Write a one-page shop card before you open ChatGPT

Most shops do not fail at AI because the model is weak. They fail because the model does not know the shop. It invents a street, a price, or a city you do not serve. A one-page shop card stops that. Write it once. Paste it at the top of every prompt in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Grok. That is how to use AI in a five-person company without hiring a prompt person.

Ethical AI is in Frisco, Texas. We install listings, on-page SEO, and review workflows for trades and other local shops. The card below is the same artifact we ask a client to finish before we open a chatbot. If Yelp and Google already disagree on the phone, fix that first: your name, address, and phone must match.

The longer field guide is the pillar: AI for small business — how to use AI sustainably in 2026.

What goes on the card

One page. Plain language. Facts you would print on an invoice, not a slogan.

• Legal name as it appears on the check and on Google Business Profile
• City and state you want the public to use (pick one). Ours: Frisco, TX
• Phone that a customer should call. Ours: 469-669-2728
• Hours, including the day you are actually closed
• Cities you serve — only the ones you drive
• Three services you want to rank for
• Three things you do not do
• One review quoted exactly, with the customer’s first name if you have permission

If a line is not true on a Friday afternoon, it does not belong on the card. “We do everything” is how a model writes a page for a city you have never seen. Matching listings still beat a new article: why matching citations beat another blog post.

What never goes on the card

• Live prices that change by job
• License numbers you have not verified this year
• A second phone “just for ads”
• A street you rent as a virtual office if the public brand is another city
• Customer names, ticket IDs, or photos

Those leaks are how a chatbot becomes a liability. Keep customer IDs and live prices out of the prompt. The model drafts; a named person sends.

How to use it in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Grok

The method does not change when the logo does.

1. Paste the shop card as the first block in the chat.
2. State the job in one sentence: “Draft a five-star Google reply” or “Rewrite the about paragraph for HVAC in Plano.”
3. Add: “If a fact is not on the card, write [MISSING] instead of inventing it.”
4. A named person edits and sends. The model does not publish.

If the output names a street, a coupon, or a license that is not on the card, delete the draft. That is the whole quality system. It is also the difference between sustainable AI and a weekend of wrong listings.

Need the next step after the card exists? Start at get started. Do not buy a chatbot until name, address, and phone match on the directories that already send you calls.