Everyone talks about AI saving time and money, but what are the actual numbers? Let's break it down for a typical New Zealand small business.
What Automation Actually Costs
For a typical service business (trades, professional services, hospitality), here's what a standard automation package looks like:
- Setup: $1,500-3,000 (one-time — includes discovery, build, testing, and training)
- Monthly: $300-800 (ongoing — includes hosting, AI usage, support, and optimisation)
Total first-year cost: approximately $5,000-12,000 NZD.
What It Saves
Here's where it gets interesting. For a business currently handling things manually:
Time Saved
- Phone answering & callbacks: 5-8 hours/week → automated
- Lead follow-up: 3-5 hours/week → automated
- Scheduling & bookings: 2-4 hours/week → automated
- Invoice reminders: 1-2 hours/week → automated
That's 11-19 hours per week freed up. At a modest $50/hour value for your time, that's $28,600-49,400 per year in recovered productive time.
Revenue Recovered
- Missed calls captured: If you miss 5 calls/week and each job is worth $500, that's $130,000/year in potential revenue currently walking out the door. Even capturing 20% of those = $26,000/year.
- Better follow-up conversion: A 20% improvement on existing leads could mean $15,000-40,000/year in additional revenue.
The ROI Calculation
Conservative estimate:
- Annual cost: $8,000
- Time saved value: $30,000
- Revenue recovered: $26,000
- Total return: $56,000
- ROI: 600%
- Payback period: 6-8 weeks
Beyond the Numbers
Some benefits are harder to quantify but equally important:
- Work-life balance — stop doing admin at 9pm
- Consistency — every customer gets the same great experience
- Scalability — handle twice the enquiries without twice the stress
- Peace of mind — knowing nothing falls through the cracks
See Your Own Numbers
Every business is different. Take our free AI Automation Audit and we'll calculate the specific ROI for your business based on your actual workload, team size, and current processes.