THE TOP 3 TOOLS TO RUN YOUR BUSINESS

Oct 19

*Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission. Read full privacy policy here.

I’m a bit of an online business systems geek, and as a result, clients ask me a lot about the various systems and platforms that I use for my business. So, I decided to put it all in one place and spill the beans about my favorite business tools. Although I do use tools other than these three, in the spirit of keeping it simple and straightforward, I could honestly run my business with ONLY THESE 3 tools. And so can you.

1. WEBSITE PLATFORM: SQUARESPACE

No surprise here! It’s no secret that I LOVE Squarespace. It’s my #1 favorite website platform and the one I recommend to 99% of my clients. Why do I love it so much? Let me count the ways.

The perfect balance for new and experienced users

First of all, Squarespace is ideal for service providers, coaches, and small business owners (both online and brick and mortar). In my expert opinion, it provides the best combination of design capabilities and functionality while still being user friendly.

It’s accessible enough to be able to learn to use as a one-woman show so you can feel empowered to make your own edits if needed, but it’s powerful enough that it can grow with you and your business. The built-in templates are clean and well designed, so a start-up business owner can use Squarespace right “out of the box” so to speak and create a nice-looking, user-friendly website. Or, if you have a bit of coding knowledge and know-how, the platform is completely customizable and flexible, allowing a designer to create truly one-of-a-kind, beautiful designs.

All-in-one platform

Squarepsace does it all and does most of it really well. If you want to keep everything - I’m talking a scheduler, email service provider, host courses or memberships, and sell products - in one platform, Squarespace can handle it. Over the years, Squarespace has transitioned from just a website builder to a fully integrated platform to run your business.

Now, since I’ve used Squarespace for a while, I’m going to be honest with you and tell you that I don’t use all of its functionality. AND, because of that, I’m also going to tell you that there are some other solutions out there for the extra features that do the job better. For example, I do not use the scheduler or email service. I also do not recommend its course/membership option AT THIS TIME. But, I do use the commerce function, and I have a number of clients who have sought a simple approach to managing their business operations and have chosen to use everything Squarespace offers. And it offers a lot.

Reliable and trusted

It’s not going anywhere and it’s only getting better.

What I use it for:

Hosting website content
Blogging
Marketing tool (SEO + Pinterest)
Intaking leads
Template shop

BONUS: Since I am a Squarespace Circle member, if you work with me for custom design or purchase a template and start a new website, you save 20% on your first year subscription to Squarespace.

2. CRM: HONEYBOOK

CR-what? CRM stands for Customer Relations Manager, and it is ESSENTIAL to have one if you want to keep track of your projects, clients, and leads. I can’t tell you how many times I have reached out to a service provider asking for info or asking for me to GIVE THEM MONEY for a service, and I get no response. Nada. It’s because they don’t have a system or workflow in place to manage their clients. Please don’t let that be you.

Honeybook is so easy to use, and my absolute favorite aspect of it is that I can send both my contract and invoice at the same time in a proposal, making signing clients a breeze. Here are 5 more reasons why I love Honeybook.

Smart Files

For someone who is just starting out their entrepreneur journey and want to give their clients a smooth sailing experience, HoneyBook has templates already made for you! If I ever find myself writing the same thing twice, I make it a template. To give you an example, here’s what I use my templates for

Pricing and Service Guides
Brochures
Client Questionnaires
Proposals
Timelines
Testimonials

2. Workflows

To be honest, it took me a while to get a good workflow. Although, once your smart files are ready to go, workflows ‘flow’ a lot easier. Everything is automated and you just have a system that works according to you. It couldn’t get better than that! You can have certain things go out automatically or you can always set some stuff manually, everything is under your control, just the way you want it. This also keeps everything tidy and all in one place. If you ask me, this is one of the best features that HoneyBook has.

3. HoneyBook’s core values

When I was playing around in HoneyBook, I came across their core values. It’s something that drew my attention and just stayed. They’re simple but has so much meaning.

People come first
We love what we do
We are family
We are fearless
We go the extra mile

They value you and go out of their way to make sure you know that you are supported and have all the tools that you need to run your business smoothly.

4. Built-in scheduler and Calendar Integration

A newer feature, Honeybook now also has its own built-in scheduling tool. It’s not perfect, but I imagine it will only get better from here, and any new lead who schedules a call is automatically filtered into my CRM. And it automatically creates and schedules a Zoom link for the call. It’s so nice having everything in one place. I’ve teeter-tottered back and forth from Calendly to Acuity (which is now Squarespace Scheduling, FYI), and I still love having everything integrated into Honeybook the most. The one downside is the calendar cannot currently be embedded into your website. No biggie. I just link it through a button.

HoneyBook also syncs with Google Calendar! One of the best features I would say, because I use my Google Calendar for almost everything and to know that I don’t have to do it twice is just amazing. This makes life sooo much easier and organized.

5. Project Stages

Once you set up your workflows, this comes in very handy. This feature is also called the “pipeline”. When you’re working with more than 5 clients, things can get a little messy, you may not be the most organized with regard to where you are at a project for a client. For example, after a client decides that they would like to work with me, my pipeline moves from “discovery call” to “send welcome package”. HoneyBook also has certain built-in stages but you can customize and add your own stages to fit your business!

They also have amazing customer service. They call their service “concierge service” which is truly remarkable. Did you also know that HoneyBook helps you set-up your account and transfer all your existing projects from any other CRM software. Like seriously, what are you waiting for?

What I use it for:

Tracking design projects
Tracking new leads
Calendar scheduling
Sending/collecting contracts and invoices
Collecting testimonials after a project

Want to try it out? You get a free trial and save 50% on your first year with the following affiliate link: Try Honeybook

3. EMAIL SERVICE PROVIDER: FLODESK

There is perhaps no topic that will get an entrepreneur Facebook group going like which email service provider to use. People have some STRONG feelings about this topic, and I guess I do, too. Many moons ago, like many new business owners, I started my email list with Mailchimp. Now granted, this was a while ago, so it may be a better platform than it was when I used it, but probably not. Basically I hate everything about Mailchimp except for the fact that it does integrate really easily into Squarespace.

Then, I tried ConvertKit, but I only liked it marginally better than Mailchimp. Convertkit does have the best segmentation and tagging abilities of the three, and supposedly has excellent deliverability. But overall, it was not worth the cost of confusion to me.

Enter...Flodesk. Created by women (not a big shocker because it is intuitive and beautiful), it is *almost everything I’ve ever wanted in an email service provider. I say almost because it is still in the beta phase, and the main thing I’ve wanted it to have that it doesn’t is native API integration, meaning I can’t connect it directly to other platforms such as MemberVault (where I host my templates, for example). But with Zapier, you can connect Flodesk to almost anything. It’s a small extra step that I do not mind in the least because of the ease of using Flodesk.

Flodesk has beautiful and easy to use built-in templates, great segmentation abilities, and landing pages. Best of all, it’s one price no matter your list size. And if you use the code below, you can save 50%, making it a no-brainer.

What I use it for: