Okay, so. After every talk the same question comes. “Shamz, where do I even start?” Not which prompt. Where do I start.
Here is where I started. A terminal, Claude Code, and one file.
What Claude Code actually is
Claude is the AI. Claude Code is the version that lives on your computer and can touch your files. ChatGPT in a browser tab can talk. Claude Code can open the folder, read the spreadsheet, write the draft, save it, and come back and tell you what it did. That is the whole difference. One talks. One works.
I did not buy software to run my agency. I told Claude Code what I wanted, in plain English, and I corrected it until it worked. That is still how I build, every day.
What you need before you start
- A computer you actually work on. I am on Windows, running it inside WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux). On a Mac it runs as is. On Windows, install WSL first. It takes a few minutes.
- A paid Claude plan. Claude Code runs on your Claude subscription.
- Thirty minutes nobody can interrupt.
Step 1: install it and log in
Go to the Claude Code page on Anthropic’s site and run the installer line for your system. Open a terminal and run `curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash` (Mac, Linux or WSL). On Windows PowerShell it is `irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex`. Then type `claude` in your terminal. It opens a browser, you log in, done.
If you have never used a terminal, listen: it is a black box where you type sentences. That is all it is.
Step 2: the rules file (the part everybody skips)
In the folder where you want it to work, make a file called CLAUDE.md. Every time Claude Code wakes up in that folder, it reads that file first. Before you say a word.
Mine, the first line says: read the current truth file first. That file holds what Social Zip is right now. The offer, the target, the positioning, what is dead. So a fresh session never revives an old plan.
Yours does not need to be clever. Write it like you are briefing a new staff member on day one:
- What this business does, in two lines.
- Who the customers are.
- What it must never do. Never send anything. Never quote a price. Never touch the accounts folder.
- How you like things written. No fluff, short sentences, South African English.
That is your first brain. It is a text file. It’s as simple as that.
Step 3: connect it to one real thing
Not your whole business. One thing.
Pick a folder you already have. Your quotes folder. Your product list. Six months of customer emails exported to text. Put CLAUDE.md in there, open the terminal in that folder, type `claude`, and say:
“Read everything in this folder and tell me the five questions customers ask most.”
Then watch it work. It lists the files it read. It gives you the answer. Then ask it to draft replies to those five questions, in your tone, from the rules file. Then correct it. “Shorter.” “We don’t say that.” “Add the delivery line.” Every correction is training.
That is the loop. Instruction, result, correction. My whole agency came out of that loop. Behind my setup today there are over a thousand memory files, and 331 of them are just my corrections. Every one of them started as me typing “no, not like that.”
What I plug mine into
Once the folder works, you plug it into the systems. Mine is connected to my CRM through something called MCP. I promise you, I could not explain the acronym. I know what it does for me: it is a plug socket, so Claude can look up a contact or an invoice without me opening the CRM. Email and calendar connect the same way.
And there is a short list of things I never let it read. Customer card details. Staff files. Anything with POPIA written over it. The rules file holds that list too. Write the never-read list before you write anything else.
Where people go wrong
They install it, ask it to “automate my business”, get a long impressive answer, and never type the second instruction. Stagnant water.
Start with the one folder. Get one answer you trust. Then the next thing. Then the next.
This is what the training is
The install is ten minutes. The rules file is twenty. Knowing what to put in it, what to connect, and what to keep out, that is the part I teach, because that part comes from running a business, not from reading the documentation. It’s not a skill set. It’s a mindset.
Message us about AI training for your team or business. WhatsApp: https://wa.me/27797327231
Not sure what you would want from training? Seven questions, five minutes: painpoint.socialzip.co.za