Building Profitable Automations: Practical Advice from Stephen Pope

Stephen Pope joined me on the show to talk about something we both care about: building automations that actually make money for businesses. Not the theoretical kind you see in blog posts — the kind that runs in production and generates measurable ROI.

Start With the Pain, Not the Tool

Stephen's approach mirrors what we do at PerezCarreno & Coindreau. Don't start with "we should use AI" and work backward. Start with "what's costing us the most time and money?" and then figure out if automation is the right solution.

Nine times out of ten, the biggest pain point isn't what the business owner thinks it is. They'll say "we need a chatbot" when what they actually need is a better intake process. The diagnostic step is crucial.

The Make.com Philosophy

Stephen is a big proponent of Make.com (formerly Integromat) for building automations, and so are we. The visual, node-based approach makes it possible for non-developers to understand what the automation does — and that's important for handoff.

The key insight he shared: build the automation so the business can modify it themselves for simple changes. Don't create a black box that requires a developer every time they want to change a response or add a new field.

Pricing Automation Projects

One of the more honest conversations we had was about pricing. Stephen's take: charge based on the value you're creating, not the hours it takes. If an automation saves a business 20 hours per week and costs them $5,000 to build, that's a no-brainer ROI. Don't undersell yourself because "it only took 3 hours to build."

The Ongoing Relationship

The best automation clients are the ones who come back for more. Once they see the ROI from the first automation, they start seeing opportunities everywhere. The initial project is rarely the most profitable one — it's the relationship that follows.

Stephen's advice: deliver more than expected on the first project. The lifetime value of a happy automation client is enormous.