Do the service by hand before you automate it.

Manual delivery is not a step backward. It is market research with a receipt.

If you want to sell an automation, start with the manual version.

That sounds slower, but it usually saves time.

Automation hides assumptions. Manual work exposes them.

When you deliver by hand, you see what the buyer actually values. You see which parts need judgment. You see which parts can be standardized. You also see whether the result is valuable enough for someone to pay before the system is polished.

Use this filter before building:

Have I repeated this task myself?
Does the result save time, make money, reduce mistakes, or improve decisions?
Can I name a buyer?
Can I deliver version one manually?
Can the buyer recognize the value quickly?
If yes, package the result.

Sell the smallest useful version.

Then automate the parts that repeat after the sale.

That order keeps you from building a beautiful machine for a problem nobody was ready to pay for.

Have you ever spent hours building a solution to a hypothetical problem ?