Software Tools, Oh My!

Today, we're talking about software tools for your business. This is one of my favorite topics and I have feelings about this. I see so many people go wrong here and I'm on a mission to help people get. One of the biggest things I see people get intimidated by when it comes to online business is the tech stack that they use. And it doesn't have to be that way. If your someone who struggles with tools, this episode is directly for you. So let's not waste any time and get started. Did you hear that there's this brand new tool that just came out. That's going to take your service-based business from zero to like a thousand and it's perfect. Yeah, no. Um, that pretty much doesn't happen. I have been a software engineer for a long time. I live and breathe software. I have been using a computer since I was in elementary school. When computers came out, I've been writing code since I was a teenager. And I've used all sorts of different software tools for every single job that I've had. As somebody who builds brands and designs, websites, tools are the bread and butter of my business. If I use a different tool to design somebody's website, it could be, make it or break it for that particular client. Tools are something that I am dialed into the scene and it's something that can make or break my business. That being said, I have a philosophy about tools and I'm going to share that philosophy with you. There is no one tool that is going to solve all of your problems in your business. There is no one right tool. There is no one thing that's going to make a huge impact and completely change things. There is no silver, right? When it comes to picking the tools that you use for your business. It is important to keep in mind that even though a tool may come highly recommended and it could be a good recommendation, that doesn't mean that that's the best tool for you. So there are several different ways that you can evaluate a tool to make sure that it's going to work for you. I'm going to get priced out of the way first, because I think it's the easiest. There could be an amazing, amazing tool, but if it is priced out of your price range, then it's not going to work for you. If a tool costs a thousand dollars a month and you are currently only bringing in$500 a month, that means that to get that tool, you're going to go into debt. Sometimes it's a much smaller percentage. I know I'm exaggerating. But the reality of the situation is you need to have a reasonable budget for tools. And some of these software products are very expensive, more and more products are moving to the subscription based model, which personally I can't stand. And so because of this subscription based pricing, it can add up. All of the tools in my business cost me over$500 a month. There are ways around this. I personally like to purchase annual memberships often I'll save a couple months by purchasing that annual membership, but at the end of the day, the software costs are significant and I have a budget for it. And I'm very careful about my budget. So even though there's the world's most amazing tool and you think it's going to solve all these problems in your business, if it's out of your budget, it's out of your. So the first thing that you need to look at is price. The next thing that you need to look at is the problems that the software solves. There's software out there that I swear it does like everything under the sun. For me to spend a lot of money on a tool, that's going to have a lot of stuff that I'm not going to use just doesn't make sense. There are certainly tools where I don't utilize them to their full potential and they still make a meaningful impact on my business. So I keep them because it makes the most amount of sense for a number of other reasons. But when it comes down to evaluating a tool, it is important to say, you know, is this something that I'm going to use most of the features? Is this going to make sense? And is this solving the problems that my business has? Is this making things better? Is this making my experience better? Is this making my client's experience better? These are all questions that you should be asking as you're looking at the features of each different. The next thing that I want you to look at is how is this tool when you use it? This is where I recommend. If they have a trial use the trial everybody's brains works just a little bit different. Some tools are going to be extremely easy for you to pick up. And other tools are going to have a very steep learning curve. I tend to like using tools that make intuitive sense to my brain because I don't have all the time in the world to go off and get support. Having a tool where I'm don't need to run off to support every two minutes. Do you use them? That's going to rank a little bit higher as I'm evaluating different. The next point is related, how good is their support? This is a question that so many business owners don't ask, but as somebody that lives and breathes tools, I also live in breathe, support tickets for me, having access to support means everything I resell hosting. It's one of the things that I do for my clients, because it's just easier to take that off their plate. It's one way that I'm able to add a little extra value. So that means that I've got software for hosting. I've got a subscription to hosting and another company handles that for me, the reason why I use the company that I use is because of their support. There have been times where I've made mistakes. Maybe I've accidentally deleted something I've had other times where clients have made mistakes. And it's something that the company could turn around and say, we're not going to support that. But that particular company that I use. They pretty much support everything. They'll have it fit. Within the time of me walking down my hallway, getting a glass of water and coming back to my computer, they'll literally have the issue fixed pretty much immediately having that high level of support and that great level of support is really important. I've used tools where they've had next to no documentation and their support has been severely lacking. And because of that, it's made the tool almost unusable for me, if there's a problem.'cause you always, always, always have to be prepared for there to be a problem. Whenever you need the software, not to break, it's going to break. So you have to. Think about this, as you evaluate the tools, take a look at their support system. Did they have a lot of help documentation? Do they have a lot of videos on YouTube walking you through how to get through different prices? Join their Facebook group. Did they have people in there complaining that they put a support ticket in three weeks ago? And nobody got back to them. That has been a reason why have walked away from software because I went to a Facebook group while I was evaluating it. There were so many complaints about how bad support was in these