MARIAN
BACOL
Tools & Resources for
Online Entrepreneurs
In a world where more and more businesses are moving to being solely online, it can be hard to manage all of the aspects of your business without getting overwhelmed by all the things you feel the need to do.
We’ve gathered some of our favorite time-saving tools, resources and tech that will help you merge streamline your operations and give you more time to concentrate on being creative, developing new ideas, and merging your strategies with a Thriver mindset that you need to make your dreams a reality.
Disclaimer: We are ambassadors or affiliates some the brands we reference below.
Social Media
Boost your sales, brand awareness and never have to worry about what to post on your social media channels?
Make social media content creation fun and easy!
Learn how to start, grow and monetize your YouTube channel from one of the top YouTube creators! I bought this course myself and implemented what I learned in my own growing YouTube channel.
Legal Services
Starting a new business? You need to have the proper forms and contracts to protect yourself. Get it all here without paying expensive attorney fees Plug & Law has the perfect solution for you.
Email Platform
ActiveCampaign is a cloud based platform that our company uses. It's an integrated email marketing, marketing automation, and small business CRM that saves you time while growing your business with sales automation. What we love about it is the list segmentation and automation parts of it that we can set up for our funnels and campaigns. I signed up with an ActiveCampaign account by being a member of LVRG. LVRG is a group discount membership for entrepreneurs and it's saved my business hundreds of dollars annually in membership fees for platforms that we regularly use. Sign up for a LVRG membership here.
Video Conferencing
Video conferencing is used in a wide variety of industries, but it is especially great for online business owners as it allows you to not only contact your team and clients in a way that mimics face-to-face communication, but it also to hold live classes or workshops and forge stronger connections with your customers. Video conferencing also lets you expand the reach of your business and have clients and customers internationally to interact with, freeing you from only being able to work with in-person clients.
Zoom is a cloud-based video conferencing platform that can be used for video conferencing meetings, audio conferencing, webinars, meeting recordings, and live chat. Zoom allows you to easily meet with clients across the world or just across town, and their easy-to-use mobile app makes communicating on the go simple and streamlined. Great for one-on-one meetings or group conferences, Zoom is lightning-fast and always at your fingertips.
Project/Task Management
Making sure everything gets done on time and as promised is crucial to building credibility, and as your business grows and your to-do list expands along with it, you’ll want tools like Asana in your arsenal to make sure that everything gets done. Managing multiple projects at once can be tricky, and task management tools will help you plan your day to be most productive. This becomes increasingly important as your business and team grows.
Asana is the ultimate tool for managing your projects more effectively. It works with tasks, projects, conversations, and dashboards. Teamwork has never been easier. You can turn conversations into actionable tasks, provide comments on other people’s actions, and immediately see what progress has been made – all without having to schedule meetings. Whether you’re managing a team or just your own multitude of tasks and projects, Asana will help you streamline your day and reduce stress and anxiety by prioritizing your tasks.
Sales Funnel/Landing Page
Landing pages are one of the most important things to new digital entrepreneurs—they give you a place to direct your clients to and serve as a directory to help you grow your email list, your customer base, and the number of clients you work with. In addition, sales funnels are great for automating as much of running your online business as you’re able to, which will make you able to invest your time in the places and things that matter most.
Clickfunnels is an online sales funnel builder that helps businesses market, sell, and deliver their products online. This tool simplifies online marketing, selling, and delivery of their products and services by providing users with funnel options that are pre-built for a specific business, product, or service. Clickfunnels is great at freeing up the time you spend doing admin work by creating customizable pre-built sales funnels, making reaching customers easier than ever before. Creating funnels and landing pages is easy with their user friendly templates.
Graphic Design / Content Creation
You might not have the budget to hire a graphic designer when you’re just starting your business, and tools like Canva offer a great alternative. You can create a brand identity in just a few clicks! Building your brand through your social media posts is important to help make your name and product recognizable. Creating visual appeal will help you solidify your niche in your industry.
My team and I LOOOVE using Canva! It's easy to use, collaborative and creates gorgeous designs! Canva offers a free suite of design tools for creating social media ads, PPC ads, infographics, beautiful slides, magazines and a lot more. The website comes with plenty of free stock photography built in, and you can even use it to create custom and consistent filters for all your brand images. Canva is a great free starting tool if you need design for any aspect of your business and you are looking to DIY it. From social media posts to print marketing materials, Canva can help you create a collection of graphic design that’s cohesive and in line with your brand identity. Click here to sign up for a FREE 30-Day trial of Canva. $12.99/month when you team up (up to 5 teammates). You will love it! But try it for yourself!
Want to get 100+ high converting, viral Canva templates that you can plug-n-play for your business? These templates will save you so much time, help grow your social media accounts and are great for lead generation! Click here for Viral Content Templates!
Bookkeeping/Accounting
As a small business owner, keeping track of your income and expenses becomes more important than ever before! Making sure that all of your records are in one place will make sure that you never have to scramble during tax season again.
Wave is a web-based integrated accounting solution exclusively designed for small businesses, freelancers, and consultants. Wave provides features including accounting, invoicing, billing, payment tracking, payroll management, finance management, and receipts. Wave is a good alternative to QuickBooks, and also has an iOS and Android app that allows you to keep track of your finances on the go.
