Building a Thriving Atlassian Consulting Business: Part 6

[#1]

Choose the Right Tools

As I mentioned, I thought I’d be a web developer forever. Then, in 2011, everything changed. I fell in love with Jira and my life would never be the same. I was using a bug tracker that only ran in an obsolete browser version and regularly corrupted data. But Jira seemed so much better! I was immediately impressed with how flexible and customizable it was.

My Mistake

That leads me to how important it is to choose the right tools and the right number of tools to power your business. If you’re just starting out, you probably need tools to market your business, communicate with customers, track your work, record expenses, and take payments. Mature businesses probably need additional tools for robust processes like supporting customers, nurturing leads and deals, and managing campaigns. You probably also want integration between the tools.

Choosing the Wrong Tools

The worst software decision I made was the ecommerce software I used to sell content on my website. I did a lot of research, and since I had web development experience, I thought I was making an informed choice. But I went wrong in two ways.

First, I chose software that did way more than I needed it to. I thought it would be smart to choose with future growth in mind, but never ended up using all those extra features I thought I’d need “one day.”

The other mistake was I let the software get out of date. I was too busy consulting to properly keep up with software upgrades. I should have either made time for it or outsourced it. Instead, I’m stuck in a situation where the only way forward is to migrate to new software. It’s a (continuing!) long, painful, and expensive process. And I did it all to myself.

As least I got to use a creative “website under construction” message! Get it?

Lesson Learned

The lesson is to outsource anything you’re not good at, don’t love, or don’t have adequate time to do well.

“Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.”
- Lord Chesterfield

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Part 7: Engage the Community