Your Business is Leaking Cash Every Month
I’ve seen it dozens of times with Brisbane businesses. You start with one app to manage your jobs. Then you get another one for your email. Someone tells you that you need a specific tool for your social media, and your accountant suggests a different one for your receipts.
Before you know it, you’re looking at your bank statement and seeing twenty different $30, $50, or $150 charges every month. Most of these tools do the exact same thing, or worse, they don’t talk to each other at all.
In the trade, we call this "tool sprawl." But let’s call it what it really is: a waste of money.
If you’re running a plumbing business in Chermside or a law firm in the CBD, you didn’t get into business to manage software. You got into it to provide a service and make a profit. Every dollar you spend on a redundant app is a dollar that isn't going into your pocket or back into your marketing to get more customers.
The Real Cost of Too Many Apps
Most business owners think the cost of having too many apps is just the monthly subscription fee. I wish that were true. The real cost is actually much higher.
When you have five different places where customer information is stored, things get missed. A lead comes in through Facebook, but it doesn't get put into your main system. A customer calls to follow up on a quote, but the person who took the call can’t find the notes because they’re in a different app.
This confusion leads to lost jobs. It leads to your staff spending three hours a day on admin instead of doing billable work. When you stop wasting time on admin, you suddenly find you have the capacity to take on more work without hiring more people.
How to Audit Your Tech (The No-Nonsense Way)
I’m not going to tell you to create a complex spreadsheet or hire a consultant to map out your "digital ecosystem." You’re too busy for that. Instead, do this on a Saturday morning with a coffee:
1. Print your bank statements: Look for every recurring monthly charge. 2. Ask the "Why" question: For every app, ask: "If I turned this off tomorrow, would my business stop making money?" 3. Find the overlaps: Do you have three different ways to message customers? Do you have two different places where you keep your calendar?
Most of the time, you can simplify and sell more by just picking one tool that does 80% of what you need and ditching the rest. You don't need a "perfect" tool for every tiny task; you need one reliable system that keeps your business moving.
Why "Best of Breed" is Usually a Bad Idea for Small Business
Marketing experts love to talk about "Best of Breed" software. This is the idea that you should have the absolute best tool for email, the absolute best tool for CRM, and the absolute best tool for booking.
That’s great advice for a company like Qantas that has a team of 50 IT people to make those apps talk to each other. For a local Brisbane business, it’s a nightmare.
When your tools don't talk to each other, you end up doing "double entry." You type the customer's name into your quote tool, then you type it again into your invoice tool, and then again into your email list. This is where mistakes happen.
I’d much rather see a local business use one "all-in-one" tool that is "good enough" at everything than five "perfect" tools that require a PhD to manage. When you manage your customers in one single place, your life gets significantly easier.
Three Strategies to Clean Up the Mess
If you’re ready to cut the waste, here is how I’d recommend you handle it.
1. The "One Source of Truth" Rule
Decide right now which app is the "boss." This is usually your CRM or your job management software. If a customer's phone number changes, it gets changed there. If a job is finished, it’s marked finished there. Any tool that doesn't feed into or talk to this "boss" app should be on the chopping block.2. Kill the "Free" Trials
We’ve all done it. You sign up for a 14-day free trial of a tool that promises to automate your social media. You use it once, forget about it, and then three months later you realise you’ve been billed $49 a month for something you haven't touched. If you haven't logged into an app in 30 days, cancel it. You can always sign up again later if you actually need it.3. Consolidate Your Communications
This is the biggest area of waste I see. I’ve met business owners who are paying for a premium Gmail account, a Slack subscription, a separate SMS marketing tool, and a WhatsApp for Business integration.Pick one way to talk to your team and one way to talk to your customers. If your main software can send emails and texts (and most good ones can these days), stop paying for the extra tools.
The Result: More Profit and Less Stress
When you reduce the number of tools you use, three things happen almost immediately:
You save money: This is the obvious one. Cutting $200-$500 a month in useless subscriptions is like getting a free marketing budget. You save time: No more hunting for passwords or trying to remember which app has the customer's address.
- You make fewer mistakes: When there’s only one place for data, there’s only one place to get it right.
What Should You Do First?
Don't try to change everything on Monday morning. Your business still needs to run.
Start by identifying the two most expensive tools you have. Ask yourself: "Does my main software already do what these tools do?" Often, the answer is yes, you just haven't turned that feature on yet.
If you're feeling overwhelmed by the tech side of things and just want a system that works so you can get back to running your business, we can help. At Local Marketing Group, we specialise in helping Brisbane businesses simplify their process so they can focus on what actually makes money: serving customers.
Stop paying for software that doesn't pay you back.
Ready to simplify your business and start seeing more results? Contact Local Marketing Group today.