Five tools I use in my small business (almost) every day
There is nothing quite like a recommendation from a friend, right!?
Well here are 5 tools I use to help run my creative small business just about every day that I am at my desk!
please note
Some of my recommendations below include affiliate links, which mean I will get a commission or a discount on future subscriptions with these services. It would be super lovely if you do choose to sign up and use the links below as I genuinely subscribe to all of these with a paid subscription and there might be a discount in it for you too!
01.
Canva
In truth, I was against Canva for a long time! I worked in a job where we used InDesign and obviously this will always be a superior tool. However I was recently converted when I discovered my designer January Made Design had a whole collection of Canva templates available for free to me as a client.
I have used it to create information booklets for my clients, my Photography tips for small business guide and for my investment guide and have found it so easy.
It is definitely worth exploring to see how you might be able to use it in your business.
check it out here - no affiliation
02.
Plann
I find instagram does well for me when I have time to spend on Instagram right after I have put up a new post. I can increase engagement by leaving comments on other posts while I wait for comments to come in on my own and then reply straight away which sends a good message to Instagram to share my post with others!
So with this in mind, I don’t necessarily schedule posts for instagram, but I do use a scheduling app called Plann to build a bank of posts and pre-written captions so that when I have time, the hard part is already done for me!
I have used Plann since their early days when you had to buy the app as a once off payment, which means I have a subscription for life. I have always been super happy with its functionality and have tested a few others of the years and really settled on this one being the one for me.
I love that I can also use Plann on my desktop these days too!
Give Plann a try and if you choose to sign up, it would be so lovely if you used my affiliate link!
03.
Todoist
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good old fashioned to-do list with pen and paper.
However, as I grew tired of having not remembering where I wrote down all those good journal article ideas I had, and interstate lead enquiries, Todoist has really stepped up and helped me gain some control back on my thoughts.
I use Todoist to break up my to-do lists into “projects” and you can add due dates to them too. I mainly use three project pages to breakup my content calendar thoughts, potential leads by location and publication pitching ideas.
Here is a link - no affiliation things here!
04.
Quickbooks
My accountant thought it was odd that I preferred Quickbooks to Xero!
I spent a maybe 1- 2 months using Xero a couple of years ago, after using Wave accounting for a long time (which was also great and I often recommend this if you want a free accounting system). I just didn’t click with Xero well, and it didn’t seem to have a good way to store and read receipts from business expenses.
This ended up being the main reason I jumped ship to Quickbooks because I can use the app to snap business expense receipts on the go as well as email any PDFs to my account from my inbox.
I also really enjoy the layout and functionality of it and so I really recommend it to everyone!
If you use this link to sign up we apparently will both be gifted a $50 amazon voucher!
05.
Flodesk
I have used a few e-newsletter platforms across the years and I am definitely loving using flodesk in the last 8 months.
It is super easy to use and find the design components easy to pull together a really nice looking e-newsletter. I love the look of their pop-up sign up forms for my website and these are also easy to configure.
I have uploaded my branding fonts and colours and am able to use these throughout very easily.