Entrepreneur Tools & Tips
Tools & Tips
- Lynda.com – This video style educational program has a variety of topics that you can learn about across the business field. You can learn how to use Adobe Illustrator, understand Lean Manufacturing, become a pro at Microsoft Excel, and so much more. The nice thing about this educational platform is that you get certificates of completion when you are done, and you can add them to your LinkedIn profile seamlessly! Sometimes your school or local library can have a free subscription to this that you can access via a website portal. Ask what your local area has available to see what you have access to.
- Hoopla & Overdrive – These are two digital movie, book, and audio book apps that many libraries have access to get into. You should talk with your local county library system to see what partnerships they already have. This is a great way to find audiobooks that will help you learn as you are on the go.
- Spotify – Any podcast app is going to give you a lot of options for great content. When it comes to business though, a lot of podcasts only offer a few nuggets of information while the entire segment is trying to convince you to work with them or buy some weird product they “created.” We think that’s lame. Listening to a variety to see which ones are valuable to your time is a good idea. Our rule is, if you’re not learning something new or relevant to you every 2 minutes, you should move on. It’s not going to get any better.
- Your Local Library – If you haven’t been there, spoiler, there are books everywhere. Another note to make when going there is that most library systems are not only connected locally, but even have access to an state-wide library exchange program. Sometimes it’s a completely different website. You will need to talk to a few reference librarians to get the details. This system can even have access to the full collection of college libraries within your state as well. It’s definitely worth looking into. The best part is that the books show up right at your library for free!
- Local Workforce Center – These people get paid by the government to help you for free. If you’re looking for a job or need some career counseling before starting a business, you need to set up a meeting with them. Sometimes their hours are not always helpful for getting things done in a speed of light way, but they can point you to the resources you need to move forward with your business.
- MIT Free Course Work – You can listen to a ton of free lectures from MIT by checking out this website. It’s like going to college without having to pay the fee!
- Udacity – There are a lot of free programs within Udacity. You can learn to code, understand digital marketing, etc. This is a great place to get started if you want to learn a specific skill and be pushed to actually test it out with the homework segments. If you get a certificate from one of these programs, it’s because you worked hard. They take competency seriously!
- Youtube – Don’t forget you can learn it all here, seriously. This is how Bekkah learned to mud, tape, sheetrock, change out the water tank unit of a toilet, replace a lightbulb in a car, and install in-floor heating. God bless the users who created that content!
- Asana – There are quite a few different task management systems out there that keep hitting the market. We like this one because it allows you to save so much information, it’s free for one user, can create templates for future use, and allows you to check things off as you accomplish them. As people who get endorphins released every time we check something off, we’re a little attached.
- Calendly – This software syncs with Google Calendar and allows people to book a meeting with you based on your open availability. It’s actually pretty awesome because all the basic features are free! Also, it saves you 5 emails trying to book a time that works for both of your schedules.
- Google Calendar – We LOVE Google Calendar because it allows us to share our schedule (with different levels of privacy) with the people in our lives that need access to it. It also allows you to send invitational emails to those you invite to a meeting, and add the address to your meeting’s location so you can access the directions of your next meeting on the go.
- Google Email – We really like Google Email because it syncs with the Google Suite, is cloud based, can increase productivity as you work on different projects, can share files easily, and instantly share links with one another via the instant Google chat feature. We also like the fact that you can sync your email to your domain name and reply with your website url as the email handle rather than a standard @gmail.com ending. This makes you look way more professional when connecting with people you’ve never met, and gives you more credibility when contacting suppliers from other countries. It takes a bit to set up, but your hosting provider and Youtube tutorials can walk you through it.
- Notes – The iPhone’s Notes program is probably one of the most under appreciated apps that they have. We use this to make fast lists of information. This allows us to quickly share information that must be accomplished. Did you know you can send your list to someone else and invite people to edit them?! We have found that if you share a note with another iPhone user via text, you may need to be patient with it. You might end up sharing the same note three times with your recipient by getting overly excited. Been there, done that. The disadvantage to this program is that you could lose all of your important notes if you lose your cell phone.
