Part 2
Lever 2 — AI Workflows
Module 7
Module at a Glance
Reading Time
15–20 minutes
What You’ll Walk Away With
A packaged, priced, and ready-to-sell AI workflow service offer — including how to find clients, what to charge, how to deliver the work, and how to turn one-off projects into recurring retainer income.
L2M7.1
The Market Opportunity Right Now
Here is the reality of where most businesses are in 2025 with AI:
They know they should be using AI. They’ve heard about it, played with ChatGPT for five minutes. But they have no idea how to integrate it into their actual operations — which tools to use, which tasks to automate, how to build systems that would save them real time and money.
That gap is where your service lives.
You are not selling AI. You are selling clarity, implementation, and results. The business owner doesn’t want to learn Zapier — they want their onboarding process automated. They don’t want to learn prompt engineering — they want their content produced in half the time. You are the person who makes that happen.
The demand for this service is not a trend. It’s a structural shift. Every business of every size is trying to figure out how to do more with less using AI. You can be the person who helps them get there.
L2M7.2
What You’re Actually Selling
AI workflow services can be broken into four distinct offerings. Start with one and expand as you build experience and confidence.
A structured review of a business’s current processes — identifying where AI can save the most time, reduce the most cost, and produce the best ROI.
Deliverable (8–15 page written report)
→Current workflow pain points from intake questionnaire and discovery call
→Top 5 AI opportunities ranked by impact
→Recommended tools with cost estimates
→Prioritised implementation roadmap
Mid-size business
$750–$2,000
Time to deliver
3–5 hours (AI-assisted)
Low-risk for the client, produces a tangible deliverable, and positions you as an expert before you’ve done extensive implementation work. Naturally leads to Offering 2.
Offering 02
Workflow Buildout
You build and implement specific AI workflows — connecting tools, writing prompts, setting up automations, and delivering a working system.
Deliverable
→1–5 live automations running in the client’s accounts
→Full documentation for each workflow
→Walkthrough video or live call
→30 days of follow-up support
Single workflow
$500–$1,500
3-workflow package
$1,500–$3,500
Full buildout (5+ workflows)
$3,000–$7,500
Time to deliver
4–12 hours
Offering 03
AI Content System Setup
For content-focused businesses — bloggers, coaches, agencies, e-commerce brands — you set up a complete AI-powered content production system.
Deliverable
→Custom GPT or Claude Project configured for their brand voice
→Content production workflow with all prompts documented
→Social media repurposing workflow (Make.com or documented manual)
→Email production workflow + team training call
Price range
$1,000–$3,500
Content production is the highest-volume, most time-consuming activity for most online businesses. Cutting their production time in half has an obvious, quantifiable dollar value — easy to justify the investment.
Offering 04
Monthly AI Retainer
Best income
Ongoing support, maintenance, and optimization of a client’s AI systems — plus building new workflows as their needs evolve.
Monthly deliverables
→2–4 new or improved workflows per month
→Monthly performance review and optimisation
→Unlimited async support (within 24 hours)
→One 60-minute strategy call per month
The retainer math
1 retainer @ $750/month
$9,000/year
3 retainers @ $750/month
$27,000/year
From a part-time workload. Predictable, recurring, and compounding as you retain clients over time.
This connects directly to Lever 11 (Recurring Revenue) — freelancing transitions to retainer income when you deliver enough value that clients don’t want to stop paying you.
L2M7.3
Finding Your First Clients
Your first 3 clients will likely come from your immediate network — not from cold outreach. Start there.
List every business owner, entrepreneur, or professional you know personally — former colleagues, friends, family connections, people you’ve met at events. You need 20–30 names.
🎯
For each name, ask: does this person run a business that produces content, handles repetitive admin, or has expressed workload frustration? If yes — potential client.
Message template (not a sales pitch)
“Hey [name] — I’ve been building AI automation systems that help small businesses cut their content production time and automate repetitive admin tasks. I’m looking for 2–3 businesses to work with as I build out this service. Would you be open to a 20-minute call to see if there’s anything I could help you with? No obligation — just a conversation.”
Expect 2–4 positive responses from a list of 20.
Your freelance profiles from Section 2 are where inbound clients will find you. Create a specific gig for AI workflow services.
Fiverr gig title
“I will build AI workflows and automations to save your business 10+ hours a week”
Upwork headline
“AI Workflow Specialist | Zapier, Make.com, ChatGPT | Automating Business Processes”
Your portfolio should include 2–3 sample workflows — even if built for practice. Screenshots of working automations, sample deliverable documents, and a clear explanation of what each workflow does.
Month 2+
Content Marketing
Your blog and social media content positions you as an AI workflow authority. Posts like these attract inbound inquiries from business owners who recognise their own problem:
“5 Business Processes You Should Automate With AI in 2025”
“How I Cut My Client’s Content Production Time by 70% Using ChatGPT”
Takes time to build but produces the highest-quality inbound leads — the long-term client acquisition engine.
