How to Know If You're Business is Ready for Optimization Tools (Or Just Burning Cash)

I woke up today up at 6:30am like always.

Do my little morning stretch routine. Head downstairs to make breakfast and pack lunches for Max and Leo.

I'm in the kitchen when I hear this noise outside.

Sounds like the bus. We get three buses that stop right in front of our house every morning, so that's normal.

But then I hear another sound.

Like a garbage truck. Except garbage doesn't come until Thursday.

Hmm…

There's this mechanical noise. Something heavy being loaded.

Now I’m really curious to figure this out.

I go to the front door and peek through the blinds.

There's a tow truck in my neighbor's driveway.

Guy's loading up their car onto the truck bed. I'm thinking, "Huh. Car problems. Probably taking it to get repaired."

Then I see the side of the tow truck. " Speedy Repossession Services."

The second that car is secured, the driver jumps in his cab and tears out of there like he's escaping a crime scene.

Two minutes later, my neighbor comes running outside in their bathrobe.

Looks around frantically. Puts both hands on their head.

Goes back inside.

I felt terrible for them.

This whole scene reminded me of something I see constantly with small e-commerce brands.

My relatives work in car sales. I've sat in their office while they sell cars to people with terrible credit who absolutely cannot afford what they're buying.

But they want the nice-looking car. They think it'll change everything.

Same thing happens with e-commerce software.

Small brands get sucked into paying for expensive apps they can't afford because they think it's going to magically scale them from $10K/month to $100K/month overnight.

If you haven't hit a solid seven figures, you're not ready for optimization apps.

This whole scene reminded me of something I see constantly with small e-commerce brands.

My relatives work in car sales. I've sat in their office while they sell cars to people with terrible credit who absolutely cannot afford what they're buying.

But they want the nice-looking car. They think it'll change everything.

Same thing happens with fancy software.

Small brands get sucked into paying for expensive apps they can't afford because they think it's going to magically scale them from $10K/month to $100K/month overnight.

Just like people wanting fancy cars before they can actually pay for them.

If you haven't hit a solid seven figures, you're not ready for optimization apps.

Your money should go toward three things:

1. Improving your product

2. Improving your systems (customer service, inventory, fulfillment)

3. More paid traffic

That's it.

All those buzzy new tools trending on Twitter? The ones that identify anonymous website visitors or promise to "revolutionize your data"?

They're useful. Eventually.

But here's the thing: even if some magic app did scale you overnight, you'd break. Your store would absolutely implode because your infrastructure isn't ready.

It's like the difference between an Olympic athlete and a weekend warrior.

The Olympic athlete? Those tiny optimizations matter because everything else is dialed in.

The weekend warrior who runs twice a month? Fancy supplements aren't going to magically make them fast.

Focus on the fundamentals first. Don't let software subscriptions become your repo truck.

Don’t forget….

Black Friday is 66 days away. I'm only taking new clients for two more weeks before BFCM chaos hits. If you need help, reach out today.

Got something you’d like me to talk about? Reply to this email, I do my best to reply to them all.

💸 If you’re running a 7–8 figure eCom brand but it still feels like nothing’s working book a free strategy call​ with me Here

📺 YouTube: Get free email + retention marketing videos Here​​

🐥 Twitter / X: Follow Me Here ​