What's really going on

You're solo. At 10-50 inquiries a month, across three channels you already check daily, the problem isn't storage — it's follow-up. Leads die in your inbox because nothing tells you "day 3, nudge again." A CRM won't fix that. A rule will.

What to do instead

1. Google Sheets or Notion (free) — one row per lead: name, source, date, next-touch date, status. That's the whole system at your volume.
2. Make (free tier) — one scenario: new LinkedIn message or a Gmail label called "lead" creates a row in that sheet with today's date. Zero typing, zero forgetting.
3. Habit — every Monday 9am, filter the sheet by "next-touch ≤ today" and send those follow-ups before you open anything else.

First action, 30 minutes: open a new Google Sheet, add those five columns, paste in every open inquiry from the last 30 days across email, LinkedIn and referrals. You'll see the leaks before lunch.

What you're being oversold

HubSpot Free sounds free, but the whole product is designed to push a solo consultant onto Sales Hub within a quarter — you don't need sequences, deal stages, or reporting for yourself. Pipedrive at ~€14/seat/mo is a clean tool built for teams with a shared pipeline; solo under 50 leads, it's overkill and a distraction. The real cost of doing nothing isn't a tool fee — it's the referral you don't follow up on in week two, which was the one that would've closed.

When to revisit this

When you hire the first person who also touches leads, or when your sheet crosses ~80 open rows and you can't eyeball it anymore.

The part worth getting right

Your deals aren't all the same shape. If your consulting engagements are long — months of nurturing one CFO before they sign — you need a relationship tool later (Folk fits that), and a sheet is fine for now. If they're shorter and more transactional — a discovery call, a proposal, a yes or no in three weeks — you'll want a visual pipeline sooner (Pipedrive territory). Pick the wrong shape and in six months you're migrating data and rebuilding habits. So which one are you actually running?