It's amazing how many tools are out there.  I seem to discover a new one every week and literally have to contain myself from signing up and trying them out.  I love to explore new apps and I've spent dollars getting my hands on them, ouch!  In this post, I want to share my top favs that I've stuck to for a while now.  So let’s check it out, shall we?

My 5 tools are:

1a| Honeybook

OK, you might be wondering why I have 1a here.  I unfortunately could not make up my mind.  So I signed up for Honeybook and Dubsado.  Having said that, I am running my business on Dubsado.  Both tools are what we call Client Relation Management (CRM) tools.

Let me start with Honeybook.  I fell in love with Honeybook because it provided a pretty interface.   I love their concierge service and how everything was designed made sense. In my review, I found that Honeybook did not have a dedicated client portal.  I like the idea of my clients accessing their portal when they want to.  I also had other observations on their workflow that was not clear to me.  So with that, I held off on using it on my side.  I will give it another try.  It  is a lovely tool.

1b| Dubsado

A lot of entrepreneurs have wondered how on earth do you pronounce that name “Dub-sa-do”.  How did the founders decide on a business name like that?  I guess I won’t know, but it definitely creates a buzz and curiosity for what it was.  The company is soon going to celebrate 2 years in business.  They have certainly made a name for themselves. They have REALLY, I mean REALLY created a following of raving fans and users.  So why do I think Dubsado is an awesome tool?  I've never seen a company that frequently sends out updates to improve their tool for their users.  

Dubsado comes with form templates for capturing questionnaire, sample contracts, bookkeeping, invoicing and so much more.  Its like a one stop shop.  You can even get paid directly using Dubsado and setup a client portal to give your clients that added professionalism and experience.

Dubsado support team is top notch.  They are super responsive and love that its founder is so present.  What I love about that their support is that to feel they feel and treat you as a friend and that means a lot to me.

Dubsado takes a while to figure out, but when you do, it is a breeze.  I would suggest going through their training videos. I found them to be very helpful, or if you find other training courses out there, sign up for those.  Once you figure it all out, you will come to appreciate like so many entrepreneurs have found.

2| Asana

Oh gosh, why did I sign up for it? Again, I am a visual person and aesthetics win all the time.  Asana was very attractive to me (what can I say?), well I thought it looked great.  I signed up to Asana for free.  You have have up to 15  projects going before you have to subscribe.  One day, I will get there, but for now, the free subscription works great for me.  Asana offers all the features you would need.

So what is Asana?  Asana is a project management tool that allows you to manage projects.  If you are a list person where you like to work off checking items off lists, you're covered.  If you're a board fan (Kanban style) and create boards for different activities, Asana has that for you.  I  love that I can have all my project communications and share files within the application.  As a project manager and designer, it makes for working with a team or client a great experience.

3| Quickbooks

Working on your own as a successful entrepreneur, you have to also manage money.  Manage money in the sense of knowing what is coming and going out.  I chose to use Quickbooks because I'm a Quicken fan!  I tried other tools like Wave and Freshbooks.  I settled on Quickbooks because if its feature.  It was straightforward to me.  I liked the fact that my accountant could sign in and work on my account.  That was pretty cool. I'm also able to download my paypal and credit cards transactions directly into Quickbooks.  I save time and don't need to search for receipts and load them in.  So far it has served me well.

4| Google Drive

Google Drive is like the mac daddy of drives.  I love storing my business files on Google Drive. I know they are backed up and I can access it absolutely from anywhere.

5| Coschedule

This tools has been out there for a long time.  They have made so much improvement from back in the days.  CoSchedule is a content planning tool.  It allows you to plan your blog post for the week, month or an entire year.  You set up your social media platforms with your desired content and schedule when it  goes out. One reason, I love using CoSchedule, is that it allows you to post your content at the best time when users are most active.  It takes the guessing game of when to post out for you.

I struggled with this one for a while.  Why? because it does have a learning curve to it (oh maybe, it's just me).   I love the calendar view that allow you to see your blog post scheduled throughout the month.  One feature I have not yet explored but intend to do, is the tools ability to requeue your content.  So on days when you don't have anything to write about, CoSchedule will republish one of your old contents.  As you know, one of the benefits of blogging is that you can always re-use old content if you have too. With the fast pace of content moving through social media, you are bound to have readers who have not seen your post.  It makes sense to save yourself a week or two and repost old content.

So there you have it.  My top 5.  

What are some of your favorite tools to use for your business?  Don’t keep it to yourself, share it with other?

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