What top automation systems should a beginner focus on for high ROI, and is it better to offer only four or five automation services to a specific niche?
Great question. I actually just published a video that breaks this down, so I’ll point you there. The basic framework is a two‑column chart: the left side shows the types of automation you should avoid selling, and the right side lists the high‑ROI services you can sell. All of those right‑side items have been covered in videos on my channel over the past year, so you can stitch together a blueprint, add your own twists, and make sure it feels like your own offering rather than just a re‑branded template. Focus on a handful of high‑ROI automation services, customize them for your niche, and you’ll have a solid, marketable package.
He explains that IT companies are service businesses and follow the same funnel as any other service business: lead generation, sales (discovery/scoping call), conversion (proposal/agreement/invoice), onboarding (kickoff call), fulfillment (building IT systems), and retention (ongoing management/managed service). Because the funnel is universal, you can adapt systems from other niches—cold‑email, speed‑to‑lead (PPC), content (SEO), automated referral/follow‑up/reactivation, proposal generator, asset generator, CRM, sales admin, webhook‑triggered kickoff calls, AI‑generated project briefs, and a template library for one‑click implementation. The key is to take a bird’s‑eye view, draw inspiration from adjacent niches, and teach the client to fish rather than give them a fish.
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Yes, you certainly can learn five to ten automations for one niche, apply them there, and then expand. I actually recommend picking three niches to start. Since you have no coding experience, you don't need any—none of this requires coding. If you want to see what it looks like, check out my recently published video where I cover exactly this question. I sourced some questions from the daily updates channel; you can head over to the 100KI expert answers for your most common questions. We were trying a new format where one of the questions was 'what niche should I pick?' and 'what automation should I sell?' So I give you a packaged version of that.
We have a bunch of people in Maker School experimenting with a wide landscape of niches, which is a benefit of being in the community. You can see which niches are working and which aren’t. HVAC, dentists, and law firms aren’t making a ton of money with automation because there aren’t enough of them to apply high‑volume, iterative strategies. I don’t recommend focusing on local services; instead go entirely digital and target industries with large headcounts that can benefit from automation without hurting profitability. The biggest boom right now is recruitment, which saw a surge of interest and will likely rise again. I also suggest experimenting with recruitment, older‑school agencies that haven’t caught up, MSPs, IT consultants, and similar businesses that can source leads automatically via tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
Manufacturing is already about automation (think assembly line). To find automation opportunities I start at the top of the funnel: reach, acquisition, conversion, expansion. For reach I look at AI‑driven creative generators, speed‑to‑lead systems (branded numbers, power dialing, follow‑up automation). For acquisition I automate quote production—saving time and improving quality by removing manual document review. For conversion I use high‑quality proposals, automated contractor dispatch, reminder systems. For expansion I follow up with promo offers and ideate solutions. The biggest gains come from automating front‑end sales and marketing rather than back‑end processes.