Top Tools
Today on the blog, I am sharing my top favorite business tools! These have helped me streamline my business process, cutting down on the time I spend outside of blogging and actually building websites.
Website
Of course, my website was built using Squarespace. I specifically chose Squarespace because it’s easy to use and the vast amount of support and tutorials offered are top-of-the-line. The subscription includes access to Adobe fonts and Unsplash photos. It’s SEO-friendly and easily links to my Google suite for data storage, google workspace, and analytics. The templates are highly customizable, even at the personal level subscription.
For my website, I started with a basic template and was able to change my fonts and colors to exactly what I wanted. I also added custom code for many of the features on my site. The built-in Fluid-Engine editor allowed me to complete custom design edits quickly, making it really simple to get the mobile version of my site fully running. I chose to host my domain through Squarespace as well. They include SSL security, so for $20 a year, I can’t imagine switching to anyone else! Plus for the first year of my annual website subscription, my domain hosting was free! I do love a good deal!
Go to squarespace.com to learn more.
Payments
I use Stripe for all my invoices and payments. I love this platform because it’s really easy to use, looks professional, and keeps everything secure. A Stripe account is free to set up and there is no coding needed. Depending on which type of payment method you choose, fees are charged per invoice at around 2.9% + 0.30 cents. This is similar to the fees Paypal or Venmo have.
I added each of my website packages to my dashboard as products, and now all I have to do is select which package a client is purchasing when I create an invoice to send them. Invoice creation takes less than 5 minutes and you can upload your brand colors and logo, so it matches your brand. Once a customer receives the invoice via email, they can pay via the Stripe payment portal. All my payments are tracked, making it simple to do my taxes, and once I receive payments they are automatically sent to my bank account.
Head to stripe.com to get started.
Contracts
I really like Bonsai because they make it easy to find and edit the contracts I need. Using Bonsai streamlines the process of sending contracts to clients and getting everything signed. Their library of templates has quite a few options, but I definitely recommend going over the contract you choose and editing it to fit the legal requirements of your business and the specific project.
Once I have my contract ready, I can easily create a client profile and send out the documents I need to have them sign. If you use Stripe, you can link your account to Bonsai and complete all of your invoicing and payments through one platform, or you can choose to receive payments through Paypal or Bonsai’s own payment platform. Bonsai also includes forms, time tracking, and many more tools starting at just $17 a month.
Learn more at hellobonsai.com
design
Canva is my go-to for professional-looking social media posts. Their resize feature makes it quick and easy to post the same content to multiple platforms in both story and post forms. You can upload your logo, colors, and fonts so that all your posts match your brand. I pay for the pro subscription and I love all the templates and extra features that come with it.
Head over to canva.com to snag a free month of Pro to try it out for yourself!