Most of running a small business is finding apps, tools, and softwares to make your business run more efficiently and save you time. These are some of my favorite tools that I use on a daily basis to keep my creative business running smoothly.
Client Management
ASANA
I use Asana to manage both my internal and client facing projects. I like to keep my process as transparent as possible and getting set up with an Asana board with a clear timeline from the beginning keeps projects streamlined and sets expectations for deliverables and due dates from the get go.
ACUITY
Eliminating back and forth emails is my MO. Acuity makes it super easy to schedule calls with a single click. No more confirming time zones, or “finding a time that works for both of us”, it’s all just right there.
DUBSADO
After almost 6 months of manually managing my inquiries in Asana I made the switch to Dubsado and I’ll never look back. It makes sending proposals effortless, and staying on top of inquiries and invoices so simple! Switching to Dubsado was probably one of the best investments I made in my business in 2020.
Financial
QUICKBOOKS
I just recently switched over from Waves into Quickbooks to track my income and expenses. At the end of 2020. I’m a person who tends to get really into the weeds so keeping my accounting information in order and nicely categorized was something I prioritized from the beginning. Waves was an amazing free tool when I was just getting started, but bringing on an Accountant to help manage Aspen Theory’s books meant it was time to make the jump into Quickbooks. I would’ve saved SO much time if I had just started everything out in there. Having to go through and recategorize all of my 2020 expenses was definitely…less than ideal. But now that it’s all up and running I can definitely see what a powerhouse Quickbooks is compared to the free alternatives.
CATCH.CO
Setting aside taxes for your business may not be the most fun activity…but it’s OH SO NECESSARY to have a system in place to do so. I use Catch.co because it’s a free savings account that sends me a reminder to set aside a percentage of each paycheck as soon as the money hits my account. It keeps the money out of site and out of mind until it comes time to make Estimated tax payments (and they’ll help you out with that too!)
Social Media
PLANOLY
You can go back and forth on the best Instagram scheduler until you’re blue in the face. I played around with a bunch of them and landed on Planoly for a couple of reasons. It’s one of the only scheduling apps I found that allows you to schedule the first comment for your posts, which makes adding hashtags a breeze. I’m also a huge fan of the monthly overview feature so I can see at a glance each of my scheduled posts and how my previous posts performed.
TAILWIND
I started using Tailwind last year to bulk schedule my pinterest posts, and let me tell you…it’s a GAMECHANGER. I’m able to easily schedule a month worth of posts in under an hour. It makes creating and scheduling content for Pinterest something I can set and forget, which in my books is a huge win!
Organization
WOVEN CALENDAR
I spent a lot of time looking for the right calendar app to bring my Google Cal to my desktop. With so many tabs open throughout the day I
GOOGLE DRIVE
EVERYTHING lives in the Google Drive!! After my very cute dog (with a very aggressive tail wag) spilled water on my laptop a while back and I lost so much work (and so many fonts) I realised how necessary it was to keep everything in “the cloud”. I use Google Back Up and Sync to bring my drive right to my desktop which makes saving and accessing my work a breeze.
THINGS APP
I was a DIEHARD Wunderlist fan all through high school and college but when the developers stopped making updates to the app it was time to make a switch. Now I’m using Things. I’m a firm believer that there’s few things more satisfying than checking something off your to-do list and Things makes it easy to see what I need to get done in a day at a glance. You can also sync it to your Asana task list using Zapier, as an added bonus.