The Toolkit › Your First Automated Workflow
Chapter 11

Your First Automated Workflow

Why this matters

In the last few chapters, you connected your email, accounting, and other tools to Claude. Now let's put everything together into something that actually runs part of your business.

You've got the pieces. Your briefing file, CLAUDE.md (your brain). Skills (your recipes). Gmail, accounting, and Zapier connected via connectors (MCP). Now it's time to put them all together into a workflow that actually runs part of your business.

This is the chapter where you go from "this is interesting" to "this is saving me real time every week."

What we're doing

Building a complete automated workflow from start to finish. One sentence in Claude, multiple steps executed across multiple tools.

What is a workflow?

A workflow is a sequence of steps that happen in order. Most of the repetitive work in your business is a workflow, you just don't think of it that way.

Examples:

New enquiry workflow (tradie)

  1. Client emails asking for a quote
  2. You read their email
  3. You check your calendar for availability
  4. You draft a reply with some qualifying questions
  5. You add them to your CRM/spreadsheet
  6. You set a reminder to follow up if they don't reply

End of job workflow (service business)

  1. Job is completed
  2. Create an invoice
  3. Send it to the client
  4. Add a task to follow up in 7 days if unpaid
  5. Send a review request email 2 days later

Each of these is 15-20 minutes of manual work. With the tools we've connected, Claude can do the whole sequence in about 30 seconds. You just review the outputs.

Building your first workflow: New Enquiry

Let's build the "new enquiry" workflow step by step. This works for any business that gets email enquiries.

Step 1: Create a workflow skill

Tell Claude to create a new skill for you. Here's what to include:

# Skill: New Enquiry Workflow

## When to use this
When I say "process new enquiry from [name]" or when I forward an enquiry email.

## Steps
1. Read the enquiry email to understand what they need
2. Check my Google Calendar for availability in the timeframe they mentioned
3. Draft a warm, helpful reply using my tone from CLAUDE.md
4. Include 2-3 qualifying questions to understand the job better
5. Don't include pricing in the first reply (I quote after a site visit)
6. Create a draft email in Gmail (don't send)
7. Tell me what you've done so I can review

## Rules
- Always use the client's first name
- Always mention when I'm next available
- Never promise a specific price in the first email
- Keep the reply under 150 words
- Tone: friendly, professional, keen but not desperate

Save as new-enquiry.md in your Skills folder.

Step 2: Test it

In Claude:

I just got an enquiry from Tom Henderson. He emailed asking about getting his living room and two bedrooms repainted. He's in Paddington. Wants it done in the next month.

Claude will:

  1. Process the enquiry details
  2. Check your calendar (via Google Calendar connection)
  3. Draft a reply email (via Gmail connection)
  4. Follow all your skill rules

Step 3: Review and refine

Check the draft in your Gmail. Sound like you? Anything off? Update the skill file if needed.

More workflow ideas by industry

Everyone: email triage (the universal win)

  • Morning inbox scan: "Check my inbox. What needs my attention today? Draft replies for the urgent ones." Works for business owners, employees, and personal email. Research shows 28% of the workday is spent on email. This one workflow cuts that in half.

Tradies

  • Quote follow-up: "Check all quotes I sent more than 5 days ago. For any that haven't been accepted, draft a follow-up email."
  • End of day: "Summarise today's job notes from my emails and add them to my project tracking."
  • Invoice chasing: "Find any invoices more than 14 days overdue. Draft a friendly payment reminder for each one." 63% of Australian businesses spend time chasing late payments.

Real estate agents

  • Daily inbox sort: "Scan my 150 emails. Show me the buyer enquiries, solicitor updates, and anything that needs action today. Ignore portal spam and newsletters."
  • Open home follow-up: "Draft personalised follow-ups for everyone who attended Saturday's open at 42 Smith St."

Service businesses (salons, clinics, fitness)

  • Post-appointment: "Draft a thank-you email to today's clients and include a link to leave a Google review."
  • No-show: "Check today's bookings. Anyone who didn't show up, draft a rebooking email."

Financial advisers and lawyers

  • End-of-day file notes: "Write up file notes for today's client matters. Check my calendar and emails for the details."
  • SOA drafting: "Draft Statement of Advice for the Patels based on my meeting notes from Tuesday."

Teachers

  • Report writing: "Draft report comments for my Year 4 class based on these assessment notes and grades."
  • Parent emails: "Draft replies to all parent emails I haven't responded to this week."

Office workers and employees

  • Weekly status report: "Write my weekly status report. Check my emails and calendar from this week for what I worked on."
  • Meeting notes: "Here's what we discussed in today's standup. Write structured minutes with action items and send to the team."

Parents and personal use

  • School newsletter: "Read this week's school newsletter and tell me what I need to do, with deadlines."
  • Event planning: "Plan a kids' birthday party. 15 eight-year-olds, $500 budget, outdoor, Brisbane."

Freelancers and agencies

  • Invoice day: "Check my time tracking for the past 2 weeks. Create draft invoices for each client."
  • Monday morning: "Pull last week's campaign metrics from my reports and draft a client update for each active client."

The "I can't believe that just worked" moment

Every person who gets to this chapter has the same reaction. They type one sentence. Claude searches their email, checks their calendar, drafts a perfectly-toned reply following all their rules, and puts it in their Drafts folder. The whole thing takes 30 seconds.

That's not magic. That's a briefing file (CLAUDE.md), a skill file (.md), and two connectors (MCP) working together. You built every piece of it yourself. You understand how it works. And when it does something you don't like, you know exactly which file to fix.

That's the difference between "using AI" and "having an AI system."

What you just learned

  • A workflow is multiple steps across multiple tools, triggered by one request
  • Workflow skills combine your CLAUDE.md, skill rules, and connected tools
  • One sentence from you can replace 15-20 minutes of manual work
  • You understand every piece because you built it - nothing is a black box

Try it yourself

  • Create a workflow skill for your most common repetitive process
  • Test it with a real scenario
  • Time how long it takes vs doing it manually
  • Refine the skill based on the output
  • Build a second workflow for another common task
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