All the tech I currently use in my business

The other day my friend asked me to list for her all the tech that I use in my business. I scribbled it all down on a bit of paper for her and then thought - I actually LOVE finding out this information about other business and am always interested it what they use to streamline and make their businesses run smoothly. So I have turned my list into a blog post for you incase you are nosey like me!

Disclaimer - some of the links in this blog post are affiliate links. These are all tools that I genuinely use and love and so would be sharing either way but by clicking and signing up for any of these tools with my affiliate link I will get a little reward and it’s a great way to support my business that doesn’t cost you anything.

So buckle in - and here comes the list and a few thoughts on each one (it’s a long list!)

Thrivecart and Learn +

So this is what I use for selling all of my digital products and I also use it to build and host all of my courses. With Learn + this means I can have unlimited courses and students and my favourite thing about Thrivecart is that it’s a one time fee rather than a subscription model. The affiliate capabilities are also really useful and I’ve been able to make the most of affiliates promoting and selling my digital products for me!

Loom

When I started using Loom I didn’t realise how integral it would become for my business. I use loom in two ways. Firstly it is where I host all of the videos for any of my courses or digital products and then secondly I use it to send videos to my clients. This could be a mini tutorial - or talking through the latest round of designs. They can comment under the video and it makes it really easy for me to quickly explain what I am thinking and for them to give me feedback.

Squarespace

I’ve been a Squarespace user for over 10 years now. I use it for my own website but I’m also paid by clients to create Squarespace websites for them. The reason I love using Squarespace for me and my clients is that it is really easy to keep updated. Once I’ve created the design I want my clients to be able to keep the website maintained so that it works well for them. I also like that as the designer there are lots of options for me in term of customising the website.

Flodesk

I credit Flodesk with absolutely turning around my email marketing. I’ve had a mailing list for years and would email them about once or twice a year but when I switched to Flodesk because I was paying for it I committed to emailing weekly and have kept that up for the last two years. There is lot’s I love about Flodesk but one of the main things is that the cost stays the same however big your list is which is great for me as my mailing list has grown 600% in the last two years! Other things I like about it - it’s really intuitive to use, the templates provided are beautiful and it has a great affiliate programme. (I’ve been working on adding more affiliate income to my business and to date have made over £1k from sharing my Flodesk affiliate link)

Liz Wilcox’s membership

Ok this one isn’t technically ‘tech’ but its a membership I am a part of and have found really helpful when it comes to email marketing. Every Monday Liz Wilcox sends an email template for you to use. The concept is so simple, yet so valuable. I don’t necessarily use them every week but knowing there is a whole bank of template emails that I can use and customise for my business on those weeks when I am running short on ideas is a game changer! It’s affordable and Liz really knows her stuff when it comes to email marketing (you can listen to her on the Building your Brand podcast if you want to get to know her better).

Adobe Express

So for the last year I have been an Adobe Express ambassador and I genuinely love using it. I use it daily to set up brand kits and templates for my clients, to design social media graphics for my own business and I now schedule pretty much all of my social media content from it too. It’s one powerful tool and they have already announced some incredible updates that will be coming soon in 2023 which I know for sure are going to make it even better. As a designer it’s also really handy that you can access your Adobe Creative Cloud libraries in it too, so it makes it really easy for switching between programmes if your also a Creative Cloud user.

Notion

I used to use Trello but am now using Notion and I really love it. I love that I can buy templates to use and am still in the process of setting it all up in a way that is helpful and organised. I love that it has an app that I can use on my phone too. I’m on the free plan and finding it really useful so far. I’ve also seen people do some pretty awesome things with it so excited to dig deeper and maybe even set up some automations!

Zapier

Zapier is a pretty incredible automation tool - but it is quite expensive and this one is not always on my tech list. I basically sign up for a couple of months every now and then if I need it. So for example at the moment I have a situation where if people sign up to a particular course of mine I need them to be added to a particular segment in my mailing list and there were quite a lot of people signing up so I needed a bit more than the free plan to tide me over. Once this particular offer is complete I won’t need it anymore (well not the paid plan anyway) and so will unsubscribe! It’s definitely useful though if you need different tech you are use to integrate with each other, and do tasks automatically. It has the potential to save you hours!

Penfold

Ahhh Penfold is probably one of my favourite things on this list. It’s who I have my pension with. When I quit my 9-5 job after having kids I went for a quite a few years with no pension and i’ll be honest it made me feel really anxious that I was ‘falling behind’ with my pension. Now it is set up it’s giving me so much peace of mind. As someone who is self employed I love that I can amend how much I contribute each month really easily from the app if I need to, and also the app is just brilliant for actually knowing what’s going on with my pension and keeping up to date with everything. I genuinely really love Penfold as a company and have had such a great experience. The account was super easy to set up and you can also consolidate with previous pensions if you want to. They also have a brilliant affiliate programme and if you use my link above then we both get £25 added to our pension pots and I’ve actually been able to add a nice chunk of extra money to my pension this way!

Adobe Creative Cloud

To be honest this one should be right at the top of this list because as a designer it’s what I use in my work EVERY SINGLE DAY (probably for the last 20 years I would say). There are so many different programmes I use and there is still so much to explore. I probably use Illustrator and Indesign the most followed by Photoshop - but I am also really getting into Premier Pro and am slowly teaching myself to animate type using After Effects which is really fun.

Dubsado

Dubsado is a client management tool and yes I use it with my clients for contracts and questionnaires and booking meetings with them - but the way it’s been a game changer for me (and I think has saved me literally HOURS of time) is with the workflow I’ve set up to manage podcast guests. It’s all automated, it collects information from them for the show notes - allows them to book in a time to record and sends them information, links and reminders. It makes the whole process of managing guests a dream!

Quickbooks

I only use this because it’s what my accountants use - but I have no complaints. It makes my life so much easier. I use it for invoicing all of my clients and I love how it keeps track of everything and I can easily check the figures of my different income streams because they helped me set it all up properly.

Libsyn

This is where I host my podcast. I have mixed feelings about it. On the whole I like it and it’s easy to use - but they keep redesigning the dashboard and so it feels like every couple of months I have to get used to something new - which is frankly frustrating. But it does everything I need it to do and I will stick with it because the faff of changing is too much for me to handle!

Zencastr

This has been brilliant (and actually hosts podcasts too so I could potentially move mine over if I can be bothered). I use it to record all of my podcast episodes. It records separate audio tracks for me and the guest and also video too so that I can make teasers. The quality is great. So far I haven’t had to pay for it also which is pretty amazing.

Ok I know that this tech stack is loooonnnggg and you might be freaking out thinking you need all of these things. You almost certainly don’t and this is effectively the tech of like three different types of business because I do lots of different things - so remember there is the podcast, the courses I run and host and also me the branding designer managing clients. You probably won’t need all of these things and there are always different alternatives to everything.

Anyway I would love to know what you think - has this been helpful? Do you use any of these tools?