Are You Wasting $$ on Tools to Work Online?
All your business friends are talking about how much they LOVE using Video ask, using Karta, using Notion, using Flodesk, using Keap, using Dubsado, Dubb, and a million other tools to support their business online…and you start to think maybe you need to use them too…
You start to think you’re missing out and not using the right tools to grow your business.
Then you start down the tech software rabbit hole researching and looking for the best, brightest and newest tools to grow your business online…
Before you get on an annual plan with a ton of software that you don’t actually need and end up wasting money on because you never end up using them and forget to cancel them, let’s talk about what you actually need to run a growing business online.
Tools you need to run a growing business online
Email is a given, but what else do you absolutely need to run your business online?
1) Project Management tool – YES you need a project management tool – even if you are a team of 1 – but especially if you have contractors, part-time team members, or employees – to keep your tasks in order and to collaborate on those tasks. Is someone on your team working on for you or do you have someone creating graphics for a launch? Your project management tool is the central place to work on these tasks moving forward and on time.
2) Cloud Storage – Saving everything on your hard drive is easy and quick for you, but how do you plan on collaborating with a team member, and worse, what happens if your hard drive crashes? Cloud storage is the best way to ensure you have backups of your important documents AND you can collaborate with clients and team members.
3) Payment Gateway – Whether you are invoicing for services or selling digital courses and products, you need a way to accept and process payments easily and automatically. Make accepting payments easy on yourself and build in automated follow-ups and payment reminders.
4) Proposal and contracting tool – if your providing services it also goes without saying that you need a contract. A software that allows you to manage your sales and proposaling process is extremely valuable so that you’re sinking a ton of time into manually creating proposals, following up, sending contracts and invoices. More importantly. The smoother this process is, the more momentum you have to close sales more quickly. And honestly, if you’re selling high-ticket, customer expect it.
5) Communication Tools – we write to customers, we write to customers, and outside of email you do need platforms to communicate with your team, with contractors, and with your customers. Unless you personally really like written long detailed emails, in today’s day and age you need some sort of video conferencing software as well as a quick-hit questions and answers like slack, voxxer or videoask.
Of course, you’ll add tools based on how you market, how you sell, how you deliver your product or service to your customer, but these are your foundation tools and once you lock in tools that you love in these categories, all the other tools you select to support your marketing, sales, customer deliver, etc… will need to work with these tools. This will cut back on the number of options you have – which isn’t such a bad thing when there are literally thousands of options and more becoming available every day.
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You’re Fearless When You Know What to Expect
Has fear ever held you back from doing something that you REALLY, REALLY want to do?
Maybe from showing up Live on Social, joining a club or putting out a new offer?
There was a time when I almost let fear stop me from doing something I was dying to do – travel abroad solo – and the same tactics that let me travel solo fearlessly, also helped me grow my business.
I was Ready but Too Late
Do you know what a hairstylist, a facialist, and a tattoo artist all have in common with your business?
This isn’t a riddle or brain teaser, it’s a fact that I discovered whenever I was looking for someone to support me or my business: By the time that I was “ready” to book an appointment or work with them, it was too late.
Let me explain… and I’m sure you might see some similarities in your day to day.
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