Earning $10K a month as a solo entrepreneur isn’t a dream — it’s a system.
Forget 60-hour weeks, endless follow-ups, and manual data wrangling. In 2025, automation has matured to the point where one person can run what used to take a small team — if they build the right stack.
This guide shows you how to do exactly that.
We’ll walk through a lean but powerful automation engine using two tools that work beautifully together:
- Insightly CRM – for contact management, tracking, and lead nurturing.
- Kit (formerly ConvertKit) – for AI-enhanced marketing automation and customer engagement.
Together, they can help you run a professional, scalable, and personalized customer journey — all while keeping your weekly workload under 15 hours.
Automation ≠ Losing the Human Touch
Let’s crush this myth once and for all.
Automation doesn’t make your business robotic. Used right, it does the opposite — it allows you to show up more personally, consistently, and intelligently.
By automating the repetitive 80%, you free up time for the 20% that truly matters — meaningful conversations, strategic decisions, and creative work.
In 2025, the smartest solo entrepreneurs are not working more — they’re automating better.
Your Automation Stack: Insightly CRM + Kit (ConvertKit)
To hit $120K/year ($10K/month), you need clarity, consistency, and connection.
Your automation ecosystem should look like this:
| Tool | Core Role | Monthly Cost (Est.) |
|---|---|---|
| Insightly CRM | Contact management, lead tracking, follow-up automation | $30–$50 |
| Kit (ConvertKit) | AI-driven email marketing and audience segmentation | $25–$100 |
The synergy between these tools is where the magic happens:
- Insightly tracks every lead, deal, and customer interaction.
- Kit turns those insights into personalized, automated marketing flows that nurture and convert your audience.
Step 1: Organize and Enrich Your CRM (5 Hours Setup, 1 Hour Daily)
Your CRM is the heart of your business. Start here.
Action Plan:
- Create your Insightly account and import your existing contacts.
- Integrate LinkedIn Sales Navigator for daily prospect sourcing.
- Use tags and custom fields to categorize leads by interest, purchase stage, and engagement level.
- Set up automations to tag contacts when new activity (like replies or sign-ups) happens.
Example:
I built a 600-lead pipeline in under 90 days by spending 60 minutes a day on LinkedIn Sales Navigator — targeting industry decision-makers, then syncing them into Insightly automatically.
Pro Tip:
Use Insightly’s Web-to-Lead Capture to feed leads from landing pages directly into your CRM. It eliminates manual entry entirely.
Step 2: Create CRM Automation Rules (3 Hours Setup)
Once your CRM is populated, build three foundational automations to handle outreach and follow-up.
Automation Rules in Insightly:
- Welcome Rule:
- Trigger: New contact added
- Action: Send a personalized introduction email (via Kit).
- Follow-Up Rule:
- Trigger: No response for 14 days
- Action: Add contact to a Kit follow-up sequence.
- Engagement Alert:
- Trigger: Contact clicks or replies to an email
- Action: Notify you instantly inside Insightly.
With these rules active, your CRM becomes your assistant — managing first impressions, gentle reminders, and lead prioritization while you focus on closing.
Step 3: Automate Personalized Marketing in Kit (3–4 Hours Weekly)
This is where the $10K engine really starts humming.
Kit (ConvertKit) takes what you know about your leads and turns it into automated, human-like engagement.
Here’s how to set it up:
- Integrate Kit with Insightly.
Every new CRM contact automatically syncs to your Kit email list with proper tagging (e.g., “New Lead,” “Warm Lead,” “Customer”). - Build Your Core Automation Sequence:
- Email 1: Welcome + Quick Value (Day 1)
- Email 2: Story + Social Proof (Day 3)
- Email 3: Offer + Call-to-Action (Day 7)
- Enable Kit’s Visual Automations:
- Add conditional logic: “If contact clicks offer link → move to Conversion Sequence.”
- “If no click → resend with different subject line after 3 days.”
- Set Up AI Timing:
Kit’s Smart Send AI learns when each contact is most likely to open an email, adjusting delivery times automatically.
Example:
My “Benefits of [Your Product]” Kit sequence for a B2B client brought in 4 new contracts in 10 days, adding $2,000 in recurring revenue.
Pro Tip:
Use Kit’s “Resend to Unopens” feature. It typically boosts total open rates by 10–15% with zero extra effort.
Step 4: Replace Guesswork with Data (1 Hour Weekly)
Forget intuition. Track performance like a scientist.
Inside Kit, monitor:
- Open Rate: Aim for 25–30%.
- Click Rate: 3–5%.
- Conversion Rate: 5–7% from nurtured leads.
In Insightly, track:
- Lead-to-customer conversion rate (target: 10–12%).
- Average time-to-conversion (goal: under 14 days).
Action Plan:
- Export metrics weekly and log in a Google Sheet.
- Identify your best-performing subject lines and duplicate their structure.
- Use Kit’s Content Snippets to test multiple offers quickly.
Pro Tip:
Pair Kit’s analytics with Google Data Studio to visualize your marketing funnel performance automatically.
Step 5: Refine, Iterate, and Scale (90 Minutes Weekly)
Automation isn’t one-and-done — it’s evolutionary.
Each week, dedicate 90 minutes to refining your funnel.
Here’s your checklist:
- Replace underperforming emails with higher-converting variants.
- Re-tag inactive subscribers with a “Re-engagement” label.
- Run A/B tests on subject lines using Kit’s automation split feature.
Example:
After reworking my subject lines from “Professional” to “Conversational,” open rates jumped from 19% to 34% in just one month.
Pro Tip:
Use Kit’s Reactivation Sequences every 90 days to automatically reach inactive contacts with a soft-touch email.
What NOT to Do
- Don’t send bulk, generic blasts.
Kit’s tagging system exists to personalize — use it.
- Don’t chase vanity metrics.
High open rates mean nothing if conversions stay flat.
- Don’t automate empathy.
Automation handles systems; you handle people.
Your 14-Hour Weekly Blueprint
| Action | Tool | Time Commitment | Expected ROI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead sourcing (LinkedIn) | Sales Navigator | 1 hr/day | 50 new leads/month |
| CRM setup + automation | Insightly | 5 hrs setup | 40% faster follow-ups |
| Marketing automation | Kit (ConvertKit) | 3 hrs/week | 3–5% conversion rate |
| Metric review | Kit + Insightly | 1 hr/week | Continuous optimization |
| Refinement & testing | Kit | 90 min/week | 10–20% better engagement |
Total Weekly Workload: ~14 Hours
Revenue Target: 250 sales/year at $500 each = $120K/year
Outcome: A self-running sales engine that nurtures, converts, and scales
Final Thoughts: Let Automation Be Your Silent Partner
Reaching $10K/month isn’t about grinding harder — it’s about engineering smarter systems.
With Insightly handling your CRM logic and Kit managing your marketing, you’ll have an end-to-end business automation engine that runs 24/7.
You’re not just building workflows — you’re building freedom.
The future of entrepreneurship belongs to those who work with AI and automation, not against it.
It’s time to step back, systemize, and scale.
Learn more with CONXD AI. CLICK HERE
