TOOLS THAT HELP YOU RUN YOUR SERVICE-BASED BUSINESS
Tools I use for my business or my client's businesses. I find them all essential, practical and of great value. All will help you grow your service-based business with ease. ♥
17Hats For Payments, Bookings & Client Management
This tool packs a lot of value for the service based business online.
If you run a service-based business your time is extremely valuable because you exchange time for money. So a tool that can help you grow your business, get more clients, work with more people, do that work better and all in less time -well that's pretty stellar.
With 17Hats you can manage your clients, leads, invoices, billing, questionnaires, quotes, approvals, messaging and so much more.
It's a powerful "I LOVE MY CLIENTS" tool that helps you do your thing really well, with ease. It's been around for a while, has loyal fans, great customer service, lots of online help and is *much* more affordable than Dubsado -the copycat that came later.
I personally think it's easier to use as well. It's all you could want and more to help you serve yourself and your clients.
I've used 17Hats for years and couldn't live without it and I only recommend it because I know it well and believe it's the best tool for helping service-based entrepreneurs grow their business while making their work easier.
I'm all over that.
Why I like 17Hats
- Price, Service, Ease of use
- Works well for Canadian Businesses or American Businesses due to how they work with currencies
- Comparable systems I've used like HoneyBook and Dubsado just don't have the features and flexibility for the price -I keep following up with the available options and 17-hats continues to win
What I use 17Hats for
- Booking system! I am so happy with this new feature as it integrates with all the other features for such a seamless workflow, it's a pleasure to use
- Flexible invoicing with recurring payments, discounts, payment plans etcetera
- Surveys & Questionnaires great for things, such as market research, feedback forms and testimonials
- Automation and productivity features for bookings and emails and payments (oh my) that can adapt to most needs
- Templates for contracts, quotes, agreements, reviews, emails, workflows and more
- Client Management so I can easily manage coaching clients and leads
- Handy client portals that can be customized and help make my clients lives super easy
- Online payments
- Time tracking &
- Financial management and reporting
MailChimp For FREE Email Marketing
MailChimp is just too valuable not to use for its free version if this is what you need for your budget.
If you are in the first 3-years of business and need free options that can help you grow your business., MailChimp might be the perfect fit for you.
This is an excellent free tool that can help you grow your email list. MailChimp has continued to evolve and adapt its service over the years. You get a lot of options for free with this.
SiteGround For WordPress Webhosting
This is for those of you who want to have a WordPress website. And by this, I am talking about www.wordpress.org not wordpress.com as these are two very different website options. If you are thinking about a WordPress website, go with SiteGround and the whole process will be as easy as clicking a button.
Why I love SiteGround
SiteGround is officially recommended by WordPress.org :)
SiteGround has more options than Bluehost and they really know WordPress. Plus, they are affordable if you're just starting out at $3.95/month and can grow with you easily.
What I really love is their AMAZING support, the reliability of service and the Go Geek package which is, of course, built for me :)
Features I love
- Quick one-click install of WordPress
- Free WordPress Website transfer (if you've got a site somewhere else)
- Affordable packages for each stage of business
- Website backups
- Free email addresses (you don't have to pay extra for something like G-Suite)
- Reliable service and "uptime"
- Excellent support
- Fast website performance
- Free SSL certificates (everyone needs these now for security)
- Stellar security all round
- I'm in love with their staging environment that comes with the Go Geek plan <3
For the same price as the cheap options like Bluehost, you have a superior (in my opinion) service that can grow with you.
SiteGround also has a package that provides a "Staging" environment with a 1-click publish feature. This is gold. I can fluff around with updates, courses and membership sites behind the scenes and then launch it all with ease once I am ready, with just the click of a button. I can integrate this with SVN for those coders out there.
Basically, SiteGround offers many options for online businesses. You can feel confident starting with them, that you have all you need to grow.