To operate your small business effectively and efficiently, you need a solid technology stack. You need software for your website, graphic design, collaboration, email marketing, invoicing and payments … Choosing and using all these different apps can feel like a lot. But technology for entrepreneurs, when it’s in place, can streamline your business processes and help you make more money with less stress.
In this episode, Pam and Teri will help you demystify technology. We’ll share what apps we use every day and how it helps us keep track of the many tasks in our small businesses.
Have a listen and then we want to hear from you! Have you used any of the apps we highlighted? What else do you use and recommend (or not recommend) in your own business? Comment below and let us know.
Demystifying Technology for Entrepreneurs
What We Talked About
- What apps do you need in your small business tech stack? [00:00]
- The importance of having a professional website: WordPress and beyond [01:30]
- Why you must use a custom domain [04:33]
- Graphic design: Is Canva Pro worth it? [06:22]
- Project Management: Asana, Trello, and other options [09:46]
- Video conferencing: Zoom for collaboration in an online world [13:25]
- Automating email marketing: MailerLite, ActiveCampaign, and Mailchimp [15:58]
- Taking and tracking payments: PayPal, Stripe, ThriveCart, and QuickBooks, and Wave [21:55]
- Time tracking: Toggl [27:47]
- Social media scheduling: Metricool, Meta Business Suite, Later, and Tailwind [31:00]
- Loom: Invaluable for remote training [34:38]
- Getting started with technology, one step at a time [35:51]
- This or that: Zucchini — sweet or savory? [37:18]
Key Insights
- “When you have a ‘real website,’ that’s when people see you as a legitimate business. Other than that, they’re going to see you as a small-scale startup, a hobby person, or otherwise may not trust who you are as a business owner. So having a website that makes you look like the professional that you are is going to be really beneficial.” – Pam
- “You really need some sort of place to keep all of your things that you’re working on, keep everything organized—your editorial calendar, your content calendar, all your projects, all of your ideas, all of that, all in one place. Especially if you’re working with a team, having something that your team can access as well so you all can be assigned differetn tasks. YOu can add due dates and just keep everything on track without falling through the cracks.” – Pam
- “I have found that, being an online business owner, people are constantly saying, ‘Hey, can we hop on a call?’ Even people just introducing themselves or in a Facebook group saying, ‘Hey, can we hop on a coffee chat, just get to know each other better, see how we can collaborate?’ or things like that?’ So having a place where you can do that that isn’t Facebook video chat. It’s a little more professional than that.” – Pam
- “As much as you can streamline some of this stuff with the finances, it just helps to do your books on the back end.” – Teri
- “I know it’s a lot and I know so many people are like, ‘There’s so much tech involved.’ But take it one step at a time. Do all of the tutorials.” – Pam
- “Ask for help. There’s entrepreneurs all around you once you start getting into that world.” – Teri
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