5 Tools I couldn't run my business without
As a solo business owner I rely on many tools and programs to help with the day to day running of my business - they’re my team mates, my support system. Some I use everyday and some I use for specific purposes. Some are paid, some are free.
These are the top 5 that I couldn’t run my business without.
#1 Squarespace
Given that I’m a Squarespace web designer, of course this has to be number 1!
The first website I created in Squarespace was a personal travel blog. I loved the process, loved how easy it was to use, and how professional it looked. This created a spark in my mind - what if I could do this for a living? Well, many courses and leaps of faith later here I am!
Squarespace is the perfect website platform for new businesses (my main client base). It is budget friendly (plus the costs are transparent - no surprises at the end of the month), easy to manage and update, customisable using CSS code and has the ability to grow and diversify with your business. The Squarespace support and help service is fantastic, and they have an abundance of articles and webinars to help troubleshoot if needed.
Find out more about Squarespace here.
#2 Canva
Canva has made design super accessible and easy for everyone!
I’ll admit, I was slightly wary of Canva at first as I was trained using Adobe Photoshop and InDesign, but after having a little play around I was hooked! They have hundreds upon hundreds of templates available for all sorts of designs including social media posts, presentations, infographics, CV’s and invoices. You can upload your brand kit which makes it really quick and easy to customise templates and make your designs consistent in look and feel.
Other features include the option to create a team to collaboratively work on designs and projects, a scheduling tool to auto-post to your social media accounts and the ability to have designs printed directly through Canva.
Try out Canva Pro here*.
#3 Flodesk
Email marketing had been at the bottom of my to-do list for a very long time. Why? I hadn’t found a program I actually liked using. That was until I came across Flodesk!
Flodesk isn’t free, but it’s well worth the yearly fee. They have a range of templates to use including sign up forms, email templates and automated sequences. The designs are contemporary and stylish, and similar to Canva you can upload your brand kit meaning your logo and colour palette are available at the click of a button. Flodesk also has many of the same font types as seen in Squarespace so you can create the same look and feel on your emails as your website. You are also able to create and colour code multiple mailing lists.
Flodesk doesn’t integrate directly through Squarespace, but it’s very easy to link them to each other by copying some code over (I promise it really is easy, and they explain very simply how to do it). You can also choose to integrate either simple newsletter sign up forms or pop up ones.
My favourite feature of Flodesk is the simplicity of setting up automated sequences, so when someone is added to a particular mailing list it triggers a chain of emails over a couple of days or weeks (or months).
To get 50% off Flodesk (for 12 months) click here*.
#4 Creator Studio
There are many social media scheduling tools out there to choose from, but my favourite is Creator Studio (by Facebook).
It does have it’s limits in that you can only schedule posts to Facebook and Instagram, so not great if you’d like to schedule to other platforms too, but it’s perfect for what I need it to do! Creator Studio is free, and you can access both Insta and Facebook from one dashboard. You can also crosspost between the two, so if you create a post for Facebook you can click a button to copy it over to Instagram too. There is a hashtag library that allows you to search and save hashtags to use within your posts.
From Instagram you can schedule standard posts (including video), carousels, and IG video. Analytics are then available for all posts and stories. From Facebook you can also schedule posts including multi image or video and run test posts plus analytics are available for all posts.
Creator Studio is free, and will be accessible using your existing Facebook login. To find out more click here.
#5 Loom
Loom is a video recording program that has become a really useful way for me to communicate with clients.
Loom has both free and paid versions - the free plan has a limit of 5 minutes for videos, whereas the paid is unlimited. For a long time I used the free version to film quick tutorials and walkthroughs for clients, but I recently upgraded to the paid version so I could film a mini course. The best thing about Loom is that they have a desktop app so it’s really quick to just film something quickly without having to get ‘set up’. You can film yourself using your computer camera, record your screen or use both - so you will appear in a little window at the bottom of your screen recording.
The quality is great, your videos can be organised into folders and it’s really simple to share a link to your video with someone else (they don’t even need a login).
Check out Loom here.
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*This is an affiliate link. When you click on an affiliate link and make a purchase, I receive a small commission at no cost to you.
