One of the biggest challenges with finding software to use in business is that we often look for the wrong category first.

Almost without exception the first two software categories in a new business are office solutions such as Microsoft Word and accounting software such as QuickBooks.

These are fine products and there is nothing wrong with having these software packages. But are these the most important areas of a company to get going when you get started?

Having started over a dozen of my own companies and helped dozens of other startups the biggest problem most startups face is not a word processing crisis or dangerously out of balance books. They generally have no business, no leads, so sales pipeline, no marketing plan, and no idea how they are going to get their first sale.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating spending $100,000 right off the bat to buy and install Siebel’s sales solutions. I would recommend something like Act or Salesforce.com as one of the earliest software packages to acquire.