Best CRM for Small Businesses: Why 17hats Is More Than Just a CRM
Best CRM for Small Businesses
If you're running a small business, you've probably experienced the frustration of keeping track of client information across multiple tools. One application stores your contacts, another handles scheduling, another creates invoices, another manages bookkeeping, and your email inbox becomes the place where important conversations get buried.
As your business grows, juggling disconnected software often leads to missed follow-ups, duplicate data entry, inconsistent client communication, and wasted time.
That's where a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system can make a significant difference.
A CRM brings your client information, communication, projects, and business processes together into one organized platform.
For service-based businesses—including consultants, photographers, home stagers, interior designers, coaches, professional speakers, virtual assistants, and creative professionals—17hats stands out because it's much more than a CRM. It's a complete
business management platform designed to help you automate repetitive tasks, improve your client experience, and streamline your operations from inquiry to payment.
What Is a CRM?
A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system helps you organize and manage every interaction with your clients.
Instead of searching through emails, spreadsheets, notebooks, or multiple software platforms, a CRM gives you one centralized location to manage your business.
A good CRM allows you to:
- Track leads
- Manage contacts
- Organize projects
- Send proposals
- Create contracts
- Schedule appointments
- Send invoices
- Accept payments
- Automate follow-ups
- Track client communications
The result is a more organized business, a smoother client experience, and more time to focus on serving your clients.
Why 17hats Stands Out
Many CRMs are designed primarily for sales teams. While they excel at tracking leads and sales pipelines, service-based businesses often need much more.
17hats combines CRM functionality with project management, workflow automation, scheduling, invoicing, bookkeeping, and client communication—all within one platform.
Instead of piecing together several different applications, 17hats helps you manage your entire client journey from the first inquiry through project completion and beyond.
Contact Management
Every client interaction is stored in one place.
Instead of searching through emails or spreadsheets, you can quickly access:
- Contact information
- Phone numbers
- Email addresses
- Notes
- Previous conversations
- Project history
- Documents
- Contracts
- Invoices
Having a complete history of every client relationship helps you provide faster, more personalized service.
Sales Pipeline
Knowing exactly where each client is in your sales process helps prevent opportunities from slipping through the cracks.
With 17hats, you can easily view:
- New inquiries
- Discovery calls
- Proposals sent
- Contracts signed
- Active projects
- Completed projects
This visual pipeline makes it easy to prioritize follow-ups and stay organized.
Task Reminders
Following up consistently is one of the easiest ways to improve your sales and client experience.
17hats automatically reminds you when it's time to:
- Call a prospect
- Send a proposal
- Follow up after a consultation
- Check in with a client
- Complete project milestones
- Send an invoice
Instead of relying on sticky notes or memory, your CRM keeps you on track.
Email Integration
17hats connects directly with your email account so conversations stay attached to each client record.
Benefits include:
- Automatic email logging
- Conversation history
- Faster communication
- Less time searching your inbox
Every important conversation stays connected to the client it belongs to.
Calendar Integration
Your calendar should work with your CRM—not separately from it.
17hats integrates with your calendar so you can:
- Schedule consultations
- View appointments
- Prevent double bookings
- Manage project deadlines
Everything stays synchronized, reducing scheduling conflicts and administrative work.
Zoom Integration
If your business meets clients virtually, 17hats makes online meetings easier.
With Zoom integration, meeting links can be automatically generated and included in your scheduling workflow, creating a seamless experience for both you and your clients.
Zapier Integration
Every business uses a different combination of software.
Through Zapier, 17hats connects with thousands of applications, allowing you to automate repetitive tasks across your entire business.
Popular integrations include:
- Airtable
- Google Sheets
- Slack
- Mailchimp
- ActiveCampaign
- QuickBooks
- Hundreds of other business applications
This flexibility allows 17hats to become the central hub of your business operations.
Workflow Automation
One of the most valuable features of 17hats is workflow automation.
Instead of manually completing the same tasks for every client, you can build workflows that automatically move clients through your process.
A workflow might:
- Send a welcome email
- Deliver a questionnaire
- Generate a proposal
- Create a contract
- Send an invoice
- Schedule reminder emails
- Notify you when action is needed
Automation not only saves time but also creates a more consistent and professional client experience.
