These are the resources and platforms I use to run my business. Some of these links are affiliate links granting you a discount on paid programs. I only share tools that I find to be helpful and use myself on a regular basis. I recommend these tools to clients day in and day out!
Send me a note if you have any questions on the below.
DashThis
Find yourself toggling between multiple platforms to track your marketing performance? DashThis allows you to integrate data sources from Google, your website, social media, and more to create comprehensive dashboards. Their software is easy to use and cost effective meaning any size business can set up dashboards quickly without the help of a developer or analyst.
Establish Yourself: Brand, Streamline, and Grow Your Greatest Business
Whether you're a seasoned business owner or you're just starting out -- start here. This book is a business owner's bible. Annie has put together an actionable checklist for running your business across all aspects: branding, operations, sales, client experience, etc. I personally have seen increased revenue from following her method. From the author herself:
"If you want to love your business and be profitable without living on social media 24/7, Establish Yourself is your new, common-sense roadmap to the next level.
Discover why you don’t need a million followers to love what you do and make great money doing it. You can take December off, work with amazing people, and get paid as the expert you are without thousands on your email list. And while overnight success never happens overnight - you can have a more fun, sustainable business that doesn’t make you want to pull your hair out! All you need to do is establish yourself."
Copy.ai
I was skeptical when I first saw artificial intelligence was being used to generate copy, but then I tried it out for myself and I will never go back! I generated three months worth of social post captions in under 30 minutes. This neat tool is free to use and will auto-generate social media captions, emails, product descriptions, and more!
5 Day Wix Challenge
If you want a Wix website, but aren't ready to invest in a web designer I always recommend this course that teaches you how to build your own site! The class is taught by verified Wix Partners I know personally. You can view the full course here.
Creative Market
Creative Market offers a ton of free templates that are compatible with Adobe, Canva, Microsoft, and more! I use their Canva friendly social media templates for clients regularly. Each Monday they offer 6 Free Goods for download.
Canva
You no longer need to be a graphic designer to put together amazing content for your business. Canva offers thousands of pre-sized templates for you to create business cards, presentations, social graphics, and more! Check out Creative Market for free Canva templates in your industry.
Better Proposal
Before finding Better Proposal I was creating proposals in Canva and sending contracts via Adobe Sign. Their program allows me to create proposal templates I can quickly customize for each client. Clients can view and accept their proposal all in one place. My favorite part is their pricing option which allows you to offer tiered pricing options.
Later
The small business owner's social scheduler. I love Later because it allows you to easily preschedule out weeks worth of social media posts in a grid, collect photos from collaborators, and compare analytics. Their user friendly auto-publisher allows you to sit down and knock out weeks worth of planning in a few hours so all you have to worry about is making sales and responding to messages.
Calendly
I have notoriously always had multiple email accounts over the years. Calendly cuts down on the back and forth over availability. It allows people to automatically book a spot on your calendar that works best for everyone.
monday.com
monday.com is basically a super spreadsheet. I use it to track projects, create budgets, and gather information from clients. You can add collaborators and set reminders for due dates and more. Browse their templates for budgeting, project management, content calendars, simple customer management, and more.
Quickbooks Self Employed
If you are running your own business it can be intimidating to keep up with invoicing, logging expenses, and of course taxes. Quickbooks Self Employed makes this all easy. Send invoices, accept payments, categorize expenses with the swipe of a finger, log miles automatically, and more. My favorite part is their integration with Turbo Tax. Each tax season I simply hit send and my tax forms are automatically populated by Quickbooks!