Courses / Build & Sell AI Automations / Module 1 / Lesson 1.2

MODULE 1 · LESSON 1.2

The Business Model: Setup Fees, Retainers, and Near-Zero Costs

Lesson 1.2 of Module 1 · 10 min · Free

What you’ll learn

Understand the two-part pricing structure (one-time setup + monthly retainer), what it actually costs to run, and how to sanity-check a price with the client’s numbers instead of copying guru price tags.

After this lesson you can: build a simple price using the value formula (leads recovered × ticket size), list the real running costs from the verified pricing table, and explain what the retainer pays for.

Step-by-step

1. The setup fee
One-time. Pays for the build week: connecting the form, inbox and CRM, writing reply copy in the client’s voice, alerts, follow-up timing, the safety net, and testing together before go-live.

2. The monthly retainer
Pays for the system staying alive: hosting and executions, monitoring, small changes, and a monthly report with the numbers the client cares about.

3. Real costs — n8n
Self-hosted Community Edition: free software, unlimited executions; you provide the machine. Cloud Starter: €20/mo billed annually (€24 monthly), 2,500 executions/mo.

4. Real costs — Make
Free plan: $0 forever, 1,000 operations/mo, 2 active scenarios, 15-minute minimum check interval. Core: $9/mo, 10,000 operations.

5. Know your billing unit
1 n8n execution = one full workflow run, however many steps. 1 Make operation = one module action; a 10-module scenario costs ~10 operations per run.

6. Price with the client’s math
Formula: (extra booked jobs × average ticket) must comfortably exceed your fee — if it doesn’t, don’t sell it. Worked examples in the video are clearly labeled illustrative; the calculator below runs your real inputs.

Resources for this lesson

The calculator from the video, plus the verified cost table as a dated PDF.

Keep going

← Lesson 1.1: The Agency Model
Lesson 1.3: Install n8n →

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