Does a Solo-Entrepreneur Need a CRM?

Welcome to the Issue #005 of the /dev/stdout newsletter. In this issue, I reflect on my experiences in finally choosing to use a CRM₁ software.

Does a tech solo entrepreneur need one? For a long time, I held a position that CRM was overkill for my business. For many it still might be, but I have changed my stance.

These days, CRM has become a central part of my operations. It's a swift change, considering that just a few months ago, email was the core of my workflow.

Table of Contents

1. Helps You Maintain Context

2. Forces You Consider the Business Side of Your Operations

3. Aligns Your Business Operations with Your Services

1. Helps You Maintain Context

Often when I have been on the lookout for a new gig, I have had multiple email discussions about various projects with many different companies, at best at the same time. It’s not only once I have felt the same way as Vincent Vega (John Travolta) must have thought in that famous meme. This happens especially often when the email title follows Thanks for your application or Thanks for the previous discussion.

Having a CRM is a total time and effort saver in this matter. On a Monday morning, I do not need to give myself a refresher by reading through the last, at least, ten email discussions for the last two weeks. Instead, I can just open the CRM “Deals” view and instantly get the context of each potential deal and the details discussed.

Looking back, the messy email inbox is not something I would easily go back to.

2. Forces You Consider the Business Side of Your Operations

CRMs are built on the premise of selling. Many places within the system sort of secretly nag you on what service you’re actually selling and how you’re planning to do it. It’s not that the CRM literally asks you about this, but it implicitly forces you to think about how you present yourself to potential customers.

Not all freelancers have their brand, but having CRM opened for the first time asks for your business logo, colors, etc. At this point, it makes one think whether they should have them set. I fortunately had my website done by then, so I did not encounter difficulties immediately at this stage. That happened later, multiple times.

The next thing you might see is that there are sections called Products, Quotes, Marketing Email, etc.

Seeing all these things and possibilities in the system, while not total strangers to me, made me think more and more about the business itself. The tool itself motivated me to dig deeper into my value proposition as a business owner.

Would that have happened without my decision to use CRM? Maybe, and one might even say the decision to use CRM in the first place was a step in that direction. But I really must say that it opened a totally new perspective on my operations.

As CRMs are heavily one-tool-suits-for-many types of products, there is a vast number of features that you will likely never use, always depending on the nature of your business and the CRM of your choice.

3. Aligns Your Business Operations with Your Services

As a freelancer or a solo entrepreneur I, like many others, take pride in the quality of the service I provide. Usually, the service provided is a huge personal interest for the person and they’re motivated to do it, but it is also the lifeline for the business continuation. This means that the service provided is high quality.

What I've observed in my operations is that the quality of other aspects might not always match the level of service provided. While it’s true that the lifeline is the service itself, I argue that it makes a difference in how the operations look and feel for the potential customer.

This is where the CRM really shines. With modern CRMs, one can build websites, landing pages, marketing emails, take payments, and much more. What’s best, all of the features mentioned do not require you to be a CRM expert with years of experience.

While it might be intimidating at first to have all the features available, getting your hands dirty will help you learn many new skills along the way. And it will likely change how you feel about your other operations too, not just the actual service you provide to your customers. At least, that’s what happened to me!

I’m solving business problems for my customers daily, by choosing a CRM, I solved a bunch for myself too!

With all this there are many more aspects of how CRM can make a difference in even a small business's operations. I hope I sparked your interest in thinking if having a CRM is the right decision for you or if you manage without one!

For all the curious, my choice of CRM is HubSpot.

So, whether you'd like to discuss a technical problem in your organization, your choice of CRM, or just have a friendly chat over a virtual cup of coffee—You know what to do!

Thanks for reading and have a great rest of the week!

Best,
Pyry

P.S. This time I listened to:

_{*You might wonder what the song recommendation has to do with anything. Well, as I listen to a lot of music while I write, be it newsletter or code, I simply wanted to share some of that with you too. I hope you like them!}

1  Customer relationship management - Wikipedia