Here is the shift most people missed. AI stopped being a chatbot. A chatbot answers questions. An agent does the work. Claude Code is an agent that lives inside your files, and once your business lives there too, it drafts your quotes, builds your invoices, and remembers how you like things done. Six steps, most of them free.
FILE PB-02 · VOL.01
The One-Folder Business
How to run an SME with Claude Code and one folder
We run our whole studio from one folder. No dashboards, no ten AI subscriptions. One folder and one agent that reads it, writes it, and actually gets things done. This is the exact setup, nothing held back.
The 70-second version · written, voiced and rendered from the same folder
STEP 01 · FREE WITH A CLAUDE PLAN
Stop collecting AI apps, install the agent
Claude Code runs in a terminal, which sounds scarier than it is. You type what you want in plain English, it does the work in your files. Install it from claude.com/claude-code (Mac, Windows, or the command line below) and sign in with your Claude account.
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
Want to try before you pay? We have free Claude Code passes, grab one with our link and run this whole setup on it.
STEP 02 · $0.00
Give it a home
Make one folder for the business. Everything lives in it: clients, leads, quotes, invoices. This folder is the whole trick. When you ask for a quote, the agent already knows the client, your rates, and the last three things you sent them, because it is all sitting right there.
business/
├─ clients/
├─ leads/
├─ quotes/
└─ invoices/
├─ clients/
├─ leads/
├─ quotes/
└─ invoices/
That is the foundation. The next four steps are the upgrades that change everything: the memory, the second brain, the skills, and how to run your day from it. Plus the printable PDF to keep beside your keyboard.
▸ THE FULL SETUP + PDF
STEP 03 · $0.00
Teach it your business, once
Create a file called CLAUDE.md in the folder and write down how your business works: what you sell, your prices, your payment terms, how you talk to clients. The agent reads it every session. Claude Code also keeps its own memory between sessions, so corrections stick. Tell it once that invoices are due in 14 days and it stops asking.
# CLAUDE.md
We are a two-person creative studio in Singapore.
Day rate S$1,200. Invoices due 14 days, PayNow preferred.
Voice: warm, direct, no corporate speak.
We are a two-person creative studio in Singapore.
Day rate S$1,200. Invoices due 14 days, PayNow preferred.
Voice: warm, direct, no corporate speak.
STEP 04 · $0.00
Build the second brain
Add a brain/ folder with two parts: an inbox for messy input and a wiki the agent maintains. Drop in meeting notes, client briefs, voice memo transcripts, screenshots of ideas. Then say "process the inbox" and it files, links, and cross-references everything into clean pages it can pull from later. Your business knowledge stops living in your head.
brain/
├─ raw/ ← you dump things here
└─ wiki/ ← the agent keeps this tidy
├─ raw/ ← you dump things here
└─ wiki/ ← the agent keeps this tidy
STEP 05 · $0.00
Save your repeat workflows as skills
Anything you do twice becomes a command. A skill is just a short file describing the steps, saved in .claude/skills/. Ask Claude Code to write its own skills: "watch how I do this quote, save it as /quote". Next time, one line and the document builds itself the same way every time.
/quote chan_world video package
/invoice life_studio july retainer
/followup leads older than 7 days
/invoice life_studio july retainer
/followup leads older than 7 days
STEP 06 · $0.00
Run the day from one prompt
The daily loop is one sentence at a time. "Draft a quote for this client." "Chase the two unpaid invoices, politely." "Summarise every lead that went quiet this month." The agent drafts, you approve, it files the result back into the folder. The folder gets smarter every week because everything you do stays in it.
What the whole stack costs
The folder, the memory, the brain, the skills, all just files$0.00
Claude plan (runs Claude Code, monthly)from US$20
Dashboards, CRMs and AI subscriptions replacedyour call
Total to startUS$20/mo
The video above was written, voiced and rendered from this same folder, with the same setup. That is the whole point.
The agent does the piecing. You do the picking.
Claude Code will draft the quote, build the invoice, and file the brief. It will not decide what your work is worth, which client to say no to, or what your studio stands for. The judgement stays yours. The setup just clears everything else off your desk so the judgement is all you do.
Before you try it
Keep secrets out of the folder
Passwords, banking exports and anything you would not email live outside the folder, or in a subfolder the agent is told never to share. Set that rule in CLAUDE.md on day one.
Approve before anything leaves
The agent drafts, you send. Quotes, invoices and client emails get a human read every time. It is a very fast employee, not a signature.
Keep the full setupThe complete guide as a printable PDF.
Download the PDF →
Unlocked — the full setup and PDF are below.
OC
Original Copy
Made in-house · Kurt & Dom
Made in-house · Kurt & Dom