Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
Last year, I walked into what most business process consultants would call a nightmare scenario. A B2B startup had closed a deal, and someone had to manually create a Slack group for the project. Small task? Maybe. But multiply that by dozens of deals per month, and you've got hours of repetitive work eating into productivity.
This wasn't an isolated case. Across my freelance projects, I've seen the same pattern: businesses drowning in manual processes that could be automated, but struggling to choose the right tools and implement them effectively. The problem isn't that automation tools don't exist—it's that most businesses approach automation backwards.
Here's what I learned after implementing automation across three different platforms (Make.com, N8N, and Zapier) for real client projects: the tool doesn't matter as much as understanding your actual constraints. Most automation guides focus on features and capabilities. This playbook focuses on what actually works in practice.
You'll discover:
Why I migrated the same automation workflow across three platforms (and what each taught me)
The real-world decision framework that saves you from automation tool paralysis
How to identify which processes are actually worth automating (hint: it's not what you think)
My step-by-step workflow implementation process that prevents automation failures
When expensive tools are worth it vs. when they're just burning money
Industry Reality
What every consultant tells you about automation
Walk into any business automation consultation, and you'll hear the same recommendations. The industry has created a standard playbook that sounds logical on paper:
Start with process mapping - Document everything before automating anything
Choose the most popular tool - Usually Zapier because "everyone uses it"
Automate everything possible - If it can be automated, it should be
Focus on ROI calculations - Measure time saved and multiply by hourly rates
Scale gradually - Start small and build complex workflows over time
This conventional wisdom exists because it's safe. Process mapping reduces liability for consultants. Popular tools have more documentation. ROI calculations make executives happy. But here's the problem: this approach treats automation like a feature upgrade instead of a strategic business decision.
The reality is more nuanced. I've seen businesses waste thousands on "comprehensive automation strategies" that delivered minimal impact, while simple workflows transformed their operations overnight. The difference isn't in the complexity of the automation—it's in understanding your team's actual constraints and choosing tools that work with your reality, not against it.
Most automation fails not because of technical limitations, but because of human factors the conventional wisdom completely ignores.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The project started simple enough: a B2B startup needed their operations streamlined. Their brief was straightforward—website revamp. But as I dove deeper into their workflow, I discovered something that most businesses overlook: their client operations were scattered across HubSpot and Slack, creating unnecessary friction in their daily operations.
The real challenge emerged during our discovery phase. Every time they closed a deal, someone had to manually create a Slack group for the project. The process involved logging into Slack, creating a group, adding the right team members, setting up the project structure, and updating HubSpot with the Slack channel link. This took about 15 minutes per deal, but the real cost was the context switching and the inevitable delays when deals were closed after hours or during busy periods.
What made this particularly frustrating was the client's growth trajectory. They were closing 2-3 deals per week, but their sales velocity was increasing. The manual process that seemed manageable at 10 deals per month would become a bottleneck at 50+ deals per month. We needed a solution that would scale with their growth, not constrain it.
My first instinct was to go with the industry standard approach: comprehensive process mapping, stakeholder interviews, and a detailed automation strategy. But the client was a lean startup with limited patience for lengthy implementation cycles. They needed results fast, and they needed the solution to be maintainable by their non-technical team.
This is where I learned my first critical lesson about business process automation: the perfect solution doesn't exist, but the right solution for your constraints does. The challenge wasn't technical—any automation platform could handle this workflow. The challenge was finding the approach that would work with their team's capabilities, budget constraints, and operational reality.
What happened next taught me more about automation tool selection than any technical documentation ever could.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Rather than starting with theory, I decided to test the same automation workflow across three different platforms to understand their real-world differences. This wasn't about finding the "best" tool—it was about understanding which tool worked best for this specific client's constraints.
Phase 1: Make.com - The Budget-Friendly Start
I initially chose Make.com for one simple reason: pricing. The automation worked beautifully at first—HubSpot deal closes, Slack group gets created automatically. The setup was intuitive, and the visual workflow builder made it easy to understand the logic flow.
But here's what the tutorials don't tell you: when Make.com hits an error in execution, it stops everything. Not just that task, but the entire workflow. For a growing startup, that's a dealbreaker. I discovered this during week three when a HubSpot API timeout caused the automation to fail, and nobody realized new deals weren't getting Slack groups created until the client noticed teams working without proper project channels.
The lesson: cheap tools can be expensive when they fail at critical moments. Make.com works well for simple, linear workflows, but lacks the reliability needed for mission-critical business processes.
