229. How To Stop Shiny Object Syndrome From Wrecking Your Workflow

Ever wonder which tools and services you actually need as a solopreneur, and which ones are just shiny distractions?

In this episode of The Aspiring Solopreneur, Carly and Joe revisit one of the most debated sections of their book, Solopreneur Business For Dummies: setting up your company’s tools and services.

From creating rock-solid SOPs to knowing when to outsource, to avoiding the dreaded “tool overload,” they break down how to make smarter choices that actually save you time. Plus, they share how AI can help today (and where it still falls short). If you’ve ever felt stuck between doing it all yourself, hiring help, or buying yet another app, you won’t want to miss this conversation.

Three Episode Takeaways

• Should I outsource tasks as a solopreneur or keep doing everything myself?
  You don’t need employees to be a solopreneur, but you also don’t have to do everything alone. Outsourcing to contractors or companies for specific tasks can save time and prevent burnout. The key is to outsource before you’re desperate. This way, you have time to properly train someone and set up processes that work.
• How do I know which tools are worth paying for?
  Start by identifying the specific problem you want to solve, then choose tools that are simple, affordable, and easy to integrate with your current setup. Avoid chasing “shiny objects” that solve problems you don’t even have yet. Use free trials strategically and actually test them on a real task during the trial period, and start with monthly payments until you’re confident it’s a good fit.
• What should come first: documenting processes or finding tools and services?
  Always start with documenting your processes in the form of standard operating procedures (SOPs). If you try to outsource or automate a broken process, you’ll only make the problems bigger. SOPs give you a clear, repeatable checklist that works whether you do it yourself, hand it off to someone else, or use a tool to automate it.

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Episode Transcript

Carly Ries (00:00):
Ever get stuck in the endless loop of picking the

(00:02):
perfect tool or wondering whenit's time to outsource? In this
episode, we break down howsolopreneurs can set up the
right systems without fallinginto the shiny object syndrome.
From creating simple SOPs todeciding what to automate,
outsource, or tackle yourself,we share practical strategies
that save time, money, andheadaches. Plus, here why
starting small, testing toolsthe right way, and knowing when

(00:22):
to bring in support can make allthe difference in your business.
You're listening to The AspiringSolopreneur, the podcast for
anyone on the solo businessjourney, whether you're just
toying with the idea, takingyour first bold step, or have
been running your own show foryears and want to keep growing,
refining, and thriving.
I'm Carly Ries, and along withmy cohost, Joe Rando, we're your

(00:45):
guides through the crazy butawesome world of being a company
of one. As part of LifeStarr, adigital hub dedicated to all
things solopreneurship, we helppeople design businesses that
align with their life'sambitions so they can work to
live, not live to work. Ifyou're looking for a get rich
quick scheme, this is not theplace for you. But if you want
real world insights fromindustry experts, lessons from

(01:06):
the successes and stumbles offellow solopreneurs, and
practical strategies forbuilding and sustaining a
business you love, you're in theright spot. Because flying solo
on business doesn't mean you'realone.
No matter where you are in yourjourney, we've got your back.

(02:23):
Joe, you know what is funny? Soin today's episode, we are
talking about setting up yourcompany tools and services. And
these two chapters, when we werewriting the book, really stick
out to me because they were theones that were like, no, let's
do it this way. No, no, no,Let's do it this way.
Oh, no, no, Let's do it thisway. And it's just so funny that
we're now talking about it in apodcast because it just sticks

(02:45):
out for me. I'm really excitedto dive into it today. I'm going
to to pass the baton to you.

Joe Rando (02:50):
Okay.

Carly Ries (02:51):
so I'm curious, just your thought process because in
the book, we didn't really lista lot of the tools and services
because they're always changing.
We're gonna have supplementalstuff with that. Tell us your
thought process.