Desktop Audio/Video Recording
Sometimes, it’s just easier to explain something to a customer or client in words without having to spend time typing out your ideas or critiques. Plus, audio and video recordings allow you to establish a personal connection with team members who work remotely and with your customers and clients, too. This tool is also useful to record your processes and standard operating procedures (SOPs).
Loom allows you to make quick videos using a lightning-fast video recorder capable of capturing your screen, webcam, and microphone. Provide content to your clients and customers easily, smoothly, and simply! No matter if you teach video lessons or just want to give your audience a glimpse into your daily life, Loom provides an easy way to deliver content of any type without any fancy technology.
Appointment Scheduling
Having a dedicated software for booking appointments, meetings, and phone calls eliminates the back and forth contacting to find a time that works for both you and the person you’re trying to reach. Programs like Calendy allow you to keep all of your information in one place, making it easy to find free time in your schedule for meetings.
Calendly is a powerful yet simple appointment setting tool designed to make the process of finding meeting times easy. Calendy supports integrations with video meeting tools, like the aforementioned Zoom, as well as other software, making keeping track of all of you and your team’s appointments simple and streamlined. Calendy now also has a mobile app, allowing you to access and add to your calendar of events from your phone or tablet, wherever life takes you.
Payment Processing
If you’re selling any type of product or service online, it’s important that they have a safe and secure way to do so. Choosing a payment service that’s credible and organized will streamline the checkout process for your customers or clients, as well as make it easy for you to keep track of all of your finances.
Stripe is a simple way to accept payments online. Stripe has no setup fees, no monthly fees, and no hidden costs. A great alternative for PayPal, Stripe allows you to conduct business with your customers no matter where they may be in the world and keeps track of your transactions so that you have a record of all your monetary exchanges when you need them.
PayPal is a secured online payment portal that allows you to get the convenience of sending and receiving payments across the globe. PayPal is widely used by online retailers, and whether you use it to collect payments from customers or to make purchases to grow your business, PayPal is secure and super easy to use on either end. The service also offers PayPal credit, a reusable credit line to shop online anywhere where PayPal is accepted. Plus, you can now get six months special financing on purchases above $99!
Cloud Storage
Having cloud storage makes sure that you always have a backup of all of the files that you keep on your computer or other digital workspace, so when something inevitably crashes or goes wrong, you’ll be able to recalibrate quickly and with little effort.
Google Drive is an essential tool for working on a file with multiple people. Everyone can add or remove text, proofread content, and give comments for others to see. You can also see who else is working on the document and chat with them, so it’s a great tool for teams. It’s a big help for people who get confused when they have several versions of a work-in-progress. One of the best things about Google Drive is that edits to any file save automatically—no more losing hours of work due to mistakes or technology failures! Use Drive to create text documents in Docs, slideshows in Slides, spreadsheets in Sheets, and more!
Dropbox is great for storage and backups. It has a huge amount of awesome plugin apps to improve your experience. Moreover, it provides apps for every device, which means you can access your files from anywhere. You can use Dropbox to share large files with coworkers, or to back up your important documents so that you’re never without them.
Communication Tools
Once you start establishing your business and building a team, tracking your separate projects and communications becomes more important than ever. Business-oriented communication tools allow to stay in touch with your coworkers and monitor their progress, wherever you are.
Slack is a beautiful chat app and an amazing communication tool for teams and mastermind groups. Its smooth design is by far the nicest you’ll come across. Slack can also be used to grow and keep in touch with the communities you build in your industry niche.
You can create several channels to discuss different topics, or you can have a private conversation. Slack also allows you to share files and easily find messages, notifications, and files in your archive. Everything is automatically synced on all your devices, and you can easily connect it to other apps, like WordPress or Skype.
Trello is another great option that allows you to manage a team easily and effortlessly. From keeping track of every aspect of a project, from the big picture to little details, to just sending a message to check in with a team member, Trello has you covered.
Entrepreneur Membership
LVRG is a Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) that was created to leverage the purchasing power of a group of businesses to obtain discounts from vendors based on the collective buying power of the GPO members. A LVRG Membership can help you save money when purchasing software to grow your business and manage your team.
Media/Public Relations
Help a Reporter Out is a free website and online service. They email multiple times per day, with requests from journalists/reporters looking for experts and sources for their stories. This can turn into free publicity for your company. Be sure to respond ASAP, as some requests can get competitive.
Freelance Marketplaces
You won’t always be able to hire somebody full-time for every task that your business needs done, and that’s where working with freelancers comes in! For every task that you have, you’re sure to find a skilled writer, artist, or designer who can get it done for you quickly. Outsourcing the things that aren’t your strong suits and focusing on the things that are allows you to complete multiple projects simultaneously and grow your business..
Post job openings for free on the world’s largest freelancing platform, and screen from the best experts for your needs in the world. Get just the work you need on-demand without taking on hefty overhead or salaries. Upwork will help you find skilled freelancers and employees who will do the work you need, often providing you with finished work within days and sometimes within hours!
Fiverr is a freelance online marketplace which enables you to browse a selection of freelance gigs and place order in one click. If you’re looking for stunning graphic design for your marketing materials, great copywriting for your website, or any other creative work, you’ll be able to find someone who can do the job without breaking the bank on Fiverr!