A CRM for a small business on subscription works when the job fits a standard “lead - deal - payment” pipeline, there are few users and no custom work is needed. Your own system pays off when you are charged for every employee, need stock, cost prices or your own way of working, and clients and money are spread across several programs. Do the maths over three years: subscription, add-ons, custom work and staff time spent copying data, against a single order for your own system and its support.
What a small business CRM usually covers
In a small business, “CRM” means different things. For a sales team it is a deal pipeline and client messages. For a workshop it is orders, stock and money. For a salon it is bookings, packages and reminders to come back.
Ready-made subscription programs do the first one well. amoCRM, a popular Russian cloud CRM, lists a sales pipeline, messengers, telephony and automatic mailings in its plans. The rest - stock in batches, cost prices, profit per sales channel - has to be bolted on through integrations or kept next to it in a spreadsheet.
So the first question is simple: what do you want to see in one place? If the answer is “leads and client conversations”, a ready-made program will probably do. If it is “an order from payment to delivery, material stock and what is left from each order”, that is an accounting system, and a ready-made CRM covers only part of it.
What a small business CRM costs
A subscription shows its price up front, but that is only the first line of the sum.
A fee for every user. amoCRM lists its price per user per month: on the basic plan 599 roubles when paying for six months and less for a longer term, with the extended and professional plans costing more. There is no month-to-month payment; a subscription starts at six months. A new administrator or florist joins, and the bill grows.
Paying for limits. The number of contacts, open deals, document storage and extra fields is capped by the plan. As the database grows, you buy extra packages.
Custom work and integrations. Connecting the CRM to the till, the stock, the booking program or the website usually takes a contractor. That money is not in the plan, and it comes back whenever one of the programs changes.
Staff time. The least visible line. If the same client is recorded in two programs, someone copies data by hand every day.
With your own system the costs run the other way: the main sum is paid once, for development, then support and a server. There is no per-user fee, however many employees you add.
| Cost item | Subscription CRM | Your own system |
|---|---|---|
| Users | A fee for each, every month | No per-user fee |
| Stock, cost prices, your own rules | Through integrations and custom work | Built in from the start around how you work |
| Where the data lives | In the provider’s cloud | On the company’s own server |
| Getting started | Fast, with a free trial | Takes time to develop |
When a ready-made CRM is enough
A ready-made program is worth taking if most of these hold:
- Your work looks like sales. Lead, talks, invoice, payment. The ready-made pipeline follows your process instead of fighting it.
- There are few users and the number is not growing. Paying for two or three managers will hardly be noticed.
- No stock and no production. You count cost and stock in another program, for example in 1C, the most widely used accounting software in Russia, and that is enough.
- You need to start this week. A subscription is set up in a day, and amoCRM has a 14-day free trial.
A simple CRM is an honest choice for a small business when the job is simple. Trouble starts when people try to fit into it things it was never made for.
When your own CRM costs less than a subscription
Per-user fees and data in someone else’s cloud
The flower studio Doch Sadovnika got its own software instead of a subscription. Cloud florist software such as Posiflora charges a monthly fee per user and keeps the data in its own cloud. We built the studio a system that covers what such programs do, feature for feature, but runs on the studio’s own server: catalogue, customers, cost prices, money and staff, with no monthly fee.
It has things an ordinary CRM does not. A purchase list with a percentage for trimming and wilting, usually about 8%: when roses go up from 190 to 210 roubles a stem, the cost of every bouquet with roses is recalculated by itself. A bouquet is posted from a phone in about a minute. Florists post their bouquets to drafts and never see purchase prices.
Data location matters too. Russia’s personal data law requires that recording, storing and updating personal data of Russian citizens happen in databases located in Russia. Your own system on your own server settles the question of where your client base actually lives.
Stock, recipes and profit per channel
The dog gear workshop Derzhis Menya sells through its website, marketplaces, social media and showrooms. Revenue was visible, profit was not: the marketplace takes a commission, delivery and tax take their share, and materials were bought at different prices.
We built an accounting system with 21 screens. Materials are kept in batches at their purchase price; start an order and materials are written off by recipe. Order profit is revenue minus materials, channel commission, tax and delivery. The “Channels” screen shows how much the workshop keeps from the same product on each marketplace and on its own site. Cash flow is projected 13 weeks ahead. Discounts are under control as well: a promo code, points and a customer tier used to stack, and an order could go out at 44% off; now the whole discount is capped at 30%.
In a ready-made CRM you could only assemble this piece by piece, and each piece would be separate custom work.
Two programs for one client
In a chain of cosmetology studios (a project under NDA) bookings, the till and staff payments lived in YCLIENTS, a common Russian booking program for salons, while the client base and leads lived in amoCRM. The same client existed in two systems as two different people.
Here we did not replace everything. YCLIENTS stays: it is the salon’s working tool and everything there is set up. We are replacing amoCRM with a system of our own built for cosmetology and linked tightly to YCLIENTS. One card holds visits, packages, the cosmetologist’s recommendations, messages and calls, and each treatment has its own repeat rule, so the reminder goes out by itself.
How to choose a CRM for a small business and do the maths
The calculation fits on one sheet of paper in an evening.
- List who will work in the system. Now and a year from now. Multiply by the per-user price and the subscription term to see the three-year fee.
- Add the extras. Limit packages, file storage, integrations with the till, stock and website. Ask a contractor for the price of each piece of custom work.
- Count the manual work. How many hours a week go into copying data between programs and checking it. That is money too.
- Compare with a single order for your own system. Development, server, support. There is no per-user fee in this sum.
- Check what the ready-made program will not have. Cost prices, stock, profit per channel, your own discount rules. If they are missing and you cannot do without them, you can stop the calculation there.
People often ask how to write their own CRM themselves. Technically it is possible, but for a small business owner it means months away from the business. It usually works out better to order the system from a team that has built similar projects and spend your own time describing how the work goes: who does what, where the data is now, and what should be calculated automatically.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a subscription CRM cost a small business?
The price is per user per month. amoCRM’s basic plan starts at 599 roubles per user per month when paid for six months, and there is no month-to-month option. Limit packages and custom work come on top.
Can I keep my current program and add my own CRM to it?
Yes. In the chain of cosmetology studios, bookings and the till stay in YCLIENTS, and our client system is linked to it and receives booking data automatically.
How is your own CRM different from a ready-made one?
Your own system is built around how you work and runs on your server, with no per-user fee. A ready-made one starts faster, but stock, cost prices and your own rules have to be added through custom work.
When does a small business not need its own CRM?
When the work fits a standard sales pipeline, there are few employees, and stock and cost prices are kept in another program. Then a ready-made subscription CRM is enough.
Who your own system fits
Workshops and small manufacturers, flower shops, salons and studios: places where goods are made to order, cost prices or stock matter, sales go through several channels and clients are spread across several programs. What we do in CRM and accounting systems is collected on the directions page. If you recognise your situation, describe it in the form below, and we will look at whether a ready-made program is enough or your own will cost less.
