One year in to starting this independent business, and I have learned so much! One of the most frequent questions I get asked about is my tech stack. This is primarily software, but I’m including a full view of what I believe has been a part of my building of my business this past year.
p.s. where relevant, the below includes some affiliate links. I don’t promote anything I’m not all in on.
The Basics – Getting Organized
Google Workspace – Email, Calendar, Scheduling, Forms, Video, Document Management
I use Gmail for my email, and rely on GCal for scheduling different types of meetings from “Quick Chats” as my open availability, to allowing my Coaching Clients to book their sessions. Using this eliminated my need for Calendly or Cal.com as an additional tool, and Google is a common integrator for other softwares.
Notion – Knowledge Management, Planning, built-in Ai for writing assistance
This tool is so powerful and a hub for many of my mvp versions of getting organized as a new business. From writing, to creating my course outline, communications and content I house everything in one searchable place. My first client CRM was a quick notion table for example, to keep initial costs low.
Reclaim.ai – Calendar Assistant
Even the free starter for Reclaim has been a delightful way to relieve some manual calendar tasks. I use it to add travel time automatically to in-person appointments, and to automatically schedule “habits” like a monthly financial and metrics review time.
Quickbooks – Money Stuff
Not my strong suit, and I may be looking for a cheaper alternative soon, but I’m currently using Quickbooks for all expense tracking (automagically connected to my bank etc), general bookkeeping and monthly/quarterly financial reviews with my tax pro. Thank goodness for financial professionals 🙂
Pollen – Community, Education
I joined Pollen last Fall to find fellow independents finding their way, and join in on some of their sprints as a way to build in accountability. I was struggling with focus, and wanted to short-cut making some common mistakes! I’m now a Pollen Champion and consider this community one of the most critical tools in my stack.
Online Presence & Marketing
My biggest learning with marketing is to stay focused. Pick one platform for social media work – for myself I quickly stopped investing time in Instagram, and stayed focused on being consistent on Linkedin.
WordPress – Core Website, integrations
There are so many options for your site these days! WordPress made sense for me, as I’ve both designed and developed custom themes in the past, and I knew that it would offer me flexibility for the future. I’m already on version 2.0 of my site! As with any site choice, there is a learning curve and WordPress tends to be a little more on the technical side until you get all the basics in place.
ConvertKit – Email Marketing, Email List Nurturing, Custom Landing Pages
Again, many options for email marketing. Getting your email list going is one of the most important first steps when building an online business – seriously. Yes, having audiences in other places is great, but the platforms change constantly and you don’t truly own anything. When your potential customers share their emails with you, it’s a gift of permission to stay connected for the long term.
Let Me Upgrade You
Honeybook – Proposals, Contracts, Coaching Client CRM
If you’ve read this far, you’ll know that Notion was my MVP CRM. As my Coaching practice has grown, I’m switching from manual proposals and contracts with my Coaching Clients to a better and more systematized approach. My hope here is to create an all-in-one and really seamless onboarding experience where clients can choose their package, pay and schedule all in one spot, along with automatic payment reminders and self-serve ability to reschedule.
**the honeybook link above includes a 20% annual discount!**
Senja – Testimonials
As my courses grew in popularity, I started losing track of all the awesome things people were saying about their experiences! Yes, a great problem to have, but this “social proof” of the value of one of my main services is extremely important and I was no longer staying organized enough in Notion. Now, my students can submit video and text testimonials for me to review and once approved, they’ll automatically show up on my site.
Makin’ Stuff
Canva Pro – Graphic Design, Asset Creation
Descript – amazingly easy video editing, transcripting and easy ai enhancements like fill-erword removal and eye-contact.
The in-betweens
Zapier – Integrations and Automations
Open Ai API
