Stop with the stopgaps

Are you, for instance, one of the many soloists still bumbling along with a budget website strung together four or five years back as a short-term fix?

Or maybe you’re still putting up with an Excel-based bookkeeping system you cobbled together eons ago, despite the fact that it only covers the bare basics and doesn’t shed light on your profitability?

You may even have a wallet full of free-but-flimsy business cards. And might those business cards feature a DIY logo?

There are numerous free and low cost tools available to help you manage and promote your business, but these may not be the best option for a more established solo business.

As forum regular Anna Kyriacou recently commented, “free is not always free in the long run.”

That’s especially so if you end up being permanently stuck with the bargain basement option you only ever intended to use temporarily.

Want more articles like this? Check out the business startup section.

Economising measures might be appropriate when you’ve got more time on your hands than money. But what happens when you‘re too busy to implement a solution that really suits you, or even figure out which option is ideal?

It’s human nature that if something kind of works, our motivation to switch to a solution with all the bells and whistles will be low. But as a mate of mine says about his less-than-ideal love life, “You get what you settle for”.

You might be bootstrapping now, but it won’t be forever. So if you’ve decided to go with a stopgap solution, make sure you plan your transition to the ideal scenario too. Set yourself a deadline and make yourself accountable.

Then get busy handing out those dodgy business cards, because every sale they help you make will bring you one step closer to saying goodbye to them for once and for all. You’ll never look back.

Are you guilty of still making-do with a stopgap solution? ‘Fess up via a comment!