6 Essential Tools That Power My Business

Running a business comes with its own set of challenges, and staying organized is the key to navigating the daily hustle successfully. In this blog post, I'll be sharing a glimpse into the digital arsenal I rely on (basically) every day to keep my business on track.

Let's dive in to the essential business tools I could not live without (I mean, I could, but what's the fun in that!).

Todoist: Free

I use Todoist multiple times a day. It is my brain dump app where I can set reminders, create recurring tasks, and enjoy checking off tasks as the day goes along. With Todoist, my day is organized, and I can trust that I won't forget a thing. It also has a handy mobile app that I can integrate with my iPhone widget to have at-a-glance looks. If you just want one tool to start with, I'd highly recommend starting with this one.

Click-Up (CRM): $30/month

Click-Up is probably the most complex program I use, but it significantly helps my business organization and communication. Long gone are the days of sorting through emails when a task can be created. You’re able to comment, tag team members, assign team members, give due dates, add photos or links all within a task and keep it organized within the project and status. I even convinced one of the marketing teams I work with, to use Click-Up within their team space, that's how much I believe it works! It’s one of the more affordable CRMs out there. Affordability and functionality make it a must-have, in my opinion. They allow free trials too, which I highly recommend before committing. They sometimes have deals during the holidays too - I believe last year I got three months free when I signed up.

Loom: Free or Paid (The free version allows up to 25 videos)

Loom is amazing for cutting down on meetings. I can record my screen and audio and share it with my clients. I use this a lot for website walkthroughs and tutorials. They now have AI - which means summarizing the video and breaking it into sections for ease of learning.

SocialPilot - Social Media Scheduler: $40/month

Everyone who is doing their own marketing should have a scheduler like this. It makes it so easy to batch and schedule content so you don’t have to think about it every day. You can pull analytics reports as well to measure your success!

We use SocialPilot, which is the most affordable option for the amount of client social media accounts we have. It definitely gets the job done, however it’s not my favorite - I am always on the lookout for one that checks all of the boxes without being overpriced. Some key things I look for is if they have the ability to publish to Google my Business, have easy to use analytics, visually appealing calendar, and ability to upload video/reels.

CapCut Video Editor: $10/month

Our team uses CapCut for all vertical video editing. It’s easier to use than the built-in Instagram editor or TikTok’s editor. I’d say it's closely related to Adobe’s Premiere, but I record a lot of content on my phone and it makes it so nice to edit video straight from there. Plus, they have cool features like auto-captioning, customizable text, transitions, and audio imported from TikTok.

Honeybook Client Management: $30/month

Honeybook is truly amazing for managing projects and the client process. When I started using Honeybook, my business leveled up. I can keep all communication within the project, and send my custom proposals, contracts, questionnaires and more from created templates. It can collect auto-payments and recurring monthly payments, as well.

Honorable mentions to Adobe Suite, Google Drive and Canva — those who know them, love them! I love Google Drive for organizing and sharing files and photos with my clients, Adobe for all the programs I use, and Canva for it’s collaborative nature for easy to create social media posts, videos and more. Canva also has a good amount of free stock images and audio!

The common denominator for all of these programs is that they make my work life easier! Since becoming a mom I’ve had to crack down on being as efficient as I can be at work. These are all essential tools for my business. Keeping everything organized and running smoothly helps my team and I accomplish our projects and goals!