Joe Rando (03:04):
Yeah. I'm not gonna list any tools because there are
too many, this would not be asound bite. It would be a sound
tome. We don't need that. But Ido wanna talk about just kind of
the ways to think about itbecause depending on what you're
doing, there are a lot ofdifferent options.
But the first thing is there aretwo ways of kind of offloading
work from yourself, and one isto outsource, which we'll call

(03:24):
services, and the other is touse tools to make things easier.
And regardless of what you'regoing to do, whether you're
gonna take something, keep itfor yourself, outsource it, or
use a tool, you wanna start bycreating a procedure, like a
process for doing it. I callthem standard operating
procedures or SOPs. And thatmeans just making a kind of step

(03:47):
by step checklist kind of thingof this happens, this happens,
this happens. Because whetheryou do it yourself, whether you
give it to someone else, orwhether you try to implement it
inside of some software tool,that's gonna be really helpful
to working efficiently.
So that's always a good place tostart. I don't know if you have
any thoughts on that, but, we'venever found a situation where

(04:08):
that wasn't helpful.

Carly Ries (04:09):
No.

Joe Rando (04:11):
And just as an example, let's say, the last
episode we talked aboutonboarding, right? So your
onboarding standard operatingprocedure might be something
like send a welcome email, Setup a project folder for that
customer, create an account forthem in your accounting system,
and then send them an invoice,Which might not be onboarding,

(04:31):
but you know, it can be verysimple, but it still should be
documented because it'll make iteasier to go through that list,
see what you're missing and geta standard operating procedure
that makes sense.
So that's always step one. fromthere, if the process isn't
really right, don't try toautomate it. Don't try to
outsource it. Because, if yououtsource it and train somebody

(04:53):
on a process that doesn't quitework, it'll probably never get
fixed until you go in and fixthe mess. If you're trying to
put it into a into some kind ofsoftware system, again, a broken
process is almost worse than asoftware system because it won't
even think to fix it.
So try to make sure that you'vegot these down pat before you
start to do it. With respect tooutsourcing, we talk about

(05:17):
solopreneurs, and I feel likethere's kind of a little bit of
I won't call it an argument, buta disagreement in the world of
solopreneurship of the peoplethat believe that you have to do
everything yourself to be asolopreneur versus us who say,
you don't have employees, butyou can outsource things to
contractors, to companies, topeople, to do the things that

(05:38):
aren't worth your time doing.But you wanna outsource before
you're desperate, because thenit's harder to outsource it
effectively. It's harder totrain the people up effectively
to what you need. So don't waittoo long.
You know, as it starts to get,gee, I wish I had more time.
Find that one thing, a couple ofthings that you can get somebody

(05:59):
else to do for you, and you willfind yourself much happier. Now
going on to tools, and I'm justtalking away here, Carly. Don't
know if you have anything toadd,

Carly Ries (06:10):
No. You're Okay. You're good.

Joe Rando (06:12):
Okay.

Carly Ries (06:12):
Alright. You know I cut you off if I need to.

Joe Rando (06:16):
So anyway, when you start talking about tools. And
this is something that I am soguilty of. I wanna find the
coolest tool. I wanna find themost awesome tool that's gonna
solve the problems I'm gonnahave in five years. And if you
can find a tool that can bringyou there, great. But sometimes

(06:39):
it's good to start with simpler.You want to kind of, identify
the problems or the proceduresthat you want to automate, want
to fix, and stay away from theshiny object syndrome. You want
to find one that just makes iteasier. Obviously,
affordability is usually a goodthing especially when you're
starting out as a solopreneur.So, you know, figure out what

(07:01):
issue you're trying to solve.Make sure the tool is pretty
easy to use, that you're notgonna be banging against the
wall. check reviews and things.If you're dealing with other
software, try to see if there'san integration. If there's any
reason for those things tointeract, it's nice to have a
native integration. There'salways that option of using,

(07:22):
Zapier to do it, but that'sanother expense. It's a little
more complicated.
And then one of the cool thingsyou can do is if you can get a
free trial and try it out withsomething you're trying to do
and see if it works and you likethe way it works, that's great.
And sometimes they'll give you,a free month or a free couple of

(07:44):
months. Those kinds of things,even if it's just seven days,
get in if you're gonna do it,sign up for the seven days and
have the time allocated to go inand try it with something real
so that you make sure that's thething you wanna start paying
for. Start off monthly. If theyhave a discount of you know, two
free months, if you pay for ayear, great. Once you know you