Client Portal
Clients appreciate having one secure location where they can access everything related to their project.
The client portal allows clients to:
- Review proposals
- Sign contracts
- Complete questionnaires
- Pay invoices
- Access shared documents
This creates a more organized and professional experience while reducing back-and-forth emails.
Customize 17hats to Fit Your Business
No two businesses operate the same way.
That's why one of the biggest strengths of 17hats is its flexibility through Custom Fields.
Custom Fields allow you to track the information that's unique to your business, such as:
- Referral sources
- Property addresses
- Event dates
- Inventory locations
- Speaking topics
- Consultation types
- Project categories
- Client preferences
- Internal workflow stages
Instead of forcing your business to fit generic software, 17hats can be customized to match your processes.
Built-In Financial Management
One feature that often surprises new users is that 17hats goes beyond customer relationship management by helping you manage your business finances.
Many small business owners already use QuickBooks, and 17hats integrates with QuickBooks if you prefer to keep your accounting there. This allows invoices and financial information to work together without duplicate entry.
However, many service-based businesses find that 17hats also provides robust built-in bookkeeping tools for day-to-day financial management.
With 17hats you can:
- Connect your business bank account
- Import bank transactions
- Export financial transactions
- Categorize income and expenses
- Track project expenses
- Associate income and expenses with specific client projects
- Monitor outstanding invoices
- Record payments received
- Track sales tax
Because your financial information is connected directly to your client projects, you gain better visibility into the profitability of your business.
Built-In Financial Reports
Understanding your business numbers shouldn't require complicated spreadsheets.
17hats includes built-in reports that help you monitor the financial health of your business, including:
Profit & Loss
View your income and expenses over a selected period to understand your overall profitability.
Sales Tax Report
Track collected sales tax to simplify reporting and tax preparation.
Upcoming Receivables
See invoices that are coming due so you can better manage cash flow.
Aged Receivables
Quickly identify overdue invoices and outstanding balances that need follow-up.
Client Sales Report
Analyze how much revenue each client has generated, helping you identify your most valuable client relationships.
Product & Service Sales
Review which products or services generate the most revenue and identify business trends.
For many small businesses, having these reports built directly into their CRM eliminates the need to constantly move between multiple software platforms.
Who Is 17hats Best For?
17hats is especially well suited for service-based businesses that manage clients from inquiry through project completion, including:
- Professional Speakers
- Consultants
- Coaches
- Home Stagers
- Interior Designers
- Photographers
- Event Professionals
- Marketing Agencies
- Virtual Assistants
- Online Business Managers
- Creative Professionals
If your business revolves around client relationships, appointments, projects, and recurring workflows, 17hats provides the tools to keep everything organized.
Is 17hats the Best CRM for Every Business?
No CRM is the perfect fit for every business.
Large organizations with complex enterprise sales teams may require platforms built specifically for high-volume sales management.
However, for most service-based businesses, 17hats offers an excellent balance of CRM functionality, automation, scheduling, invoicing, bookkeeping, and client management—all within one platform.
Rather than paying for multiple disconnected tools, many business owners appreciate having one system that supports their entire client journey.
Why Business Owners Choose 17hats
Compared to many traditional CRMs, 17hats offers a broader set of business management tools.
Final Thoughts
The best CRM isn't simply the one with the most features—it's the one that fits the way your business operates.
For service-based businesses looking to centralize client information, automate repetitive tasks, simplify financial management, and deliver a seamless client experience, 17hats is more than just a CRM. It becomes the operational hub of your business.
When configured correctly, it can replace multiple disconnected tools, reduce administrative work, improve communication, and provide greater visibility into both your client relationships and your business performance.
Whether you're just starting out or looking to streamline an established business, investing in the right systems today can save hundreds of hours as your business grows.
Ready to See if 17hats Is Right for Your Business?
If you're ready to streamline your business, you can start with a 7-day free trial and receive 50% off your first year of 17hats.
Referral Code: YVA50
As a 17hats Ambassador and Business Systems Strategist, I help service-based businesses implement 17hats in a way that supports their unique workflows, client journey, and long-term growth. If you'd like guidance on setting up your CRM, workflows, and automation, explore the ARC Systems Pulse Assessment to create a customized roadmap for your business.
