Hot Tools to Balance and Grow your Business

By Mia Bui

Hot off the press!

Whether you're a busy mom, or a full blown multi-faceted entrepreneur, staying organized and consistently regimented is crucial. As both, I find solace in having a morning regimen filled with rituals and to tools to not only center but keep me  organized so I'm productive throughout the day and moreover, inspired! While, Kim and I both do our best to keep this a well oiled machine naturally, we couldn't do it all without the help of some seriously effective tech to bring it all together. 

Here are some of our faves to streamline, optimize, and scale whatever industry you're in:

#1 ASANA

Asana is an online management tool that helps organize and automate your client process. The platform itself has so many amazing features for streamlining the client onboarding process, as well as the client communication systems. It also captures leads, automates workflows, houses your contracts and proposals, as well as automates invoices. You name it, Asana does it! One our top used tools! We've tried several different "project managers" and always circled back to Asana. 

#2 DOLLAR EIGHTY

We love a Gary Vee moment. 

#3 IG HASHTAG GENERATOR

Hashtags are essential to growing an emerging business on social!  While you may be tempted to fill your post with the same hashtag groupings, it has been shown that Instagram penalizes people who reuse the same set repeatedly! That’s why we always suggest customizing your hashtags to match the content of each post. Ah, my brain hurts just thinking about it- while super simple- it can be exhausting to generate these organically and product a new set every single time. Our suggestion use this one because it generates related hashtags based on ones you are already using.

#4 Shopify 

If you aren't on Shopify, you're missing out! Our opinion isn't bias, its factual. If you're new to e-comm or a small business owner, Shopify is the way to go ~ and let me tell you why?! We've tried them all, Squarespace, Wordpress (yuck), and yes, even woo commerce and its no major shade to them, they do the job but Shopify just does it better. Its efficient easy to use and supports all types of businesses. Whether you're in store, online, or consulting, you can truly do it all on this platform. Intuitive, user friendly, and plain dummy proof. Shopify will revolutionize your e-commerce business and grow your sales streams FAST. It also manages your inventory, payments, and shipping from a central cloud-based platform just to name a few but ultimately there's a reason why big timers are making the switch and "self-made" billionaires like Kylie Cosmetics are on it. Moreover, its affordable for a the self starting entrepreneur!

Need help making your shop? We can help! Work with us by clicking the link here.

 

#5 DROPBOX // HELLOSIGN

 

Dropbox is a cloud storage service that lets you save files online and sync them to your devices. You can use Dropbox links to share files and folders with other people without sending large attachments. Dropbox offers a free plan that includes 2 GB of storage.

We're big dropbox fans over here because its easy to use and access- and integrates with just about everything- asana, computer, planoly or plann that! it's one of the best investments and it keeps it all backed up and ready to go whenever you need it. Hellosign is the sister company of dropbox and is by far one of the easiest to use virtual signing companies we worked with - and you guessed it again, syncs up with Dropbox! 

 

#6 CANVA

Canva is a free graphic design platform that's great for making invitations, business cards, Instagram posts, and more. A drag and drop interface makes customizing thousands of templates simple and easy. Canva's wide array of features allow you to edit photos without extensive photo editing knowledge or experience. It's so simple to use not just for the intuitively creative, like Kim, but the creative impaired, like me, Mia. This is a running joke only because, it requires a very distant part of my brain to make pretty things like Kim. Yin & Yang  😉 

#7  PLANOLY

 

Simplify your social marketing with one spot- PLANOLY. Easily plan & schedule your content for Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter. 

As an official Instagram and Pinterest Partner,

PLANOLY continues to pave the way for businesses of all sizes to carry out their social marketing strategies seamlessly and effortlessly. Simplifying social marketing for all.

  • DRAFT, PLAN, SCHEDULE, AND PUBLISH CO NTENT
  • ANALYZE YOUR BUSINESS PROFILE DATA
  • WEB & MOBILE APPS

We've tried several different social planning tools and out of them all,

PLANOLY has proven to be the best one! We highly encourage putting together a plan and mapping out your social in advance to keep you on track and consistent.

 

#8 FRESHBOOKS 

I'd be a terrible ex-accountant (yes, you heard that right) if I didn't mention this. Keep 👏 track 👏 of 👏 those 👏 expenses 👏 hunny 👏 and here's your sign- keep up to date with your books.

FRESHBOOKS is pretty intuitive and keeps it pretty down to earth for someone who hates stuff like this *cough, cough, Kim. Your banking info, shopify, and even some of these nifty apps mentioned drop right in. And pro tip, open that business account; it'll save you some headaches later.  😉 

Quickbooks is also another great resource and has been around longer. It has more features but can get quite messy if you don't know what you're doing. 

If this just isn't it for you... don't worry, I totally have your back. Schedule an consultation here to see how I can help you with all the "non-sexy" stuff as I like to say here.