The Right Tech Stack for <10
A lean, sensible toolset that does not bleed cash or time.
Notes from Randall Harper. Thirty years working alongside owner-operators, executives and boards — companies of all types and sizes — across entertainment & media, hospitality, service based business, lifestyle businesses, financial services, retail and not-for-profit, in Australia, Asia, the United Kingdom and the United States. What follows is the thinking I keep returning to.
The trap of more tools
Small businesses rarely fail from having too few tools. They fail from having too many — half-configured, half-paid-for, half-adopted. Every app you add is a subscription, a login, a security risk, and a decision your team has to make about which one to use. Restraint is the strategy. A small, tight stack you actually use beats a comprehensive one you do not.
The five categories that matter
- Comms — email, calendar, video. Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 covers all three.
- Accounting — Xero or MYOB. Pick one, learn it properly, and stop comparing.
- Jobs or projects — ServiceM8, Tradify, Jobber for trades; Asana, ClickUp, Trello for services.
- Customer relationships — a simple CRM like HubSpot Free, Pipedrive, or even a well-built spreadsheet.
- Storage and documents — Google Drive or OneDrive, with a folder structure that makes sense to a new starter on day one.
How to choose, not just collect
When evaluating a new tool, ask three questions. Does it replace something I already have, or add to it? Will the person who has to use it daily actually adopt it, or just tolerate it? In twelve months, will I still be willing to pay this subscription? If the answers are not yes, no, and yes, do not subscribe.
The cost of switching
Owners often underestimate the cost of switching tools. The new tool is rarely the problem; the data migration, the team retraining, the customer disruption, and the lost institutional knowledge add up to weeks of distraction. Switch only when the current tool is genuinely the bottleneck, not when a better-looking demo turns up at a trade show.
Annual stack review
Once a year — a quiet afternoon, end of financial year is natural — list every subscription, what it does, who uses it, and what it costs. You will almost always find two or three you no longer need, one or two you forgot you were paying for, and one that has quietly tripled in price. A two-hour review usually pays for itself many times over.
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The contents of this paper are the opinion of Clear Point Advisory only. Readers should rely on their own judgement and obtain professional advice appropriate to their circumstances.