The complete tool stack for a one-person AI business

Step 1

Claude Code: hire your engineer first

Pro $20/mo to start · Max $100/mo when it's staff

Most people start with the automation tool. Wrong move. Start with the thing that builds everything else. Claude Code is a terminal-based AI agent that writes real code, edits real files, and runs real commands. Every workflow, script, and client fix after this step, it writes for you.

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
claude

Then give it its first job. Type this as your prompt:

# Prompt:
Scaffold my client delivery repo. Create folders for
workflows, scripts, and delivery. Write a README and a
client onboarding checklist I can reuse for every client.

You now have a repeatable delivery system in a git repo. Start on the Pro plan. Upgrade to Max when Claude is doing enough work to justify a salary line.

Step 2

n8n: your automation engine

Self-hosted: $0 plus a $5/mo VPS · Cloud: $24/mo

n8n is an open-source automation platform with 500+ integrations. The reason it beats Make and Zapier for a solo operator: self-hosted n8n has no per-operation billing. A workflow that runs 50,000 times costs the same as one that runs twice. Run it locally with Docker first:

docker volume create n8n_data
docker run -d -p 5678:5678 \
  -v n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n n8nio/n8n

Open localhost:5678, create your account, and build one workflow today, even a trivial one. When a client signs, move it to a $5 VPS from Hetzner or DigitalOcean. Ask Claude Code to write the deploy script. That's the whole point of Step 1.

Step 3

Cal.com: a calendar that qualifies leads

Free: unlimited event types for one user

Open-source scheduling. The killer feature is routing forms: ask questions before the booking, then route people based on their answers. Serious buyers reach your calendar. Everyone else gets a polite resources page.

Set it up in the dashboard in ten minutes:

• Create one event type: "Discovery Call, 30 minutes"
• Add five intake questions: what they do, what they want automated, current tools, timeline, budget
• Make every question required. Optional questions get skipped by exactly the people you needed answers from
• Build a routing form: budget under $1k routes to a resources link, everyone else routes to the booking page

Ten minutes of setup deletes hours of calls that were never going to close.

Step 4

Slack: make clients feel in-house

Free: 90 days of history · Pro: $8.75/user for the archive

One shared Slack channel per client. Here's the move that separates you from every other freelancer: your n8n workflows post their own status updates. Add a Slack node as the last step of every client workflow:

# Last node in every client workflow → Slack message:
Daily sync ✅ 312 leads scored and pushed to CRM

The client watches the work happen in real time. No status meetings, no "just checking in" emails, no weekly report you dread writing. Daily proof of work beats a monthly deck every single time. The free plan's 90-day history is fine to start.

Step 5

Stripe: invoices that chase themselves

No monthly fee, pay per transaction

Stripe's hosted invoices come with a payment link, card and bank payment options, and automatic reminder emails that keep nudging until the money lands. You build automations. Stripe does collections.

brew install stripe/stripe-cli/stripe
stripe login

Or skip the CLI entirely and send your first invoice from the Stripe dashboard in five minutes. Two rules from day one: take a deposit before you build anything, and turn on automatic reminders for every invoice. Chasing payments manually is a job. Don't take that job.

Step 6

Carrd: a one-page storefront

Free to build · Pro Standard $19/yr for a custom domain

You don't need a website. You need one page: who you help, what you automate, proof it works, and a button that opens your Cal.com booking page. Carrd does exactly this for $19 a year.

Write it in this order: one headline naming the outcome, three bullets on what you automate, one short case note when you have it, one button labeled "Book a call." No blog, no about page, no navigation. Every extra link is an exit. Ask Claude Code to draft the copy from your intake answers if you're stuck staring at a blank page.

Step 7

Loom: the demo that sells for you

Free: short videos, enough to start

Record a five-minute screen recording of one automation actually running: the trigger fires, the data moves, the Slack update posts. Narrate what's happening in plain English.

This one video does three jobs. Send it to prospects before the discovery call so they arrive pre-sold. Embed it on your Carrd page as proof. Send it to new clients as onboarding. One recording, reused forever. When a build ships, record a two-minute walkthrough instead of scheduling a handoff meeting.