I love taking you behind the scenes of my business, and in this post, that’s exactly what I’m doing. I’m sharing my 6 favorite tools that I use every day in my online business that helped me scale, organize myself and my business, and stay sane in the process!
I do want to mention that I am an affiliate for some of these platforms which means if you sign up for them through my affiliate link, I do get a small commission, with no extra cost to you. However, this doesn’t cloud my judgment or opinion, and I never recommend anything that I don’t personally use or that I don’t already recommend to my students – who I’ve seen get really great results.
#1 Asana
If you’ve listened to the podcast before or read a lot of my blog posts, you’ll know that I talk about Asana a lot. Here you can learn how I use Asana to organize my business tasks. It’s a project management tool that literally keeps my business running smoothly. I use it to manage my to-do list and any projects I’m working on, like launching an online course, creating a blog, making updates to my website, etc. With the help of Asana, I can break down these projects into smaller tasks and assign them to myself or my team members. You can definitely still use it independently too when you’re just getting started, and then add your team to projects as you grow!
The features are endless, even on the free plan which I am currently still on. Try it out and let me know what you think!
#2 ConvertKit
ConvertKit is an email marketing service provider which I absolutely love. It allows you to collect names and emails legally (because as a business, you can’t just blind copy a bunch of people from your Gmail account) and add them to your audience so that you can send business updates, newsletters, etc, whilst also giving them the option to unsubscribe at any time.
I’m currently using their paid plan, but would definitely recommend starting with their free plan which you can stay on up until you hit 1000 subscribers! The free plan allows you to make unlimited landing pages and forms and choose from multiple templates, add personalization and design, include an incentive email, create a thank you page, manage subscribers and send broadcast emails. The only things you can’t do with emails on the free plan is set up sequences and automations.
As your business grows, you can upgrade to the paid plan and start to do more things inside ConvertKit that will allow you to grow your email list faster!
Click here to learn how to get started with Convertkit.
#3 Calendly
Calendly is a great program for managing your calls. It cuts out the need for back-and-forth emails because it integrates with your calendar, and once you share your link, people can just pick a time that you’re free that also works for them. People can book discovery calls, coaching calls, and any call with you basically!
Calendly does have a free plan which is great, but I waited way too long to switch to the paid plan (which made my life so much easier in the end). In the paid plan you can have more than one type of call link (whereas in the paid plan you can only have one, so a discovery call link for example). You can also set up email reminders that automatically get sent reminding the recipient of the call and providing them with the link. It also automatically connects with your calendar so that calls get added directly, and your availability is already set up because Calendly can see your calendar on google/Outlook. I tried doing all of this manually in the beginning and it was so much extra work.
So when you’re inviting people for free calls or coaching calls I would recommend using Calendly to streamline your process.
#4 Canva
Canva is the ultimate design tool for non-designers. It’s so user-friendly and the free version gives you access to most of the features.
You can use Canva to create shareable social media images, cover photos, and even video thumbnails. In no time, you’ll be on your way to building a memorable online brand. I use the pro plan now and I love it, you can use so many more stock images, download transparent pngs, change the size of the jpg that you download, and a few more things you don’t have in the free plan. What I recommend to my students inside Blissful Websites is to use the trial of the pro plan when they are preparing all the images for their website and then if they want to they can switch back to the free plan. That way, they can make the most of the features of the pro plan when they need it most.
Canva also has an app for your phone so that you can add/edit designs on the go, as well as easily upload images to the platform directly from your phone.
#5 Teachable
Teachable is a platform you can use to host and sell online courses and coaching packages. I’ve been using it since I started selling online courses at the end of 2016, so around 5 years, and I’m still really happy with them.
What I really love about Teachable is that it’s so intuitive to use, to the point where it’s going to take you less than a day to set up your online course. It’s also really easy to use as a student too which I think is important, and it handles all the financial things around VAT, etc. To explain that a little further, you can get paid out by Teachable, either daily, weekly, or monthly. It’s much easier than having to create an invoice for every single payment for every single student – especially when you offer payment plans. You can also set up an affiliate program for your students through them, create coupons, and they host your videos so you don’t need an extra service for this.
#6 AirTable
AirTable is a new tool for me that I only started using a few months ago to manage my clients.
I really needed a tool to manage the applications and also my clients’ information and progress. Because I work so deeply with my clients in a personal way, I wanted to have everything in one place like their website, their submitted work, their email, etc – it now all lives in AirTable. It’s like a really big spreadsheet, and it’s taken a while to get used to, but there are a lot of tutorials and documentation to help you when you’re getting set up. It’s basically a client base and I love the look and feel of it. It’s one of those tools I now use every day of the business. I’m on the free plan!
These are my foundational tools, the tools that I could not live without in my business: Asana, ConvertKit, Calendly, Canva, Teachable, and AirTable. Obviously, there are more tools that I use in my business on a less frequent basis, and there are alternative options you can use like MailChimp, Kajabi, Kartra, and so on. I also want to mention that I’m not teaching yoga online but my students are, and there are a ton of platforms now to help you with that, some of which I’ve linked here!
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