Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share When Do You Actually Need an ERP? (It's Not Revenue)
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
When Do You Actually Need an ERP? (It's Not Revenue)
Send us a message about this episode!
A small business owner posted on r/ERP that they'd outgrown their patchwork of spreadsheets and SaaS apps — and had heard they'd need an ERP "once they hit a certain size." They just couldn't work out where that line was. The post sat unanswered. So Pete, Nirav and Emily took the question on.
No top fives, no checklists this week — just a straight conversation about what actually pushes a growing business onto an ERP, what holds it back, and whether the leap is as scary as it sounds.
In this episode:
- Why the first real signal is frustration, not revenue — and how owner burnout quietly turns into business risk
- Why hiring another body rarely fixes a broken process (it just moves the burnout around)
- The silo trap: how sensible point-solution decisions — Shopify, ShipStation, QuickBooks, Fishbowl, a bit of Google Docs — stop adding up
- Putting a number on the pain: the value-justification time study and cost per transaction
- Treating a modern ERP like a 24/7 worker with its own hourly rate
- When you're not ready for an ERP — and the one question to ask any VAR before you sign
- Why 80% of spreadsheets carry errors, and what that does to your weekly numbers
The line that summed it all up: you don't grow into an ERP, you stop growing without one.
Related episodes:
- S04E13 — How to Choose an ERP: Where Do You Even Start?
- S2E04 — When Do You Need an ERP System? 5 Signs You've Outgrown Spreadsheets
- S3E06 — How to Build the Perfect ERP Implementation Team
The ABCs of ERP & Beyond is hosted by Peter Nicholson, Nirav Shah, and Emily Browning. New episodes every two weeks on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube and everywhere else you catch your podcasts.
Got a question like the one that sparked this episode? Drop us a comment or message — we read them, and they make for good episodes.
Support the show
👋 JOIN THE CONVERSATION:
Have you experienced an ERP data migration, or are you planning one? Share your thoughts, experiences, or ask questions in the comments section below. We’d love to hear from you!
🔔 STAY IN THE KNOW:
Enjoyed the content? Subscribe to our channel and hit the bell icon to stay updated on the latest episodes. We bring you expert insights, valuable tips, and real-world case studies from the ERP realm and beyond!
#ERPTips #BusinessProcesses
View all episodes
By Peter Nicholson | Nirav Shah | Emily Browning
5
22 ratings
Send us a message about this episode!
A small business owner posted on r/ERP that they'd outgrown their patchwork of spreadsheets and SaaS apps — and had heard they'd need an ERP "once they hit a certain size." They just couldn't work out where that line was. The post sat unanswered. So Pete, Nirav and Emily took the question on.
No top fives, no checklists this week — just a straight conversation about what actually pushes a growing business onto an ERP, what holds it back, and whether the leap is as scary as it sounds.
In this episode:
- Why the first real signal is frustration, not revenue — and how owner burnout quietly turns into business risk
- Why hiring another body rarely fixes a broken process (it just moves the burnout around)
- The silo trap: how sensible point-solution decisions — Shopify, ShipStation, QuickBooks, Fishbowl, a bit of Google Docs — stop adding up
- Putting a number on the pain: the value-justification time study and cost per transaction
- Treating a modern ERP like a 24/7 worker with its own hourly rate
- When you're not ready for an ERP — and the one question to ask any VAR before you sign
- Why 80% of spreadsheets carry errors, and what that does to your weekly numbers
The line that summed it all up: you don't grow into an ERP, you stop growing without one.
Related episodes:
- S04E13 — How to Choose an ERP: Where Do You Even Start?
- S2E04 — When Do You Need an ERP System? 5 Signs You've Outgrown Spreadsheets
- S3E06 — How to Build the Perfect ERP Implementation Team
The ABCs of ERP & Beyond is hosted by Peter Nicholson, Nirav Shah, and Emily Browning. New episodes every two weeks on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube and everywhere else you catch your podcasts.
Got a question like the one that sparked this episode? Drop us a comment or message — we read them, and they make for good episodes.
Support the show
👋 JOIN THE CONVERSATION:
Have you experienced an ERP data migration, or are you planning one? Share your thoughts, experiences, or ask questions in the comments section below. We’d love to hear from you!
🔔 STAY IN THE KNOW:
Enjoyed the content? Subscribe to our channel and hit the bell icon to stay updated on the latest episodes. We bring you expert insights, valuable tips, and real-world case studies from the ERP realm and beyond!
#ERPTips #BusinessProcesses