The "Train, Buy, or Build" Framework: How to Solve Business Problems in the AI Era

This isn't just about new tech; it's about your bottom line. Two major shifts mean you should be auditing your software stack today:

1. The "Vertical SaaS" Trap

Many small businesses pay a premium for "vertical" software—tools built specifically for their niche (e.g., "CRM for Dog Walkers" or "Project Management for Florists"). While these tools promise a tailored fit, they often charge double or triple what a general competitor charges, while innovating half as fast.

The Opportunity: Today, you can often save money by switching to a robust, non-vertical competitor (like HubSpot, Monday.com, or Airtable) and using AI to customize it to your specific needs. You stop paying the "industry tax" and get better features.

2. The Graveyard of Good Ideas

Go find the ideas you killed two years ago. Maybe you wanted a custom client portal or a specific automated intake system, but a dev shop quoted you $50,000 and six months of work. You said "no" because the ROI wasn't there.

The Opportunity: Dust those ideas off. With AI coding assistants and low-code tools, the cost to build custom software has plummeted. That $50k project might now be a $5k project—or something your team can prototype themselves in a week.

We need to establish a new way to evaluate when software is the solution. Use this framework to decide if you should Train your team to use AI, Buy a market-leading tool, or Build a custom solution.

Choose Training when the bottleneck isn’t the tool, but how your team uses it.

You often already have the essential platforms (Email, Excel, Word). The problem is that people use them inconsistently or inefficiently. In the past, you might have bought "forcing function" software to make them comply. Now, you can use AI to empower them.

This is the right choice if:

• You need better thinking, not just faster clicking. If the issue is writing clear emails, summarizing messy meeting notes, or analyzing basic data, these are now AI-assisted tasks.
• The tools you have are sufficient, but underutilized. Your team doesn't need a new CRM; they need to know how to use AI to clean up the data in the one you have.
• You want long-term leverage. Teaching a staff member how to prompt an LLM to draft proposals gives them a skill they apply to every future task, not just this one workflow.

In Practice: Instead of buying a $500/month proposal generation platform, you Train your team to use a secure AI assistant to draft high-quality proposals inside your existing documents in seconds.

Choose Buying when the problem is standard, universal, and high-stakes.

There are certain problems that 10,000 other businesses have already solved. Accounting, payroll, and core Customer Relationship Management (CRM) are "solved problems." You do not want to innovate here; you want reliability and compliance.

This is the right choice if:

• The function is universal. Every business needs to send invoices or track applicants.
• A dominant market leader exists. If a tool like QuickBooks or HubSpot does 80% of what you need for a standard fee, buy it.
• You need "best practices" built in. Good software forces you to follow a standard process, which is critical if your current process is chaotic.

In Practice: If you are managing finances in a spreadsheet, Buy QuickBooks or Xero. Do not try to build your own accounting system.

Choose Building when you need to protect your unique workflow or connect disconnected systems.

This is where the AI revolution shines brightest. "Building" no longer means hiring a dev team for a year. It means creating lightweight automations or custom AI agents that do exactly what your business needs, without the bloat of generic software.

This is the right choice if:

• You have a "Secret Sauce." Generic software often forces you to work like everyone else. Custom AI tools let you keep your unique, high-value process while automating the grunt work.
• You have "swivel chair" work. If your team spends hours moving data from an email to a spreadsheet to a database, you can build a bridge to do that instantly.
• No off-the-shelf tool fits. If you’ve looked at the market and everything is either too expensive or doesn't quite fit, building a micro-solution is now a viable option.

In Practice: You use a generic CRM (Buy), but you Build a custom AI agent that reads incoming client emails, categorizes them by your specific urgency rules, and drafts a reply in your company's voice for you to approve.

The landscape has changed. You aren't limited to what's on the shelf anymore. Next time you face an operational hurdle, ask:

• Can we do this ourselves with better tools? → TRAIN your team on AI usage.
• Is this a standard function everyone has? → BUY the market leader.
• Is this our unique competitive advantage? → BUILD a custom solution.

Most small businesses need a mix of all three, but they often over-spend on "Buying" because they don't realize "Training" and "Building" are now within reach.