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Ashar Irfan | Custom Software

@asharrirfan

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Co-Founder @ Dev Paragon
I replace your team's spreadsheets with one system.
One client cut scheduling work by 50%.
DM TEARDOWN for a free teardown.

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Have a business idea, but don’t know what to build first?

That’s one of the questions I’ll explore here.

I’m Ashar Irfan, Co-Founder of Dev Paragon. I work with founders and business owners to turn ideas into SaaS products, marketplaces, and software that makes everyday work easier.

I’m starting this page to share the decisions, challenges, and lessons behind that work. From choosing your first features to finding practical uses for AI, plus the everyday side of building a company with a team.

What’s one idea you’d like to turn into a product? Tell me below 👇

Follow @asharrirfan to join the journey.

#StartupFounders #SaaSFounders #ProductDevelopment #CustomSoftware #AIForBusiness by @asharrirfan

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9 days ago

They didn't need to hire more people.

@perfect_10_promotions is an event staffing and marketing agency. Their scheduling lived in emails and spreadsheets. Every change meant another email, another sheet, another mistake.

So instead of adding staff, we built them one system:
- A scheduling portal the whole team can see
- An automation agent that moves data between their tools
- AI on top, once the data was clean

The result: about 50% less manual scheduling work.
In their words: "They turned 6 months into 6 weeks."

If your team spends hours copy-pasting between tools, that's not a people problem. It's a system problem.

Comment TEARDOWN and I'll DM you how to get a free process teardown for your business.

#businessautomation #workflowautomation #customsoftware #processautomation #staffingagency #eventstaffing #experientialmarketing #smallbusinessowner #operationsmanagement #aiforbusiness #casestudy #clientresults #saas #devparagon taken in Canada by @asharrirfan

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8 days ago

Quick exercise for business owners. Takes 30 seconds.

Think about one task your team does every day that's just moving information from one place to another. Updating a sheet from emails. Re-typing orders into your accounting tool. Copying leads into the CRM.

Now:
Hours per day x people doing it x 250 working days x their hourly cost.

Most people never run this number, because it's spread across the whole team and nobody owns it.

Drop your number in the comments. I'm curious who has the biggest one.

Comment TAX and I'll DM you a simple calculator so you can see what it's costing you.

#businessautomation #workflowautomation #productivity #smallbusinessowner #operations #processimprovement #customsoftware #businessefficiency #aiforbusiness #techforbusiness #businessgrowth #entrepreneurship #devparagon taken in United States by @asharrirfan

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6 days ago

"Any update?"

If your team sends that message more than a few times a day, the problem is not communication. It is visibility.

The information already exists. It is just stuck in someone's head or inbox.

A simple board fixes most of it:
- Four columns: New, In progress, Waiting, Done
- Every job has one owner
- Every job has a clear next step

When everyone can see where things are, the questions stop on their own.

Episode 3 of Fix Your Business Workflow. Follow for practical ways to reduce admin.

#projectmanagement #businessautomation #smallbusinessowners #teamproductivity #devparagon by @asharrirfan

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4 days ago

A customer asks for a quote. Three people see it. Everyone assumes someone else replied.

That is how most leads get lost. Not because the team is lazy, but because nobody owns the next step.

The simple fix:
- Every new inquiry becomes a task
- Every task has one owner and one deadline
- If it sits too long, it turns red and the owner gets a reminder

No new hires. Just a clear owner for every message that could become revenue.

Episode 2 of Fix Your Business Workflow. Save this for your next team meeting.

#leadmanagement #businessautomation #smallbusinessowners #customerservice #devparagon taken in United States by @asharrirfan

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5 days ago

One customer. Three tools. Three chances to get their email wrong.

Most service businesses type the same client details into a form, then the CRM, then the invoice. It feels like 30 seconds each time. Across a year, it is hours of retyping and a steady trickle of wrong emails and invoices.

The fix is simple: one entry point. The form feeds the CRM, the CRM feeds the invoice, and anything missing gets flagged before it goes out.

This is episode 1 of Fix Your Business Workflow. Practical fixes for the admin slowing your business down. Follow so you catch the next one.

#businessautomation #workflowautomation #smallbusinessowners #crm #devparagon taken in United States by @asharrirfan

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5 days ago

Uncomfortable truth about marketplaces: your first 50 sellers will not come from ads.

