Stop Wasting Expensive Software

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It’s crazy what a little money can bring you, in terms of resource. Back in the days when I was down on the finances front, I would write all these lists of the kind of things that – once I had them – would allow me to make loads of money. Now I’m up and I can afford certain business tools, I realise just how unhelpful this luxury can be at times. Over the past couple of years, I’ve probably spent nearly a grand on software that I rarely or never use. Yes, it’s bad.

The circumstances are always the same:

Discover software
Hear testimonials about how it will transform my business
Compare to other software; deciding it’s the only tool of its type
Buy
Test
Never go back to it

Thankfully, all of these tools have been ones that you buy to keep forever (rather than monthly subscription things) but when I add up the costs of all of these Amazon, print-on-demand, domaining, affiliate marketing, WordPress etc tools that I’ve accumulated, and I look at the value they’ve brought me, I can only say that it’s been denting my overall profit.

My intentions are always in the right place – I’m usually trying to simplify process or cut down costs, but I keep falling into the trap of believing that I’m going to have the time to implement them into the day-to-day running of my businesses.

As there are certain tools that I’ve used – and continue to use – which are essentially responsible for where I’m currently at, it’s understandable that I’d have faith that something else may have that impact on my life too. But it’s very rarely the case.

The biggest problem I have is that when I have an idea, I need to make progress with it quickly. If I don’t get to a workable version of it quickly, I’ll get drawn into doing some other urgent work, and forget to go back to it.

What I’ve been doing more of is to designate specific time towards these new things. Jumping on them on the very day, week or month I find them probably won’t even help me.

Back in June last year, I got the chance to review this innovate private label tool. If I tried it then and there and had inspiration to make a product, I wouldn’t have had the time to bring it to life. I literally had to tell the person that I’d get back to him in February, because it’s the first time I could anticipate that I’d have a good two weeks to get into the tool and potentially come up with an idea that I could get more use out of.

I’ve learned that I need to be a lot more like that with business tools. If I can’t clear my schedule to master it, there’s no reason to buy it. No one-time offer is going to be worth it, if I just end up sitting on it for a year, and another. And another.

I’m sure you’ve got a bag of tools you don’t need/haven’t used properly too. If this is the case, at least make an effort to cut down on the amount of webinars you watch, so you don’t get stuck with another. You’re better than that.