#44 · Do I Charge AI Automation Agency Clients for Usage?

youtube ↗AI & Automation

How do I connect people's accounts to services like Google Calendar without making them create a Google Cloud account?

I use make.com for the vast majority of my clients; it’s simple—just connect the account, click a button, and you’re done. For Google Calendar specifically, you don’t need to go through the full process of connecting a calendar to see events. If your goal is just to view events on a calendar, you can share that calendar with another calendar in the same organization, and the other calendar will see all events (and sometimes edit them) without needing the client’s Google Calendar. Instead, you can share your own Google Calendar, handling all the Google Cloud setup yourself. If that doesn’t work for your app, note that self‑hosted n8n will encounter more issues than cloud‑hosted n8n, requiring more frequent Google Cloud account handling. Cloud‑hosted n8n has built‑in direct OAuth integrations, making it easier (though slightly more costly). Overall, I think your mobile app idea is awesome and could be very valuable; just consider whether you can realistically invest the time and energy without immediate return, as SaaS apps often require that, whereas a service business lets you earn while you build, then later productize the solution.

google calendarmake.comoauthautomation

Related answers

youtube ↗AI & Automation

I'm trying to build a VAPI-based outbound calling agent that books appointments into a client's Google Calendar, and I want to do this at scale across multiple clients. How do I get access to a client's Google Calendar for the Make scenario without asking for their actual Google login, since most people won't feel comfortable sharing that and most tutorials only show how to do it for your own calendar?

Two ways to do this without needing a client's actual login. One: have the client create a Google Workspace account for you (or your automation account) and get invited as a user on all events automatically, so that account's calendar mirrors all the relevant events. Two: use Google Calendar's native sharing feature — the client shares their calendar with you (or specific events only, if some are private), and your automation runs off that shared calendar. Both let you build the automation without ever touching the client's login credentials directly. That said, I don't think a VAPI outbound calling agent is a very high-value approach to build your ads agency around in the first place — it's worth reconsidering the bigger picture, not just the calendar-access mechanics.

google calendarclient accesscredentials
youtube ↗Agency Operations

How do you deliver n8n workflows to clients who aren't familiar with them? Do they self-host their own account or pay a monthly subscription for cloud hosting? How do you get their credentials/API keys — do you get access on the call and set it up on their n8n account yourself, or do you guide them through it?

They pay for cloud hosting on a monthly subscription and sign up themselves — I get them to create the account, guide them through it, and then they hand me the account access, since it's tied to their card. That's the 80/20 approach: guide them to create it, get access, but they own and pay for it.

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youtube ↗AI & Automation

How do you host n8n for automations? I want to self-host since I'm out of budget, but I tried following your free self-hosting video and it's complicated. Can you clarify or help?

I don't actually recommend self-hosting for this — I'd recommend cloud hosting instead. It costs more, but the moment you deliver value for even one client (which cloud hosting lets you do much faster), you immediately pay back that added cost, because cloud hosting gets you up and running so fast. You never have to deal with Google auth setup or Cloud Console configuration for a bunch of the common self-hosting headaches — most of it's handled for you. I'd just recommend going with cloud hosting.

n8nself-hosting vs cloudno budget
youtube ↗Agency Operations

How does your onboarding process work for gathering clients' Google Calendar access and other needed platforms?

Thanks for the question. On crushing tasks fast: I've been imperfect lately, but the key is to prioritize distribution over perfection—build a minimal viable version quickly, sell it, then improve based on user feedback. For onboarding, I hop on a kickoff call right after signing the deal. We go over timelines, expectations, answer any questions, then walk through the list of platforms (like Google Calendar) and sign up for everything live so I have all access up front. This avoids chasing passwords later. I've refined this into a simple SOP covering timelines, availability, platforms, and wrap-up, which gives the client full access by the end of the call.

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