10 Programs We Use To Make Our Life And Business Easier
We hear the phrase “work smarter not harder” ALL of the time, but what does that actually mean? For our team, it means using online programs to make our lives easier and our business run smoother. Some of these programs automate parts of our business, and others help keep us on-track and organized.
If your to-do list is full of repetitive tasks, busywork, or it’s just plain disorganized, test out a few of these tools! You might be surprised at how seamless your business will run when you have programs in place to help you out.
PRO TIP: Find tech and programs that work for your business; don’t try to fit your business around tech. There may be a learning curve in the beginning, but eventually these programs should make your life easier, not more complicated.
10 Programs We Use To Make Our Life And Business Easier
1. Trello (Task Management)
Trello is an online project management tool that keeps our team organized and in the loop. We use it to keep track of all our upcoming blog content and social media posts, as well as our ideas for future content.
You can also create different boards and lists of to-do items, and label them to let team members know what’s complete and what still needs done. This is super helpful because our team works remotely, so it helps us all to stay organized and on track with projects.
PRO TIP: We use Trello for our Content Calendar. Check out this tutorial for how you can do the same: How To Use Trello To Create A Content Calendar.
2. Planoly (Instagram Planning)
We use Planoly to plan our Instagram feed. It’s important that our photos look good as a whole on our feed and Planoly makes it easy to see how everything lays out. With Planoly you can write your captions ahead of time, search for and save photos to repost, create draft folders to plan photos for later use, track your analytics, and schedule posts too.
3. Basecamp (Project Management)
Basecamp is our hub for all things project related. We use Basecamp to communicate with our clients step-by-step as we work through their project. We post updates, get feedback, share design files, and have an internal thread for our team members to chat about progress updates during the design week. Basecamp allows us to have all of the project information in one place, which keeps us organized and on-track!
4. Dubsado (Client Management)
We use Dubsado to fast-track our client onboarding processes so that our clients can go live even more quickly and with more communication from our team! From client invoicing to e-signing contracts, we’ve loved how much time we’ve saved using Dubsado. We get through our client process (receiving initial inquiries, scheduling calls, sending contracts, and getting paid) with minimal interference on our part.
5. Zapier (Web Integration)
We use Zapier to automate some of our tasks, but basically, you want to think about Zapier as a connection tool. It connects online platforms to other online platforms that wouldn’t normally speak or connect to each other. For example, we can send information we collect on Squarespace forms to ConvertKit, or send Squarespace purchase information to Teachable. There’s literally over a million ways to use Zapier to connect your online platforms! The best way to start is to google search “Zapier and ____ (any platform you currently use)” and see how you can use it!
6. ConvertKit (Email Marketing)
We use ConvertKit to create and send out our email marketing campaigns. We like ConvertKit because so many things can be automated, and we love the clean and simple design that looks like we’re writing you a quick note. If you’re on Squarespace, they’re a great choice for your business because you can easily embed your ConvertKit signup into your website.
7. Slack (Team Communication)
Our entire team works remotely, so it’s important that we stay connected and communicate effectively. Slack helps us with that! We use our Slack channels to connect with specific teams, do daily check-ins, and directly communicate with each other (without getting a thousand notifications from a group text).
8. Canva (Graphic Design)
We use Canva to design graphics for social media, elements on our Squarespace Templates, workshops and online courses, blog posts and more. We love how user-friendly it is, and how easy it is to collaborate with our team on designs. As designers we know you can’t use Canva for everything, but it has been a helpful tool for simple designs and marketing pieces!
9. Teachable (Course Creation)
We use Teachable to host ALL of our courses for our business. Teachable makes it easy to upload text, video, photos, etc and put it all in easy-to-digest modules. Our students have loved using it! They even have an app for learning on the go.
10. Squarespace (Website Hosting Platform)
You know we had to include this one! Last but not least, we love Squarespace for our website and we recommend it to everyone. If you’re launching for the first time and don’t have a large budget to spend on designers and developers, it’s vital to choose a platform you’ll be comfortable using and able to get creative with. Especially if you’re not the most tech-savvy! Squarespace checks all of those boxes. Squarespace is easy to learn, user-friendly, and they have an awesome support team if you ever need some extra help.
If you aren’t convinced yet, we put together an entire list on why you should choose Squarespace for your website!
The Wrap-Up
Running a business is no small feat, especially when you’re doing it alone or with a small team. But, thank goodness technology exists to make all of our lives easier! With so many different aspects of your business to stay on top of on a daily basis, it’s important to have go-to tools in your business to help you out.
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