- Wave – We really like Wave because all the basics to run your business are free. You can run an entire business without paying any money! Where you pay money is when you have to add on payroll service or offer digital payments. Payroll is when you are making enough money that you can afford to hire an employee. The nice thing about Wave is that you can send people invoices via email, and they can pay online, but you do have to pay a credit card processing fee for the transaction. If you use this feature you will need to account for it in your operating costs. We like that the receipts app allows you to take pictures of your receipts and post them to your accounting so you don’t have to keep all the physical copies, but SADLY they got rid of the app that allowed you to take pictures on your phone of the receipts and now you have to manually upload them to each transaction once you’re logged into the software. Would not recommend on your phone, desktop is definitely better. Have you ever accidentally deleted a transaction while having a “fat finger moment?” Let’s just say, “Desktop, my friend.” *Arm around your shoulders looking off into the distance while we have a Rafiki moment.*
- Quickbooks Self-Employed – We really like this version of Quickbooks because it is perfect for people on the go. Our favorite feature about this software is that it takes the mess out of paying quarterly taxes! It calculates them based on your mileage logged (with the sweet app that tracks your car travel distance), receipts, paid invoices, etc. This is nice peace of mind for people who get concerned about how much they should be paying in taxes every quarter. The bummer about this platform is that it does cost money to use (less than $200 a year), BUT there are always coupons on the loose! If you are using Turbotax to file your taxes, you might be able to snag a free year subscription to try it out. Also, if you know anyone else who has it already, you both can sometimes get a referral discount. We also appreciate that this platform is less glitchy than some of the free software.
- Zipbooks – We like this platform because it’s free, and it works with Paypal and Square. Though Square processing fees are higher than some credit card processors, they usually give you the credit card terminal which means that it is perfect for taking people’s physical cards for processing if you do a lot of in-person sales.
- Stripe – In the research that we have done, this payment system is one of the lowest for processing payment on digital sales. It has pretty decent customer support articles regarding placing it into your website, and is excellent if you are pairing it with a shopping cart plugin. It does take a bit of coding, but there are a lot of Youtube tutorials that can help you put it in correctly. We also really like that Stripe can be connected to your bank account, and can auto deposit your funds once the purchase from your website has processed.
- Paypal – For ease of use, Paypal has a pretty good system set up (but the logo reminds us of the tacky early 2000’s websites). If you are just tracking a smaller amount of transactions and you want to use this as your bank account, this can be a good option. You can actually send invoices straight from Paypal to customers, and they send you a tax form at the end of the year when you’ve processed over $20k through it. This can be the lower maintenance option for payments if you are starting a side hobby, and just want to put a payment button on your website. It’s also the main currency processing system used for Ebay. So, if you do Ebay, just get Paypal, and do your bookkeeping with another software. You can download all of your Paypal transactions for your records.
- Venmo – This payment processing is a really good tool for getting payments from people quickly. We’ve seen a lot of landlords use this because you can split up a rent check between different roommates very easily, and it takes less work than sending in a check. What is also nice, is that it is free to receive direct money as an individual user, but they do charge a fee for people paying with credit cards. The business version of Venmo integrates with Paypal/Braintree so you can offer two ways to get your money from customers, but it does still charge you the processing fee and a set 30 cents charge for each transaction. So, really Venmo is just the hipster version of Paypal when it comes to business because they work through the same system.
- SpotOn – We’ve been on a mission to find the most cost effective payment processing tools because nobody loves paying credit card fees. The nice thing about SpotOn is that it helps you process payments for consumer credit cards at 1.99% with a 20 cent transaction fee. Currently, the market overall is charging 2.99% for all cards. The down side about Spoton is 1. If you have a ton of tiny transactions, 20 cents might be a big deal. 2. If you processes business cards or key them in manually for entry, they charge 2.99% like everyone else. 3. You have to pay a monthly terminal fee if you are running cards through an actual chip reading machine. We have talked to a few people who have used it, and thought we should add it as a tool here. The ideal fit for this product is probably going to be someone who is accepting transactions regularly for at least over $8 per transaction. Always make sure you run your numbers before investing in something that charges any sort of monthly fees!
- Join.me – This is a free tool to use for screen sharing. We like it because it allows you to send a join link to the person you are inviting to the meeting so that they can see your screen. If you want your own customizable link, you have to pay for it.
- Zoom – Zoom you can use free for meetings up to 40 minutes long. Which is perfect for scheduling a half hour meeting and leaving a tiny bit of time to wrap up if you go long! The paid version has so many features for doing webinars, surveys, and more! However, we’re cheap, and really don’t need that! So, we just bought stock in the company because big corporations need what they offer.
