Growth or Exit Decision: A Four-Prompt Chain in One ChatGPT Conversation That Ends in a Meeting Brief

What This Builds

You walk into the meeting with your accountant, attorney, lender or business broker with a one-page brief and a list of pointed questions. You do not walk in with a vague "what do you think about a second location?". The chain has four prompts in one ChatGPT conversation: what a sound decision would need to rest on, what you do not yet know, the gaps turned into questions for the right professional, and the brief itself.

ChatGPT writes questions here. It does not give advice, it does not value your business and it does not tell you to go ahead or hold back. Your accountant, attorney, lender or broker does that part, with your real documents in front of them.

Prerequisites

• A ChatGPT account. A free account can run this chain, though a long conversation may hit limits. A Plus subscription ($20/month) gives more room. That is the whole cost of the build.
• One decision, chosen before you start. Pick one of: a second location, a new daypart, catering as a business line, a renovation, or selling the business.
• A few plain facts about your restaurant, such as the concept, how long you have operated, how many locations, what your lease situation is in general terms, and why you are considering the decision. Round any figures.

The Concept

A good professional meeting is mostly good questions. Owners often arrive with a feeling ("I think I am ready to grow") and leave with a bill. The chain turns the feeling into a short list of things the decision depends on, finds the gaps in what you know, and phrases each gap as a question for the person who can answer it.

Think of ChatGPT as a sharp assistant who has read nothing about your restaurant except what you told it. It is good at asking "have you checked this?" It is poor at knowing your city, your lease or your numbers. So every answer it gives is a prompt for you to check, never a fact to rely on.

What to keep out of the chat

Use rounded figures and plain descriptions. Leave out your EIN, bank and loan account numbers, the lease's exact terms and clauses, partner or investor names, personal guarantee details and staff names. Describe a document in your own words ("my lease has a renewal option, and I am not sure how it works") instead of pasting it. Some of these documents are confidential by their own terms. Before you start, check the data controls in your ChatGPT settings, because a consumer plan may use conversations to improve models unless you turn that setting off.

Build It Step by Step

Part 1: Pick the decision and write your facts

Choose one decision and write a short note in your own words: what the restaurant is, how long you have run it, what you are considering, and why. Add anything you already know (a site you like, an offer, a loan idea). Leave out anything you would not say to a stranger.

Part 2: Prompt 1, the decision criteria

Open a new ChatGPT conversation and paste the prompt below. Fill each square bracket with your own words.

I own and run an independent full-service restaurant: [concept, years open, number of locations]. I am considering this decision: [second location, new daypart, catering as a business line, a renovation, or selling the business]. My reason: [why I am thinking about it]. What I already know: [short list of known facts, rounded].

Do not give me advice or tell me whether to do it. List the criteria a careful owner would want to be able to answer before making this decision, grouped under headings such as money, people, time, risks, legal and tax matters, and alternatives. Write each criterion as a short plain-language line. Do not include statistics, benchmarks or valuation figures.

Checkpoint 1. Read the list. Cross out criteria that do not apply to your situation. Add any that matter to you and are missing, such as a partner's wishes or your own energy. Reply with your edits so the conversation keeps the corrected list. Be wary of any criterion that states a rule or a number as fact. Treat it as a topic to ask about.

Part 3: Prompt 2, what you do not yet know

Using the corrected criteria above and my facts, make two lists. List one: criteria I appear to have an answer for, with the evidence I gave. List two: criteria where I have no answer yet, or where my answer rests on a guess or a feeling. For each item on list two, say in one line what kind of information would settle it. Do not guess answers for me. If you are unsure whether I have an answer, put it on list two.

Checkpoint 2. Look at list one. Is any answer there really a guess? Move it to list two. Look at list two. Is anything there that you could settle yourself this week, from your own records? If so, settle it and tell ChatGPT the answer.

