When to Use Cowork, Switch Model Families, or Change Effort
Cowork, model family, and effort fix different failures. How to diagnose which dial a Claude problem needs, and why autonomy raises the model bar.
ReadAnthropic's Claude for Small Business is a plugin you turn on in Claude. It connects QuickBooks, HubSpot, Shopify, Stripe, Gusto, Canva and 25 more tools, with ready-to-run workflows you sign off on. Shannon Advisory trains your team on your own files, in your office where possible, and sets the plugin up with whoever runs your IT.
Most of it is routine work on a deadline. Each job below is one Claude for Small Business can run once it's set up for your books, your voice and your team.
Claude for Small Business is the right starting point. If you haven't turned it on yet, turn it on. If you'd rather start on your own, Anthropic's free AI Fluency course is the place to begin. Anthropic points owners who want hands-on help to service partners in the Claude Partner Network. As of 13 October 2026, 30 partners in Anthropic's directory tagged small or micro businesses and did not tag large enterprises, and 16 of those listed a US office.
Turning it on and running the business on it are different things. Most adoption stops at the chat window. What closes the gap is the setup around it: training on your own files, the workspace and seats configured with whoever runs your IT, skills written with the person who owns each task, scheduled tasks that run without being asked, and weekly office hours. The whole team learns it, not just you.
Claude drafts and prepares. You and the person you name for each task review every output and make the call. On a Team plan, Anthropic doesn't train its models on your business data, Claude respects the permissions you've already set in each tool, and nothing sends or pays without your OK.


Shannon Advisory is a Select partner in the Claude Partner Network Services Track.
A call to pick the tasks, then one or two days on your own files, in your office when we can. The first workflow to set up comes out of those days.
Training on your own work, setup with your IT team, connecting the systems Claude connects to, weekly office hours, and skills written with your team.
See AdoptCustom connectors for systems Claude doesn't connect to yet, and apps that replace a manual routine.
See BuildA first engagement runs about three months. Most clients keep us on after that, by the quarter or the year. Pricing by proposal.
Start with the workflow that takes the most hours. For most owners that's reconciliation, the month-end close, or the Monday-morning brief. We train your team on it first, then configure Claude for it, prove it against your real data, and get the team using it.
The plugin connects your tools to Claude and ships ready-to-run workflows and skills, and it's a toggle install you can do yourself. An implementation is the work around it: training on your own files, the workspace and seats set up with whoever runs your IT, skills written with the person who owns each task, scheduled tasks, weekly office hours and, where a system has no Claude connector, a custom one built and tested on your real work.
Shannon Advisory is a Claude implementation partner for small and midsize businesses. We train your team on its own files, in your office when we can, set the plugin up with whoever runs your IT, and write skills with the person who owns each task. If it's just you, Anthropic's free AI Fluency course is the place to begin.
Your IT person joins for the setup: the workspace, seats and permissions. Beyond that, usually not for the first workflow. Claude for Small Business connects your stack out of the box, and most of the configuration is prompts and review steps, not infrastructure. If a workflow needs a system your team manages directly, we bring in IT or the vendor for that step and scope it up front.
Your team starts on its own work in the training days at the beginning. A first engagement runs about three months, and most clients keep us on after that, by the quarter or the year. Your proposal sets the timeline.
Anthropic's guidance is Pro for one person and Team for a business with more than one. Both are month to month, and Claude for Small Business runs on either. Plans and prices are at claude.com/pricing.
Not by default on business plans. Anthropic's small-business page says: "We don't train our models on your business data." That default covers Anthropic's commercial products, such as the Team plan. On a personal Pro account, consumer terms apply and the training setting is yours to choose. Claude also respects the permissions you've already set in each tool.
If the plugin already handles it on its own, we'll say so.