How To Choose Tech For Your Online Business
Choosing tech and systems for your business can be a long journey of testing and trialing, getting your hopes up, getting disappointed, going back to the drawing board and starting over and over again until you find some combination of technology and systems to help you do what you’re trying to do.
I've supported businesses of varying sizes to choose and implement technology to solve a business problem or support a business objective and I want to share a few important lessons I’ve learned in the process.
When I'm asked to help someone choose a technology solution for their business, there is a key thing that I help them reverse engineer first with this question:
What are you hoping it will do for you?
The reason that I start there is because often someone has heard about a platform or tool because of the way that platform or tool is marketed.
Good marketing shows you what is possible with the tool which is great but it's almost never plug and play.
→ An email marketing platform doesn't have default tags, segments, automations for your business.
→ A client management system doesn't have your client onboarding emails and processes written.
→ A social media scheduler doesn't plan the content and write the posts.
→ A funnel building tool doesn't come with the conversion strategy for your business (getting a funnel in place is easy - making it work is the hard part.)
The system, the strategy, the assets, the copy, the workflow - that all still needs to happen whether you choose tool A or tool B.
The tool can't rescue you from the work that has to go into the tool for it to truly do the heavy lifting for you.
Which is ok, but it's easier to pick the best tool when you're clear on exactly what you need it to do.
Another hole that people get into is looking for an all-in-one solution and hoping a single tech tool can solve all the problems across the board.
I use Kajabi for my course platform. I love it.
However, when I first started using it, my plan was to use ALL of the functionality.
The website, "pipelines" (funnels), email marketing - all of it.
But, as I dug in - I realized it didn't actually meet my needs in all those areas.
(Not that it isn't a great solution for some people - it is. It just wasn't for me and my use case.)
I had fallen in love with the dream of an all-in-one solution and what was possible with Kajabi - without first thinking through what I actually needed.
I do absolutely love Kajabi as a course platform but my funnels are built with Convertkit + Squarespace + Deadline Funnel. I didn't need a fancy funnel builder to accomplish what I wanted to.
The technology we implement in our business should make achieving our business goals easier and faster.
I recommend getting clear on the business goals and requirements FIRST and THEN finding technology that you need to support you.
(As opposed to picking a tool and trying to shoe-horn your business needs into it.)
It's a bit more work up front but so much easier in the long run.
Are you choosing tech in your business right now? Or thinking about switching tools or platforms in any business area?
If so, I'd love to hear about it.
And if you want to better leverage tech and systems in your business, Empowered Action is enrolling. Happy to chat to see if it would be a fit for you.
Amy x
