Getting Started Can Be the Hardest Part....What's next on your to-do list?
Perhaps my tried and true favorite resources can help you take the first step. I use each and every one of these products and services, I'm cheering for their success and yours! If offered, I'm an affiliate for these products, so some of the links below will also give me a commission if you use them. I hope you too will add affiliate income to your portfolio, it's a way to share what you love and help pay for your website overhead at the same time. I only promote what I truly believe in!
BUSINESS ESSENTIALS
SALES FUNNELS
ClickFunnels - The premier sales funnel platform and sales educational source that has created many multi-millionaires. Russell Brunson, the wise sage has been a sales nerd since he was a kid. He loves the psychology of the sale and easily educates how to care for your customers and sell more than anyone in your industry. The reason to use a sales funnel is to keep the reader focused on only what you’re selling…no distraction of #allthepages of your website. It educates, sells, offers additional add-on items in a single click that will provide your client everything they need to be successful. Sales funnels could be salesy if thats what you want to do, but I am creating them with the concept of shopping in a boutique. Customers will receive focused attention related to exactly what they’re shopping for, they’ll end up with everything they need and have a go-to source they can tell others about. If your heart is to help people, your sales funnel will benefit them and you.
Legal
Christina Scalera, The Contract Shop - Contract Templates ready to plug in for all of your business needs...get GDPR Compliant Terms & Conditions Template...Learn how to set up your new business legally. Education on business types...sole proprietorship, LLC..., Contract templates pre-customized for creative businesses and their unique needs and offerings ready for immediate download. Legal eze for your website and online courses... Fine Art Commissions. Workshops and Retreats. As your business grows...Contracts with Virtual assistants and 1099 Contractors. Affiliate Agreement. Education on protecting your work from copyright infringement. Education on Trademarks and when to use them... Amazing resource.
ACCOUNTING
Quickbooks Online - Easily create and file 1099's for contractors, import sales data from Paypal, manage business checking and credit cards...everything in one place without manually importing or entering data. Great mobile app too.
PRODUCTIVITY
Workflow
Trello Gold - My go-to standard for documenting my workflow. For those who love pretty things this version of the App allows customized pages. Create individual repeatable workflows in an interactive system that's customizable, brandable and pretty.
Trello for Business - Super affordable online course. Learn how to maximize your Trello productivity. This will set you up for success!
DESIGN
DIGITAL ART & Design
Adobe Creative Cloud - Adobe Illustrator (Ai), Photoshop, and InDesign are my favorite programs in the Adobe Suite. Illustrator on it's own has amazing capabilities and if I could have only one, it would be my choice. They are offered as an online service that is updated regularly and available as single programs or combinations or all. Since learning Ai I can create nearly anything I need to and can't imagine life without it.
Learn Adobe Illustrator in the most fun and engaging way through in the guided course - live with Bonnie… Surface Pattern Design Immersion (opens once a year Feb 19-26) and have lifetime access to the course, or join anytime and dabble in her Skillshare course...Intro to Surface Pattern Design I learned Ai from Bonnie after trying a few other methods and I can't say enough great things about Bonnie! You'll come out a pro!
BOUTIQUE CUSTOMER SERVICE
Customer Relationship Management
Honeybook - Perfect for service based creative companies who need to educate prospects, provide proposals, gather information from clients through questionnaires, offer streamlined billing/payment plans and contracts as well as a communication hub to organize all emails to and from your clients in one place. Honeybook is perfect for collaboration between vendors on larger projects as well a great community of Honeybook using businesses who love to collaborate, refer and promote one another. Great mobile App too.
Email Service Provider
ConvertKit - Made for those who want to offer a number of freebie download-ables to their readers in exchange for their email, and better serve their audience's specific interests through targeted emails serving their unique interests specifically and efficiently.
Kajabi - Ok y’all I’m on the Kajabi Bandwagon because this platform can do everything you need in one place. If I was just getting things set up I would literally house everything here. Since I’ve been online for years now I’m gradually migrating my parts to this system. I’m going before you and can help lead the way and give my true opinion. I’m a rather picky customer. I have high expectations and systems need to be seamless, elegant and highly functional. Take a look at Kajabi as an all in one with online course and membership specializations too. Reach out if you have any questions.
SEARCH CAPABILITIES in video
Searchie - This is one part Customer Service and one part ORGANIZATION/PRODUCTIVITY. If you create a lot of video content on Facebook Lives or YouTube, Vimeo, Courses…or audio content on a Podcast… one of the things that result is the need to spend hours searching for a particular moment in the video or audio where you answered a specific question, addressed a particular topic…time stamping. This has been a manual process. And if you don’t have a time stamp it’s incredibly cumbersome to go back and find something quickly. Enter Searchie…you now have automatic transcription of the content and links directly to all the places you talked about X. It’s a little search bar (widget) that can be embedded in your website and course… that gives the customer the power to quickly find exactly what they’re looking for, not spend hours listening to content and eventually giving up if they didn’t find it. This is a tool that serves your customer and yourself in many ways. Highly recommend it.
