use the same Anthropic account you signed up with at claude.ai. Once you're authenticated, you'll see a prompt. Type anything, hit Enter. You're in.
04
Install the VS Code extension (optional).
If you use VS Code, open it, click the Extensions icon (left sidebar), search "Claude Code", install. Now you get the CLI plus IDE selection-tracking, in-editor chat, and one-click "explain this file". Setup is automatic once both are installed.
05
Write your first CLAUDE.md.
In any folder you work in, create a file called CLAUDE.md. Inside, write a short note about who you are, what you do, your preferences. Claude reads this at the start of every session. Example:
# My business
I run a Melbourne-based cafe. We use Shopify for our retail merch
and Square for in-store payments. Our tone of voice is warm,
casual, slightly cheeky. We never use exclamation marks.
When suggesting code, prefer TypeScript over JavaScript.
When suggesting prompts, write them in Australian English.
Currency is always AUD unless I say otherwise.That's it. Claude will now answer in your voice and skip the boilerplate.
Now you're set up. Where next?
The full Claude Code library →Track 3 · AI in my business
Pick a doorway that matches your shape.
Three ways in, depending on whether you want to learn it yourself, buy it as a fixed package, or have us figure it out.
DIY
Industry guide
We've published 18 industry-specific playbooks: tradies, accountants, allied health, real estate, mortgage brokers, cafes, salons, vets, recruiters, dental, gyms, childcare, financial planners, law firms, Shopify stores, Meta ads, customer service. Free. Australian. AUD.
Browse industry guides →Productised
Pick one of the six
Fixed scope. Fixed AUD price. Defined timeline. Six packages between $497 and $2,000 setup. Inventory agent, after-hours triage, lead engine, content engine, bookkeeping assist, Claude Code setup day.
Compare the six →Talk to us
Free 30-minute audit
No scoping fee. No slide deck. We map your business on a Zoom call, identify the highest-ROI automation, and quote it. Most calls end with a written plan you can use whether you hire us or not.
Book the audit →Plain English
Terms you'll keep hearing.
You don't need to know any of these to get started. But if you've heard them and wondered what people are talking about:
- LLM (large language model)
- The thing behind Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini etc. A model trained on a lot of text that can write, summarise, code, reason.
- Prompt
- What you type to the AI. Better prompts = better outputs. It's a real skill.
- Context window
- How much information the AI can hold in working memory at once. Bigger = it can read longer documents.
- Token
- Roughly 3/4 of an English word. It's how AI providers bill (per million tokens in + out).
- MCP (Model Context Protocol)
- The standard way AI tools plug into your existing apps: Gmail, Xero, Shopify, Slack, your CRM. Released by Anthropic in 2024, now industry-wide.
- Agent
- An AI system that takes actions on its own (reads, writes, sends, books) in a loop, not just chats back.
- Hallucination
- When the AI confidently states something that's wrong. Less common in 2026 than it was, still a real risk for anything regulated.
- System prompt
- The instructions you give the AI at the start that shape every reply: your tone, your business, what's off-limits.
Full glossary at /glossary/. Q&A library at /questions/.
Common questions
Things people ask before they start.
I've never used AI. Where do I actually start?
Open a free Claude account at claude.ai and try one real prompt about your business: 'Write me three Instagram captions for my Melbourne cafe's new winter menu, including a hook, a call to action, and three hashtags.' If that produces something you'd actually use, you've already passed the hardest step. The rest is workflow.
Claude or ChatGPT? Which one first?
Both. Free tiers of each let you compare in 10 minutes. ChatGPT is the friendlier consumer product, Claude is the better writer and code collaborator. For business work in 2026 we lean Claude (especially Claude Code for anything technical), but most small businesses end up using both. Our /questions/what-is-the-difference-between-claude-and-chatgpt/ piece covers the practical differences.
What does it actually cost to run AI in a small business in Australia?
Light personal use is free (Claude.ai and ChatGPT both have free tiers). Daily heavy use is $25-30 AUD per user per month (Claude Pro or ChatGPT Plus). Custom systems we build, like inventory agents and lead engines, sit between $5 and $50 AUD per month in API costs. The expensive part has never been the AI bill, it's been figuring out what to automate.
Do I need to know how to code?
No. Most of the value comes from chat-based workflows (write captions, draft replies, summarise meetings, categorise transactions, build SOPs). For non-developers we'd point you at our /claude-code/claude-code-for-non-developers-australian-small-business-guide/ piece, which walks through what you can do without writing a line of code.
What's MCP? What's a context window? What's a token?
MCP is Model Context Protocol, the way AI tools plug into your existing apps (Gmail, Xero, Slack, etc). A context window is how much information the model can hold in its working memory at once. A token is roughly three-quarters of an English word, and it's how AI providers bill. Full plain-English explanations are in our /glossary/, but you don't actually need to know any of this to get started. Most of our small business clients never learn what a token is.
What happens after I get the basics?
Three paths. (1) Self-serve: pick an industry guide at /guides/ and follow the playbook. (2) Quick Start: $497 AUD, we audit your business and build your first automation. (3) Productised services: pick one of the six at /services/ if your need matches a pattern we've already built.
Stuck?
Email Jenn directly.
If you've gone through this and it still doesn't click, that's our problem, not yours. We answer every email within one business day, AEST.
Or book the audit. Free. 30 minutes. No pitch.
Book a free AI audit