L2M7.4
The Discovery Call Framework
When a potential client agrees to a call, you need a structure that uncovers their real problems, demonstrates your expertise, and naturally leads to a paid engagement.
5-part discovery call
20–30 minutes total
P1
5 min
Their Business
Ask them to describe their business — what they do, who they serve, team size. Listen actively. You’re building context, not taking notes yet.
P2
8 min
Their Biggest Time Problems
“Where does your team spend the most time on repetitive tasks?”
“What’s the most frustrating part of your content production process?”
“If you could wave a magic wand and have one process run automatically, what would it be?”
P3
3 min
Their Current Tools
“What tools are you currently using for [their workflow areas]?”
“Are you using any AI tools currently? If so, how?”
This tells you their existing tech stack — and therefore what automations are already within reach.
P4
5 min
Your Value Demonstration
Briefly describe 2–3 specific automations that would solve their stated problems. Be specific — reference the exact tools and processes. This demonstrates expertise without giving away the work.
“Based on what you’ve described, the biggest quick win I see is automating your [specific process] using [tool] connected to [tool]. That alone would probably save your team 3–4 hours a week. There’s also an opportunity to…”
P5
2 min
Next Steps
→Audit fit: “The best place to start is an AI audit — I’ll document your top 5 opportunities and build you a roadmap. That’s $[price]. I can have it to you within 5 business days.”
→Implementation fit: “I’d suggest starting with a 3-workflow buildout focused on [their pain points]. My rate is $[price]. I can send you a proposal today.”
L2M7.5
Delivering the Work
Use your own AI workflow tools to produce client deliverables faster than clients expect.
For the AI Audit
Use Claude to write the report — edit for accuracy, add client-specific details, format in Google Docs with your branding. A report that would have taken a full day takes 2–3 hours with AI.
Claude prompt
“Write an AI workflow audit report for a [business type] business. Their key pain points are: [list]. Their current tools are: [list]. Write a professional 10-page report with: executive summary, current state assessment, top 5 AI implementation opportunities (each with: description, recommended tools, estimated time savings, implementation complexity, priority ranking), and a 90-day implementation roadmap.”
For Workflow Buildouts
Build the workflows in Zapier or Make.com. Test them thoroughly. Document each one with:
→What it does (one sentence)
→What triggers it and what it produces
→How to test it’s working and troubleshoot common issues
🎥
Record a Loom video (free screen recording tool) walking through each workflow — so the client can reference it any time without calling you.
For Monthly Retainers
Maintain a shared Google Drive folder per client:
→All workflow documentation
→Monthly review notes and backlog of new workflow ideas
→Communication log
Monthly check-ins via a structured Google Form (what’s working, what needs improvement, what new processes are eating time) feed directly into your monthly work plan.
L2M7.6
Pricing With Confidence
The biggest mistake new service providers make is underpricing — either because they don’t feel confident charging real rates or because they assume clients won’t pay.
Your price is not about what you feel your time is worth. It’s about what the result is worth to the client.
The ROI reframe
10 hours saved per week
at $100/hr value
Weekly value delivered
$1,000/week
Annual value delivered
$48,000/year
Your charge for the buildout
$2,000
Charging $2,000 for that buildout is not expensive. It’s a 24x ROI in year one alone. Anchor to results and ROI — not to your hourly rate or how many hours the work takes you.
How to present pricing
Don’t lead with a price. Lead with the outcome:
“The 3-workflow package I’m proposing will save your team approximately 8–10 hours per week based on what you described. At your team’s hourly cost, that’s around $1,200–$1,500 in labor saved every month. My investment for building these three systems is $2,500 — so you’ll break even within 2 months and save everything after that.”
When you frame it that way, $2,500 doesn’t sound expensive. It sounds like the only rational decision.
Module Summary
Here’s What We Covered
- ✦The market opportunity: every business knows they need AI but doesn’t know how to use it — you bridge that gap
- ✦The four service offerings: AI Audit ($300–$750), Workflow Buildout ($500–$7,500), Content System Setup ($1,000–$3,500), Monthly Retainer ($500–$1,500/month)
- ✦Finding your first clients: network mining, Fiverr/Upwork, and content marketing
- ✦The 5-part discovery call: their business, their time problems, their tools, your value demonstration, next steps
- ✦Delivering the work efficiently: AI-assisted audit reports, workflow documentation, Loom walkthroughs, retainer management
- ✦Pricing with confidence: anchor to results and ROI, not hours worked
Lever 2 — AI Workflows Complete
✅Module 1 — Introduction: How AI Workflows Save Time and Multiply Output
✅Module 2 — Top AI Tools: ChatGPT, Claude, Jasper, Midjourney, RunwayML
✅Module 3 — Building a Content Creation Workflow With AI
✅Module 4 — Automating Repetitive Tasks: Zapier and Make.com
✅Module 5 — AI for SEO and Keyword Research
✅Module 6 — Building an AI-Powered Daily Business Workflow
✅Module 7 — Selling AI Workflow Services to Other Businesses
Next up Lever 3: Modern SaaS Stack