The business tools I use & recommend.
These are products and services I personally use in my online business, and help my clients use in their businesses.
Note: Some of these resources are offered via affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you choose to purchase, at no additional cost to you (and, in some cases, you’ll even get a discount!). As always, I only share products or services I personally use and love. 👍👍
Web Design
Squarespace is my all-around favorite website platform for small businesses and entrepreneurs (here’s more about why!).
Use code PARTNER10 for 10% off your first year of Squarespace services!
All Squarespace websites come with a free 14-day trial.
MemberSpace is a third-party tool that membership-protects certain pages or content on your website. It integrates with Squarespace, WordPress, and other major website platforms. It’s my favorite method for building online membership programs!
MemberSpace offers a free 14-day trial.
Squarespace Scheduling (formerly Acuity Scheduling) is Squarespace’s web-based scheduling software, customizable to your brand style, so it fits seamlessly within your branded website.
Try Squarespace Scheduling with a free trial.
SQSP Themes is a great source of helpful (and easy-to-install!) plugins to add additional functionality to your Squarespace website—things like a related posts reel, blog sidebar, countdown timer and more. Pro tip: If you’re interested in multiple plugins, grab the Plugin Bundle, which saves you 80% on all premium plugins!
Big Cat Creative designs gorgeous and easy-to-install templates for Squarespace websites. Simply purchase a template and follow the step-by-step instructions to get started with a professionally designed Squarespace website—at a DIY price!
Marketing & Promotion
Flodesk is my new favorite email marketing platform for entrepreneurs and small business owners—it has a sleek, clean dashboard with beautiful email templates, easy to manage workflow automations, and clearly structured segments to organize your audience. Their basic plan also includes unlimited subscribers and unlimited email sends. This is the tool I personally use for email marketing!
Get 50% off Flodesk for the first year of your subscription!
And, all plans come with a free 30-day trial. ✨
Flodesk University is a free online campus with lessons + tutorials on all things email marketing strategy. It’s a wonderful resource to master your email marketing to make more sales, get more clients, and grow your business!
Before switching to Flodesk, I used Mailchimp for many years. It’s a good option for a simple, free email marketing tool (it’s free up to 2,000 subscribers), and it integrates directly with Squarespace websites, making it super easy to set up and start growing a mailing list from your website.
Canva is free design software for “non-designers.” With it, you can design logos, Pinterest pins, social media imagery, branded PDF handouts, presentations and much more. Their paid Pro plan is my pick for small businesses, as it offers more useful features, an easy-to-use Brand Kit (to quickly apply your branding to your new designs!), and access to 75 million stock photos.
I’ve shared lots about using Pinterest and Tailwind to promote your blog content and grow your website traffic. It’s one of my top strategies for website growth, and Tailwind is my favorite tool to streamline and automate it.
Try Tailwind free up to 100 pins.
Rewardful allows you to set up referral and affiliate programs to reward others for promoting your business offerings (like subscription services, online programs and more).
Rewardful offers a free 14-day trial.
Productivity & Organization
There are several legal policies you’ll typically need in place for your online business: things like a GDPR-compliant privacy policy (and cookie policy!), terms & conditions, client contracts, and perhaps more, depending on your business type and services. The Contract Shop sells lawyer-written legal policies and contracts for use in your business. Just purchase and download the templates, fill in your information as needed, and rest easy knowing you’re legally protecting your online business.
Bonsai is a helpful client management solution for freelancers and small businesses. It automates the client process from proposals to contracts (and electronic signing!) to time tracking, invoicing and payments, all the way to taxes and accounting.
Bonsai offers a free 14-day trial.
Airtable is a powerful content-based spreadsheet that can be used to organize allll sorts of information. Because of its flexibility in organizing and managing many different types of data, I use it for a wide range of business information and planning. It’s one of my favorite tools for planning content calendars, marketing plans and launch timelines, as well as storing and organizing lists and ideas.
Airtable is free to use and offers paid plans with additional features.
Zapier is an amazingly helpful tool for connecting and automating other platforms used in your business. This helps to streamline workflow operations and keep your business running smoothly and efficiently—saving solopreneurs and small teams valuable time!
Zapier is free to use and offers paid plans with additional features.
Google Workspace (formerly known as G Suite) is the integrated, cloud-based business version of Google Drive. It offers a range of useful functionality for teams, including the ability to manage multiple user accounts and email addresses under your domain name. These Gmail for business email addresses are integrated with Squarespace, making it super easy to set up from the back-end of your Squarespace website and link new email addresses to your domain name.
Google Workspace offers a free 14-day trial.