Last Updated on February 26, 2026 by Jan Barley
Is it true that anyone can start an online business with ChatGPT, or is that all fluff and unicorn dust? A few years ago, starting an online business felt like a lot of hard work.
There were expensive courses to buy, complicated funnels to understand and expensive platforms to learn. If you were anything like me, underneath all of it, there was the quiet doubt of “Am I actually capable of this?”
Now, we have ChatGPT, and whether people want to admit it or not, it has completely changed the starting line.
If you’re thinking about building an online business with ChatGPT, what you’re really asking is, “Can I use this tool to remove the parts that normally stop me?”
The answer is yes, but probably not in the way you think.
ChatGPT is not a business model. It’s a way of accelerating what you’re doing and cutting out a heap of work along the way.
So, before you get excited about building an online business with ChatGPT, let’s get a format together.
Decide What You’re Actually Building
This step is where most people get distracted. You’re excited and open ChatGPT to start asking for ideas and get a dozen possibilities thrown at you. At first, that seems fantastic, but you’re then faced with indecision fatigue. Too many ideas and you end up doing nothing. Believe me, I’ve been a master of that for decades.
It’s essential to remember that building an online business with ChatGPT still needs direction.
You need to choose whether you’re going to build a:
- Digital product business
- Affiliate income stream
- Service you offer to others
- Content-based business, like a blog, social media or YouTube channel
Remember, you don’t need the perfect idea. You need a workable one.
For example, if you enjoy reviewing tools or explaining things clearly, affiliate marketing is a good fit. If you like creating structured frameworks, digital products feel natural. If you’re good at implementing for other people, services can generate cash flow faster.
ChatGPT helps you flesh out these ideas. It can help you test angles, map out offers, and spot gaps. But you still choose the direction.
That decision matters more than any prompt.
Before Moving to the Next Step
I am going to give you some advice that I wish someone had given me decades ago. Take a moment and weigh up the potential pitfalls of your idea. To summarise, I’ll give an example below.
My friend and I both had the idea of starting a Skool paid membership community. We’ve been friends since 2004 and are both ADHD. So, typically, our MO is to get excited, jump in, spend money and time planning and then a few months down the road, realise the pitfalls.
I planned to start an AI filmmaking community later in 2026, once I have experience and proof of concept, and hers was to start a support group for religious pioneers. I should mention that my friend is a priest.
So, last week, we met up for coffee, and I opened the community membership conversation by stating that, for the first time in my life, I was contemplating the downside of this idea.
I’m a private person. I’m happier working in the background and not having anyone depending on me. Therefore, AI filmmaking ticks all the buttons. Imagining myself having to connect with a community of thousands every day is probably my idea of a nightmare.
Having run workshops in my forties, I know how clingy and needy my students were, and I vowed not to put myself in that position again because it was exhausting.
My friend was taken aback but realised, as I did, that she didn’t have the mental or physical bandwidth to support thousands of people. It was bad enough for her to manage a needy parish.
At the end of our meeting, we hugged and expressed gratitude that we had put a stop to our idea before we plunged headlong into committing to it.
If you have a supportive friend or partner who knows you well, arrange a meeting and ask for honest feedback about your idea of building an online business with ChatGPT. Put yourself into the future and imagine all the angles. For instance, do you want passive or semi-passive income, or do you thrive on engaging with others? Can you handle social media, or do you loathe it?
Where ChatGPT Saves You Time
The biggest shift when building an online business with ChatGPT is that you’re no longer starting from a blank page.
You can ask it to structure a blog post. Draft a sales page, map out a course, create a content calendar, break down a niche and analyse a target audience.
Instead of spending three hours thinking, you spend twenty minutes refining, and that’s powerful.
Still, here’s the part people don’t talk about enough. If you publish whatever ChatGPT gives you without editing it, you’ll blend into the noise. Don’t be a lazy arse. Put in the work and give it your own voice.
The advantage isn’t in letting AI speak for you. It’s in using it to get to version one faster, so you can layer your experience, your opinions, and your voice on top. Honestly, ChatGPT saves me probably at least one day a week. I could not continue my work without it.
The Part No One Likes to Hear
An online business with ChatGPT still takes time. AI removes friction, and it saves time, but it doesn’t remove effort.
You still need traffic, and you need to be consistent. You will need to publish content even when nothing seems to be happening.
The secret is that people who succeed are not the ones with the cleverest prompts. They’re the ones who commit to one model long enough for it to compound. They keep going even when there seems to be an empty void.
For the first few months, it might feel like you’re building in silence. That’s OK. It’s normal, so don’t feel like a failure.
If you treat your new business as if you were planting rather than performing, your mindset shifts completely. Focus on the process and improving by 1% daily, and try to minimise the need for instant validation. Your ego will kick in and tell you it’s not working, so give it time, at least six months.
How I’d Approach Building an Online Business from Scratch Today
If I were starting an online business with ChatGPT today, which I am, I’d do this.
I’d pick one niche I can talk about consistently. Not something random, but a topic I’m willing to explore deeply, and create a balance of short and long-form content for that niche, optimised for search so it can compound over time.
