As a business owner, do you ever feel stressed and overwhelmed at the thought of making one more decision? I’m constantly looking for tools I can use in my business that streamlines my process and makes my systems easy. After being in business for over 10 years, I’ve used (and tried) a lot of tools and it’s taken me some time to settle into my favorites. Here are my top 4 “Can’t Work Without” business tools that keep my business running.
Client Management: Dubsado
You have to keep track of your clients somehow, right? If you are a service-based business that uses contracts, invoices, and needs to set appointments, then Dubsado is for you. Dubsado is a very robust system where I can essentially put a lot of the mundane tasks on autopilot.
If someone contacts me on my website, Dubsado automatically sets them up in an email sequence depending on the service they are requesting. I can send out links to schedule appointments for prospective and current clients. Plus, send over contracts and onboarding questionnaires by only clicking a few buttons.
Dubsado literally saves me hours so I don’t have to start my processes from scratch every time I have to do the same task. They offer a free trial, plus if you sign-up using this link, you will get 20% off your first month or full-year subscription.
Email Marketing: Flodesk
As a social media manager, you may think I’m only about social media for your marketing, but I believe social media is only one of the tools you should be using for your marketing. More important than social media is your email list.
Flodesk is what I use to make my emails look beautiful while giving them the functionality for segmented subscriber lists and funnels. They also include unlimited subscribers, so they don’t charge you for how many people you have on your lists. But what I love most about Flodesk is that it’s easy to use!
They have an insanely easy pricing model too. It’s one flat rate with unlimited everything! You can get a free 30-day trial and use this link to sign-up so if you decide to continue with Flodesk, it will give you 50% off your monthly fee forever.
Graphic Design: Canva
By now, the entire world has heard of Canva and I think everyone is using it. If you haven’t heard what Canva is, it’s a free graphic design software and app. You can literally make any type of design using their templates including social media, logos, presentations, and so much more.
What I love most about Canva is its large free library of templates and graphics. They have a great free account, which gives you so much of what you could ask for, but they also have an affordable Pro plan. On the Canva Pro plan, you can save your brand colors and fonts to a Brand Kit, get access to even more graphics and templates, and use their Content Planner to schedule social media posts.
Sign up for a free Canva account
Project Management: Trello
Do you have a million Post-It notes with to-do lists written on them? Or have you ever lost, or forgot about, a client email because your inbox is so full? This used to be me until I found Trello.
Trello is a project management tool, which I like to think of as getting to the “nitty-gritty” of my business. This is how I keep track of what I am working on with my clients – especially for the social media side of my business.
Inside Trello, I create lists (columns) with cards (to-dos) for the social media posts I create for my clients. My clients can then communicate via Trello, so we don’t have to have a gazillion emails going back-and-forth.
There are so many ways you can use Trello! I’ve set up a free Social Media Board template for you to have. If you don’t have a Trello account, it’s free to use.
Get started with Trello and use my free template
While these aren’t the only 4 programs I use in my business, they’re the ones that are constantly open in my web browser for easy access. These make staying organized and getting my work done as a solopreneur so efficient. And, I have to add that all of these are web-based programs so you can access them from anywhere – even if you are bouncing between your work office and your home office.
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Efficiency is intelligent laziness. – David Dunham