Part 4: Prompt 3, turn the gaps into questions for the right person

Turn list two into questions for the right professional. Group them under these headings: Questions for my accountant, Questions for my attorney, Questions for my lender, and Questions for a business broker. Leave out a heading if it does not apply to my decision. Write each question so it can be answered in a meeting. Do not answer the questions, do not predict what any professional will say, and do not state any legal, tax or lending rule as fact. If a question depends on where I operate, say so in the question.

Checkpoint 3. Read every question. Does it ask something a professional can answer? Delete any that ChatGPT filled with its own assumptions. Check that each question is under the right person. Tax questions belong with the accountant. Lease and contract questions belong with the attorney. Questions about loan terms belong with the lender. Questions about selling, such as how a buyer is found or how the process works, belong with a broker. Keep the list to the ones that matter most. Ten sharp questions beat thirty.

Part 5: Prompt 4, the one-page meeting brief

Write a one-page brief I can hand to [the professional I am meeting] before our meeting. Include: a two-sentence description of my restaurant, the decision I am considering and why, what I already know, the gaps that remain, and my top questions for this professional only. Use plain language. Do not include any advice, valuation, statistic or prediction. Do not include account numbers, staff names or any detail I did not give you.

Run this prompt once for each professional you plan to meet. Name the professional in the square bracket each time.

Checkpoint 4. Compare the brief with your own notes. Everything in it must be true and must come from you. Remove anything that sounds like a conclusion. Check that nothing private slipped in. Copy the brief into a Google Doc, edit it in your own words and send or bring it yourself.

Real Example: A Second Location Question

Setup: An owner of one restaurant, open for several years, who has been approached about a vacant space nearby.

Input: Prompt 1 with the concept, the opportunity and the reason: "Our dining room is full on weekends and I wonder if it is time to grow."

Output: ChatGPT lists criteria under money, people, time, risks, legal and tax matters, and alternatives. The owner crosses out two, adds "my GM's willingness to run the original while I open the new one", and moves on. The second prompt shows that the owner has no answer on how the two locations would share cash, who would run the second kitchen day to day, or how the lease on the new space is structured. The third prompt gives the accountant questions about how to fund the build and what happens to the first location's cash, an attorney question about what the owner would be agreeing to in a new lease and whether the owner would be personally responsible, and a lender question about what documents would be needed. The owner brings the one-page briefs to the accountant and attorney. The meetings are about the real gaps from the first minute.

Time saved: Turning an open conversation into a focused meeting may save a billable hour, and it saves you from forgetting the question that matters most. Check the cost of an hour with each professional yourself.

What to Do When It Breaks

• ChatGPT starts giving advice or valuing the business. Reply: "Stop. List questions only. No advice, no valuation, no figures." If it keeps doing it, begin a fresh conversation and paste the prompts again.
• It states a rule as fact. Treat it as a topic. Rules about taxes, leases, liquor, employment and lending vary by place and by situation. Ask the right professional.
• The criteria list is generic. Add three or four specifics about your restaurant and ask for a rewrite.
• The conversation drifts or forgets your corrections. Ask ChatGPT for the current corrected lists, open a new conversation, and paste them in.
• The brief is too long. Ask for a version that fits half a page with only the top five questions.

Variations

• Simpler version: Run only prompts 1 and 3 and write the brief yourself.
• Extended version: Run the chain again for a second option, such as catering instead of a second location, and compare the two lists of unknowns. Keep each decision in its own conversation or its own ChatGPT Project so they do not mix.

What to Do Next

• This week: Run the chain for the decision that has been on your mind.
• This month: Book the meeting with the professional whose list is longest.
• Advanced: Build the 13-week cash forecast first, so any money question in your brief has a real forecast behind it.

Advanced guide for restaurant owner-operators. ChatGPT writes questions for your accountant, attorney, lender or business broker. It does not provide legal, tax, lending or valuation advice, and you should not act on its answers without them. ChatGPT plans and features change, so check chatgpt.com for current details.