Just like managing your personal subscriptions – Netflix, telco, Spotify or TV (anyone still on Astro?).

You’d want to track your expenses on the business & marketing softwares your business subscribes to as well.

Naturally, during these times (in the MCO, CMCO, RMCO) – most businesses would be taking a second look at their expenditure and see what they can cut back on. That includes us at LEAD. So we took a good look at our expenses on softwares, tools and platform we use.

To do this, I created a Google sheet and begin listing down every software we use with its cost. You can download the template below:

Get the exact software tracking sheet I used.

And wow, I was stunned to find out that we spend more than RM25,000 on softwares –  a year!

Note that this is only partial list of the softwares we pay for on a monthly subscription basis. I’ve not even included cost from things like hosting, partner licenses and one-time payment softwares/tools.

Take a look below:

What we learnt from doing this.

Putting everything down gives you that clarity that is impossible if you were just going to think about it. Download the template and list out the tools that you are currently subscribed to.

Then ask yourself these questions.

• Are you using a certain tool/software to its full potential?
• Is it something you bought to solve a problem, or is it just another shiny tool?
• How much impact does it bring to your business?
• Can you negotiate with the company for lower fees?

In our case, we found that we weren’t utilising Pipedrive CRM all that much. We considered moving towards a smaller plan.

Then we also noticed that we’re paying RM4,145.4 a year for just a handful of contacts on Mailchimp (yeah, Mailchimp is great, but at an expense.) – which prompted us to onboard another email marketing platform, Sendfox, available at a one-time payment of USD49 (RM208).

 

That’s a saving of more than RM3,000 per year! (Which can be put into better use. Funds for development, our team, etc.)

Click here to get $10 off Sendfox (deal on Appsumo)

But don’t skim on what you need.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t spend on software and tools. As a matter of fact, at LEAD we depend a lot on softwares – like Zoom, Zapier and Mailchimp for our daily operations.

However, most businesses usually end up wasting money on software and its features they don’t actually use.

Here’s a cool tip when dealing with SaaS companies.

Most subscription or SaaS (Software as a service) business have very high customer lifetime value (CLTV). So they’ll go out of their way to make sure their customers, you – stay with them.

If you notice that you don’t use some certain features on the softwares you’re currently subscribed to – go email them and request for a discount or to downgrade. It doesn’t hurt you to ask and there’s a good chance they’ll do something to keep you.

And to prove to you I’m not just saying this out of nothing. See how I asked for a discount on a recent software purchase about a month ago:

Or look to switch to softwares where you only pay a one-time fee, rather than monthly subscriptions.

Helping small businesses (you) go further

We’re all about bringing real value to ambitious individuals and companies at LEAD.

That’s why, we’re started DigitalKit.org, where we provide free business & marketing courses and negotiate with software companies to bring you exciting business softwares that will help your business grow.

Check out the latest software deal, a heat-map and website video tracking tool at DigitalKit.org: Reactflow Pro (3-months) deal

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By the way, how much do you spend on softwares every year? Let me know in the comment section below and discuss away