They'll come from you. Calling them, messaging them, setting up their profiles, sometimes doing the work for them.

It doesn't scale, and that's fine. You're not trying to scale yet. You're trying to prove one side will show up, so the other side has a reason to.

If you're building a marketplace right now, which side are you starting with? Buyers or sellers?

Comment MARKET and I'll send you the checklist we use to launch the first side of a marketplace.

#marketplace #startupfounder #mvp #twosidedmarketplace #devparagon taken in United States by @asharrirfan

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5 days ago

To be fair, I like Zapier. We still use quick automations for small things.

The problem starts when a business runs on them.

Here's a quick test. Can anyone on your team answer these without guessing?
- How many automations are running right now
- Which one moves your customer data
- What happens if one of them stops tonight

If the honest answer is "not sure," you don't have a system. You have a stack of boxes that hasn't been bumped yet.

How many automations do you think your business is running? Guess a number below.

Comment SYSTEM and I'll send you the five signs your automations are about to break.

#businessautomation #zapier #nocode #workflowautomation #automation #operations #smallbusinessowners #customsoftware #systemsthinking #processimprovement #techforbusiness #entrepreneurship101 #devparagon by @asharrirfan

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5 days ago

Go into your bank statement right now and search for "subscription."

Add up every software tool your business pays for monthly. Then multiply by 60. That's what you'll spend over the next 5 years if nothing changes.

#saas #customsoftware #softwaredevelopment #smallbusinessowners #businessowner #techstack #businesscosts #operations #businessgrowth #entrepreneurship101 #startupfounder #techforbusiness #devparagon

Most owners are surprised by the number. Not because any one tool is expensive, but because nobody ever adds them up.

Renting is the right call when you're small or still figuring things out. It stops being the right call when you're paying for 5 tools that only half fit, and your team fills the gaps by hand.

What's your monthly software bill? Rough number is fine.

Comment OWN and I'll send you the rent vs build math we use with clients. by @asharrirfan

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5 days ago

"Fake the second" sounds wrong. Let me explain.

Some features feel essential, but you don't need to build them yet. You can do them by hand.

Need invoices? Send them manually for the first 20 customers.
Need onboarding? Get on a call with each new user.
Need reports? Export a spreadsheet once a week.

It's slower, but you learn exactly what people need before you spend months coding it. Half the time, the feature you were sure about turns out to look completely different once real users touch it.

What's one feature you built that nobody ended up using?

Comment FIRST and I'll send you the checklist we use to cut a feature list down.

#mvp #productdevelopment #saasfounder #startupfounder #softwaredevelopment #startuptips #productmanagement #buildinpublic #saas #techfounder #founderlife #entrepreneurship101 #devparagon taken in United States by @asharrirfan

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6 days ago

One piece of advice we give a lot on our calls:
Don't build anything yet.

If an off-the-shelf tool does 80% of what you need, use it. It's cheaper, it's faster, and you can always switch later.

Custom software only makes sense when the tool starts shaping your business, instead of your business shaping the tool.

You usually know you're there when your team has quietly built their own system around the one you're paying for.

So be honest. What's the one spreadsheet your business can't live without?

Comment CUSTOM if you want us to tell you straight whether you need custom software or not.

#customsoftware #softwaredevelopment #businessautomation #smallbusinessowner #saas #businesssoftware #workflowautomation #operations #techforbusiness #businessgrowth #entrepreneurship #digitaltransformation #devparagon taken in United States by @asharrirfan

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7 days ago

Most AI projects fail before they even start.

Not because the AI is bad. Because it gets plugged into a business where the data lives in a CRM nobody updates, three spreadsheets, and someone's inbox.

Give AI messy data and it makes messy decisions. Just faster.

Before you buy another AI tool:
1. Put your data in one place
2. Fix the steps your team repeats every day
3. Then add AI on top

AI is the last step, not the first.

What's one AI tool you tried that didn't stick? Curious what didn't work.

Comment SYSTEM and I'll DM you how we help businesses get this foundation right.

#aiforbusiness #businessautomation #artificialintelligence #aitools #smallbusinessowner #workflowautomation #customsoftware #digitaltransformation #operations #businessgrowth #techforbusiness #entrepreneurship #devparagon taken in United States by @asharrirfan

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8 days ago