Whether you are a sole proprietorship, freelancer or small business owner, having the right tools to use is crucial for your time and sanity. By tools I mean things online or in-person that make your life as a business owner easier. Here are some of the online tools I personally use for my business.
- Client Management
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is what most small businesses use to invoice customers, keep track of deadlines, send contracts, and communicate in a professional looking manner. My favorite one to use is Honeybook. Their monthly rate is $9 and allows you so many amazing capabilities. If you only need to invoice customers and keep track of billable hours, Bonsai is another great option!
If you’re like me I use the Google Suite options for almost everything computer related. I love their “work offline” feature when I don’t have wi-fi. For copywriting it is so handy to use Google Docs so that I can collaborate with my clients. Google Sheets is a go-to for me professionally and personally to keep track of budgets, billable hours, checklists and so much more!
This website has free, professional images for you to download and use on your website. Just type what you’re looking for in the search bar and hundreds of professional images will pop up that are available to download and use on your website.
Hemingway makes your writing bold and clear through the use of live editing software as you write. Hemingway checks for simple grammatical errors, as well as word count, readability, passive vs. active voice, hard to read sentences etc. I love using Hemingway for marketing to make sure I am coming off to my readers in the positive, supportive way that I intend to.
- Bookkeeping Platform
Here is where the other side of business comes in…the financial side. I love this kind of stuff but not everyone feels the same. I have talked to companies who wait until the end of the year to look at their finances and just hope they come out monetarily positive (yikes)!
Being a bookkeeper myself I highly recommend using a program that helps you keep track of your expenses and income. I use Quickbooks because the online version links to your business bank account and credit cards and updates transactions within a few days. Everything is right there for you to categorize and submit to taxes in one place. Accountants will thank you profusely for having everything organized when it’s time to file taxes.
Other bookkeeping options are Google Sheets (you create the records yourself), Xero, and Wave (this one is free).
Having a business (especially in today’s time) where so many things are online it’s a good idea to have a password vault to keep track of all your accounts. I love using ZOHO Vault. They have a free option for basic password keeping but also a few paid options if you have more accounts and clients to keep track of personal information. Everything is locked away tightly and
Taking notes and keeping track of deadlines is so important! Your clients will really appreciate it if they don’t have to repeat themselves or remind you of deadlines. Evernote has so many options for note-taking, calendar syncing, task management, and web clipping to help you keep everything in one place!
Social Media is almost a must right now for small business marketing. When I network with other business owners they almost always say, “what’s your Instagram handle?” Canva makes it easy to design or use great social media templates to make your online presence look as professional as possible.
When I was starting out in copywriting I was hugely intimidated by SEO (Search Engine Optimization). It’s how Google and other search engines recognize words on your website and link up potential customers to you. WIth the vast amount of information these days it is really important that your business stands out on a search engine. Copywriters have skill sets to write copy that brings people to your website through SEO. If you’re not ready to outsource a copywriter yet The Hoth is a great tool to help you see what keywords people are searching for, what grade your website would get in terms of SEO and so much more!
- Online Meetings
Lastly, having a place where you can meet online such as Zoom or Google Meets is critical to broaden your clientele radius to people outside of your town. We should all be pretty good at this after 2020 forced us to work online more. It is so simple to send out a quick Zoom or Google Meet link and chat with a client or potential client right from your home or office.
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