Busywork is a tax on every business — and most of it is just software talking to software, badly, through a human. These five n8n starter workflows are the ones I give away as a free pack: import each JSON into n8n, run the built-in demo, then connect your own AI credentials when you're ready. Less busywork, more building.
Turn an enquiry into a reviewable priority. The workflow assesses the business enquiry you supply and drafts a priority level and next step — so a human opens their day looking at a sorted list, not a raw inbox. No scraping, no automatic outreach, no CRM lock-in; your input, your call.
Answer from your own FAQ — and escalate the unknowns. Feed it your FAQ once; each new question gets a draft reply built only from what your FAQ actually says. If the answer isn't in there, it flags the question for a human instead of inventing one. Drafts, not sends: you review before anything reaches a customer.
Turn a brand brief into hooks and outlines. Pillars, hooks, outlines and CTAs generated from the brief you wrote — the thinking structure of a content week, drafted in one run, ready for a human to sharpen.
Turn supplied video notes into original angles. You paste in the research you gathered; the workflow converts it into fresh, original video ideas. It doesn't query live YouTube analytics and it won't promise you a viral video — it turns homework into starting points.
Follow up — keep it human. Using approved lead context, this one drafts a respectful next message: subject and body, ready for your review. It sends nothing. The fastest way to lose a lead is a robotic follow-up; the second fastest is no follow-up at all. This sits exactly in between.
Every template starts inactive, in demo mode — the demo branch returns a clearly tagged example without any paid AI request. All five were imported and demo-tested in n8n 2.44.4. A full START-HERE setup guide comes with the pack.
Don't wire up all five today. Pick the repetitive task you complain about most, import that one workflow, run its demo, and let the saved hours fund the next. Automation compounds — but only if you start.
These are starters. I build full lead-gen and automation systems for service businesses — book a free audit and I'll map the first one for you.
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