Managing a business can take up an enormous amount of time. Especially as a solopreneur. There is nobody but you to manage absolutely everything. You need to manage your marketing, your billing, your administrative processes etc. etc..
This is where digital tools come into their own. Today’s marketplace offers hundreds, if not thousands, of easy to use digital tools. Many of these are free or available against a small subscription fee.
Here are some of our most favourite tools:
File Storage
Well, this is a difficult one. Why? Not because it is difficult to choose in terms of usability, but it is difficult to choose taking price into account. We like MS 365 and its One Drive. It is great for storage and editing.
One-Drive, as is the case with other MS-Office products designed for sharing, however, can be so ‘safe’ that sharing becomes cumbersome.
We are quite keen on Dropbox, but their pricing is not great. As soon as you go over the storage limit, you will ‘upgraded’ on your invoice. 🙂 This can get very expensive.
Our favourite tool in this category is Google Drive. It offers easy file sharing and a great structure. Google also allows embedding for certain files. Did you know that you can use it to embed a chart into your website? Just one of many versatile features you will want to explore, if you have not done so already.
Project Management
Client projects can get so complicated that you will, undoubtedly, at some point or another, forget something. As a solopreneur you might think that you don’t need a project management tool. It seems too big, too clunky. You don’t have team members and are really only scheduling things for yourself.
There are number of project management tools out there. Pricing for these can be too high considering that you will most likely only use limited features.
The most effective project management tool for solo business owners we have found is Freedcamp. The free version offers brilliant features, including the ability to send tasks from your email client straight into your project list.
Email Marketing & List Building
Now, this category does offer a myriad of options. Our top two are the good ‘ol Mailchimp and ConvertKit. Mailchimp continues to grow and has recently has seen a major refresh. It offers much more than email marketing. If you need a landing page, segmenting of our audience or markeitng automation, Maichimp offers it.
Converkit is not as fancy and their designs are relatively basic. Equally, working with Convertkit is quick and easy. It is designed to make it as straightforward as possible for you to grow your email list.
Social Media Management
If you offer social media management as a service, the following tools might not be sophisticated enough. If you are looking to simplify your own social media, then you will love Zoho Social. The free edition is offers pre-scheduling for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google My Business, and Instagram. One user, one brand. Great analytics and user-friendly interface. A step up, in our opinion, from Hootsuite.
A Quick To-do App
We explained the project management tool. Yet, some might prefer a quick and snappy to-do-app. We have tested many and the winner is Todoist. Easy to use both online and on a mobile. Similar to Freedcamp, you can send yourself items from your email straight into the app (not the free version). You can connect many of your favourite apps to it: Google Calendar, Dropbox, Amazon Alexa and even your smartwatch. You can create folders, subfolders and automate reminders. If you like organising your tasks digitally, then TodoIst is the tool for you.