The five, named
- Quoting: turning 'can you do this' into a price with arithmetic behind it, before any work starts.
- Running: the plan, the deadlines, the client's tasks and yours, in one place that is not your inbox.
- Billing: invoices out on time, payments chased in order of age, terms that were agreed before the work.
- Money: costs, fees and the tax set-aside, so the price knows what it must clear.
- Showing up: the habit of publishing, answering and appearing, which is the entire marketing department when the marketing department is you.
Which one to build first
- If work is coming in and money is chaos: billing first, because invoiced-but-unchased money is the cheapest raise you will ever get.
- If money is fine but clients keep expanding the work: quoting first, with a change rule in it.
- If clients are fine but there are not enough of them: showing up first, on a schedule, small and boring and weekly.
- Build one at a time, one week each. Five half-systems is zero systems.
Where files beat apps
- Ownership: a file you keep cannot be repriced next spring, cannot be acquired and shut down, and cannot hold your business hostage.
- No seats, no tiers: a one-person business does not need per-user pricing for a table of invoices.
- Offline and exportable: your systems working on a plane, and leaving with you the day you choose.
- Where apps win - anything needing real-time collaboration with other people. Know the difference, and be honest about which job you are doing.
The honest line
- A system does not do the work. It removes the admin that was doing you.
- The five systems are boring on purpose: the goal is that the boring parts take minutes, so the talent gets the hours.
- Buy the parts you cannot build well in an evening, build the rest, and review the whole set once a year.
The free tool for this
There is no calculator that answers this one honestly, so here is the free set: eight calculators for rates, quotes, invoices, splits, prices and fees. They run in the page and send nothing anywhere.
If you would rather not build it yourself
The Whole Shelf is all five systems as files - quote, run, bill, money, showing up - built to work alone and priced as one box. The Whole Shelf is $59. See it on the shop, and there is a plain page about it here: what it holds.
Questions people actually ask
Do I need all five on day one?
No - you need the one that is currently leaking most, and a note about the other four. Most one-person businesses start with quoting and billing, and add the rest the first time the absence of one costs them a week.
When is an app the better call?
When the system's job is shared - a client approving work, a collaborator editing, a team schedule. For the systems only you touch, a well-made file you own usually wins on price, portability and permanence.
Read next
How to price a bundle without underselling your own parts, Which of these files do you need first, and which can wait.