8: Spending Money to Make Money

Today, I spent some time purchasing software for the business. Software expenses can really add up, so I try to approach buying decisions with a value-based mindset. Will this software add value to my business or my clients? Will it make my life easier? Will it save me time or money?

Here are 3 software options that definitely fit this criteria:

Bluebeam Revu
The absolute best PDF software I have used. In my opinion, it blows Adobe Acrobat out of the water. Would highly recommend if you need to edit, markup or compile PDF files. The toolkits within Revu are also very powerful for analyzing drawings. I went with the middle tier version, Bluebeam Revu CAD, for $449. Revu adds value to my business because it makes drawings reviews and markups easy, saving me time and money.

​Autodesk Revit
​No explanation needed here. Revit is a must-have for doing design work for architects. I started with the monthly payment option at $305 per month, but will upgrade to the yearly option once the business cash flow gets up and running. Revit is an industry-standard program, so purchasing was pretty mandatory.

AutoSPRINK RVT
To my knowledge, this is the best Revit plugin for designing sprinkler and standpipe systems. It saves substantial time by automatically locating sprinklers in a Revit model (compared to manually placing them). Once you have a system designed, it will also automatically perform hydraulic calculations, which is another huge timesaver. I negotiated a discount for the first year license at $3,250. RVT is definitely not a requirement for sprinkler design, but it saves a lot of time and effort, so my hope is that the fairly high cost will be offset by time savings down the road.

Resources Used Today:

• Bluebeam Revu
• Autodesk Revit
• AutoSPRINK RVT