Phase 2: N8N - The Developer's Paradise
Next, I migrated everything to N8N. More setup required, definitely needed developer knowledge, but the control was incredible. You can build virtually anything, handle complex error scenarios, and customize every aspect of the workflow.
The automation became more robust—I built in error handling, retry logic, and multiple fallback scenarios. Technically, it was superior to the Make.com version in every way. But here's the critical issue: every small tweak the client wanted required my intervention.
When they wanted to change the Slack group naming convention, I had to update the code. When they wanted to add a team member to default groups, I had to modify the workflow. The interface, while powerful, isn't no-code friendly. I became the bottleneck in their automation process.
This taught me the most important lesson about automation tools: technical superiority means nothing if it creates dependency.
Phase 3: Zapier - The Expensive Solution That Paid for Itself
Finally, we migrated to Zapier. Yes, it's more expensive. But here's what changed everything: the client's team could actually use it. They could navigate through each Zap, understand the logic, and make small edits without calling me.
The handoff was smooth. When they wanted to modify the automation, they could do it themselves. When they needed to add new triggers or actions, they could experiment safely. The interface was intuitive enough that non-technical team members could troubleshoot basic issues.
More importantly, Zapier's error handling is designed for business users, not developers. When something fails, the error messages are clear, and the retry mechanisms are automatic. The reliability matched their business needs, not just their technical requirements.
The Implementation Framework
Through this three-platform journey, I developed a systematic approach to automation implementation:
Constraint Analysis First - Before evaluating tools, understand your team's technical capabilities, budget limitations, and growth trajectory
Single Workflow Testing - Pick one critical process and test it across multiple platforms before committing
Team Autonomy Evaluation - Can your team modify and maintain this automation without external help?
Failure Mode Planning - How does each platform handle errors, and what's the business impact when things break?
Gradual Migration Strategy - Start with non-critical processes to test platform reliability before automating mission-critical workflows
Budget Constraints
Make.com works when cost is the primary concern and workflows are simple. But factor in the hidden costs of downtime and manual intervention when automation fails.
Technical Capability
N8N is powerful but requires ongoing developer involvement. Choose this only if you have technical resources available for maintenance and updates.
Team Independence
Zapier costs more upfront but reduces long-term dependency. The business value comes from team autonomy, not just feature capabilities.
Error Handling
Different platforms handle failures differently. Test error scenarios during evaluation—this often determines real-world success more than feature lists.
The results spoke for themselves, but not in the way most automation case studies present them. The measurable impact wasn't just about time saved—it was about workflow reliability and team confidence.
With Make.com, we saved approximately 12 hours per month in manual Slack group creation, but experienced 3 automation failures that required 2+ hours each to identify and fix. Net benefit: 6 hours saved, but with reliability concerns.
N8N eliminated the reliability issues and saved the full 12 hours monthly, but required 4-6 hours of my time monthly for modifications and maintenance. The client was technically dependent on external help for any changes.
Zapier delivered the full 12 hours of monthly savings with zero maintenance overhead and complete team independence. The higher subscription cost ($50/month vs $25/month) was offset by eliminated consultation fees and improved operational confidence.
But the most significant result was unexpected: automation success changed how the team approached other operational challenges. They began identifying other manual processes that could be streamlined, and they had the tools and confidence to implement solutions themselves. The initial HubSpot-Slack automation became the foundation for a broader operational efficiency initiative.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Team capability trumps tool capability - The best automation platform is the one your team can actually use and maintain independently
Reliability beats features - A simple automation that works consistently is more valuable than a complex one that fails occasionally
Hidden costs matter more than subscription costs - Factor in maintenance time, dependency risks, and failure recovery when calculating ROI
Start with constraints, not capabilities - Understanding your limitations helps you choose tools that work with your reality
Test failure scenarios during evaluation - How a platform handles errors often determines real-world success more than its feature list
Automation success breeds automation adoption - One successful workflow often catalyzes broader operational improvements
User experience matters in B2B tools - If your team can't easily understand and modify automations, you've created a new dependency problem
What I'd do differently: I would start with constraint analysis before platform evaluation. Understanding the team's technical capabilities and operational requirements would have saved weeks of implementation time and prevented the false starts with platforms that weren't aligned with their actual needs.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
Start with customer success workflows that directly impact retention and expansion revenue
Focus on CRM-to-communication tool integrations to eliminate manual project setup delays
Choose platforms that non-technical team members can modify to maintain operational independence
For your Ecommerce store
Prioritize order fulfillment and customer communication workflows that directly affect customer experience
Automate inventory-to-marketing platform connections to prevent overselling and optimize ad spend
Implement review collection and customer feedback loops to build social proof automatically