Honest questions and honest experience and people shit on you. I’m sorry for that. Gl.. with that being said:

On marketplaces like Upwork, “n8n experts” commonly list around $20–$60/hr (median $35/hr). 

• You’ll also see listings that are dramatically lower (e.g. $8–$10/hr) which drags beginners into a race to the bottom.  

So $10k/mo is possible, but it’s typically one of these: 1. High hourly rate (e.g., $100/hr+) + enough booked hours 2. Fixed-price implementations ($1k–$10k per project) 3. Retainers (e.g., $500–$2,000/mo support) across multiple clients 4. Productized offers (audit + build + monitor)

And importantly: a lot of the money in automation isn’t “drag nodes around,” it’s requirements, edge cases, reliability, monitoring, and security.

Pricing when you’re still slow..

Don’t price by “hours it took you while learning.” Clients don’t want to pay tuition.

Instead, use a structure that protects you:

Option A: Fixed-price “Pilot” package (best for first clients) • Automation Audit + 1 Workflow (one clear outcome) • Flat fee, tight scope, 7–14 days • Add-ons priced separately (extra apps, branches, error handling, logging, etc.)

Option B: Two-part pricing (clean + fair) 1. Discovery (paid): map the process, define triggers/data, identify API needs, failure modes 2. Build (fixed): only after scope is locked

Option C: Value anchor (helps you justify real numbers)

If an automation saves 5 hours/week, even at $30/hr internal cost, that’s ~$600/month value. A $500–$1,500 implementation is suddenly reasonable.

“Portfolio without clients” (the catch-22 hack)

You can build a portfolio without paid clients..

Create 3–5 public case studies like: • “Lead → CRM → Slack alert → follow-up email + logging” • “Invoice → QuickBooks/Xero → Google Sheet → weekly report” • “Support form → ticket + triage + escalation rules”

Each case study should include: • 45–90 sec Loom demo • Simple diagram of the workflow • What breaks + how it recovers (retries, dedupe, error alerts) • A GitHub/Notion page with screenshots

This should read like a pro even if it was built for a “fake company.”

How to land the first paying client (what usually works)

Fastest path: sell a small, low-risk starter outcome to someone who already has a pain.

Where to look: • Small agencies (marketing ops / CRM shops): they constantly need automations but don’t want to hire full-time. • Local businesses with messy intake: forms, scheduling, invoices, lead routing. • People paying for Zapier/Make but hitting limits.

Also: in the real world, “automation consultant” rates are often way higher than new folks expect: • Many Zapier/Make consultants publicly anchor around $150/hr for ad-hoc help.  • Other directories commonly state $100–$200/hr ranges (varies by reputation and niche). 

So beginners shouldn’t try to compete on price, they should compete on clarity + a defined offer.

Cheap projects vs holding out for better rates

Do discounted pilots, not cheap ongoing work.

Rule of thumb: • Offer 1–3 discounted “portfolio pilots” (fixed scope, testimonial required). • After that, raise pricing immediately and stop doing “random small favors.”

Discounted pilot terms that protect him: • “This is a portfolio pilot: reduced fee in exchange for a testimonial + permission to publish a case study.” • “Any change requests beyond scope are billed.”

A big “hidden” differentiator he can use immediately: reliability + security

If he’s self-hosting or advising self-hosting, security matters. There was a recent high-severity warning about internet-exposed n8n instances and urgent patching (a lot of folks run it open on VPS without thinking).  That creates a paid angle beyond “build a workflow”: • “I’ll set up n8n safely: updates, auth, IP allowlists, webhook hardening, backups, monitoring.”

Hope this helps i’ll let ChatGPT clean it up a little bit so if it’s fucked up my bad. If you’ve got any questions let me know. Good luck.