What is an automation consultant?
An automation consultant is someone you hire to find the repetitive work in your business and make it run without a person doing it, usually by connecting the software you already own rather than selling you new software. The good ones start with your workflow and work backward to the tools; the bad ones start with a product and work backward to a pitch.
What does an automation consultant actually do day to day?
Three things, in a loop. First, discovery: watching how the work actually happens, which is usually different from how everyone says it happens, and finding the tasks that repeat, follow rules, and eat hours. Second, the plan: writing down, in plain English, what will change, which tools will talk to each other, and what stays human, so you can veto it before anything gets built. Third, the build: wiring the tools together, testing against real work, and then keeping it alive, because software updates break integrations and somebody has to answer for that. The keeping-it-alive part is the part owners forget to ask about, and it's the part that separates a consultant from a freelancer who disappears after delivery.
What does an automation consultant cost?
It varies more than almost any service you'll buy, because the label covers everyone from a solo operator to a national agency, billing hourly, by the project, or on retainer. Hourly billing is common and unpredictable; project pricing is predictable but creates an incentive to ship and leave; retainers cost more per month but include the maintenance that keeps automations from quietly dying. For one honest, public data point: Mango Catalyst charges $795 one-time for the first working automation, then $1,000 a month (3-month start, month to month after that), which covers keeping everything running, a queue of small tweaks, and scoping for bigger builds. Whatever the model, get the number and what it includes in writing before anyone builds anything.
Do I need a consultant, an employee, or just software?
Match the fix to the size of the problem. If you have one annoying task and some patience, the software you already own can probably do it: most modern tools have built-in automations that go unused. If you have constant systems work, enough to fill a desk every week, hire the employee. The consultant fits the gap in the middle, which is where most small businesses under 25 people live: too much repetitive work to ignore, not enough to justify a full-time systems hire. You get the systems person without the salary, and the work gets built by someone who does it every day instead of squeezed into the office manager's Friday afternoons.
What should I ask before hiring one?
Five questions sort the operators from the salesmen:
Which tools do you work in every day? You want named platforms, not "we do everything."
What happens when an automation breaks? Get response times in writing. "It won't break" is the wrong answer; everything breaks eventually.
Who owns the accounts and where does my data live? The automations should live in accounts you own wherever possible, and the answer should be specific to your setup.
Walk me through something you built. Not a slide, a walkthrough: what the work looked like before, what runs itself now, what stayed human.
What would you NOT automate in my business? Anyone who says "everything can be automated" is selling. The honest ones name what stays human.
If you want to see how one consultant answers these, the person behind Mango Catalyst keeps his answers public.
The fastest way to find out if you need one: book a 15-minute fit call. If you don't, I'll say so on the call.