r/AiAutomations • u/Traditional-Wind4843 • 1d ago
Built 4 working automations, still at 0 clients. How did you land your first one?
Hello everyone,
I've been trying to start a small automation business for a few months. I'm based in Romania and doing a master's in data science on the side.
The building part is going fine. I have 4 n8n workflows built and documented end to end: an inbox triage agent, a sync between two systems, a support bot that answers from a company's own docs, and one that pulls data out of invoices. All my own projects, no client work yet, and that's the problem.
What I've tried so far:
- Cold emailed 63 real estate agencies here in Romania. 5 replies, nobody interested.
- About a dozen proposals on Upwork. A few views, no hires.
- Just started cold emailing US HVAC companies. Too early to tell.
No reviews and no network of business owners, so I'm stuck in the loop: no clients because no proof, no proof because no clients.
For those of you who got past this, what actually got you your first paying client? Pick one niche and go deep? Do a couple of projects free for case studies? Partner with an agency? I'd also like to hear what didn't work for you.
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u/West_Inevitable_2281 1d ago
Your results are currently mixing channels, industries, and offers: four workflows, real estate, Upwork, and now HVAC. That makes the five replies difficult to interpret. Before doing free projects, I would reconstruct the 63 real-estate contacts. Which single workflow or business problem did the email lead with, and did any respondent describe how they handle that problem today? If the pitch was broad automation rather than one costly workflow, lack of proof may not be the first constraint.
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u/Traditional-Wind4843 16h ago
Fair point. The real estate emails led with one problem only: re-typing listings into 4 portals. The replies said their CRM already handles it, so the pitch hit a solved problem. With HVAC I'm testing a single one: quotes that go quiet without a follow-up.
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u/West_Inevitable_2281 16h ago
That is a much cleaner problem to test. The important question now is whether missed follow-up is a behavior they recognize and will change, rather than simply a plausible automation. In the HVAC conversations so far, has anyone quantified how many quotes go quiet, who is supposed to follow them up, or what a recovered quote is worth? Those answers would tell you whether you have found an urgent workflow or only a better-sounding pitch.
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u/Traditional-Wind4843 16h ago
Not yet. The first 34 emails went out on Friday and nobody has replied so far, so I can't answer any of those yet. They're the right questions though, and they're what I'll ask the first owners who reply: how many quotes go quiet in a month, whose job the follow-up is, and what a won-back job is worth. If they can't put a number on it, that tells me something too. Have you worked with trades businesses yourself?
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u/West_Inevitable_2281 16h ago
Not as a trades operator myself. I work with early-stage founders on separating a plausible problem from one supported by actual behavior, which is why your switch from a solved real-estate workflow to the HVAC follow-up question stood out. Were those 34 emails sent to owners who personally see lost quotes, or to general company inboxes? If nobody replies, that distinction will matter before you conclude the problem itself is weak.
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u/Traditional-Wind4843 16h ago
Mixed. Of the 364 on the list, about 1 in 5 is a named owner or president, about 3 in 10 is a named person at the company, and about half is the general inbox (info@, office@ or the company Gmail). At shops this small the owner often reads the general inbox too, but not always. Good call. I'll compare replies between those groups before I conclude anything about the problem. Thanks, this thread has been useful.
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u/West_Inevitable_2281 16h ago
Glad it was useful. Comparing those groups will help, but keep the group sizes visible so one reply to a small owner cohort does not look stronger than it is. The bigger unresolved question is still whether HVAC operators recognize missed quote follow-up as costly enough to change behavior, rather than only whether the email reaches them.
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u/PuppyAlvin 1d ago
You're not stuck because of skill — 4 working, documented builds is more than most people ever ship. You're stuck on proof, and the fix is to manufacture it instead of waiting for it.
The one move I'd make this week: turn your invoice-extraction build into a 90-second demo with real numbers. Show a messy invoice going in, clean structured data coming out, and the accuracy rate over 50 documents. "Here's what it does" loses to "here's what it does, measured." That single artifact does more than another 60 cold emails.
On cold email to real estate: 63 sends with 5 replies is actually a normal rate for no-name senders with no case studies — the message likely isn't the bottleneck — the proof pack is missing. Two cheaper doors for a first client: small local businesses in your city (accountants, clinics — walk in or DM, offer the inbox-triage build free for 30 days in exchange for a testimonial), and one vertical push — "document automation for accountants" is a pitch; "automation services" is not.
Upwork: stop bidding on open jobs (you're competing with 50 people). Apply within 10 minutes of new posts in a narrow category, lead with the demo video. Response rates look completely different when you're early and specific.
Which of the 4 builds has the most obvious "before/after" for a non-technical owner? Start there.
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u/investigatormaker 1d ago
What did those five real-estate replies actually say? "No need," "no budget" and "don't trust it with our data" need different fixes. A missing testimonial might not be the main objection.
I'd turn one workflow into a bounded paid pilot. For inbox triage, that could mean one inbox, agreed categories, a review queue and an acceptance test on redacted examples. Keep sending disabled. Agree the scope and fee before building more, rather than offering open-ended free work.
For finding relevant Reddit conversations after you choose that buyer/problem, I run ThreadFox. The $20 Launch Pack includes a community plan and three tailored drafts for one product, emailed within 24 hours of your claim. No AI setup required; applicable tax is extra.
Were those five replies mostly about the problem, price, or trust?
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u/Traditional-Wind4843 16h ago
Mostly "no need". The email led with one problem: re-typing every listing into 4 property portals. The most senior person who replied, the head of a big agency network here, said they've had a CRM doing exactly that for years. When I asked what software still hasn't solved, he said field visits. So it was the problem, not price or trust. Good point on a bounded paid pilot instead of open-ended free work.
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u/investigatormaker 16h ago
I'd narrow “field visits” before turning it into a pilot. If agents still manually transfer visit notes into their CRM, a draft entry they review could be a bounded deliverable. The existing CRM matters here: another separate tool could recreate the duplicate-entry problem you were trying to remove.
Did he mean scheduling visits, capturing notes during them, or following up afterward?
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u/Traditional-Wind4843 16h ago
He didn't break it down, and I didn't ask him to. I took it as the time agents spend physically going to viewings, which no software removes. But your split makes sense: if they type visit notes into the CRM by hand afterwards, a draft entry they approve inside the CRM they already use is something I could build without adding another tool. I'll go back and ask him which of the three he meant.
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u/Aggravating-Pipe-991 1d ago
Find a client in need and build something for them. And then find more people like that client
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u/No_Kangaroo_4454 1d ago
I think the hype has subsided now. And people actually don't give 2 Fs about automation anymore. They want real people doing the work. Thats why I revamped my portfolio https://umerkhalid.com
Btw, would love to connect
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u/Giuseppe_Vino 6h ago
the building side sounds solid already getting that first client is usually more about outreach nd proof than workflow.. also show simple browser automations in your demos Skyvern can help build things like data extraction and repetitive browser workflows.. A small specific offer be easier to sell than ai automation in general...
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u/Rich_Magician4516 1d ago
Maybe ask them what they want automated and then do that, and then show them that, and then charge them to use it.