I'm Brandy Lawson and this is Elevated, the snackable weekly podcast helping kitchen and bath designers build a better business. In this episode, you'll learn about the real cost of not using the right software in your business. Among the things that keep me up at night is watching amazing design firms bleed money without even realizing it. Owners and staff furiously working, stressing about projects and feeling Very sad and frustrated when looking at the profit. And no, I'm not talking about your material costs or labor rates. I'm talking about something way sneakier, the hidden costs of lumping along with the wrong software or no software at all. Recently, a designer told me, Brandy. I cannot afford to invest in new software right now. Meanwhile, she's paying her designers and drafters to manually enter the same product specs into three different documents. That's not being frugal! That's like insisting on washing dishes by hand while paying for the dishwasher you never install. Let me share an aha moment that happened for another business owner. Lisa thought she was saving money by sticking with her, uh, free project management setup. You know. Spreadsheets, emails, and about 17 different note taking apps. And by app, I mean sticky notes. But when we actually sat down and did the math, her team was spending 12 hours every week just trying to find information. 12 hours! At her team's billing rate, that was costing her over 48, 000 a year in lost productive time. But here's the thing. It's not just about obvious time waste. Let's talk about the sneaky costs that are probably eating away at your business. right now. First up, the I'll just remember that tax. Every time you keep important project details in your head, instead of in a system, you're gambling with your business. Like the designer who lost a slam dunk 25, 000 project because he forgot to follow up with the client. And by the time he remembered, they'd gone with another designer. Ooh. Then there's, uh, what I call the, where the heck is that, that file fee. You know, that s sinking feeling when a client asks for the specific rendering version from three weeks ago? And you've gotta dig through four different folders in your email to find it. That's not just frustrating. It's costing you credibility with your clients and adding hours to your week. And last, not forget my least favorite, the, we've always done it that way. Surcharge Alicia's firm. was manually scheduling every meeting because that's just how we do it. When she finally started using scheduling links and automated meeting reminders, they saved six hours per project with five projects a month. That's basically getting an extra week of work every month. The biggest hidden cost. It's the opportunities you're missing out on. I worked with a firm that was so bogged down by their paper based system that they could only handle 16 projects at once. After we got their software sorted out. They scaled to 60 projects and only added an additional drafter. Not only were they able to grow their revenue, they also increased their profitability. Now I know what you're thinking. But Brandy, switching software is such a pain! And you're right! It can be. But you know what's more painful? Realizing that you've been leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table because you're too busy fighting with your current systems to grow your business. Here's a quick reality check for you. Pull out your calculator or grab that worksheet I mentioned last week from fieryfx. com slash choose and add up How many hours your team spends searching for information each week? How much time you spend manually doing tasks that could be automated? How many follow ups you've missed in the last month? How many hours you spend creating documents that could be templated and that includes emails now multiply that by your hourly rate I'll wait Yeah, that number hurts, doesn't it? In the next episode, we'll get into the first step in our software selection framework. But for now, I want you to start tracking those hidden costs. Knowledge is power, and once you know what staying stuck is really costing you, making a change becomes a lot less scary. Want to calculate your own hidden software costs? Head over to FieryEffects. com slash choose and download that worksheet. Your future self will thank you.