My Top 15 Digital Tools For Running A Business!
As crazy as it can be sometimes....you’ve got to love the internet. The world of business is changing more and more everyday, and that means there are more tools out there to help businesses like yours and mine! Digital tools do wonders for entrepreneurs who simply don’t have the time to do it all themselves. The more you make use of certain helpful tools, the more efficient you can be. Need to learn more about some online tools? Why don’t you take a look at my 15 favorite tools that I cannot live without. Oh, and keep an eye out for some discount links!
1. HoneyBook
HoneyBook is an all-in-one site that I use to track client projects, send invoices, and send contracts. This site is, “Everything your business needs to get it done.” I would never be able to run my business with out this platform. It literally houses everything! You can receive 50% with this link!
2. Adobe (Lightroom / Photoshop)
I am sure the term, Adobe, is nothing new. This is my go-to tool when I am editing images! I use Lightroom for most editing and then bring things into Photoshop for high-level touch-ups when needed.
3. Quickbooks
Quickbooks is great for bookkeeping, tracking financial reports (profit & loss, expenses, revenue, etc.) and, of course, makes life easier for my accountant! The nice thing about having both Quickbooks and Honeybook is that they fully integrate with each other, so things are very automated.
After signing up, I highly recommend working with a bookkeeper to set it up specifically for your business. It cost me quite a bit of money trying to figure out it myself the first time around. I totally messed things up and ended up having to pay quite a bit to get out of it. Looking back, it would have been so much easier and it would have saved me a lot of money to just have a bookkeeper set it up and teach me how to use it from the get-go.
4. Canva
Canva is probably one of my most used online tools because it can be used for so much! Overall, I use Canva to make beautifully designed templates. These act as Pinterest posts, freebies, cover images for blog posts and so much more!
5. Zoom
Good old Zoom. As much as I am sure we all have some serious Zoom fatigue right now, it really is a great tool. I love taking discovery calls and photoshoot planning meetings over video. Zoom has allowed me to connect with clients and team members “face to face” all over California and even the country!
6. Acuity Scheduling
Life gets crazy, am I right? Acuity Scheduling helps me keep my time organized by acting as an online scheduling system. This tool allows clients, partners, and potential clients to schedule calls with me! Any time someone needs to hop on a call with me, I just send them my Acuity link so we can avoid the back-to-back communication. This integrates with Zoom and Google Calendar, so after someone books a meeting the Zoom link is already included in the Google calendar invite for us to connect on.
7. Photo Mechanic
Booking a personal brand photoshoot means you will end up with hundreds of quality on-brand images. Photo Mechanic helps me organize all of these images and cull them quickly. Lightroom can be a little slow with culling and Photo Mechanic has saved me SO much time. I also love that when I import images through Photo Mechanic, I’m able to upload to two separate hard drives at once for a backup.
8. Pixieset
When all the image editing is done, the images have to get to you somehow, right? Pixieset is an online client delivery platform that I use for sending proofs and downloading images. My absolute FAVORITE thing about this is how much time I save with client selections. If you use Pixieset and don’t know what I’m talking about, this 1 min video I filmed will actually change your life.
9. ClickUp
When running a business, teamwork is key. ClickUp helps with project management for my team and I, so we know who’s working on what and can prioritize some larger goals.
10. Slack
Communication plays a very big role in project management with a team. Slack acts as my day to day communication tool. Think of it like an email meets a DM, but with different inboxes (called channels) dedicated to different things. For example, we have a channel for “clients” and “marketing” where the entire team can communicate on these specific topics, share files, etc. and have an ongoing history to come back to.
11. Google Suite
Google Suite is all about productivity. This software holds my calendar, email and drive all in one place. I also have my email domain with them. When running a photography business, I LIVE by my Google Calendar. Everything gets scheduled. Even when it comes to blocking off time just for resting.
12. Milanote
Every brand photoshoot is unique to who I am working with. Milanote lets my team organize our ideas and plan client photoshoots. We create photoshoot schedules and moodboards directly in here! It’s super collaborative and mobile friendly.
13. Spotify
On brand photoshoot days, my clients and I like to have a lot of fun! Spotify helps us keep our spirits up and get the party started. Playing client’s favorite songs helps them feel better and be more comfortable in front of the camera. The premium features are worth it to me… it’s way too awkward to have commercials playing right when you’re in your creative flow with a client.
14. FloDesk
I have recently undertaken email marketing as a new marketing channel! Now that I have a group of email and newsletter subscribers, Flodesk assists with editing emails and sending them out in an organized way. This site has beautiful templates to design newsletters— perfect for photographers and creative entrepreneurs that want to include beautiful imagery. They are the easiest platform I have found, while also being the lowest cost. You can get it for 50% off at $19/month here.
15. Squarespace
Having an on-brand, aesthetic website is the first step to attracting your dream clients. As a photographer, it’s important to showcase your portfolio in some way! Squarespace allows you to design your own website based on your business and brand, which is where you’re reading this :)
There are plenty of online tools out there that make running a business much easier. These are the top 15 sites that I use on a daily basis to run my own business. Any one of these is guaranteed to enhance your productivity and build your brand. Stay tuned on the blog for more tips and tricks to building a brand and running a business!
**DISCLAIMER: This blog post contains affiliate links. I will never promote anything that I don’t actually use or believe in**