Here is a round-up of my favourite business tools and apps that I literally could not live without. I use all of these resources every single day in my business.
Running a successful business requires a lot of hard work and organisation. I am so excited to share with you the top business tools and apps that have been lifesavers in managing my businesses.
As a busy mum & entrepreneur, it is so important that I have the right tools and resources to make my work more efficient, help me stay organised and for it all to still be enjoyable.
We all know that running a business can be overwhelming at times, but having the right tools at your fingertips can make all the difference.
So whether you're just starting out or have been running your business for a while, I hope my recommendations will help you work smarter, not harder. Let's dive in!
#1 - Flodesk
Number 1 in my top 5 business tool & apps in 2023, is one of my absolute favourites and has helped to revolutionise my business. Flodesk is an email marketing website & tool that simplifies the process of creating and sending beautiful & effective emails.
I previously used MailChimp but I really struggled to get what I wanted from it. Flodesk is super easy to use. It has a drag and drop editor, loads of beautiful pre-designed templates that you can make your own and really powerful automation features.
As I run several different businesses, with completely different target markets, I needed a way to keep all of my customer and client emails in separate lists. Flodesk makes this really easy and you can create different workflows & mail outs for different groups.
Whether you are looking to build your email list, increase engagement or drive more sales, Flodesk has everything you need to create campaigns that get results.
I have a 50% off code for you using this link - https://flodesk.com/c/JPLPU3
Enjoy! And let me know what you think
#2 - Canva
You may have been living under a rock if you have not heard of Canva before. But, for those that are not familiar or have little experience with Canva, it is a complete necessity for all things business marketing.
Canva have a website and app that helps people to create designs like posters, social media graphics, logos, business cards, presentations and more, without requiring graphic design skills.
It provides templates, images and other design elements to help users create professional-looking designs. I pretty much use it daily for my social media templates, creating worksheets and training documents for my teams, not to mention how useful it was when setting up my business with business cards etc.
It takes a while to get used to it and navigate yourself around, but there are loads of useful tutorials online to help. Once you get the hang of the basics, it is really easy to use and you'll find that you use it for everything.
"Good technology gives you an edge. Great technology gives you wings." – Unknown.
#3 - Trello
If, like me, you love making lists and organise your business across 20 notebooks (I'm not exaggerating), then you might just love Trello.
Trello is a project management tool that helps to prioritise tasks and projects. It has a really simple, user friendly system that allows you to create boards, lists, and cards to track your progress. You can also collaborate with others in real-time - so for example; working with a pa or team, or web-developer etc.
I use it daily for to-do lists, managing projects to track tasks and deadlines, I also use it for content creation and managing tasks for social media, blogs, etc. It is really good for event organising too.
Whether you are planning a personal project or managing a large team, Trello provides a flexible and customisable platform to help you stay organised and productive.
#4 - Calendly
As an old fashioned girl, I used to love a good paperback diary and pen and I still do BUT I am awful at remembering appointments and organising my time and schedule. Calendly is a scheduling tool that helps to easily arrange and manage appointments and meetings.
I love that it eliminates the back and forth communication needed to find a suitable time for a meeting. I can select days and times in my month when I am available for 121 coaching sessions and send out to clients to select which slot suits them best. Calendly will then remind more parties and keep us updated if anything changes with useful notifications.
I can customise my availability by setting working hours, time zones and blocking off time slots that are not available. I can also integrate the calendar with Google & outlook to add events in my calendar.
It is a convenient and time-saving tool that streamlines scheduling and helps me stay organised.
#5 - Chat GPT
In all honesty, I was a bit apprehensive about including this one. AI and its fast emergence into small business has been a little nerve-wracking for someone that loves pen and paper. But, whether we like it or not, AI is fast becoming integrated into the business world and beyond. Although I am nervous of it's capabilities, I am half-embracing it and I can't deny the time it saves.
If you're not aware of Chat GPT - it stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer. It is a deep-learning algorithm that uses artificial intelligence to generate human-like responses to natural language input. Big businesses use it for things like web chats and automated customer services. For small businesses it can also be used to generate content for websites, social media accounts, email marketing campaigns etc.
My hesitancy comes with a fear of the jobs it may eliminate - like that of a copywriter for example. However, as incredible as Chat GPT is, I don't think it can ever properly replace humans and actually, I can see these roles being able to use AI to save time. So, my advice would be to use it sparingly. Yes, it can help you write social media posts, but there is nothing like the real person talking behind the real account.
It has been really useful when I am trying to put together an itinerary for my client's holidays - I can ask the app to generate '10 things to do for kids in Bali' for example. Something that I would usually need to spend several hours researching, I can now put together in 15 mins.
I hope you found this useful, let me know what apps you can't live without.
Lots of love, Shereen xx
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