The minimal stack: five tools that work together

Last updated: September 18, 2026

What software does a small business actually need?

Five things: your own website, a Google Business Profile, an online calendar with bookings, coverage for missed calls and messages, and a set routine for reviews. That's your whole front-of-house, everything a customer sees before you actually talk. The trick is making them work together: each tool should talk to your calendar, charge no commission, and let you export your data.

Why five, and why as one system

Most small business owners I talk to are already juggling plenty of software: a booking app here, a separate WhatsApp there, a website someone built in 2019 that nobody has the password to anymore. How that scatters and what it costs is in too many tools.

This piece covers the other side: the minimum. Five tools that together cover your entire customer-facing side, from the moment someone googles you to the moment that same person leaves a review. I'm naming categories here, not brands. Brands change; the requirements per category stay the same.

Does the tool talk to your calendar in both directions?
Do you pay a flat fee, or a commission per customer?
Can you export your data (customers, appointments, reviews) if you want to leave?

Tool 1: your own website

Your website is the one address on the internet that's actually yours. Your Instagram account can get blocked, a platform can change its terms, but yourbusiness.com stays yours as long as you pay for the domain. So put that domain in your own name, at a registrar where you can log in. It costs around 15 euros a year.

The site itself can stay small. What you do, where you are, what it costs, and one clear button to book or get in touch. Every other tool in this stack ultimately points back here.

Tool 2: your Google Business Profile

For a local business, this is often a customer's very first impression: the block with your hours, photos, and reviews next to the search results and on Google Maps. Setting up and managing a Business Profile is free; you claim it directly through Google.

The trap is neglect. Outdated hours on your profile cost you customers who show up to a locked door and then put that in a review. Set one fixed moment a month to check hours, photos, and services. Ten minutes is enough.

Tool 3: your calendar and online bookings

This is the heart of the stack, and where most of the trouble starts when tools don't talk to each other. The rule: there's one calendar that's the source of truth, and every booking tool reads and writes to that calendar. How to set that up, and what goes wrong when you let two calendars run side by side, is in preventing double bookings.

Look closely at how a booking tool makes its money. Treatwell, for example, takes 35% of the very first booking a new customer makes through their platform; after that, the same customer rebooks commission-free, and prepaid online bookings carry a 2% transaction fee. That can be a fair trade if you're after new customers. It gets expensive if you let regulars book through a platform like that when they could just as easily have used your own site.

So demand three things from your booking tool: two-way sync with your calendar, commission-free booking through your own website, and the ability to export your customer list whenever you want.

Tool 4: coverage for calls and messages

Your hands are full most of the day, and the phone doesn't care. Someone calls, gets no answer, and calls the next business on the list. Of all the leaks on the customer side, this one is usually the biggest, and it's also the easiest to plug.

The coverage doesn't need to be complicated: a text or WhatsApp message after a missed call, with a link to your booking page. The caller can then book their own appointment while you keep working. Because that link points to your calendar, the booking lands in the right place automatically. That's where the sync from tool 3 pays off.

Tool 5: a set routine for reviews

Reviews rarely happen on their own. Happy customers forget; unhappy ones don't. The fix is one fixed moment in your process: after the appointment, delivery, or job, you send a short message with a direct link to your Google review page. You get that link from your Business Profile.

The same rule about working together applies here too. If your booking tool knows when an appointment is finished, the review request can go out automatically. If you pick a separate review tool, check whether it connects to your calendar or bookings, and whether your collected reviews can move along whenever you switch.

How the five fit together

On their own, these are five separate subscriptions. Together, they form one path a customer takes: found through your Google profile, clicks through to your site, books in your calendar, still books through the text link after a missed call, and afterward gets a review request that pulls new customers back to your Google profile. Every arrow in that loop is a connection you set up once.

Starting from zero, build in this order: domain and site first, then your Business Profile, then calendar with bookings, then call coverage, then the review routine last. Each step builds on the one before it.

Frequently asked questions

Can't I just do everything through Instagram or Facebook?

For visibility, sure. As a foundation, it's risky. An account can get restricted or blocked without warning, and there's nowhere to take your follower list if that happens. Use social media as a storefront and always point the button back to your own domain.

What should a stack like this cost per month?

That depends on your industry and your tools, so I won't put a single number on it. Look instead at the shape of the cost: a flat monthly fee you can budget for, while a percentage per customer grows with your revenue and gets more expensive exactly when business is going well.

What order should I set this up in?

Domain and site first, since everything else points there. Then the free Google profile, then your calendar with bookings. Call coverage and the review routine come last, because they only matter once there's something to book.

What if my current booking tool doesn't offer an export?

Ask the provider in writing first; sometimes an export exists but it's buried. If you get nowhere, start keeping a simple customer list yourself outside the tool, so switching later doesn't mean losing your customers.

Do I need a separate CRM tool on top of this?

For most one-person businesses, no. Your booking system already tracks who came when, and a small business rarely needs more customer management than that. A real CRM only becomes worth it once you have staff or longer sales cycles.

Want someone to set this up properly, once?

Figuring this whole loop out yourself is doable, it just costs you a lot of evenings. With [[PAKKET-LINK]] I build your site and set up one working connection, for example the booking link after a missed call. EUR 1,200 flat, excl. VAT, done in 2-3 weeks, hosting included, and the domain in your own name costs around 15 euros a year. See it before you pay: you see the site first and only pay once you're happy with it.

See the Get Found package