My Favourite Business Tools for 2021

My Favourite business tools & Apps for 2021

2020 certainly showed us the power of technology and the influx of people working from home was only possible because of the incredible apps and tools available to do so. Here is my list of favorites to help set you up for a thriving 2021.

STREAMLINING your business + processes is a fundamental aspect to the success of any small business.

Creating efficient systems can lead to greater time management, financial control, getting paid for your value and giving the space for growth and more importantly holding space for yourself, your loved ones and other passions.

Some ways I’ve streamlined my business on a daily basis:

DUBSADO

My CRM system Dubsado where I manage all my projects, invoices, contracts, forms and questionnaires. This gem honestly is a fantastic addition to my onboarding process and enables me to have a smooth client experience and also streamline the back end.

Click the link above to get 20% off your subscription.

GSuite

I was an avid Outlook user for all my working life until I made the transition to GSuite which was one of the smartest decisions for my business. I use Gmail app extensions like ‘boomerang’  and ‘inbox pause’ to be achieve inbox 5 (or thereabouts) and keep track of projects efficiently and easily. I also use Google drive is also my go to for sending clients their files etc.

Google calendar is fab-u-lous and it’s how I efficiently mange a very full schedule of home schedules (joint calendar with hubby for all events etc) and a work schedule. I’m able to integrate Zoom straight into calendar invitations which saves a huge amount of time.

ORGANISATION

My external hard drive and the reason I’m able to juggle so many moving parts in my business is mostly due to NOTION - an incredible (free) app that enables me to juggle all my client projects, endless lists, ideas, marketing ideas, brain dump lists, style guides and so forth. I have a video here on how I started out using it.

CLEAN MY MAC

Software to clean out my Mac every few days to keep it running efficiently. Click here for 50% off.

CLOUD BASED SUBSCRIPTIONS

Dropbox, Google Drive etc are a lifesaver and I also have everything saved on an external hard drive because I’m old fashioned haha.

MOCK UPS AND IMAGES

Moyo Studio for mock-ups and images - this is where I create all my portfolio images, images for my website and also use for clients.

I also love Haute Stock for images to showcase branding and for my own website.

In terms of for clients I use Pexels which has an amazing selection of images and video.

VIDEO

Loom for recording videos for clients, Zoom for client meetings and BombBomb for email video marketing

EMAIL MARKETING

Read about my obsession with Flodesk here and here . Converting your social media followers to an email list should be your number 1 marketing priority for 2021. Flodesk actually makes email marketing enjoyable with amazing visual templates, seamless design, easy-to-use workflows etc

Flodesk: 50% off for the life of membership with this link

JPEG MINI

Quickly shrink jpeg’s with our compromising quality - EPIC when dealing with lots of files or don’t have photoshop. Click here to view/trial

Social Media

I plan and batch social media (Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest) via the Planoly App - this is honestly visually so so easy to operate but having access to batch and schedule all posts at onc is a gamechanger.

Social Media and quick mock ups.

Last but certainly not least I want to share with you my love affair with Adobe XD - this powerful app is used DAILY both for website mock ups, quickly designing an element on coaching calls, for all my Instagram and Pinterest Images and mock ups. It’s my go for for so so so much.

Over the years I have done many online courses, read multiple books, blogs, posts and whatever I could grab my hot hands on to help automate and streamline my businesses – I honestly believe I’ve unsubscribed from more than I ever subscribed to (don’t even know how that’s possible)!

Mx

Please note that if you sign up to some of the links above I receive an affiliate commission but I promise hand on heart I use every single one of these services and love them.