My Favourite Tools for Small Businesses
There are some tools that can make running your small business, either from home or from an office, that much easier. Below are my favourite digital and real life tools that make the day to day running of my business that much simpler…and who doesn’t want simpler!?
Digital Tools:
Squarespace
OK, so this one is not exactly a surpise to anyone, but without Squarespace I wouldn’t have a business so I really had to include it! Not only is my own website built on this platform, but the majority of my client websites are build on Squarespace so it’s pretty safe to say it plays a big role in my business. I’ve written before about why I love and recommend Squarespace, but to summarise it’s an affordable user friendly platform that allows me the perfect mix of creative freedom and usability, especially when I hand off to my clients and they are able to maintain the site themselves.
G-Suite (specifically Drive and GMail)
When I’m not in Squarespace, I’m probably somewhere within the G-Suite range of products! I use the paid version of G-Suite for my branded email address and manage my business emails in GMail. I love it for keeping everything organised and easy to find. I make use of their folders and file emails important emails once they have been dealt with, I also love the Inbox sections for splitting new website enquiries off from my day to day emails.
Google Drive is where my clients upload the content for their websites within a shared folder. It’s much simpler that them sending me their info by email and helps me stay as organised as I can.
Adobe Creative Cloud
Another probably obvious tool for a designer, but I use it every day so again it had to get a mention. Of all of the products within their suite I, predictably, use Photoshop and Illustrator the most, but have also found Premiere Pro to be useful for video editing and Adobe XD is something I’e recently worked with for creating mock-ups.
Trello
I kind of fought against using a project management type tool like Asana or Trello. It just seemed like a way to over complicate things, but honestly I just wasn’t using them properly. Many of the designers I follow online work with Asana, but for whatever reason it just doesn’t work for me, particularly with clients. For lists, and keeping myself accountable, I do like how Asana works, but for managing projects with my clients I have found Trello (this is an affiliate link) to be a brilliant tool. Another online organisation tool is Milanote, which is particularly good if you’re a visual planner. When using Trello, I create a shared board for each project, and have a short tutorial video on my onboarding page showing any newbies how to use it. I find it simple enough for clients to not be afraid to use it, but powerful enough to organise the project, set deadlines and keep both myself and client up to date with the project progress. You can read more about my Trello workflows here.
And.Co
As with project management, I was late to the invoicing software game too. I had been muddling along with PayPal and Adobe Sign for contracts and invoices, and whilst that works fine, it’s not very streamlined or automated. I can’t even remember where I came across And.Co but since I did, I’ve fallen in love. It simplifies my client contact/invoicing process SO. MUCH. I also use it for time-tracking projects where I work on an hourly rate basis, and can them automatically generate an invoice for those hours - it’s fab! It also has a build in contract which is approved by the Freelancers Union so it takes all of the stress off finding and writing a contract of your own. You can also try it out for free to see what you think of it before committing - try And.Co (this is an affiliate link)
Tide
Setting up a dedicated business account has made life much easier. I’m not naturally a particularly organised person, so tools that make it easier for me to stay organised are always my favourite. Producing your accounts at the end of the year from an account that only has business income and outgoings is so much simpler! Tide is an online bank, but I read a lot of reviews before deciding which bank to go with and it seemed to fit the bill for me, especially as a small one person business. I manage the account via an app or their online interface, and I have a contactless Mastercard card to use for making business purchases. Although it’s a Mastercard, it actually acts as a pre-paid card, rather than a credit or debit card. Their interface is really simple to use and you can easily categories your credit and debits to quickly check where you’re spending your money.
As well as digital tools, there are a few real life (gasp!) tools that I just couldn’t run my business without, so let’s have a look at those too!
IRL Tools:
My new desk!
For me, upgrading my work space has probably been the most valuable thing I’ve done all year. I had been working from a desk before, but it was basically only big enough for my laptop and mouse, and the chair I was using was a wooden dining chair! Not good for productivity or my back! I went with this desk and this chair (the pink colour looks fab!) from the ever trustly Ikea and I cannnot express how much more pleasant my work days are now! I have space for a second monitor, my chair is so comfortable, I can sketch at my desk without moving everything else aside…it’s a dream!
Notebooks
I mean, show me a designer who doesn’t love some form of stationary to an unhealthy level. My notebook is always by my side to jot down ideas, my to-do list, do random sketches, meeting prep…it’s all in the one notebook for me, which is just easier. If I try and have one for each task I’m never beside the right one when I need it and they get jumbled up anyway. TK Maxx is a great place to find all sorts of pretty notebooks at a great price.
Layout pads
This may hark back to my days of studying architecture when we used detail/tracing paper all the time when designing. I like to have a ability to easily trace over my initial sketches to create a more refined version so these simple Layout Pads from Hobbycraft are ideal, and a good price too!
Nespresso machine
Another shock…a designer who loves coffee…but I do try to limit the amount of money I spend at coffee shops so my Nespresso and milk frother are abolutely perfect for a mid morning or mid-afternoon pick me up. My current favourite thing to do is add a little maple syrup, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger to my latte for a budget PSL!
Hopefully you’ve found some inspiration for running your own small business from home or office from this list. I’d love to hear what some of your favourite business tolls are, so drop me a message in the comments or on social media!
(FYI I have a couple of affiliate links marked in here, so I either get a discount or bonuses from the companies I’ve recommended if you sign up. I only ever share affiliate links to tools that I genuinely use and love:))