Undiubtedly, I’d build an email list from day one. For that, I’d use Systeme, which is free or only $17/month. It’s beginner-friendly, with everything you need to market your business.
Finally, I would monetise through affiliate tools or a low-ticket digital product as soon as possible, not because I expect instant income, but because it trains me to think like a business owner, an entrepreneur.
ChatGPT would help me:
- Refine ideas
- Test headlines
- Improve clarity
- Draft sequences
- Structure content
Even though ChatGPT did all that work, I would still be making the strategic decisions.
Managing Realistic Expectations
If you’re building an online business with ChatGPT properly, you’re looking at months, not weeks.
The first three months are messy. You’re learning platforms, testing content and figuring out your rhythm.
Around six months, you may start to see patterns. What works. What doesn’t? Where traffic is coming from.
After a year, if you’ve stayed consistent, you have built assets. You may have a following, email and social media subscribers. You’ve defined your niche and are attracting the people who want what you’re offering.
That’s when building an online business with ChatGPT becomes interesting.
The Bottom Line
Starting an online business with ChatGPT is one of the most accessible opportunities we’ve ever had, and you can do it all for free.
Not because it’s easy – although it is – but because it removes excuses.
You don’t need to say “I don’t know how to write” anymore. Or “I don’t know what to create” or “How do I write prompts for image generation?” You can ask better questions and get structured answers immediately.
The real edge is not AI. It’s clarity and consistency plus AI.
If you’re willing to stay in the game long enough, ChatGPT can dramatically shorten the path between idea and execution, and that’s where momentum starts.
How I Use ChatGPT in My Workflow
I don’t use ChatGPT to run my business for me. I use it to save time and remove friction.
That’s a big distinction. Building an online business with ChatGPT isn’t about outsourcing your brain. It’s about speeding up the parts that used to drain your energy or slow you down.
I rarely start from a blank page anymore.
If I’m writing a blog post, I begin with structure. I’ll ask for an outline, sometimes a few different angles, and then I reshape it. I change the order, adjust the tone, and make sure it reflects how I think.
Once the framework feels right, I draft the post and refine it to sound human and grounded, not generic.
With Pinterest, ChatGPT plays two roles in my workflow.
Step 1: ChatGPT helps me create the pin concept itself. I’ll use it to generate compelling, curiosity-driven headlines that are aligned with search intent. Then I’ll build Pinterest descriptions that naturally integrate keywords.
I’m careful here. I don’t want keyword stuffing. It’s best to have descriptions that feel conversational but still strategic. I ask ChatGPT to write SEO-optimised pin descriptions with up to three relevant hashtags.
In addition, I give my blog posts or affiliate products titles and ask for new, curiosity-evoking headings.
Step 2 A: As I am on the free plan with ChatGPT, I am limited to the number of images I can request. On average, it takes me about 5 minutes to create a pin in Canva. ChatGPT creates excellent Pinterest pins, and I think I can do around 5-6 a day.
Of course, I forget to create a few daily pins, and I usually make my Pinterest pins at the end of the week, so I must use an alternative as Step 2B below.
Step 2 B: I use ChatGPT to create detailed image prompts for my Pinterest pins. Instead of saying “make a pin about affiliate marketing”, I’ll ask ChatGPT to create a cinematic, 9:16 prompt with colour psychology, emotional expression, lighting, depth, and specific composition details.
I then use the prompts in Nano Banana Pro on Galaxy.ai or FlexClip and set it to 2:3 image size and 2k. I usually set it to create two pins. They aren’t quite as good as ChatGPT’s results, but they’re still good enough.
Either step saves me hours creating pins each week.
For filmmaking scripts, it’s similar. I outline the concept, then use ChatGPT to shape the hook, build tension, and tighten the close. Sometimes I’ll ask it to make the opening more emotionally charged or increase curiosity in the first ten seconds. It acts like a creative sparring partner.
Image-generation prompts save a ton of work. There are two ways you can do this:
- Upload an image you like and ask ChatGPT to reverse engineer and create an image prompt for a similar result
- Tell ChatGPT what you want and ask for an AI-image-generation prompt.
Creating effective prompts is something ChatGPT is very good at, so maximise it for your AI filmmaking, or any images you might need for social media or your website. Remember to upscale them to improve quality.
The common thread in all of this is clarity and speed.
I use ChatGPT for outlines, drafts, structure, prompt engineering and refinement. It’s not about letting it replace thinking. I let it accelerate execution.
It keeps me consistent. It helps me produce more without burning out. And it removes that heavy feeling of “where do I even start?”
That’s how I build an online business with ChatGPT, not by pressing a magic button, although it feels like a certain amount of wizardry.
I use ChatGPT as a smart, strategic assistant that helps me move faster and think more sharply.
One final note: Get ChatGPT to stop being so obliging. It often says things like “Ooh, I love that for you”, which is ridiculous. Before any session, I tell it not to suck up to me and feel free to challenge any of my ideas. You get far superior results.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you sign up for a program or make a purchase using my link.
