Somewhere along the way, buying software became the answer to every problem. Quoting slow? There’s a tool. Follow-ups slipping? There’s a tool. Before long you’re paying for 12 subscriptions and the week is still disappearing.
Here’s the uncomfortable bit. Most businesses are using about a third of what their current systems can do. And the time keeps going: Australian small business owners average around 10.5 hours a week on admin, according to Xero’s Small Business Insights from 2024. Most of that time is lost between tools, not for want of them.
The mess comes first
I’ve run a training college, online stores, a marketing agency and a fabrication shop. Every one of them collected tools the same way: a problem showed up, a subscription followed.
The tools that stuck were never the fanciest ones. They were the ones we set up properly, after we’d straightened out the workflow they sat in.
A new tool dropped on a messy workflow doesn’t fix the mess. It just gives the mess another login.
Look before you buy
Before you spend another dollar, ask three questions.
Where do jobs actually sit and wait? Not where things feel slow. Where work literally stops and waits for someone.
What gets typed in twice? Every double entry is two systems that should be talking and aren’t.
What gets chased from memory? If a follow-up depends on someone remembering, it’s not a system. It’s hope.
Then open the tools you already pay for and look at the settings. Features switched off. Modules nobody configured. Integrations never connected. If you want a head start, hand an AI assistant this:
Here is a list of the software we pay for and what we use each one for. Find the overlaps, the features we are paying for but not using, and the gaps where two tools should be connected but are not. Don't recommend any new software.
The answer usually isn’t tool number 41. It’s the settings page of tool number 3.
When a new tool is worth it
Sometimes a new tool genuinely earns its place. You’ll know, because it fills a clear gap in a workflow you’ve already straightened out, and you can say exactly what job it does and what it replaces. If you can’t name the job, it’s not a tool. It’s clutter.
Start with the mess. The tool comes second, if it comes at all.
