Dubsado Templates: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

At the heart of entrepreneurship is a certain level of DIY mentality. I mean, if that weren’t true we’d all still be working in a “normal” 9-5 job, amiright?

However, when it comes to the areas in business that are not our forte, we have 2 options:

1. We can invest in hiring an expert to do the job for us
2. Or we can find a semi-DIY approach for seemingly a lot less money

If money were no object, then the obvious choice would be to go with option 1 and hire an expert. Then we can move on and be done with it without the hassle of figuring it out on our own.

But money is an object that most of us don’t have the luxury of throwing at our problems. Too bad, right?

Enter: The Template

Templates are generally a pre-made, ready-to-go “solution” to our problems, offered at a more affordable rate since they’re just plug-and-play. For Dubsado users in particular you can find templates for everything from forms to canned emails to entire workflows.

The Dubsado templates that are well-done and created by the experts you would hire if you had the money can be a really great addition to your entrepreneurial toolbox!

However, be careful about purchasing templates from “anyone.” Just because someone in your industry has figured out what works for their business and they’ve offered you a copy of it, doesn’t mean it’s going to work for your business.

If all they did was copy and paste their words, their content, and their process into a PDF for you, you’re still going to have a LOT of DIY work to do in order to mold it into something useful for yourself.

So, before you hand over the green for a template, think about these Dos & Don’ts first…

Template Dos

1. Research the person who’s offering the Dubsado template. Find out what expertise they have that makes them qualified to even offer a template. Are they an expert in the thing they’re offering a template for? Or are they simply trying to add a revenue stream by selling “what works for them”?
   
2. Find out as much as you can about exactly what the template is going to include…and NOT include… Just because the description is stuffed with a list of quantifiable deliverables doesn’t mean those deliverables are actually going to be relevant to what you need.
   
3. Find out what kind of after-purchase support is available. If you have trouble figuring out how to use the template, will you be able to contact the creator? Can you ask them questions? Or are you “on your own” because they have a business to run and that business is NOT focused on whatever it is they created a template for?

Template Don’ts

1. Don’t make the mistake of assuming a high price-tag equals quality work (and vice versa!). I’ve seen some amazing Dubsado templates with stellar support that sell for under $100. But I’ve also seen some that go for hundreds of dollars and are nothing more than a copy-and-paste version of someone else’s process with no support.
   
2. Don’t purchase a template and implement it “as-is.” Without reviewing all aspects of it to make sure it’s customized specifically to your business, you could end up sounding like someone else or making promises you can’t keep!
   
3. Don’t purchase a template from someone who doesn’t also offer a “done-for-you” version of the same thing. Chances are, someone who doesn’t offer a “done-for-you” version might not be able to help you troubleshoot any issues that come up if you DIY.

Bottom Line

At the end of the day, you could end up paying a lot more money for your “cheap” Dubsado template than you would have just hiring an expert to begin with. Since templates can sometimes turn out to be a pain to set up, you might have to hire someone else to implement it for you after all! Do your research and make sure you get what you’re paying for. Or do yourself a favor and just hire an expert. 😉

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