Tools and Resources




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Here you will find a variety of different types of downloadable software and subscription-based websites that will make sure that all the day to day tasks when running a business are that little bit easier.

You will find tools and resources that will support you in different areas of your business that are going to help you to run it successfully and spend less time bogged down tasks. You can find great solutions to domains and hosting, email marketing and design and graphics too. You can also find top apps that will help you with social media management and how to manage a team that you may have working with you, albeit remotely.

Resources that can help with trademarking and legal factors that you are going to need to consider for your business.

Design & Graphics
Email Marketing
Domain & Hosting
Social Media Management
Team Collaboration
Forms
Stationery
payment tools 
outsourcing
website themes
advertising tools
webinar software
Legal & Trademarking
Accounting Software
banking
insurance

Design & Graphics

Canva - Is a free graphic-design tool it has an easy to use drag-and-drop interface. With Canva you can quickly and easily create beautiful professional designs and documents.

PicMonkey ​- Makes creative tools for photo editing and graphic design because you can design images to show your creativity, your style, your spot-on brilliance. Picmonkey offers a 7-day free trial.

Adobe Spark - Instantly combine photos and text into eye-catching professional graphics. From collages to posters to magazine covers, the possibilities are limitless. Spark Video lets people create animated videos in minutes. Adobe Spark is free, but you can upgrade for more features.

Fotor - Powerful, user-friendly and globally accessible, Fotor is an online photo editing suite, utilizing exclusive technology to bring an unprecedented level of editing control to anyone and everyone. While the ‘collage’ and ‘edit’ features are already enjoyed by millions of users, daily, the new ‘design’ feature gives the common user the ability to design any form of graphics and cover, limited only by imagination. Fotor is free, but you can upgrade for more features.

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Email Marketing

Convertkit ​- is an email marketing program that includes opt-in forms, landing pages, email subscription management, list segmentation and automation. Its main feature is Sequences that allow you to create drip email courses/campaigns. Your email list is your biggest asset. ConvertKit helps you use that list to grow your business through attractive forms, trackable data, and simple but powerful automation.  Convertkit offers a 14-day free trial.

Mailchimp ​– is the world’s largest marketing automation platform. Millions of customers, from small e-commerce shops to big online retailers, use MailChimp to reach their customers and grow their business. MailChimp is free, but you can upgrade for more features.

Active Campaign -Send newsletters, manage contacts, and automate your marketing. ActiveCampaign is not just your standard email service provider. It’s a complete email marketing automation and CRM platform. Active campaign offers a free trial.
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Domain & Hosting 

Siteground – I have experience of using Siteground. The set up was easy, and their customer service is excellent. Tiered affordable pricing packages. If you use this link, you will get 60% off regular price.

Go Daddy – Tiered pricing packages, Go Daddy offers packages with different price and feature levels and customer support. GoDaddy also provides its clients a wide range of website creation tools, as well as more advanced features for experienced programmers. Go Daddy offer various deals on their website.

123Reg – Tiered packages to suit different businesses individual needs. You can also purchase domains, free personalized email. 123 Reg offer various deals on their website.

1&1 - started as a hosting provider but now provide everything under the digital sun. They are one of the largest domain registrars (and typically include one year of a new domain free with hosting purchase). All their products are integrated, which is a pro for many people. 1&1 offer various deals on their website.
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Social Media Management 

​SmarterQueue –Evergreen social media scheduling, SmarterQueue ticks all the boxes for being able to schedule evergreen posts, have unlimited posts, schedule to multiple accounts Twitter, Facebook Pages/Profiles/Groups, LinkedIn and Instagram, and category-based scheduling to name a few things. We use SmaterQueue here at Parents in Biz, SmarterQueue offers a 30-day free trial.

Buffer – Buffer is a simpler and easier way to schedule posts, track the performance of your content, and manage all your accounts in one place. Buffer has a free plan, and they also offer a free trial for their awesome plan. Buffer is free, but you can upgrade for more features.

Tailwind – Tailwind is the smartest way to manage your presence across the visual web (Pinterest & Instagram), it offers a complete suite of marketing tools including smart scheduling, analytics & monitoring, content discovery, promotion, education, tribes, hashtag suggestions and more. If you use this link, you will receive a $15 credit on your account.

Meet Edger – MeetEdgar is a social media management tool that automates content re-sharing and optimizes your social traffic. It is designed to help businesses perform the tasks of a content manager without needing to hire one. It is ideal for businesses that create evergreen content. MeetEdgar connects to your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, It also features an auto-refill queue from your archive of saved updates. The features keep your social channels populated with your posts. Meet Edger is $49 per month.

