What each one costs
In short
A hire costs a wage for as long as the job lasts, with benefits on top, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics put at 30 percent of what private industry employers spent per hour worked in June 2026. An automation sprint is a one-time price for three to five workflows connected across your tools, and the tools' own subscriptions run on your card.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes a median wage for the occupation it calls secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical and executive, so half of them earned more and half earned less, and an hourly cost for the wider group of office and administrative support workers, pay and benefits together. Both pages are linked further down, with the day each was read. A part-time hire costs a share of a full-time one, plus the weeks it takes to hire and train the person and the time it takes to manage them.
A person also brings what software cannot, such as judgment on an odd request or a friendly voice on the phone. The question is not which is better, but which of your tasks need those things.
The sprint's price follows how many workflows it builds and how many of your tools each one touches, and its workflows run on an n8n account in your name. A Growth site already includes two automations, such as a note to your team about each new inquiry or a weekly summary.
Once the workflows are live, something has to watch them, because an automation that breaks stops quietly. Our automation ops retainer covers that, or anyone else can, since the account and the notes are yours.
| Another hire | Automation | |
|---|---|---|
| Up front | Time to recruit and train | A build price for the sprint, set in a written plan |
| Each month | Wages, plus benefits and payroll costs | Tool subscriptions, plus an ops retainer if you want one |
| Good at | Judgment, conversations and anything new | The same steps every time, at any hour |
| When volume doubles | More hours, or another person | Sometimes a larger plan on the tool |
| When something goes wrong | They notice and ask | It fails quietly unless someone watches it |
Swipe sideways to see every column
Which tasks belong to which
In short
Give software the tasks with a clear trigger and fixed steps, and give people the ones that need a decision. The two combine well: automation takes the copying, so a person's hours go to the part that needs them.
Keep people on the calls, the complaints, the quotes that need judgment and anything a customer would be upset to learn a machine had decided. The list below holds good first candidates for software instead.
Small firms are not behind on new tools, either. Between September 2024 and August 2025, 8.2 percent of US businesses with fewer than five employees used AI, second only to firms with more than 250 employees, according to the SBA Office of Advocacy.
- A confirmation to each customer the moment they book or order
- A reminder the day before an appointment, with a link to reschedule
- Each new inquiry copied into the CRM, with a note to whoever follows up
- A weekly summary of new inquiries, orders or unpaid invoices
- A draft invoice when a job is marked done, for a person to approve
Where AI fits
In short
AI takes on the tasks plain rules cannot, where what comes in is in someone's own words, such as a phone call or a free-text email. Anything that needs a decision still goes to a person.
An automation follows the same steps every time, so it needs the same input every time. AI reads what people actually say, which lets software answer the phone or read an order that arrives as a PDF. Each AI job runs on rules you approve, and hands the odd case to someone on your team.
After launch an AI job runs on care or on an ops retainer, and the phone minutes and the AI usage bill at cost to accounts in your name. If you are not sure which task to hand over first, our AI plan answers that in writing for one business at one location, and what you paid for it is taken off the build it recommends when that build is signed within 60 days of delivery.
| What the AI job does | How it is priced | |
|---|---|---|
| Answering the phone | Answers by your rules, and books or puts the caller through to a person | A setup price, then receptionist care each month |
| Sorting the inbox and typing in orders | Sorts one inbox by your rules with draft replies a person sends, and reads one kind of paperwork into one system | A build price, then the ops retainer each month |
| Chasing confirmations and quotes | Writes each follow-up from your approved wording and the booking or quote it is about, and watches the replies for a request to stop, with every reply going to a person | A build price, then the same retainer |
Swipe sideways to see every column
A worked example (hypothetical)
In short
A landscaping company whose office manager spends mornings confirming visits and evenings typing invoices could hand both jobs to automations and keep the person for the calls.
Picture a landscaping company with two crews and one office manager, who starts each day phoning customers to confirm the visits and ends it turning finished jobs into invoices. A single sprint could send each customer a confirmation and a reminder the day before, and draft an invoice when a crew marks a job done, for the office manager to check and send.
The office manager keeps the work that needs a person: the complaint, the quote for a new garden, the customer who wants to talk it through. When a third crew starts, the automations carry the extra confirmations, and the next hire, when it comes, is a second voice for the phone rather than a second typist.
What this means for a small business
In short
Write down the tasks that fill the week, mark the ones with fixed steps, and automate those first. If the list that remains still needs more hours than your team has, that is the hire.
Time each task for one week, even roughly, and note who does it. A task that takes minutes a day and follows the same steps is usually the cheapest one to hand to software.
In the Los Angeles area we can sit for an hour with whoever does the work, which shows more than any list. For businesses elsewhere, a screen share of the same hour does the job.
Projects start at $2,500. Bring that week of notes to a short call, and the written plan that follows prices the sprint, and the ops retainer if you want one, before anything is built.