various Facebook groups. I would decide not to get that software. So it's very important to take a look at support. How much are they going to help you? If something goes wrong. Another thing to look at is how well the software integrates with other software. It's very, very rare to find something that's going to do. Absolutely everything that you need. How well are these different pieces going to play together? Some of the software that I use has a lot of different functions and I don't use every function. However, they have fantastic support. The price is right. And they integrate extremely well with the few things that they don't provide. And it could be some day that I end up using some of the features that they provide, that I don't use all the time. When I look at something like that, it just makes the most amount of. And even though it may be scores low in one area at scores, so high in the other areas that it's an easy decision for me to make. The best advice that I can give you is that when you sit down to evaluate software tools and you decide that you want to add tools to your. Is to sit down and write out the flow. What is the customer journey map? What is the steps that your clients are going to be making? What steps are you making as your client goes through this process? And look at that ideal flow that could be happening. So you figure that out first, then place your tools in the appropriate space. I like to do this on a whiteboard. I've literally used sticky notes on a whiteboard before, just to figure this all out and saying, okay, this software tool goes here. This one goes here, this one's up here. I have. Software that I'm not using before by doing that. Cause I end up with extra sticky notes cause I write all my tools on the sticky notes and I'm like, wait a minute. I don't have any place on the board to put these. These really aren't essential for my business. Why am I paying for this? And I take. And I stopped paying for them. It's this great, wonderful thing, but understanding the flow and looking for bottlenecks and looking for places where maybe you're struggling with this flow, sometimes a well-placed tool can really help and it is so important to always keep the client journey at the top of mind as you do this, because ultimately we want to give our clients the best experience possible and tools can often help us. Once you have your tools, it's a really good idea to go through and audit those tools from time to time. I will do audits where I'll look at all the different subscriptions that I have. And I'll say, did I use this tool in the last couple of months? No out it goes, unless it's something that I'm like, no, no, no, I have to have it. This is one way of keeping my business as lean as possible and getting rid of a software tool, it's not just that I'm saving money, but I'm saving time. Saving mental energy. I don't have to think about it anymore, and I'm not trying to find a way to use it, to make my money back. It just doesn't make sense. It frees up that space in my brain that was holding this tool before. It's amazing when you let things go. And finally, once you have tools that work for you. It can be very tempting to abandon them. When a new tool comes out, when a new company promotes a new product, it is really easy to get sucked in to shiny object syndrome. You do not want to be changing tools all the time, because every time you make that jump, you know, have to set everything up, you have to integrate it into your system, you have to test it. There are a lot of different opportunities for things to go wrong. Often it takes so much time. And then the time it takes to learn the tool and the ins and outs that even though it's this great tool, it may cost you more than money. It may cost you a lot of time that you can't get back and you may not get a return on that investment. Even though a new tool might look really great, and on paper, maybe it solves all of your problems, if you don't have a problem with your current tech stack and your current stack is working for you and it's working for your clients and everybody's happy, then there really isn't too much of a reason to switch. I always tell my clients do an audit of your tools maybe once a year and look into switching, but really take into account how much time and however much time you think it's going to be double it because it's always takes away more time than you think it's going to take. And if it makes sense, then look into making the switch. But for most people, the answer is going to be no. But by doing that audit every year, hopefully you catch instances where maybe support's gone downhill. Maybe the tool that you were using got bought out by another company, and now customer support is just non-existent. That's a great opportunity to make a switch. Maybe your clients are really struggling with one piece. And the current tool that you're using is not meeting your client needs. That's another really good opportunity to say, okay, now I'm going to make a switch to something else. These are all things that if you do that audit once a year, you'll typically catch these things. And that's when you know, okay, now it's time to start to look at another tool. Maybe their pricing model changes, and now it doesn't make as much sense because of the new pricing model. There are so many different things that could change. And if you take the time to take a look once a year, Especially if it's a slow time of year for you. For me personally, I work this into my audit schedule. So I have several different pieces of my business that I audit and I try to do them on a yearly basis. And my tools is one of those audits. Then I've worked it in to my schedule and through my prices that it doesn't hurt my business to do that. So I will work these audits into those months where I know I've got a little extra time. So I can take a good, hard look at where things are. And then by the end of the month, I've gotten everything straightened out, I know I'm in a really good place, and then I move on to my next client the next month. And that works out really well for me. If there's a particular time of the year where you know that you're going to be a little bit slower, if you can find a little chunk of time to do an audit of your tools, it is a great time to make sure that you're using the tools that are solving the problems for your business. Thanks for listening to my talk on software tools. I'm on a mission to help people get their tools, right? If you're someone who needs help with what software to use head over to my website, jenniferanastasi.com and book a call with me. I am really happy to get on the phone with you and to help you get it all sorted out so that you can focus less on the software and more on the running of your. Next week we're diving into the big branding question, finding your why we're talking about what your why really is and why it has almost nothing to do with money until next time.