Slack Social – Slack Social is a one stop solution for scheduling updates on popular social networks. All you need to do is schedule your updates and leave it to them to do timely delivery of the update on desired social network. It’s extremely simple to use and real time and money saver. They support almost all the popular social networking platforms. Slack social is free, but you can upgrade for more features.

LOOMLY – Is a simple social media calendar Loomly helps you create better content, faster. Managing your social media content has never been easier.

Team Collaboration

Slack – Slack creates alignment and shared understanding across your team, making you more productive, less stressed, and just a little bit happier. Slack brings all your team's communication together, giving everyone a shared workspace where conversations are organized and accessible. Slack is where work happens. It’s a digital workspace that powers your organization all the pieces and the people so you can get things done. 

Dropbox – Dropbox is a home for all your photos, documents, videos, and other files. Dropbox lets you access your stuff from anywhere and makes it easy to share with others. Access your stuff wherever you are anything you add to Dropbox will automatically show up on all your computers, phones, tablets, and even the Dropbox website. Dropbox allows you to share with confidence and is safe and secure. 

Trello – Trello is a collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, Trello tells you what's being worked on, who's working on what, and where something is in a process.

Acuity Scheduling – Is easy-to-use and user-friendly scheduling solution clients can quickly view real-time availability, and book their appointments accordingly. Its powerful calendar coordination features automatically notifies when an appointment is booked, and allows checking schedules from mobile devices. It supports Google Calendar, iCalendar, Outlook and Office 365. The solution is particularly useful for small and growing businesses. It allows sending customized and branded reminders, confirmations and follow-ups for a more personalized customer experience. Customers can also make online payments while booking an appointment.

EVERNOTE – Capture, organize and share notes from anywhere. Your best ideas are always with you and always in sync. Organized teams get more done. Find productivity bliss with Evernote Business the place where effective teams come together to create, share, and move work forward. Evernote is free, but you can upgrade for more features.​

Forms 

GRAVITY FORMS – Is a WordPress plugin used originally for contact forms, but in a more general sense, it allows site owners to create forms to collect information. Gravity Forms can be used for contact forms, WordPress post creation, calculators, employment applications and more. It is the Easiest tool to create advanced forms for your WordPress-powered website. Basic license starts from $59

TYPEFORM - Build beautiful, engaging, and conversational online forms, surveys, quizzes, landing pages, and much more with Typeform. You can try it for FREE—no coding required!

SURVEY MONKEY - is a tool that allows you to launch any kind of online survey project, be it for market research, a quick poll, competitive analysis or customer or the employee feedback. You can create and publish online surveys in minutes, and view results graphically and in real time. Survey monkey is free, but you can upgrade for more features.

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Stationery 

MOO.COM - is an online print and design company. You can design and print customised business cards with MOO! You can also design and print postcards, stickers and more.

VISTAPRINT – Provides you with top quality printed products at affordable prices, along with design tools suited to every skill level and need, mean everyone can create the customised materials they need to get their message across


Payment Tools 

​STRIPE – is a payment processing platform, Stripe builds the most powerful and flexible tools for internet commerce. Whether you're creating a subscription service, an on-demand marketplace, an e-commerce store, or a crowdfunding platform.

PAYPAL – is a service that enables you to pay, send money, and accept payments without revealing your financial details. PayPal is a safer, simpler, smarter way to send and receive money online. You can use PayPal to shop, and it’s a great option to have to accept payments on your website.

GUMROAD – Gumroad is a platform that enables creators to sell products directly to consumers. Gumroad helps creators take control of their creative careers. 


Outsourcing 

99 DESIGNS – Is an online graphic design marketplace. They connect more than one million talented freelance designers with creative people, genius entrepreneurs, savvy businesses anyone who needs excellent work. 

PEOPLE PER HOUR – Is an online platform that connects talented experts with savvy businesses that search for the right skills to get a Job done quickly and with no hassle. 

FIVERR- is a global online marketplace for digital services, offering tasks and services, beginning at the cost of £5 per job performed, from which it gets its name. The site is primarily used by freelancers who use Fiverr to offer services to customers worldwide. 

FANCY HANDS – is a New York-based virtual assistant company. You can use any device, at any time of day, and virtual assistants will tackle anything on your to-do list. 

UPWORK​- on Upwork you’ll find a range of top talent, from programmers to designers, writers, customer support reps, and more. Start by posting a job with details about your project and the specific skills required.

