I’ve been working with automation platforms like Zapier and n8n for about a year now, and I just figured something out. You can’t really package your workflows and sell them as actual products to customers. What works better is offering automation services instead. Instead of spending time creating complex workflows first and then trying to find people who need them, I learned it’s smarter to find clients with specific problems and then build custom solutions for them using these platforms. Has anyone else noticed this pattern? I’m curious if other people in the automation space have come to the same conclusion about the difference between selling products versus services.
This reminds me of when I switched from web dev templates to custom client work. Here’s the thing - automation workflows are tied to how companies actually operate, not some one-size-fits-all approach. I wasted months building what I thought were amazing reusable packages, but every prospect needed major changes just to get basic stuff working. The game-changer? I stopped trying to sell products and became an automation consultant instead. Now I charge upfront to map out their processes, then build exactly what they need. The margins are way better because you’re fixing real problems, not competing on generic features. Plus clients don’t leave since the automation becomes part of how they run their business.
Honestly, this makes complete sense. I’ve bought those “ready-made” automation templates before and they never work with my actual setup. There’s always some integration issue or the data format doesn’t match what they expect. Automation is like plumbing - you need someone who knows your specific system and can fix your exact problem.
Spot on. After building dozens of workflows across different industries, I’ve learned that automation is all about context. Every business has its own data mess, legacy systems, and weird edge cases that off-the-shelf solutions just can’t handle. The money isn’t in the tool - it’s in figuring out what’s actually breaking their workflow and building something that plays nice with what they already have. What’s crazy is clients will pay premium rates for custom automation because they see results immediately. Meanwhile, those pre-built products just collect dust because nobody wants to rebuild their entire process around someone else’s idea of how things should work.