You don't need a sprawling stack of twenty AI apps. You need two great general-purpose tools, configured to know your business, plus a couple of supporting pieces. This lesson lays out the minimum free toolkit, the recommended paid one (under $50/month), and — most importantly — how to set the tools up so they stop starting from zero every conversation.
The Minimum Viable Toolkit (Free)
You can run your entire freelance AI workflow on free tools. The non-negotiables: Claude.ai (free) for long documents, proposals, and on-voice writing, and ChatGPT (free) for images, quick tasks, and data work. Add a plain notes app or Google Doc to store your voice profile and best prompts, and you have everything this course teaches, for £0.
The Recommended Stack
If AI becomes part of your daily work — and it will — about $40/month buys a meaningful upgrade. Here's the full stack, free and paid side by side:
| Tool | Use case | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Claude | Long docs, proposals, on-voice writing | Free / Pro ~$20mo |
| ChatGPT | Images, data analysis, quick tasks | Free / Plus ~$20mo |
| Notion or Google Docs | Prompt library + voice profile | Free |
| n8n | Automating the repetitive workflows | Free (self-hosted) |
That's two paid subscriptions at most — comfortably under $50/month, and less than a single billable hour for most freelancers.
Setting Up Claude Projects
Claude Projects (on the Pro plan) let you give Claude permanent context about your business, so you stop re-explaining yourself. Set one up like this:
Create a "My Business" project
One project that holds the context for all your client-facing work.
Add your voice profile
Paste the style guide from Lesson 3 into the project's custom instructions so every reply sounds like you.
Upload your reference docs
Your services, rates, best proposals, and case studies — Claude can draw on them automatically.
Work inside the project
Every chat in that project already knows who you are. No more re-briefing.
Setting Up ChatGPT Custom Instructions
ChatGPT's Custom Instructions do the same job globally — paste a short profile once in Settings and every chat inherits it. Use this as a starting template:
Course Complete
You now know which tool to reach for, how to win work with AI proposals, how to keep your voice across client comms, how to research and deliver faster, and how to set it all up. Pick one workflow from this course and run it on a real client this week.
Two well-configured tools beat twenty you never open. Set up Claude Projects and ChatGPT instructions once, and your whole freelance workflow gets faster overnight.
Continue Learning
Sharpen every prompt: Prompt Engineering Masterclass
Automate the repetitive parts: AI Automation with n8n