26. Justin Built a 24/7 Booking Machine With These 7 Software Tools

➡️ Grab our free guide to building your event biz tech stack: flashquotes.com/software-tools 📲 Ever feel like you’re glued to your inbox, chasing quotes and losing bookings while you sleep? In this episode, we break down the exact 7 software tools we used to turn Goodhart Coffee into a 24/7 booking machine—scaling from a single cart to 57 across 6 cities. You’ll learn: • The tools that are non-negotiable for beginners • Which platforms are a complete waste of money • How to connect everything so your biz runs while you’re off the clock Whether you’re just starting out or running a growing fleet, this episode shows you how to make tech work for you—so you can spend more time booking events and less time buried in admin. ➡️ Join our Mobile Catering Accelerator: https://www.skool.com/mobile-catering-accelerator/about 📸 Follow us on Instagram: @FlashquotesHQ ⸻ ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 The software caterers don’t need (hot take) 01:43 Justin’s journey with tools and tinkering 03:35 Why Zapier integration is non-negotiable 06:11 Best website builders for event businesses 07:56 The #1 factor that wins you bookings: speed 08:24 Data from 50,000+ quotes on response times 10:34 Beginner follow-up tools and CRM basics 14:00 Why a pro email matters more than you think 15:29 FlashQuotes Plus and when to upgrade CRMs 16:54 Payment processing: Stripe vs Square 19:53 How Stripe Link boosts conversion & trust 21:29 Instant invoicing inside FlashQuotes 22:00 Scaling challenges: when staffing software kicks in ⸻ 🔑 Key Points • Speed to quote = speed to revenue • Squarespace > Wix > Shopify (for carts) • Stripe saves you money vs Square invoicing • Zapier makes all your tools talk together • FlashQuotes pre-builds your workflows so you don’t drown in setup