These past few months, I’ve been very appreciative of some of the many tools and resources that I use in my business on a day-to-day basis. At the end of the day, these tools are helping me be more efficient and productive. They are how I run my solopreneur business with tools, that at one time were only available to big corporations.
I love how technology has enabled us as entrepreneurs. Today, I’m going to share some of those tools with you!
- Kajabi – Over the past few months this very cool tool has helped me level-up a number of initiatives in my business. Here’s some of the cool things I’ve done literally in the past two months!
- Created my first online 6-module course, Marketing Mastery helping people raise up their brand and visibility
- Launched my client portal filled with all kinds of juicy learning tools
- Built my first Zoom webinar integrated to the Kajabi best practice pipeline building tools (OMG cool)
- Built sales pages
- Hosted an online video learning freebie, Your Next Bold Move to Raise Up your Voice, Visibility and Business, as part of a collaborative marketing initiative.
I love this tool – although it’s not for the tech-weak-at-heart. You have got to be courageous and dive into the tech in order to understand its full power. (and I’m only scratching the surface on the full capability of Kajabi – they bill this system as a fully integrated web site, customer database, marketing automation, course delivery tool.) After you understand the basics, you’ll probably want to hire it out, but they have great training videos and amazing support.
- Zapier – this very cool integration tool let’s you share data between your various platforms, minimizing additional data entry and streamlining processes. For example, it connected my Eventbrite (event management) platform to my CRM and Marketing Automation tool Hatchbuck – so when people registered for my Ignite event, they went right into my database. It also integrates people coming into my community through Kajabi campaigns into Hatchbuck. I’ve just started playing with this tool, but am loving some of the process simplification this has done for me. This week alone, Zaps (as they call them in Zapier land) have taken 45 things off of my to-do list, simply because I had these tasks automated!
- Speaking of Hatchbuck, this little known CRM (customer relationship database and marketing tool) is a tool I’ve used for years. This is how I track my relationships with clients and prospects, the events they’ve attended, the products they have, their interests and note of all the conversations I have had. It also simplifies all of my follow-up processes for clients, prospects, podcast guests and more – because I’ve automated the sequence of communications that follow specific events and activities. There are more robust tools out there, but I don’t think any that are as simple to use as Hatchbuck. Those more robust tools like Infusionsoft, often require a techie-person on staff to manage all the complexities. Hatchbuck serves my needs well.
- Lately – is my go-to-tool for all things social media. Founded by my friend Kate Bradley Chernis, it is a content creator, scheduler and marketing dashboard. I can input a blog link and it will generate a whole page of separate tweets and posts! And at the month, I have a marketing dashboard that tracks the metrics and results of all my social work. Saves me huge amounts of time when it comes to my social media efforts, and I have a single view of how my marketing is all working together. Yes, I diligently measure my marketing efforts and this tool makes it easy. Love this tool.
- My overseas Virtual Team is my life saver as an entrepreneur. They cost-effectively produce my podcast each week, do random graphic design, help me repurpose content that I make (for example making social posts out of presentations I give, pulling information from my podcasts to repurpose, etc), do market research, and so much more. They have 30 people on staff, and the best thing is I can send them a project as I log off at night, and will often have the finished product the next morning when I wake up. They’re affordable and easy to work with! If you’re needing backup support, you can sign up for a package with them here.
- X-Mind – is an online mindmapping tool that I use every day with clients – tracking their conversations and work, in my own strategic planning, in content strategy, and more. I’m a visual person, and this tool is so helpful for me to see archways of ideas and thoughts in a single view.
- Asana – I’d be lost without this project management tool. This helps me map full projects and keeps me in touch with other team members on their progress, and probably more importantly – my own progress on big picture projects. It was essential for tracking all the moving pieces in putting on events like Ignite. I use it daily with my Virtual Team, and I’ve just recently created a new project called “Next Quarter” which will help me see a rolling 3 months out of big tasks I’m working on. I’d say this is my macro-planning tool that outlines all the micro-to-dos that I need to focus on over more extended periods of time.
- Outlook plus my Danielle LaPorte daily planner – Outlook is my calendar, and the planner keeps me focused on day-to-day micro tasks and to-dos.
- Blubrry – finally, I love my podcast hosting platform that allows me to make one single post on my website, and then distribute it the dozen or so podcast platforms like iTunes, iHeart Radio, Spotify, eWomenNetwork and more, with a single push of a button. And their tech support is awesome!
It takes a tech-village to run a business today. These tools all make my life easier and enable me to do more in my business and reach more people than I could do without them.
As solopreneurs, we have be students in technology – finding the tools that make us more productive, helping us expand our reach and repurpose the good teachings that each of us has in us. It’s how we #RaiseUP our voice, our visibility and our business.
A caveat here – I have implemented these tools in my business over nearly a decade. I don’t recommend that you attempt to onboard a nine tools all in a single year! As you’re planning your 2019, consider your strategic initiatives and goals for the year, and then selectively choose the tools that can help you best succeed in the new year.
What are your favorite tools that you LOVE?! What are the tools you want to bring into your business in 2019? Please share in the comments below!