Five Tech Subscriptions Most Solopreneurs Don't Need
Most small business owners I work with are paying for more software than they use, more than they need, and more than they realise. Purely because at some point, someone told them they needed it, or they signed up during a free trial and forgot, or they upgraded once for a specific thing and never downgraded.
I do a tech audit and within about twenty minutes I've usually found at least one subscription that makes the person across the screen wince and say "oh god, I forgot about that one."
Here's what comes up almost every time.
1. The all-in-one platform you only use for one thing
These are the big ones. The platforms that promise to do everything - your website, your email list, your courses, your booking system, your CRM - all under one roof.
Sounds brilliant. But in practice, most people use one feature and pay for fifteen.
If you're only using the email side of a £60 a month platform, you could probably get the same functionality from a free MailerLite account and put that money back in your pocket every single month.
2. A booking tool AND a separate calendar sync tool AND a reminder app
Three tools doing the job that one tool should be doing.
Most decent booking platforms already handle calendar syncing and automated reminders. If yours doesn't, you're either on the wrong plan or the wrong platform - and we can sort that.
3. A premium plan you upgraded to once and never revisited
This is so common and funny because I am a sucker for premium features. This is where you needed one feature for a launch, or a client project, or a campaign. So you upgraded. The thing ended. The subscription did not.
Sit down once a year and go through your bank statement line by line. I promise you'll find something that makes you curse! (get in quick before the renewal surprise).
4. Tools that don't talk to each other
This one is less about what you're paying and more about what you're losing - as in time, every single week.
If your booking system doesn't connect to your email list, you're manually adding people. If your payment tool doesn't link to your invoicing software, you're doing double admin. If none of it connects, you're essentially employing yourself as a very expensive data entry person.
Automation exists everywhere now, and it's less complicated to set up. And it saves hours - actual hours every single month.
5. Software from a launch that never happened again
The webinar platform from the one webinar you ran in 2023. The course hosting tool from the programme you soft-launched and then paused. The project management app three people used for six weeks.
All still there. All still billing you.
If you're reading this thinking "I genuinely don't know what I'm paying for or whether any of it is working" - that's exactly what a Tech Audit is for. Sixty minutes, we go through it together, and you leave knowing what to keep, what to cut, and what to actually set up properly.