How many of you aren’t starting your business because the technical side of things freaks you out?
Or maybe you’re stressing that you can’t possibly do EVERYTHING as a one-woman-team?
Don’t stress girlfriend and more importantly, DON’T let that stop you from getting started.
Your inner bully is going to latch onto anything it possibly can to try to scare you out of getting this business started, and it’s up to you to tell that bully to kick rocks and take control of your life.
I use WordPress for my website because I love how much control you have. I used Squarespace for a blog in the past and liked how easy it was to set up, but didn’t love the lack of control I had over my site.
The secret to a beautiful WordPress or Showit website is to buy a template.
People sell templates on a bunch of different websites. I bought mine off of Creative Market from the seller Herpark Studio. The template was $49 but if you sign up for Creative Market emails, you get 10% off, so I was able to snag the template for $40. It came with a zip file that included all the files for the theme and step by step instructions for how to set it up.
I’ve also bought templates from HelloYouDesigns and while they are a bit more expensive, they’re equally as easy to set up.
Save yourself a lot of time and headaches by going this route!
Take my word for it, Pinterest will likely be your biggest traffic driver.
Because of this, you’re going to want to make sure you have a tool that will automate your pins for you, so you don’t have to spend a lot of time on Pinterest to see massive results.
I did a lot of research on what others in my industry use and Tailwind was by far the most popular.
What you do is create your pins (I use Canva to do this), then sign up for Tailwind and get all your pins scheduled out. You can also join Tailwind Tribes and submit your pins to your tribe so they can repin on their Pinterest pages.
Within one month of using Tailwind, my Pinterest went from zero views to 5,500 a month.
The price of Tailwind for Pinterest is $9.99/month. Here is a list of all the features you get for that price.
Not only does Tailwind have a Pinterest feature, they also have a feature for Instagram.
With Tailwind for Instagram, you’re able to schedule all your posts for the foreseeable future. You’re even able to set up hashtags within the first comment of the post.
Another feature I love about Tailwind for Instagram is that they recommend hashtags for you based off of your description. I always use this!
Just like for the Pinterest side of things, Tailwind for Instagram is $9.99/month. If you want to use both it would cost you $19.98/month. Here is a list of the features you get with Instagram.
Batching and scheduling your Instagram posts is going to save you a ton of time, so free up your schedule even more by leveraging Tailwind.
Your email list is one of the most important things when it comes to your business.
Unlike social media, your email list is not borrowed land. Meaning, you own 100% of your email list.
You never know, one day Instagram could shut down and you could lose all of those followers you worked SO hard for. Protect yourself and make sure your email list is high on your priority list!
There are a bunch of email service providers out there, but Flodesk is my favorite.
I actually started my business using the free version of Mailchimp but wasn’t a huge fan.
At the time I was taking KBB and was being mentored by Jenna Kutcher. Almost all of the women I was being mentored with suggested switching over to Flodesk and I haven’t looked back since.
Their templates are awesome and it’s super user friendly. Flodesk costs $39/month BUT Jenna has an affiliate link (this is the same one I used) which brings the cost down to $19/month forever and you get her personalized templates! 10/10 recommend.
If you’re going to offer a service such as coaching, tutoring, mentoring, etc. when starting your business, Acuity Scheduling is a must.
Since I offer coaching, Acuity was one of the first investments I made in my business.
I needed a platform that was going to allow people to:
There are a lot of solutions out there, but I find Acuity to be the most cost-effective ($15/month) for the number of features they offer.
Talk about a life saver! Stock photos will help you IMMENSELY.
I don’t know about you, but photography freaks me out a bit.
I’m not great at it, and the thought of having to take flat lay pictures for blog posts didn’t sit right with me so I was on a mission to find a solution.
I knew about Adobe and Shutterstock, but the images on there didn’t compliment my brand, so I found Styled Stock Society and Haute Stock.
I am a member of Styled Stock Society now, but have used Haute Stock in the past and love them both.
You can pay a monthly membership, quarterly membership, or shop photo bundles instead. I use the monthly membership ($20/month) and it saves me so much hassle.
There you have it guys! 6 low-cost tools that are going to make your life SO much easier when starting your business.
If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur and want to learn about what it takes to get started, head over to my podcast where we uncover the secrets and tools you need to break through your fears, uncover your purpose in life, and start your dream business.