Set Up OpenClaw for Your Small Business
Who This Is For
You run a small business. You've heard about AI assistants but don't want to send your business data to some random cloud service. OpenClaw lets you run a personal AI assistant on your own computer — private, free, and surprisingly capable.
What You'll Have When You're Done
- A running OpenClaw instance on your Mac or PC
- Connected to your preferred messaging platform (Slack, Telegram, or email)
- Basic skills installed: web search, calendar management, and task tracking
Step 1: Install OpenClaw (5 minutes)
On Mac or Linux, open Terminal and run:
curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash
On Windows, you'll need WSL2 first (Windows Subsystem for Linux). If you don't have it, open PowerShell as Administrator and run:
wsl --install
Then restart your computer and run the OpenClaw install command in your WSL terminal.
Step 2: Run the Setup Wizard (3 minutes)
openclaw onboard --install-daemon
The wizard will ask you:
- Which AI model to use — Pick Claude or GPT-4. Both work great. You'll need an API key from Anthropic or OpenAI (costs ~$5-20/month depending on usage).
- Security preferences — Stick with the defaults. They're sensible.
- Dashboard access — Say yes. The dashboard is how you'll manage everything.
Step 3: Open the Dashboard
openclaw dashboard
This opens a web interface at http://localhost:3000 where you can:
- Chat with your assistant
- Install skills
- Connect messaging platforms
- Monitor what's happening
Step 4: Connect a Messaging Channel
Go to Settings → Channels in the dashboard. The easiest ones to set up:
- Telegram: Create a bot via @BotFather, paste the token
- Slack: Install the OpenClaw Slack app to your workspace
- Email: Connect your Gmail or Outlook account
Now you can message your AI assistant from your phone, just like texting a colleague.
Step 5: Install Your First Skills
Skills are what make OpenClaw useful. In the dashboard, go to Skills → Browse and install:
- Web Search — Ask questions and get answers from the web
- Calendar Sync — Manage your schedule via chat
- Task Manager — Create and track to-dos
Or install from the command line:
openclaw skill install @openclaw/web-search
openclaw skill install @openclaw/calendar
openclaw skill install @openclaw/tasks
What's Next?
Once you're comfortable, explore the 5,700+ community skills. Popular ones for business owners:
- Email drafting — Write professional emails from rough notes
- Meeting summarizer — Get summaries of your meetings
- Invoice tracker — Track payments and send reminders
The key insight: start small, add skills as you need them. OpenClaw grows with you.