What does automation look like for coaches and consultants?

Coaches and consultants run businesses where the founder's time is the entire product. Every hour pulled into administrative work is an hour not spent on client outcomes, and at €150, €400 per coaching hour, the opportunity cost is real. The four highest-leverage automations are consistent across the category.

First, lead qualification. An intake flow on WhatsApp or email that asks the right three or four questions, scores fit, and either books a call or politely declines saves the average coach 5-8 hours a week. Second, onboarding, intake form to CRM to calendar to welcome packet to first invoice, all without the coach touching it. Third, session notes, a recording goes in, a structured summary plus action items comes out, filed automatically to the client folder. Fourth, recurring invoicing and follow-up, Stripe or a CRM-native flow that handles the boring half of cash collection.

What's not worth automating: the actual coaching, anything bespoke per client, or AI-generated marketing content. The first is your moat; the second doesn't amortise; the third is increasingly indistinguishable from spam.