ONLINE PRESENCE
Marketing
Interact Quizzes - A fun way to find people interested in your niche and allows you to serve them specific to their unique needs or interests. Help people understand which of your products best suits them, where they are in a journey of progress…or which Disney character they are… But seriously it’s a fun tool to help customers interact with your brand and learn about themselves in the process.
website
Squarespace - Elegant websites that are easily managed by anyone. I created my first Squarespace site years ago when I knew nothing about web design. I created an amazing site and I could change anything I needed any time I wanted. This is the platform I recommend for everyone who wants to spend their time working on their business, not learning code... Squarespace has e-commerce capabilities...sell physical products and services and downloadable products from your own site with simple creditcard and paypal integrations, blogging options, landing pages... Great reporting for both e-comm and analytics as well as simple mobile Apps that take your business on the road. I am a CIRCLE member designer for Squarespace and love helping entrepreneurs get their website and business strategy set up. Take a look at my services page for more detail.
PODCASTING, RECORDING & COURSE CREATION
Microphones
I looked at so many mics and found 2 different types that I’ve been quite happy with. The first is a Lav Mic. This is the microphone that clips to your collar or neckline and is very low profile, discrete and mobile. The thing I love about this one is that it connects to a cellphone via the headphone jack. You can have the phone in your pocket and be a speaker on the stage, creating your own recording or set the smartphone on a tripod and use the 20’ extension cable to stand on set while videotaping and recording with your smartphone. The second type of mic I’m using is a Tabletop Mic that is another easy connect product with a USB cable. No drivers, works with mac and pc and has settings for multiple types of recording, from podcasting to interviews and more. It has over 6,400 reviews if you’re unsure about it and need another opinion. Ok, and the fact that it comes in many colors….may just be an additional plus for the artist in you.
AUDIO & PODCASTING PLATFORM
SoundCloud - Record audio for podcasting and have the ability to download the audio files for other uses.
SOUNDTRACK & MUSIC FOR YOUR VIDEOS AND/OR PODCASTS
SoundStripe - Quality tracks with multiple variations per track and one membership fee with unlimited licenses available. They’ve made searching for soundtracks fun, simple and exciting. They’re redefining the soundtrack industry making great music available at affordable prices. Highly recommend!
Online Course Platform
Kajabi - If you love simplicity and want to make course creation and selling as easy as pie you will love this product. Your one stop shop from hosting your online courses to email service provider to sales funnels to affiliate program. If that is a little confusing, what I’m saying is that you only have one product that does everything you need, you won’t be patching together multiple services to grow your email list, send emails, host the course…video…audio…pdfs…, launch it with a sophisticated professional marketing system. And if you want to get others to help you sell your course it has an integrated affiliate program that will allow you to easily calculate commissions and pay out your helpers. Kajabi’s price can be a little surprising, but once you add the prices together for all of the separate services you’ll use in the complex multi-vendor system you’ll discover that you may actually save money using Kajabi. Get your course up in 28 Days.
THINKIFIC - As a student of online courses…I’ve completed more courses hosted on Thinkific than any other platform. It has a nice balance between easy to navigate, branded and pretty and simple to resume and keep your place in the course. Because of this fact I’ve come back to the platform over and again to consider using it to host a class or two. They have a free option to get started and create your first course. You’ll need to upgrade to get the bells and whistles, but when you’re starting out the low to no price point is amazing. CLICK HERE to try the PRO level of Thinkific for FREE for a Month. Check out the pricing comparison chart to see what each level offers.
Teachery - Pretty, brandable course pages, no transaction fees, amazing customer service. What is unique about Teachery is that they believe your content should be hosted on specialized media accounts where you’ll receive the quality you desire for each…host your videos on free hosting sites such as YouTube or paid services such as Wistia…you create your own recipe. If you will need all of these accounts anyway for other things you’re doing such as podcasting, YouTubing, email service provider with advanced segmentation…then this option is a good idea. And they offer an affiliate program for your own courses - managed within the platform for you.
BROADCASTING APPS
Crowdcast - For over a year now we have been using Crowdcast to do LIVE Q & A Sessions for an online course. There are a number of great things about the platform. Here are my TOP FIVE: 1) TimeStamping - Jump directly to the place in the video where a specific topic is discussed, 2) Vote up Questions - the most popular questions can be voted on by others to make them rise to the top of the list and get answered first, 3) Channels - Your content sits on your page and viewers will not be tempted by other people’s videos, 4) Live Stream to YouTube or Facebook to grow your visibility and keep the content on Crowdcast in your Channel and get your viewers emails for your list, and 5) Create a mini course or summit and charge an entrance fee through Crowdcast. The people with accounts in Crowdcast are generally down to earth, wholesome people. And the staff couldn’t be nicer. I highly recommend it.
“...fear points you in the direction you need to go. Toward it, not away.”