How much does it cost to automate a process in a small business
It is priced two ways combined: a one-time setup fee and a monthly plan. The sound rule is that the monthly fee should always be lower than what the automation saves per month. If it frees 10 hours, the fee should cost the equivalent of one or two of those hours, not ten.
How it is priced, and why
| Item | What it covers | When you pay |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | Configuring it to your business, migrating your existing data and training the team | Once, at the start |
| Monthly plan | Keeping it running, support, improvements and hosting | Every month |
| Custom development | When the process is unique and no package covers it | Per project, at a fixed price |
The setup plus subscription model exists for a reason: without the subscription, the vendor delivers and disappears, and six months later the system does not work. The subscription is what aligns the incentives.
The calculation to run before deciding
You do not need a complicated spreadsheet. It is four numbers:
- How many hours a month the task takes today. Count honestly, adding up the small pieces.
- What an hour of whoever does it is worth. If the owner does it, it is worth more than you think.
- How much of that gets recovered. A good system leaves around 10 to 15% of the work, not zero.
- What the monthly fee costs.
If the monthly saving is larger than the fee, it pays for itself from month one. If it is not, either the chosen task was wrong or the price does not work. Both are reasons not to proceed.
You can run the numbers here, without leaving any details.
Why this was impossible three years ago
Until recently, building custom software for a small business did not add up: the cost of building and maintaining it was too high against what a small business could pay. That is why good software was the exclusive property of large companies.
What changed is the cost of production. With current tooling, building and maintaining this kind of system costs a fraction of what it did, and that makes serving small clients profitable. It is not that we charge less for the same thing: it is that it now costs less to make.
Questions worth asking before signing
- Is the data mine, and can I take it with me? If the answer is not a clear yes, that is a problem.
- What exactly does the monthly fee include? Support, improvements and hosting should be inside it.
- What happens if I need a change? Small changes usually fit inside the fee; large ones get quoted separately and that is fine, as long as you are told beforehand.
- Can I see it working before paying? A prototype before payment should be normal, not a favour.
- Is there a minimum commitment? The longer the lock-in, the stronger the justification should be.