ECHO- Echo is an Economy of Hours: a marketplace without the money. Our members buy and sell their skills, services and resources they have for those that they need, using a currency called Echoes. The exchange rate couldn’t be easier: 1 hour = 1 Echo.

Website Themes

SQUARE SPACE – A website builder platform that empowers millions of people from individuals, local artists to entrepreneurs shaping the world's most iconic businesses to share their stories and create an impactful, stylish, and easy-to-manage online presence. 

SHOPIFY ​– is a complete e-commerce solution that allows you to set up an online store to sell your goods. It lets you organize your products, customize your storefront, accept credit card payments, track and respond to orders — all with a few clicks of the mouse.

THEMEFOREST ​– Discover 1000s of premium WordPress themes & website templates, including multipurpose and responsive Bootstrap templates, email templates & HTML templates.

THRIVE THEMES – Thrive Themes is the most advanced, yet, simple-to-use WordPress suite of website tools. They create truly conversion-optimized plugins and themes to give a real boost to your business. 

LEAD PAGES ​– Lead pages generate leads and sales for your business on the web, in emails, via text messaging, and on social media, so you can make sales and deliver digital products from any landing page or popup with checkouts.

SUMO​- is a suite of free tools that can be used to grow your website's traffic. The Sumo tools are easy to install and work on any website.


Advertising  

FACEBOOK ADVERTS – for any budget find people easily. You can choose your audience based on demographics, behaviours or contact information.

TABOOLA - drive traffic to your site, blog or video, or monetize your site with the largest platform for content recommendation, audience acquisition, and native advertising. 

GOOGLE ADWORDS - is Google's advertising system in which advertisers bid on certain keywords for their clickable ads to appear in Google's search results. 

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Webinar Software

ZOOM - is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-ba​​​​sed conference room solution used around the world. Zoom is free, but you can upgrade for more features.

WEBINAR NINJA - easily allows you to host, share and attend webinars with no worries. Webinar ninja offers a free trial. 

GO TO MEETING – web conferencing software makes it simple and cost-effective to collaborate online with colleagues and customers in real time.


Legal & Trademarking

DOCRACY - is a home for contracts and other legal documents, socially curated by the communities that use them.

COMPANIES MADE SIMPLE - Register your company using their simple 4 step online process. 

TERMSFEED ​- is the world's leading generator of legal agreements for websites and apps. We specifically focus on the range of legal agreements that a business with an online presence may need.

NAMECHK.COM - is a free username and domain search tool. We're the fastest and most efficient way for you to search for your desired username across hundreds of social networks and domain extension all at once.

FARILLIO - All the legal documents and advice you need to grow your business from £8+VAT per month.

SMALL BUSINESS COMMISSIONER - The Office of the Small Business Commissioner (SBC) is there to ensure fair payment practices for Britain's small businesses, and support them in resolving their payment disputes with larger businesses and bring about culture change.

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Accounting Software 

FRESH BOOKS - is the #1 invoicing software for small business owners in the UK. Easily send invoices, track time, manage expenses, and get paid online.

XERO - is online accounting software for small businesses. Use Xero to manage invoicing, bank reconciliation, bookkeeping & more.

QUICK BOOKS - is an accounting software package developed and marketed by Intuit. QuickBooks products are geared mainly toward small and medium-sized businesses and offer on-premises accounting applications as well as cloud-based versions that accept business payments, manage and pay bills, and payroll functions. 

TAXSCOUTS - is online accounting software for small businesses. Use Xero to manage invoicing, bank reconciliation, bookkeeping & more.

Banking 

​​​​​​​​​TIDE - Open a business account in minutes Tide is powerful, simple and helpful. Tide gives business owners their time back. And is trusted by over 50,000 small businesses.

STARLING BANK - Everything you want from a bank account – none of the stuff you don’t. Starling bank is banking built for mobile living, with insightful money management tools, flexible card controls and 24/7 customer support all available on-the-go and with a tap in-app.

COCONUT - Banking and accounting, in a nutshell. The current account that takes care of your accounting and tax. Designed for freelancers, self-employed people and small business owners.

Insurance

HISCOX - Offer small business insurance that’s suited to the risks you face.

DINGHY - Freelance insurance that’s faster, cheaper and fairer. Get professional indemnity insurance in under 2 minutes that’s tailored to you.


*Affiliate links are included, this means I will receive a commission for products you purchase through my links, at no additional charge to you. All of the products I recommend are things I have used myself and love. I created this list to save you time.

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