- Google Hangouts – If you plan to be connecting via Google anyways, Google Hangouts is completely free to use for your meetings! It also has a screen share feature that lets you choose to only show one tab or your entire desktop. The two negatives we have found with this interface is that you can have difficulty connecting on a slower internet provider and you have to share your gmail address to be able to connect in a meeting together.
- Google Duo – This is the newer version of Google’s video conferencing tools. The nice thing about it is that it syncs with all of your phone numbers on your phone if you have the app, and will allow you to video call anyone who also has it on their computer or phone. Think competitor of Facetime. The greatest features about this product is that it’s free, it can allow you to video conference up to 12 people at the same time, there are no time limits to the call length, it’s designed to specifically help people with low internet bandwidth stay connected to the call, and there is end-to-end encryption so that your conversation is private.
- Facetime – If you both have iphones and are connected to the internet, this can be a free and easy way to talk to people. If you own a mac computer you can also connect Facetime through your laptop if you pair your phone for a bigger screen.
- Facebook Video Calling – We really like this feature of Facebook because it allows us to be able to reach people who we are already connected with through Facebook Messenger. The disadvantage of this platform is that you cannot video conference people outside of your direct connections. Which means you would have to add them as a friend….That is pretty awkward for some businesses, but completely normal for others. Pick your friends wisely if you’re going to use this feature!
- Google Voice – This is an app and is also accessible via desktop version, which is genius! There are a lot of features within Google Voice that we really love. You create a phone number, and you can connect it to your own phone to either pass straight through to your regular calling line with the caller’s number or your Voice number to save it in your contacts so you can know when a call is coming from your business. When someone leaves a voicemail, it can also be transcribed and sent to you as an email.
- WhatsApp – This is another Facebook owned product that has encrypted messaging and phone calls using voice over IP (a fancy way of saying it calls through the internet). It has a phone number that comes with it when you create an account. This can be very useful for connecting with people from other countries as well as having a separate phone number for your business. We like it because its simplicity allows you to operate it similarly to your regular phone and text messaging process.
- Canva – This is a simple, user friendly tool for creating unique graphic designs that can be used for a wide variety of marketing material from T-shirts to logos. This is our favorite free online designing tool because it is very intuitive to learn, and has many free tools that make your creations pop. You can choose to customize the pixel size of each canvas, which can make your ideal size less of a hassle. We also like that you can upload your own images to use them for different backgrounds. This cuts our design time down tremendously!
- Crello – Who doesn’t want an additional designing tool that can be utilized as a free? The primary function that makes it stand out to us is the ease of organization for projects and images. The downer is that Crello keeps updating it’s “free” package offerings because they are a little money hungry. We’ve not been as thrilled about the fact that they now limit you to 5 downloads a month. However, if that’s all you need, it can still be a great design tool. (Affiliate disclaimer: We get some sort of reward if you ever buy something from them using our link. Though we’re skeptical by the amount of times they updated their packages. Haha!)
- Inkscape – This is a downloadable design software that allows you to actually work with vector files (a vector file is a mathematically calculated image that allows it to never lose image quality as you shrink or grow the image). Because Inkscape is an open source program, there are new versions coming out of it regularly to address bugs. While it may not have as many feature as Adobe, it’s completely free to download and use. Check out their tutorials page to learn more about using the software efficiently.
- Pixabay – This website offers you free stock photos for commercial use. The nice thing about this is that they have the ability to be downloaded in different pixel sizes so you don’t have to work on resizing the images yourself all the time. This is beneficial because the larger the image, the more it will slow down your website’s loading speed. You have to create a free account if you want to download the largest photo pixel size, but the rest you can just download by clicking the button. If you give a shout out to the author, it helps them get exposure, but it’s not required. One note to make, if you download a lot of photos really fast, you might have to go through the more complex Captcha security setting because they want to make sure you’re not a robot.
- Reshot – This website is another great resource for free stock photos. The main point we do want to stress about royalty free photos is that you must always check the website to see if they are usable for commercial use without author attribution. If they aren’t you could run into some liability issues down the road. Reshot allows you to download different authors works in really large file sizes to have excellent quality images. The downside about that is that the photos are a little bigger than you actually need them to be, unless you’re designing a billboard or something. Reshot has a bit more eclectic pieces in certain categories than Pixabay, so if you’re looking for something a little more trendy this could be the place to check.
