Tools for Small Business Owners: 5 Essentials for Creative Entrepreneurs
Apr 8
Want to know my favorite tools, apps, and equipment I use to keep my small business running? You’re in luck! I’m sharing my top 5 tools for small business owners and creative entrepreneurs in this video!
Want more of the best branding and business advice—specifically for female entrepreneurs? Subscribe to my channel and click the bell to be notified when I post new videos.
I’m Moriah, luxury brand designer and strategist, helping women build exclusive high-end brands so they can show up with confidence, book their dream clients, and finally charge what they’re worth.
But today, I’m sharing some of my best kept secrets with you!
In fact, I’m counting down my top 5 tools I rely on to make my business run smoothly!
[This post contains affiliate links, which means if you purchase I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.]
Also be sure to stick around to the very end—where I’m sharing the number one tool you need to keep your business legal!
Tool #5: The Perfect Planner for Female Entrepreneurs
I honestly believe there are only 2 things you need to do in life to be successful:
- Make a plan
- Stick to it relentlessly
Of course that’s easier said than done—but one thing that has certainly helped me is having the perfect planner.
I’ve actually used a ton of different types of planners over the years—and even tried creating my own!
Then I finally found one that works for me: Leaders in Heels Planner.
Why I Love the Ladies In Heels Planner
- Size: This planner is smaller than most, which means it’s easy to keep with you and fits in your purse
- No start date: I love that you can start whenever you want! You write the date in yourself.
- More than just a time tracker: The planner has you map out your big goals, and then break them down into smaller, bite sized chunks—meaning you’re always aware of what you should be working on to accomplish those BIG goals
- Beautiful design: I love the various cover options you can choose from, as well as the beautifully designed inner pages
By the way, want to know more about how I plan my day, week, quarter and year for success? Check out this blog post: Time Management And Productivity Tips For Ambitious Entrepreneurs
Tool # 4: Email Service Provider
Let me just preface this by saying that if you don’t have an email list, now is the time to start building it!
Email marketing is one of the most powerful ways to grow your small business and your audience—and I’ve seen firsthand, the incredible impact it can have on your brand.
Which is why the fourth most important tool in my small business, has to be my email service provider, ConvertKit.
I’ve used several different email marketing platforms over the years, but none of them were as robust while also being easy to use and understand.
Why I love ConvertKit
- Easy to use and simple to understand
- Can make beautifully customized forms (that easily integrate into your website)—and as a designer, that’s so important to me.
- You can grow your list with multiple opt-ins or “freebies”
- Then you can build various automations and sequences to segment that list, and make the most of your growing audience
- It’s easy to track how your list is growing and from which sources
- All that to say, this is one of the best tools I’ve used to grow my audience—and market to that audience. So I highly I recommend!
Tools for Small Business Owners # 3: Client Relationship Management
Your CRM, or Client Relationship Management is the software you use to manage your client experience.
I’ve been using Dubsado for years now, and it’s seriously everything I could ever want in a CRM… and so much more!
Why I love Dubsado:
Dubsado allows me to send proposals, contracts, and invoices all online—which has meant more clients booking, and booking faster!
I’m able to create templates for the things I use often in my small business, like proposals, emails, questionnaires, etc. And even better, Dubsado allows you to include “smart fields,” which are client or project specific information, that will auto-populate in your templates.
For example, here is the proposal template for my done-in-a-day brand strategy and design service, The Brand Intensive.
Right here you can see the smart field that will generate the client’s name from the information they provided in their inquiry.
Like I said, Dubsado has everything I could ever want and more! One of my favorite features of Dubsado is their scheduler.
This one feature has honestly saved so much time for me lately.I used to waste a ton of time emailing back and forth about client meetings.
Now I just send my clients or new leads a link to my scheduler where they can choose the time that works best for them.
You can also set it up so that they get reminder emails for upcoming meetings—so no more ‘no shows’!
Honestly, I think Dubsado is worth the price for the scheduling feature alone!
I also love that they’re constantly rolling out new features to help you make your life and business easier. And they have a large supportive online community.
Sign up for a free trial and use code: moriahriona to save 20% off your first month or first year!
Tool #2: Pinterest Scheduling App
Pinterest has been vital to the growth and success of my small business. In fact, nearly half of all my website traffic comes from Pinterest alone.
However, to get that kind of growth, I’ve had to be pinning, consistently about 25 pins each day—throughout the day—every single day of the week.
So I’ve basically had two options:
- Spend my entire life on Pinterest (no thank you!)
- Use a Pinterest scheduling app
I’ve been using the app, Tailwind, as long as I’ve been working on my Pinterest strategy, and it is absolutely an essential tool for my small business.
Why I love Tailwind
With Tailwind I’m able to schedule my pins so that they are pinning automatically at the best time for my audience. So it makes my Pinterest marketing fairly “hands-off.”
I spend about a total of an hour a month scheduling and managing my pins in the Tailwind app—and then I forget about it!
Because of my efforts I have a regular stream of inquiries—ideal clients—who are finding me on Pinterest.
Because of the incredible ROI I’ve seen with my Pinterest marketing, Tailwind is hands-down some of the best time and money I’ve spent on marketing for my small business!
If you want to know more about how I use Pinterest and Tailwind to grow my business and find new clients (on repeat), check out this blog post: Small Business Marketing: How To Book More Clients With Pinterest
Tool #1: Contract Templates and Legal Paperwork
I know as creatives and personal brands, we didn’t get into business with contracts in mind. However, having solid contracts and legal documents that protect you and your small business, are vital to keeping that business running.
As far as I’m concerned, if you’re working with clients, without a contract, you are playing with fire my friend. Which is why contract templates and legal paperwork are my number one tool I recommend for your small business!
The good news is that gone are the days of having to hire a lawyer to write your contracts.
Thanks to The Contract Shop, you can find a template for almost any contract or legal document your small business might need (and at a fraction of the cost, I might add!).
Contracts and Legal Documents for Creative and Online Entrepreneurs
Here are a few of my favorite contracts and documents available from the Contract Shop…
- Coaching Contract Template
- Photographer Contract Templates
- Graphic and Website Designer Contract Template
- Website Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy
And there you have it—my top 5 essential tools for small business owners!
What did you think? Is there anything I missed? Anything you’d add to the list? Let me know in a comment down below!
And speaking of small business tools—you have to check out my free guide: The Brand Blueprint. This 20-page workbook will help you set the foundation for your own luxury brand. You can download your copy with the link below.
Wanna learn more of my favorite productivity tips to help you run a successful business? Be sure to Subscribe to my YouTube channel and check out these posts!
- Business Workflow System for Creative Entrepreneurs
- Success Habits for Creative Business Owners
- Client Onboarding: 4 Things you need to do immediately after booking a new client
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