Systems & Tools Checklist

• One CRM
• One accounting system
• One project/task manager
• One password manager
• One communication tool (chat + video)
• One shared document system
• One email + calendar platform
• That's seven tools for a £100K–£1M business
• Anything beyond that list should justify its existence quarterly

Most businesses at this stage are running 20+ tools and can't explain what half of them are for.

• A tool that's an island is a tool that will be replaced in 18 months
• Prioritise tools with open APIs, clean data exports, and a user base larger than 100,000 — these are the ones that will still be supported and interoperable in five years

Every tool in the stack must integrate with at least one other tool, natively or via Zapier/Make.

• Challenge renewals above £50/month with a written case

Every 90 days, list every tool, what it costs, what it does, who uses it, and when it was last loved. Cut anything nobody has touched in 60 days. Most micro businesses find they can cut 20–30% of software spend in a single review — and discover that complexity, not features, was holding them back.