I keep hearing about folks making good money by offering n8n automation services but I’m struggling to understand the real business opportunity here.
After doing some research, I found these popular automation types:
Social Media Content Automation: Auto-posting content across different platforms
CRM and Marketing Tool Integration: Connecting customer databases with email marketing systems
Customer Journey Automation: Setting up automated workflows from lead capture to conversion
Team Communication Workflows: Automating internal notifications and task management
Honestly, I’m not sure if businesses would actually pay decent money for these services. Maybe I’m missing something important about the value proposition.
I have basic experience with Python APIs and some n8n knowledge. My main challenge is that I can’t identify which industries or business types would genuinely benefit from these automations. I want to offer services that either increase revenue, cut costs, or save significant time for clients.
For anyone here who’s successfully serving automation clients - are you seeing real impact on their businesses? As an engineering student, I’m willing to learn whatever is needed but I need direction on where to focus my efforts to create actual value.
the biggest shock? small ecommerce stores throw serious money at inventory sync workflows. i’m pulling $150-300 per automation, mostly from shopify stores juggling stock across multiple platforms. once you fix their nightmare of manually updating quantities everywhere, they’re hooked - nobody wants to go back to that tedium.
Here’s what changed everything for me: real estate agencies are drowning in leads but can’t follow up consistently. Most agents suck at staying in touch with prospects. I built workflows that automatically sort leads by what properties they’re interested in, send personalized email sequences, and ping agents when someone’s actually engaging with listings. One mid-sized agency saw their conversion rate jump 40% because leads stopped falling through the cracks. They pay me $400/month for something that probably makes them an extra $50k in commissions. The big insight? Most businesses already have tons of tools, but nothing talks to each other. Real estate offices run their CRM, email platform, listing software, and scheduling tools like they’re on different planets. Connect these systems properly and you’ll see immediate results. Property management companies are another goldmine. They need tenant screening workflows, maintenance request routing, rent collection reminders. Not sexy stuff, but it solves expensive headaches that keep owners up at night.
Most businesses are drowning in repetitive tasks they don’t even know can be automated. I’ve been running automation services for two years - the real money’s in solving pain points that eat up hours of manual work daily. My breakthrough? I stopped obsessing over cool technical workflows and focused on boring business problems instead. One client spent 4 hours weekly moving data between their inventory and accounting systems. That’s $10k+ annually in labor costs for a simple integration that took me 3 hours to build. The industries that pay well are often unglamorous - local service businesses, small manufacturers, professional services. They’ve got money but zero technical expertise. A landscaping company happily pays $200/month for automated scheduling and customer follow-ups if it saves 10 hours of admin work. Your Python background is gold because you can build custom nodes when needed. Target businesses with 10-50 employees - they’re big enough for complex workflows but small enough that automation creates immediate, visible impact.