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Sell AI Data & Spreadsheet Automation: A $100/Hour Side Hustle

Every business runs on spreadsheets. Most businesses hate their spreadsheets. You can fix this with AI automation—and charge premium rates to do it.

The Pain You're Solving

Walk into any small business and you'll find:

  • • Manual data entry from emails to spreadsheets
  • • Copy-paste reporting that takes hours weekly
  • • Spreadsheets that break when someone edits the wrong cell
  • • "That one person who knows how the spreadsheet works" (and everyone panics when they're out)

Business owners will pay real money to make these problems disappear.

What You're Actually Selling

Don't Sell "Automation"

Sell time back:

  • "I'll save your team 10 hours every week on data entry."
  • "Your monthly reports will generate automatically every first of the month."
  • "No more copy-paste errors—the data flows automatically."

The AI Tools That Make This Possible

ChatGPT + Google Sheets/Excel

ChatGPT writes formulas, scripts, and explains complex spreadsheet logic. That VLOOKUP nightmare? Describe what you want in plain English, get the formula.

# Example prompt:

"Write a Google Sheets formula that: looks up a customer name in column A, finds their total orders from sheet 'Orders', and calculates average order value. Handle errors gracefully."

Make.com / Zapier

Visual automation builders. Connect apps without code. ChatGPT helps you design the logic and troubleshoot issues.

Common automations clients love:

  • • Form submission → CRM entry → Email notification
  • • Invoice received → Data extracted → Spreadsheet updated
  • • Report data pulled → Formatted → Emailed automatically

Google Apps Script / VBA

For more complex automation. ChatGPT writes these scripts from plain English descriptions. You don't need to be a programmer—you need to describe problems clearly.

Pricing Your Services

Hourly (Starting Out)

$75-150/hour

Project-Based (Better)

$500-5,000/project

Project Pricing Examples

  • • Simple automation (1 Zapier workflow): $300-500
  • • Spreadsheet overhaul with formulas: $500-1,000
  • • Multi-step workflow with documentation: $1,500-3,000
  • • Full business process automation: $3,000-10,000

Always quote projects after understanding scope. Ask: "How many hours does this currently take weekly?" Then price based on value, not hours.

Finding Clients

Best Channels

  1. 1. Local small businesses - accountants, real estate offices, contractors
  2. 2. LinkedIn - post about automation wins, DM people complaining about spreadsheets
  3. 3. Upwork - search "spreadsheet automation" to see demand
  4. 4. Referrals - every client knows 3 businesses with the same problems

The Pitch

"I noticed you're manually [specific task]. I can automate that so it happens automatically, accurately, every time. Usually saves my clients 5-10 hours/week. Want to see how it would work for your business?"

Delivery Process

Discovery (Free, 30 min)

  • • What's the current process?
  • • Where does data come from and go?
  • • What breaks? What's frustrating?
  • • How many hours does this take now?

Proposal (Same day)

  • • What you'll build
  • • What changes for them
  • • Timeline (usually 1-2 weeks)
  • • Price (project-based)

Build (Your time)

  • • Use AI to generate formulas, scripts, automations
  • • Test thoroughly before delivery
  • • Document everything (clients love documentation)

Handoff + Training

  • • Walk through the automation live
  • • Record a Loom tutorial
  • • Provide simple documentation

Ongoing Support (Optional revenue)

  • • $100-300/month retainer for maintenance
  • • First point of contact when something breaks

Scaling This

Solo Capacity

3-5 clients at a time, $5-15K/month

Scaling Options

  • • Niche down (become "the accountant automation guy")
  • • Productize (same automation sold to multiple clients)
  • • Hire help for implementation
  • • Create courses teaching what you do

Why AI Makes This Accessible

Previously, this work required serious technical skills. Now:

  • • ChatGPT writes your formulas and scripts
  • • Make.com/Zapier removes coding need
  • • YouTube + AI = you can learn any tool fast

The bottleneck isn't technical skill—it's understanding business problems and communicating value.

Start This Week

  1. 1. Audit your own data workflows—automate something for yourself
  2. 2. Post on LinkedIn about the automation (builds credibility)
  3. 3. DM 5 small businesses with an observation + offer
  4. 4. Land one client, deliver excellence, ask for referral

The first project is the hardest. After that, referrals kick in and you're busy.

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