- Moz Keyword Explorer – If you want to know the difficulty of ranking for a specific keyword on the internet, this is the place to go. The free account gives you a set number of monthly searches, but it can be very helpful in doing some research for how you should be trying to rank your website and content. You can also search competitor websites to see what they are ranking for to see if you want to start using similar keywords.
- Answer the Public – This website gives you a cool visual display of common questions people are asking across the internet about the keyword that you enter. You have a set limit of free searches per month, but this can allow you to understand what questions your customers have about a service or product that you sell. Unfortunately, it doesn’t give you the search volume of each question. It can be a good place to start when writing your FAQ page, blog posts, or understanding how your customer thinks.
- Hunter.io – This website lets you find any email addresses associated with a website if they are available on the web. This is actually probably the ultimate stalker way to get information about the email addresses of a company. If they provide an email to contact them somewhere on the internet, this tool will help you find it. So, use this wisely. Emailing people in mass form is illegal and could nail you some nasty unsolicited email lawsuits. It is a good way to understand the size of an organization by the number of emails associated with a domain name. The free version lets you search 50 domain names a month after creating an account. It definitely can be a fun waste of time or incredibly useful for finding contact information quickly from a confusing website.
- Google Trends – This nifty site from Google shows you what people have been searching for, but you can also search by keyword to see how often there is traffic for a certain keyword. For example, “tie tack” always has a major spike in search volume starting in November through December as people try to look nice for the holidays. You can see cyclical patterns, what is becoming more popular than previous years, what the search volume has been by country and state, etc.
- U.S. Census Bureau – This is so underutilized in target market research by beginners. There is a ton of information regarding population demographics here that should be used to your advantage if you are going to operate a brick and mortar (physical store) location. Knowing what a city’s average income is, how many children people have, where they live, and how much the average house costs is going to give you a lot of insight into what you should be charging for your products.
- Exploding Topics – This resource is a great way to understand what new words and topics are being discussed across the web. This can be an excellent way to research what fads are on the rise, what the world is concerned about, and what new products are coming out.
- FYI.com – In this day and age you can find almost anything online. FYI.com has online marketing templates that can help you with strategizing for your business.
- Google Sheets or Excel – Data is how we track success, capitalize on strengths, improve on areas of weakness, and analyze trends. One of the most powerful tools you can have as a company is documentation. The more you log, the more you know. Being able to look back through your records and review something you have kept tabs on for months can save you thousands of dollars in the long run.
- Here are some helpful Sheets that we have created or borrowed for our daily lives, finances, and organizing information.
- Annual Budget in the Google Sheet Template Library.
- Monthly Budget in the Google Sheet Template Library.
- Travel Planner in the Google Sheet Template Library.
- Basically all the sheets in the Google Sheet Template Library are worth looking at.
- Template of Debt Snowball, debt repayment method.
- Here are some helpful Sheets that we have created or borrowed for our daily lives, finances, and organizing information.
- Small Business Administration – This is a federal government department that helps people start small businesses. Their services are absolutely free to use! Setting up an appointment with them can really help you understand what steps you need to take to get your business off the ground. The key is to be proactive and schedule appointments with them. They may have a large number of people that they service. So, try to connect with them when you need help and not expect them to follow up with you unless you specifically asked for something. Also, they have seen a lot of dreamers with limited follow through, so don’t hate them for appearing skeptical. It just comes with experience that a lot of people talk big, but don’t take the first step to get a business up and running. Surprise them, and you will win them over as someone worth the effort.
- University Extension Offices – If you ever want to start a business that has anything to do with farming, manufacturing, production, or engineering, these people are your best friend. Even if they don’t live in your state, you can contact them. Universities pride themselves in being the most advanced education systems, so they do a lot of research! This means that a ton of research is already available about many different industries across the United States, and they are more than happy to share it with you (because who doesn’t like flaunting their work?!). Sometimes they even are looking for businesses to apply their research to in order to test real world applications. So, you may get a ton of free research done for your business that is specific to what you need when you work with them! They also have access to a ton of really expensive research tools that your computer might not even be able to handle. If you find someone that has done research in an area that is very similar to what you are looking to do, contact them! We have been blown away by how easy it is to stock a researcher because Universities keep an entire contact page for each employee!
