The Engine Room
Working AI automations. Import them, connect your accounts, done.
Eleven n8n + Claude workflows for small business owners — inbox triage, lead follow-up, newsletters, invoice chasing, and more. Each one solves a named problem, imports as a finished build with tested prompts already in place, and sets up in about four minutes at the median. A one-hour on-ramp takes you from no account to your first running workflow. No code, no developer. $47 once, run on about $39/month of usage you control. 30-day works-as-documented guarantee.
What's inside
1. Inbox triage — reads what is waiting, sorts what matters, drafts the replies that need you.
2. Inquiry responder — drafts accurate first responses from your own business details.
3. Lead first-touch — a same-day first touch, drafted and queued for your approval.
4. Review request — catches the right moment and drafts the ask for a happy customer.
5. Newsletter assembler — pulls the pieces together into a draft you edit, not a blank page you dread.
6. Content repurposer (lite) — turns one piece into platform-shaped drafts.
7. Comment reply drafter — drafts replies in your voice for one-click review.
8. Invoice chase — polite, firm, correctly-timed reminders, drafted for your sign-off.
9. Meeting notes → actions — turns notes into owners, actions, and a send-ready recap.
10. Monday pulse — a monday-morning brief assembled while you sleep.
11. Content idea miner — mines what your audience is asking and hands you a ranked idea list.
Appendix — the cost math, line by line
What it costs to run the engine room.
Two usage-metered services, no subscriptions to us:
n8n Cloud — the workflow host. $24/month at the volumes these workflows generate.
Claude API — pay-as-you-go per use; ~$15/month at realistic small-business volumes across all eleven workflows.
Total: about $39/month, scaling with how much you actually run. No per-seat fees, no platform markup from us.
What the equivalent SaaS stack costs.
Pricing from vendor pages, mid-tier small-business plans, June 2026. Prices are month-to-month unless noted; annual billing is typically lower. Where one tool covers several functions, it’s counted once (no double-counting).
1. Inbox triage + draft replies — SaneBox (lean) → Superhuman Starter (full) — $8–$25
2. Inquiry auto-responder — Tidio Growth / ManyChat Pro — $29–$49
3. Lead first-touch — ActiveCampaign Plus — $49
4. Review-request automation — NiceJob (lean) → Birdeye (full, $299/mo annual / ~$349 monthly) — $75–$299
5. Newsletter assembly — Included w/ ActiveCampaign, or Mailchimp Standard — $0–$20
6. Content repurposing — Repurpose.io Solo — $39
7. Social comment + DM replies — ManyChat (counted) / Buffer Team — $0–$48
8. Invoice / AR chasing — FreshBooks Plus — $42
9. Meeting notes → actions — Fireflies.ai Pro — $10
10. Weekly metrics digest — Looker Studio (free) → Databox Pro (full, $159/mo) — $0–$159
11. Content idea generation — Perplexity Pro (lean) → Taplio Growth (full) — $20–$69
Separate-tools total — ~$272–$829/mo
Consolidated-suite path (one platform + a few point tools) lands lower — roughly $190–$415/month via HubSpot Starter, Zoho One, or GoHighLevel plus supplements — because suites bundle several of the functions above.
So the honest range is ~$200–$830/month, depending on whether you buy best-of-breed or consolidate. Either way it’s a recurring monthly bill. the engine room is $47 once, run on about $39/month of usage you control.
Honest note: a few of these tools (invoicing, email sending) do things you may keep paying for regardless — the engine room reduces or replaces the automation layer, it doesn’t claim to zero out every line. The comparison is the stack of automation these workflows stand in for.
In use
Every workflow imports as the full wired canvas — every node connected, setup notes pinned, the Claude prompt already written and tested — then drafts for your approval. Nothing sends itself.
Get The Engine Room — $47
Eleven working automations, the Module 0 on-ramp, per-workflow chapters, the cost-math appendix, and free library updates.
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