My Top 10 Platforms

Spring has arrived in Iowa! ☀️

Well for the moment. I have seen it snow in May, so anything is possible. I will take the sunshine and warmth as much as I can.

As an entrepreneur we all wear many hats in our business. We are the marketing, travel agent, sales, accounting, advertising and administration departments.

With there being so many platforms and tools to choose from - how do you know which ones are best for you? You want those tools to make your job easier, not more complicated.

There are 10 programs and platforms that have leveled up my business exponentially and provide my clients with an amazing experience at the same time.

Here are my top 10 platforms I use in my business:

1. WalkHer CRM: My most fave product is my WalkHer CRM (aka Go High Level CRM). This platform is an all in one sales and marketing platform. Imagine having your entire client journey in one place that can be customized to your business needs. This will save you so much time and money! Need an expert in this platform? I am your gal. Click here to chat with me.

2. Canva: Canva makes content creation a breeze! This is an easy platform to create one of a kind graphics. They also have lots of templates for you to use and adapt to fit your branding. They offer templates for almost anything your business would need from social media to promotional materials. Best of all it has a FREE version! However, to me, the paid version is well worth the cost.

3. Quickbooks: Quickbooks is a great accounting software for small businesses to make tax time a breeze. I love it! They offer an online version and a computer software version. When tax time comes all I have to do is print a couple of reports and send them to my accountant. You can also integrate quickbooks with your bank, credit card company and payment processor such as Paypal, Square or Shopify.

4. Loom: Loom is a video messaging tool that helps me communicate with my clients clearly. This comes in handy when my client is having a tech issue. I create a video that shows them how to solve it easily. I record the video from my desktop and then send them a link to view it. I use the free version, which has a time limit of 5 minutes per video and a maximum of 25 videos saved to your account.

5. Google Drive: I have used Google Drive with all my clients. We can easily share documents, spreadsheets, and more. It is the perfect tool for collaborative projects with clients, too. There’s the functionality to make comments, suggestions and tag the client to review it. No more emailing a document back and forth and trying to figure which version is correct. The best part is that this is all FREE. Note: I do pay about $20 a year for expanded storage.

6. Zoom: Zoom has really helped my business when everything went online in March 2020. It really expanded my business and my ability to serve more clients. It saves me so much time. Zoom offers a free version that has a limit of 40 minutes, which can be a good thing so meetings can be laser focused.

7. Pictory ai: Need to add closed captioning to your videos or need to transcribe a video or podcast? This platform does it all for you easily. I upload my clients' videos and it does all the work for me. This is a great way to recycle content into a blog, email or social media post. There is a free trial and then it has a monthly cost.

8. Zen Business: For a long time I drugged my feet about making my business an LLC because of the paperwork involved and driving downtown to submit it. COVID made it hard to get these types of tasks completed easily. They have a starter plan for $119 that does all the work for you. They file all the necessary paperwork with your state. It was well worth it to me. There are also other templates and agreements that you can purchase for an additional cost.

9. Instagram: This is my social media platform of choice because this is where I have met my ideal clients and met so many amazing women and female-owned business owners from all over the world. It continues to grow in popularity while Facebook is doing the opposite. There are so many types of posts you can do on Instagram to grow your business: photo, videos, lives and reels (short form video). This app is free advertising for your business, where else can you get that?

10. Voxer: Voxer is a walkie talkie app I use with my clients and coaching. It is an easy way to communicate with them without having to give out your personal phone number. To me it is a boundary between me and my client. I have set hours where I will respond. The free version of this app is perfect for anyone. A limitation is that you can only scroll back so far on your conversations. If keeping conversations with clients or coaches is important to you, the $49 a year is well worth the cost.

BONUS:

I love so many platforms and software that I wanted to make sure you had one more.

Something that has enhanced the way I work and do business is by having 2 computer monitors at my desk. I can have all my clients documents on one screen and them on Zoom on the other screen. No more closing one window to open another.

Which of these do you love or are you going to try? Email me at [email protected]. Do you love one that is not listed, please share! I love learning about new apps.