The Hidden Costs of Cheap Software

You may not be aware of how expensive it is to purchase an inexpensive software program!

“I wish I would have bought this program the first time!” – Our sales reps hear this at least once a day from a new client who originally elected not to purchase our solutions because there was a cheaper alternative, or so they thought.

Please note that the purpose of this article is not to downplay our competition in the industry, contrarily; we are the first to say that most of the software programs offered to the Martial Arts industry are decent applications. But, if you are planning to buy one program over another because it is less expensive, you may wish to consider the following:

If you do not purchase the right program now, purchasing it later is inevitable.

Because the program you purchase plays an integral role in how your school operates, you will not be able to function with a program that your business has outgrown. This is where your experience the hidden costs of having purchased cheap software.

Lost Time

A lot of time is lost when you need to switch software programs:

• You and your staff will need to learn a whole new program.
• Some programs are not 100% compatible, and not all data may be transferred.
• Further, if your current program does not have a strong export feature, you may have to re-enter all your student data. The longer this is put-off, the bigger a job it will be, and it is unavoidable.
• You may need to re-make ID cards if you do not wish to place a barcode label on the back of your current ones.
• Because software can only produce reports starting from the day you use it, you will lose more time waiting for your permanent program to have enough history in your school before you can view meaningful reports.

Lost Money

• You will now have made one more software purchase than you needed to.
• You may also have to buy new hardware i.e. scanners, POS equipment if the hardware you bought with your old program is not supported by the new one.

Lost Motivation

• We all have a limited amount of patience when dealing with computers. Having to start over again with a new program can be a demoralizing experience, one that affects your attitude towards software in general. Because of this it is possible you may not use your new software with the same tenacity had you started with it in the first place which will directly affect your results.