How I'm Building An AI Automation Business (Live learnings)

Now that I am completely all in on Simple Flo (asset sales of my last business were finalized earlier this week), I plan to be building more automations and aligning them better with the practicality of running a small business.

This transition marks a pivotal moment for me and for this newsletter. I'm no longer hedging my bets or splitting focus, it's being my own boss AI automation as a service or bust.

What you can expect going forward

Here's my promise to you over the next few months:

• Every 2 weeks: At least one free automation template you can implement immediately

• When it happens: Behind-the-scenes breakdown of one automation that's actually making me money (with real numbers)

• Ongoing: Every client win, every expensive failure, and what I learned from both

This newsletter is becoming two things: first, me thinking out loud about how I get this business making money.

Second, practical value you can implement in your business right now.

As I said in last week's letter, I'll be learning from doing. Then documenting here, sharing my wins and losses in real time.

My vision for AI automation as a service

I believe AI automation as a service will expand rapidly in the next year or two.

Right now it's mostly tech nerds paying attention, but I see this expanding to every small business owner who's drowning in repetitive tasks.

I'm coming from the world of a small business owner, so I'm going to make sure every automation has obvious ROI (drive revenue, slash expenses, or save time).

No fancy tech for tech's sake. I plan on delivering them simply to clients.

Visualization will be key.

If anyone can visualize the process, it's much easier to improve your process, pass it off to someone else, and scale. (This is the thought that spurred the creation of Simple Flo

Where automation creates real value

Before we dive into specifics, let's talk about where this stuff actually matters.

Automation has value when it saves you time on repetitive processes you waste time on now, or creates a new system you've always wanted to implement but never had time to manage.

When we think about a new system you want to build or a repetitive system you currently have that you want to stop doing - that's where the real opportunity lies. Any little workflow you do with email, follow-ups, lead scoring, customer segmentation - all of this can run while you sleep.

Automations I’m thinking about in the near future

Here are the four automations I'm seeing as having the biggest impact for businesses:

1. Lead Scoring & Qualification Automatically identifies your hottest prospects so sales reps focus time on deals most likely to close. This should increases conversion rates and shorten sales cycles by ensuring high-intent leads get immediate attention while lower-quality leads get nurtured until ready.

2. Follow-up & Nurturing Sequences Most deals are lost to "no decision" rather than competitors. Automated follow-up ensures no prospects fall through cracks and keeps your solution top-of-mind. Studies show (heard it on a podcast lol) 80% of sales require 5+ touchpoints, but most reps give up after 2-3 attempts.

3. Pipeline Management & Deal Progression Alerts Prevents deals from stalling by automatically flagging when opportunities haven't progressed in __ days and triggering specific actions.

This dramatically reduces deal slippage and keeps momentum going on active opportunities that might otherwise go cold.

Note: I'll be breaking down exactly how to build each of these in future newsletters, with step-by-step guides and templates you can copy.

My platform choice and why

I'm deciding to go all in on one platform to start. I think that's better than learning a few off the bat.

I'm choosing Gumloop because I believe they have the most user-friendly interface and I believe that will be important for potential clients going forward.

Right now it's just tech nerds paying attention but I see that expanding and some people will want the interface to be beautiful and intuitive. Not to mention that it's extremely powerful and covers all the automation bases.

Referral code if you're interested in checking it out. https://www.gumloop.com/?via=SIMPLE

My go-to-market strategy (thinking out loud)

I'm thinking about lead systems - specifically pitching people with leads I already have. The idea is to make a lead magnet for a business and run ads to capture interested prospects, then use that as proof of concept for the automation services.

It's like, "Hey, look what I built for you in a week, imagine what we could do with your whole sales process."

Start here: your first steps

Not sure where to start with AI automation? Here's what I recommend:

1. Try this Slack bot I built - It takes 5 minutes to set up and will show you what's possible with basic automation.

   1. This is what I use to write script/outlines for my walk through videos.

   2. I send a brain dump about automation does via slack

   3. This triggers the automation which creates an outline using a specialized prompt and a reference document (the Notion page reader node).

   4. Then it writes the outline to a Notion page (keeps it organized) and sends my the link to the page via Slack when finished.

   

2. Use this ROI calculator to figure out which automation to tackle first

3. Subscribe to this newsletter for step-by-step guides coming in the next few weeks.

The bigger picture, beyond just automation

Here's where it gets interesting. I view these Gumloop flows as versatile enough to serve as backends for apps if one of them solves a popular enough pain point. It wouldn't be hard to vibe code a beautiful front end and connect the inputs to the Gumloop flow to produce results.

So, when selling ai automation as a service, you can eventually productize your service. This can scale 100x faster that the service. But the best part is you’re getting paid for your market research via your service offering.

Why choose Simple Flo over DIY

Simple Flo transforms months of trial-and-error into instant, working solutions.

When I develop a system, I test and test until it works perfectly, then it can be implemented into any business.

That's the beauty of AI automation workflows, once built, they run constantly and consistently without variation.

What's Coming Next

• Soon: The 3-automation stack to run your email while you

• End of month: First free automation template with step-by-step setup guide

I'm documenting this journey in real time. The wins, the expensive mistakes, and everything I learn about turning AI automation into a profitable service business.

Reply and let me know what automation challenge you're facing - I might feature your question in an upcoming newsletter.

Thanks for reading,

James

This will help you organize your mind and bring calm to your business, check it out.

👉🏻 Calm Business Blueprint.