August 24, 2014: I’ve made a few updates to this blog post, which was originally published in 2015, to reflect how I’m doing things differently now.
People often ask me which tools I use to run my location independent business. This is something I TOTALLY geek out on, so I love sharing useful resources. In this post, I’m going to give you a breakdown of the tools I’m currently using.
17Hats is an elegant and easy to use “all in one business system for entrepreneurs”. Supposedly there is an app coming soon, which I’m excited for. My favorite features are the notes, questionnaires, contracts, email templates, workflows, lead capture, and invoicing. It replaced three other services (CRM, e- signatures, and invoicing) that I was using and paying for separately. They also have bookkeeping, task management, and calendar features.
Acuity Calendly
Acuity Calendly (update: after several years of using Acuity, I eventually switched to Calendly, which I find even more user friendly) allows my clients and potential clients to easily schedule sessions with me online, which saves me a ton of time. It syncs automagically with my google calendar and has lots of handy features. There are bunch of competitors in the space, but Acuity Calendly won my nerdy heart over with its charms.
As much as I love reading actual book books, I’ve gotten really into audiobooks. I love that I can listen at 3x the normal speed and get through books while walking, driving, and folding laundry. Plus, it’s very much aligned with my increasingly mobile and minimalist lifestyle preferences.
This gmail plugin is a seriously so useful. It lets you boomerang (snooze) emails until you want them back in your inbox, schedule recurring emails, or send emails at a later time. This helps me keep my inbox neat and tidy and stay on top of followups. I tried competitor Followup.cc, but it didn’t succeed in wooing me away from my precious Boomerang, however.
Update: While I still occasionally use Boomerang, I now mostly use the built in “snooze” and “send later” features in gmail.
As a mostly virtual business, I have no need for a permanent office space. When I do want to meet someone in person I meet them either in a coffeeshop or in a Breather office. These spaces are gorgeous, have wifi, and are super easy to book through the app. When you get there, you simply unlock the door with a code from the app. Very slick.
Update: In 2016, my husband and I got married and traveled for 10 months straight, which was the catalyst for me going completely virtual. Since then, I haven’t met any clients in person, so I haven’t needed to use a Breather space. But I still think it’s a great concept.
I read A LOT. A little bit for pleasure, but mostly for business. Super obsessed with anything related to personal growth, entrepreneurship, lifestyle design, leadership, positive psychology, neuroscience, etc. Goodreads helps me capture and organize my reading list online so I can relax knowing it’s all there and which book comes next. I also use their ‘Add to Goodreads’ Chrome extension, which allows me to add any book from Amazon to my Goodreads list with just a few clicks.
Lots of people rave about Evernote, and I really want to like it because I can understand its appeal. Every time I try to use it, however, I think “…meh” and go back to Google Drive. Maybe it’s just habit, but the simplicity and familiarity of Drive makes me happy. I keep all my notes and files organized into folders here. So many spreadsheets. All nicely organized. Mmmmm.
I’m an inbox zero person. Yup. I get down to zero emails in my inbox (almost) every day. Some people think that’s insane. I think those people are insane! Having thousands of emails in my inbox would make my brain shut down and walk out the door in protest because I consider anything in my inbox to be a to do item. Thanks to tools like Boomerang + Gmail’s labeling and archiving system I stay organized. Certain emails never hit my inbox but are labeled and archived in case I want to read them later. If I don’t need to do something with it, why the hell would I want it in my inbox?! I feel strongly about this, can you tell?
This is probably my most important tool. Everything goes on my calendars. Oh yes, there are several. Appointments with clients and other commitments go in one calendar. Shared activities with my fiancé go in another. And I use a third one for tasks I’m intending to do that are flexible and not time bound, like writing or working out. Putting everything important in my calendar helps me take my priorities seriously and is way more effective that just putting them on a to do list, which is a concept I learned recently from this Forbes article. It actually kind of blew my mind.
While I do most of my posting on my personal facebook page live (checking in places, posting photos, oversharing about my life in general), I don’t have the bandwidth (or desire) to do that for my business. Hootesuite lets you schedule posts on multiple platforms in advance. I schedule my business stuff (quotes, links to my blog posts and newsletters). I also use Hootlet, which is a free add-on for Chrome, that let’s you share/schedule content directly from wherever you are online. Competitors include Buffer, Edgar, and many many more.
[Update 3/17/16: I’ve now switched over to Edgar, and it’s awesome!]
