Has anyone else felt pressured into buying the “pro” tier before you were ready?
Been thinking about this a lot lately, and I’m curious if it’s just me.
When I was getting things off the ground, I kept running into this idea that spending more money was proof you were serious. Not just with tools, but with software, subscriptions, courses, all of it. The message, whether anyone said it out loud or not, was pretty clear: if you’re on the free plan or the budget option, you’re playing around. The real players pay for the good stuff.
And look, I get where that comes from. Better tools can absolutely make a difference. I’m not going to pretend the cheap version of something is always good enough. But there’s a massive difference between upgrading because it genuinely makes sense for where you are, and upgrading because someone made you feel like you had to prove something.
Starting anything from scratch already costs money. There’s the business side of things, insurance if you need it, maybe some advertising, and whatever gear or software your actual work requires. Stacking “aspirational” subscriptions on top of that, things you might need someday but don’t actually need right now, that’s a fast track to burning through money before you’ve made any.
For me, the turning point was asking a really simple question before any purchase: Does this make sense for where I am right now, not where I want to be in two years? A high-end cabinet saw might be the right call eventually. It was definitely not the right call on day one.
Curious how others here have handled this. Did you feel that pressure early on? How did you decide when it was actually the right time to upgrade something vs. when you were just being told to?
I wrote more about this mindset over on the blog if you want the full take https://themakerdad.com/the-youre-not-serious-if-you-dont-overspend-mindset/