(08:05):
want it, do that. But untilthen, pay monthly in case you
say, you know what? This isn'tcutting it.
And you can walk away of onlyblowing, tens of dollars instead
of hundreds of dollars. I guessthe other thing now is that we
cannot not talk about. Afterespecially after being an
Inbound last week is AI.
So AI. just AI and have it doeverything for you, said

(08:28):
somebody somewhere, and it's notthere yet. I mean, AI is fine.
It's great. It's exciting.
I use it all the time, but youhave to be careful not to try to
run with it too much untilyou're sure it's going to behave
well. There's a lot of talkabout agentic AI. That's AI not

(08:51):
just giving you information ortext or writing for you or
critiquing your writing, butactually going out and doing
things for you. This is gonna bea game changer. But right now,
we are in September 2025.
I would be careful with it. Idon't think it's quite there
yet. It could be a real timewaster, but it's something to

(09:12):
keep an eye on because at somepoint, it's gonna be pretty
amazing for helping you doroutine chores that you don't
necessarily wanna spend yourtime doing.

Carly Ries (09:23):
Did I clean my house yet?

Joe Rando (09:25):
Yeah. I know. That's the thing. We don't have the
robot. We don't have the robotwith the AI to actually do any
real work, but you know, we'vegot the stuff that it can help
with now.
I mean, if you wanna crank outan email, and you write the
email, but you want it to be alittle more, you know, elegant,
especially if you train up theAI with your writing style, You

(09:47):
can, create emails a lot faster.You just give the skeleton, it
makes it, then you edit it, anda very nice email can go out in
much less time. You know, theidea of summarizing things is
fantastic.
So using email for, things likesummarizing meetings,
summarizing long, documents orwhatever. I like using it for

(10:10):
brainstorming, coming up withideas. I'll give it a list of
things that I think are goodideas and it'll come back and
go, yeah, what about these? AndI'm like, yeah, you know, some
of them are dumb, few of themare good. And it's really good
for helping you create standardoperating procedures if you've
got rough notes.
So that's one thing that you cando that can really help you with
this whole process and using AI.AI is a helpful assistant at

(10:33):
this point. I wouldn'tpersonally be ready to, as I
said, at this point in time, tolet it run off and do work for
me without supervision. Youdefinitely wanna keep an eye on
it before it goes out into theworld. That's kinda where I'm at
on this.

Carly Ries (10:50):
Perfect. And you can train your AI to not use em
dashes or colons.
so Delve used to be a giveawayand emojis. I do think it
started to simmer on Delve andemojis. Maybe just for me.

Joe Rando (11:10):
I created a GPT, and basically, all it said was don't
use em dashes. It still used emdashes. I had it write up an
Emily Dickinson poem in thestyle of Emily Dickinson who's
famous for using em dashes. Fourstanzas, 32 em dashes.

Carly Ries (11:28):
And I feel bad for the em dash because they were
useful and can be useful, butthey're just overdone now.

Joe Rando (11:34):
Yeah. what really bothers me is, I use a lot of
colons and semicolons in mywriting. I didn't use em dashes,
I think it's, like, three keyson the Mac. But I use a lot of
colons and semicolons, and I'mhearing people say, oh, that's a
dead giveaway that it's AI. I'mlike, no. It's me.

Carly Ries (11:51):
Yeah. I know. Anyhoo. Well, Joe, thank you for
all that.
I have nothing else to add. Ithink that was all very
informative. And listeners,thank you so much for tuning in.
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(12:11):
Aspiring Solopreneur. You may begoing solo in business, but that
doesn't mean you're alone. Infact, millions of people are in
your shoes, running a one personbusiness and figuring it out as
they go. So why not connect withthem and learn from each other's
successes and failures? AtLifeStarr, we're creating a one
person business community whereyou can go to meet and get

(12:32):
advice from other solopreneurs.
Be sure to join in on theconversations at
community.lifestarr.com.