Stop making it all so hard. Here’s how…

Are you guilty of making things way harder on yourself than they need to be? I know I am at times.

Time and again I see entrepreneurs make their work harder by refusing to pay for the necessary tools to run their businesses. I’m talking about things like invoicing/accounting software, merchant fees, or conference call software that are directly tied to your ability to collect and generate revenue.

Now, this doesn’t mean I’m advocating you run out and spend thousands of dollars per month or per year on things you don’t need. But rather, I’m advocating you make strategic decisions about expenses that allow you to run your business with convenience and ease.

Stuff that’s probably worth paying for

Invoicing and accounting

So let’s start with invoicing and accounting software. I’ve known entrepreneurs who avoid paying for something like Quickbooks or Xero and instead use Excel to track expenses and create their own invoices in Excel or Word.

This is totally doable – you can document expenses manually in a spreadsheet. You can create invoices manually every time you charge a client.

But does it make sense? Probably not.

You’re going to spend probably ten times as long each month tracking expenses by hand, and you likely won’t be able to easily classify them for tax season. Same goes for manual invoices – that’s a way bigger time investment each month.

The really big time suck though comes at tax time when you need to prepare your taxes. That spreadsheet of yours will easily become the spreadsheet of doom as you worry about expenses you missed, didn’t document fully, or invoices you can’t find.

If we compare all of that time spent with $15-30 per month on software that allows you to invoice and track expenses the disconnect is clear. Here’s how it works for me: I personally use Xero because QB makes my brain hurt. I started out handling all my own books and that $30 a month allows me to easily track my expenses and bill 5-figures of revenue. Totally worth it, right?

And now, I’ve added a bookkeeper to my team, which increases that expense a bit but the peace of mind of knowing that it’s done right is so worth that extra money each month.

Payment processing services

Another big complaint I hear about often with regards to collecting revenue is merchant fees. I so get the pain of paying that 2-3% to a service like PayPal for what seems like nothing. However, using that service allows me to get paid with convenience and ease every time. There’s no running around trying to get checks or bank transfers situated. And, no waiting! To me, this is well worth the money. I average about $300/month in merchant fees and consider it simply a cost of doing business.

I will shop around a bit every so often to make sure I’m getting the best deal I can. But at the end of the day, I haven’t found anything that beats PayPal for convenience, ease, and cost. I have many clients that use Stripe as well that love it so I definitely recommend considering that as an alternative.

Conferencing software

The third thing I pay for with no qualms is Zoom. I like to record my calls with clients and I use screen share and video on nearly every call. I haven’t found any other tool that allows for all of that at a reasonable price besides Zoom. Now, of course, I could use Skype + something to share my screen and something else to record – but that definitely takes away the convenience and ease! And if my client needs to share her screen, that’s a whole ‘nother level of hassle for them!

So, I gladly pay the $165 per year for something I use multiple times per workday. I’d so much rather do that than be annoyed every single time I need to get on a call with a client, contractor, or collaborator!

Figuring out what’s right for you

The rule of thumb I’d recommend is asking yourself if the price is worth what it allows you to do and the convenience and ease it adds to your day-to-day ops. It’s easy to just get hung up on the price and not consider the value.

Don’t get me wrong, there are certainly times the convenience and ease may not outweigh the cost. I have found that to be the case in my business with at least two popular software services. My best example is GoToWebinar. It is absolutely one of the easiest to use webinar platforms to use if you want to simply click a few things for setup. However, it’s also pretty pricey at $100 per month (minimum). For the occasional webinar that adds up really quick, especially when many people have only a handful of people show up compared to the number of registered attendees.

A second example is Basecamp. I love and adore Basecamp for project management. But I can’t justify the price for myself and many of my clients just yet. At $100/month, it’s again a big expense so it’s important to evaluate whether it’s truly needed. So far, it’s convenience and ease haven’t outweighed the sticker price.

As with anything relating to money, these are personal decisions that directly relate to how you run your business and your revenue. But I’d urge you to always consider more than just the number when deciding about your expenses that help you run your business. Because at the end of the day, these tools help you serve your clients in the way you desire.