- Dave Ramsey – This dude is the bomb. We really like his style because he helps people think strategically through what it would take to meet their financial goals. We like what he does because we both have personally used his plan for financial debt payoff. He seems a little over the top and obnoxious sometimes, but if you love conflict and hearing about other people’s money problems, his podcast is quite entertaining. Ruthie also is certified as a financial coach through his organization, and can answer specific questions you might have if you set up a meeting with her.
- Christy Wright – Christy is actually associated with Dave Ramsey, so we put them in the same area. She has written a book that has super helpful information geared towards female entrepreneurs called Business Boutique. We think her target market is probably a little older than our audience, but it still could be a good read for you if you’re a little nervous about starting out, need a boost of confidence, and someone to hold your hand through some hard questions. She also has a really cool profit potential calculator on her website, the downside is that you have to give your email address to be able to use it.
- Facebook Business Groups – We really like utilizing industry specific Facebook groups and local business owners groups to get ideas from other people, collaborate on different topics, and learn new skills. If you simply search entrepreneur groups on Facebook you will see a ton of them. The downside to these is that sometimes only a few people post continually about products you really do not care about. You can also get roped into hearing about Multi-Level Marketing programs that can waste a load of time and have limited profitability for the amount of work you have to put in. So, just be wary,, read the code of conduct rules before requesting to join, and figure out if the type of business you own will benefit from participating in discussions or asking questions there of other people. You can also join our private Facebook group where we have lots of fun conversations and share cool information that we find. Because the group is invitation only, you’ll need to send us an email requesting to join.
- Jungle Scout Sales Estimator – This tool is what you would use to check how fast a product is selling on Amazon. It basically utilizes the product ranking number within Amazon’s sales categories and tells you how many units of that product are being sold every month. This is a free tool you can use to do a quick check on the movement of an item before seriously considering whether or not you should sell it yourself. You can get the paid version of this that just is basically the same thing, but it’s a Chrome extension that allows you to know the data while you are viewing the Amazon page of the item you are thinking of selling. That can be less time consuming to use if you’re a serious Amazon seller, but if you’re cheap or casually looking to sell stuff you can use this link and just keep the browser open in a different tab!
- Nutrition Label Generator – This nifty tool was shared with us by Abigail Carpenter of Abba-Gabba.com. She recommended this tool for anyone looking to get into the food industry. Her granola looks pretty sharp with these nutritional labels on her packaging, and we were impressed!
- Recreational Rentals – Gym owner, Candice Sjogren, of 30West, shared this tool with us, and we are in love with it. This website offers you a booking & rental tool for any recreational equipment you may be offering to your customers. It also will integrate within your website to offer the rentals right there! Definitely a great tool to save you time in your rental business. Our favorite part about this tool is that it is free to use, and you only pay a booking fee when someone rents an item!
Resources to Help You Grow:
37 Hacks To Increase Productivity in Business
This resource gets you started with increasing your productivity as a small business owner. Finding what works for you can be a bit of trial and error. Thankfully, the tips we’ve put together in here are pretty easy to implement for anyone! So grab a copy, and start testing them out!
Interns Wanted
Are you hoping to try out some entrepreneurship on your own, but want to gain some experience first? We have an opportunity for you! Every year we offer a few volunteer internship positions to help us out with our social media, research, event planning, and whatever else sounds like a good idea!
Would you have to bring us coffee?
Ah, actually most of the work is done remotely, so you don’t even need to be near us.* This is an investment that we make in coaching you so that you can add some practical skills to your resume, and perhaps start something on your own in the future. We might even end up being lifelong friends! With that being said, we do have a legitimate interview process, code of conduct, and accountability expectations for getting things done. We know your time and ours is valuable, so we want to make sure everyone benefits from working together.
*If it is laid on your heart to bring me coffee, I would not be opposed to the kind gesture. -Bekkah
Interns Wanted
Are you hoping to try out some entrepreneurship on your own, but want to gain some experience first? We have an opportunity for you! Every year we offer a few volunteer internship positions to help us out with our social media, research, event planning, and whatever else sounds like a good idea!
Would you have to bring us coffee?
Ah, actually most of the work is done remotely, so you don’t even need to be near us.* This is an investment that we make in coaching you so that you can add some practical skills to your resume, and perhaps start something on your own in the future. We might even end up being lifelong friends! With that being said, we do have a legitimate interview process, code of conduct, and accountability expectations for getting things done. We know your time and ours is valuable, so we want to make sure everyone benefits from working together.
*If it is laid on your heart to bring me coffee, I would not be opposed to the kind gesture.
-Bekkah