TOOLS & RESOURCES
When it comes to your business's day-to-day running, the right tools can help in so many ways.
Save time and improve efficiency: Time is limited. Ever felt you’re losing time moving from one tool to the next? It may slow you down, or worse, break concentration when you have to fuss about from one tool to the next. Centralising information as much as possible over a few key tools helps me manage time more effectively and keep my work process inflow.
Automate certain processes: Writing the same proposals, emails, contracts all the time? Considered a tool that allows you to automate the process?
Keep you organised: The right tools by your side make the daily running of a business and processes so much easier. How so will look different for every business, niche or industry, but below I’m sharing the top tools I couldn’t work without.
TOOLS TO SIMPLIFY YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA
WRITING & PROOFING
When you think about how much we write in our businesses. Social media content, emails, marketing, guides, processes. Heck, it’s a lot. I love writing, but that doesn’t mean I was born with the art of conveying a message to an audience. It took a lot of work (still working on).
Hello Grammarly, a brilliant tool I have come to use every day! It proofs your copy and provides suggestions when using any overused words, great where a punchier alternative could be available. You don’t need to be the next Shakespeare to write strong content, and if you are an overthinker, this is such a great tool. Free and pro options are available.
PROJECT & TASK MANAGEMENT
Are you a visual person? Love a good board? The ability to drag and drop? Hello Trello
A collaborative, visual project management tool that helps you stay organised with boards, lists that you can customise., expand, add links ad, share with teams. I use Trello for my daily organisation as a digital diary of the tasks I am working on with a board for each stage of the process.
I also use Trello for content creation ideas and content calendars for both myself and clients. I love how easy it is to use, customisable for useability appeal and most of all, the simplicity.
CRM SYSTEM - DUBSADO
Does your small to mid-sized business send a lot of proposals, forms or contracts? Would your clients benefit from having a portal with all the key documents in one place? Would you like the ability to beautifully brand your forms, contracts, onboarding documents down to the proposals?
Dubsado could be for you. I use this tool for onboarding clients preparing proposals. Forms for monthly content creation ideas and for taking Stripe payments.
Want to try? I’m an affiliate for Dubsado as a user, which means, if you want to try using my referral link, you will receive 20% OFF your first month or year. I will also gain affiliate credit for transparency. If it sounds a good fit for you (which wouldn’t be or all businesses), try it out and see if it could help improve your workflows.
COLLABORATIVE WORKING, FILE ORGANISATION
Working with others on documents? File sharing? Fed up of wasting time downloading each revision, making changes then sending it back? Cut that time by switching to Google docs – file share, collaborate, live changes, access your files from anywhere so you can work on the go and have a cloud-based backup just in case something goes wrong. I could not work without Google Drive.
SCHEDULLING TOOL
Looking for a cost-effective scheduling tool? One that allows you to create variations at posting, so you don’t have to spend hours scheduling across multiple platforms?
Publer has quickly become my preferred tool for ease of use. It simplifies the process, allows scheduling to platforms like LinkedIn, Google My Business, YouTube (with a pro plan) and all of the main platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Honestly, for the money, this has become my recommended and favourite tool to use. Saves so much time and money.
SCHEDULLING TOOL
Are you a fellow social media professional? If you’re looking for an all in one place tool, Metricool could be a game-changer. This tool saves me a lot of time reporting and analyzing my online presence. The price is competitive considering the scope of reports and the ability to add multiple brands. There are some restrictions. Posting variations are not available yet, but the drag and drop ability saves time. So far, I can live with it for the centrally located accessibility it offers.
DESIGN & SOCIAL MEDIA GRAPHICS
Love design but don’t have time to produce the volume required for your social media? Are you using Canva? Used by hundreds of professionals for all kinds of purposes. There are hundreds of templates to choose from for almost all of your design needs. You don’t need to be a designer.
Canva has a super easy user face, access to tons of elements and graphic details for you to play with. Or, if that sounds too much, choose a few templates, customise them to your brand’s colours, personal touches and off you go. Free and paid plans are available depending on your needs.