I can work from anywhere as long as I have wifi and this puppy is a dream to travel with, whether I’m walking downtown in San Francisco or flying overseas. Feather light, sleek and easily packed, it has everything I need. I keep things really simple, store everything in the cloud, and only have programs on it that I actually use to keep it running fast.
I love how cheeky they are. Their branding makes me smile. Mailchimp is cool and easy to use. While there are a ton of competitors out there like Aweber, Vertical Response, and Constant Contact for the little guys or Ontraport and Infusionsoft for bigger budgets and more robust needs, these guys and their monkey business give me everything I want for now.
8/24/24 Update: I tested several of these (Mailchimp, Aweber, and Infusionsoft), and eventually settled on ActiveCampaign, which I’ve used for several years now.
Mint RocketMoney
I fell in love with Mint.com many years ago. Once I opened a business bank account, I feel for them even harder. Instead of constantly logging into my online banking, I can just open the Mint app for a quick glance at my finances. Among other things, you can set goals, categorize transactions, track trends, set budgets, and get notifications when you inevitably overspend on said budgets.
Update: Ugh! I used Mint for years and LOVED it, but then they shut down. So sad. I tested probably 10+ other platforms and didn’t love any of them. Ultimately, I settled for RocketMoney, which is… fine. I still don’t love it, but it’s good enough for now.
I used to accept payment via cash, check, PayPal, Venmo, Square, and Square Cash. Once I realized that I wanted to set up recurring monthly charges, I did some research and came across this gorgeous solution. It’s been an absolute dream. You can easily create beautiful, customizable forms and set up basically any configuration of payment you want. As you may have guessed, I’m a total snob when it comes to user experience (both for me and for my clients) as well as super picky when it comes to look and feel. It has to be intuitive AND pretty! Moonclerk delivers. And leaves an expensive chocolate on your pillow, to boot. Moonclerk is just the front end of the payment solution (the pretty part that my clients and I see). The actual transactions are handled on the backend by payment processing giant, Stripe.
It’s not the fanciest of systems out there, but I’ve been using Things for years. It’s where I capture, prioritize, and organize all my to do’s into projects and areas of focus. It’s where I hurriedly type up all my batshit crazy ideas, before my inner critic has the chance to judge and dismiss them. It’s part of the holy trinity that rules my day to day life: gmail + google calendar +Things.
Skype
While I still see a few clients in person, most of my business is now virtual. Sessions are usually by phone, but Skype is great for international clients or anyone who prefers the whole video conferencing thing. I’ve used Facetime, Zoom, and Google Hangouts, which are all fine and good, but Skype somehow always comes out on top, both in terms of fewer technical issues and just people being familiar with it.
Update: Ultimately I switched to Zoom, like the rest of the world, and have been using it exclusively ever since.
As a consumer, I rely on Yelp not just for reading reviews before visiting a business, but also as a way to discover new stuff. It’s just a regular part of my life. As a business, though, Yelp has been an even more helpful tool. Much of my business has come from people finding me there. Obviously it depends on the business, but for a lot of service providers, people expect you to have a Yelp page, and I love that they can find me there.
So that’s my current set up! I thought I would also include these two tools that I’m considering using in the future. They’re on my wish list for now, but I’m tempted.
Having a high tech, easily accessible bookkeeping team feels very attractive to me! I love the idea of having everything streamlined and digital on their end and being able to send everything to an accountant in an organized way. Currently I am my own bookkeeper (did I mention the spreadsheets?) and my own accounting department (me and my buddy TurboTax, that is) and let’s just say it’s not my favorite way to spend my time. Can’t wait to outsource that shit!
Update 3/17/16: I hired Bench at the end of 2015 for both bookkeeping + taxes and so far I’m loving it.
Update 8/24/24: After years of using and loving Bench, I just switched to Collective this year. I also became an S Corp after years as first a sole proprietor, and then an LLC.
Luckily, as a small business, I haven’t needed a lawyer for anything yet, but as my business grows, I want to make sure I’ve got a solid legal team. Since I plan to be on the road a lot, I don’t need to find one based anywhere in particular, so the virtual access to a team of lawyers who can answer my questions is appealing. Maybe next year!
Update: I ended up using LegalZoom to set up my LLC in 2021, but have since discontinued their services.
This combination of tools is working for me right now, but I’m always on the lookout for new technologies and systems that might help me simplify, automate, or optimize my business operations. I hope you found this list helpful and if YOU have any favorites that you want to share with my readers, feel free to list them in the comments below.