Ideas.

Short notes on running a business on the internet. We'll keep them short. You have a business to run.

You probably don't need another subscription.

Four minutes.

Most growing businesses have between eight and twenty paid tools. Ask who chose each one and the answer is usually "it solved a problem that week." That is a fine reason to buy software. It is a bad reason to keep it.

Once a year, list every tool, what it costs, and the one job it does. Then look for pairs. Two tools doing one job is the most common leak. The fix is rarely a bigger tool. It is usually connecting the two you have, or deleting one and moving the job into the other.

Custom software comes last on that list, not first. We say this as a studio that builds custom software. When something off the shelf fits, buy it and spend the difference on the part that actually makes you different.

Your spreadsheet is a database with no seatbelt.

Three minutes.

A spreadsheet that runs a business is not a failure. It is a success that outgrew its container. It became the database because it was the only thing everyone could open, and it was doing its best.

The trouble is what a spreadsheet cannot do: stop two people editing the same row, remember who changed what, refuse a bad value, or tell a customer anything without a human copying it out. Those are not features. They are seatbelts.

The upgrade is not always "custom software." Sometimes it is a form in front of the sheet so bad data never gets in. Sometimes it is a small tool that reads the sheet and does the copying. Sometimes, yes, it is a real system. The tell is how many people have to touch the sheet to get one job done. Above three, it is time.

The five questions a good quote form asks.

Two minutes.

Most quote forms ask for everything and get nothing. People abandon them on the fourth field. A good form asks only what you need to price the job, and asks it in the customer's words.

What do you need done? Roughly how big is it? Where is it? Can you show us (a photo is worth three fields)? When is a good time to visit? That is five. Name and phone are not questions; they are the reply address.

Everything else you can ask on the phone, where it takes ten seconds and feels like service instead of paperwork.

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