In my last blog I talked about the fantastic free systems that are available to make our life easier. This time around I am looking at when it makes sense to spend money on a system – because it will actually save you money in reality.

Your time has worth. That is true regardless of your working patterns, but if you charge yourself out at an hourly rate, your time has a clear worth that you have documented.

The next time you spend hours wrestling with a spreadsheet, copying and pasting invoices or emailing people one at a time, think about how much money you just spent based on your hourly rate. This is time that you could have been doing chargeable work. It has got to the point where your simple free systems are actually costing you money.

Here are some systems you might find it is worth paying for:

A system that is tailor made to your industry. A good example here is Tutorbird which we recently set up for a client. It is tailor made for those who provide private tuition, and it is saving the client so much time, as well as making it simple for them to delegate tasks to the team.

Dubsado – for streamlined client onboarding processes, client management, document signing, scheduling and so much more.
You never have to pay full price for a Dubsado account, because anyone who has one (including me) can create a discount code that you can use.
Neither do you have to pay over £1,000 for assistance with set up. There are people charging a fortune for Dubsado assistance just because it is a little bit more complicated than other systems but this is not necessary at all. If you are looking into paying for Dubsado set up please speak to us in the first instance.

Accounting software
You will save yourself so much time if you pay a small monthly fee for accounting software – FreeAgent being my favourite (and there is a way to get that for free). Even if you are only sending out a few invoices and tracking a few payments and expenses for your tax return, these systems will still make things so much quicker and easier.

The paid for versions of my favourite free systems.
Asana, MailChimp, Mailerlite, Calendly…all of the systems I mentioned in my previous blog post have pro or premium versions which offer you even more functionality and can save you more time. Often you can trial these versions for free to test out how much time they save you and calculate that against how much more chargeable client work you will get done. If those calculations leave you in profit, paying for these systems is a no brainer.

What paid for systems have you tried and loved?

If you would like some help choosing a system, setting it up and making it work with your existing set up, we are available to help. Give us a call and let’s make your day a little clearer.

Helen Calvert
Coach and Director of Clear Day
March 2021