Toolkit essentials for every small business.
Business Essentials
Mettle
Mettle, from NatWest, is a great business bank account which comes with my favourite accounting package – FreeAgent, free of charge.
More information about bank accounts for freelancers & small businesses here.
FreeAgent
FreeAgent is accounting software, perfect for Sole Traders, or Ltd Companies.
Keep track of your incoming & outgoing expenses, generate invoices & even produce your own tax return.
Comes free with a Mettle bank account.
Google Workspace
Read more about how to search for & buy a domain, & set up your business email here.
I recommend Google Workspace for your domain purchase, and your business emails. You can connect other services like Google Analytics for wbesite statistics.
Using this link will get you 10% discount off your first year of Google Workspace.
1password
Password secuity is one of the most important things for your business.
1Password makes it easy to generate, store & protect all your passwords, notes, bank details, passport details & more.
Iubenda
Iubenda is a comprehensive, self-updating GDPR & Privacy Policy generator. It’s easy & straightforward to generate policies compliant with the law across multiple countries & legislations.
Using this link will get you 10% discount off your first purchase.
Getterms
Getterms is a quick & simple GDPR & Privacy policy generator.
I use it for sites that do not require more complex policy cover.
Business Management
ClickUp
I’ve used several Project Management tools & have found ClickUp the best out there.
Keeping yourself organised is so important when your run your own business.
Some of the things you can do within ClickUp:
- Mange your to-do list
- Documents
- Spreadsheets
- Mind-maps
- Chat & Email
- Time Tracking
Mailer Lite
MailerLite features include email campaigns, subscribe forms, landing pages, websites & automation workflows.
Dropbox
Dropbox is cloud storage for all your files.
It syncs seamlessly across all your devices & you can quickly access & share files with the click of a button.
Use this link for an extra 500 MB of bonus space.
Evernote
If you’ve ever thought “I’ll write that down and save it for later” – Evernote is the perfect tool.
Capture notes, ideas, web snippets & organise, search & share.
Evernote also integrates other apps to make your life easier.
Using this link when you register, install, & sign in to Evernote – you’ll get Premium.
Hubspot
HubSpot’s CRM platform has all the tools & integrations you need for marketing, sales, content management, & customer service.
Across Hubspots several service Hub’s will help you grow traffic, convert more visitors, get deeper insights into prospects, automate the tasks you hate, connect with customers & close more deals faster.
Business Tools
AppSumo
AppSumo is a lifetime software deal marketplace.
Deals run for a limited time and you can get some amazing discounts investing in software early on. I’ve found some great tools through AppSumo that I use daily.
Use this link for $10 off your first purchase.
Shift
Got what feels like hundreds of tabs open?
Constantly flipping across email, social & apps?!
Shift brings everything together, in a seamless, uncluttered experience.
Textexpander
Level up your productivity!
TextExpander lets you instantly insert snippets of text from a repository of emails, boilerplate and other content, as you type – using a quick search or abbreviation.
Si.gnatu.re
This is a great tool to DIY your email signature. Generate HTML email signatures for Gmail or other email providers.
I also provide email signatures to my clients within my branding packages, so you can cut & paste into your email provider.
Figma
Collaborate with your team to design, prototype & gather feedback all in one place.
Share ideas, brainstorm, get together in a virtual whiteboard, in real time.
Bloom & Wild
Who doesn’t enjoy flowers through the letterbox?!
Gorgeous selection for every occasion.
Gift them to your clients, or even yourself!
Use this link for £10 off your first purchase.
Hemingway
Hemingway is a distraction-free writing & editing tool designed to help you polish & improve your writing.
It highlights & corrects grammar, fluency, & sentence structure in order to help your writing read & look better.
Wordhippo
I use Wordhippo when I’m strugging to find a similar word, or if I cant find the right word on the tip of my tounge.
Its a great tool with extensive suggestions for synonyms, antonyms, word meaning & more.
Moo
Moo’s quality of printing is fantastic. They are my go-to for business cards (the goild foil emobssing is lovely), posters, menus, invitations & more.
I also love Moo because of their Printifnity technology where you can print a different design on the back of every product!
Use this link for 25% discount off your purchase.
Social Tools
Buffer
Manage all your social media accounts under one roof, & schedule posts across all platofrms.
MetaHashtags
Find quality hashtags, stay organized & fine-tune your hashtag strategy for maximum growth.
No need to connect your account.
Feedly
Feedly lets you get the news you want all in one place.
View topics & trends you care about, without the overwhelm. Make your research workflow efficient & enjoyable.
Stock Resources
Unsplash
Unsplash is my go-to for stock photography.
They have an extensive library of beautiful, free images & photos that you can download & use for any project.
Burst
Burst is a free stock photo platform that is powered by Shopify.
Their image library includes thousands of high-resolution, royalty-free images.
Creative Market
Creative Market is an online marketplace for community-generated design assets.
Find fonts, graphics, illustrations, templates & more.
Pexels
Pexels is a free stock photo & video website that helps designers, bloggers, & everyone who is looking for visuals to find great photos & videos that can be downloaded and used for free.
Drawkit
Drawkit is a free vector SVG illustrations & icons library for you to use on your next project, no attribution required.
