I fell for a sales pitch for a high-end CRM last year, thinking it would fix all my client follow-up problems. $800 later and I realized it was way too complex for my small operation. All I really needed was a simple spreadsheet tracker and a reminder app I already had. The onboarding took 3 weeks of my time that I could've spent on actual client work. Anyone else get burned by overspending on software that promised more than it delivered? What do you use for tracking clients that actually works?
Oh man, @alext52 totally nailed it. I've seen way too many people jump into expensive project management tools when they barely have 5 clients. A good spreadsheet with a shared calendar can track tasks, deadlines, and payments just fine. It's free or cheap and everyone already knows how to use it. Once you have more than a handful of people or projects maybe then you need something fancier, but for most small operations it's honestly the sweet spot.