When I first started my writing consultancy business, I was happy and excited to embark on the journey of a solopreneur. I had a handful of clients. I mostly did writing work, which meant I just needed a reliable internet connection to do the job. Raising invoices hardly took time. Payments got cleared without any follow-ups. Life was easy.
As the years rolled by, my writing work remained an integral part of my daily routine. However, it was not the only thing I focused on as a solopreneur anymore. Business development, client relationship management, coordination with fellow freelancers, and branding also got added to my scope of work.
Suddenly I had too much on my plate, and my organizational skills went for a toss! But, I quickly realized we live in the golden age of technology with tens of thousands of tools at our disposal. So, I decided to make the most of that.
I soon started using a fair number of tools for managing different aspects of my business. Life was easy once again, and my business continued to thrive. If you are in a similar state of disarray, go through the toolkit I have created explicitly for solopreneurs with fast-growing businesses. You can thank me later!
I. Writing
1. HubSpotâs Blog Ideas Generator
Ideas have a problem. They donât always come to you when you want them to, and that can be frustrating for a solopreneur whose work includes writing corporate articles regularly. In such a scenario, the HubSpot tool is a life savior!
Type in five nouns to get 250+ blog ideas â enough for a yearâs work. I use it from time to time to search for ideas on a topic done to death. The results never disappoint!
Cost: Free
2. Headline Analyzer From CoSchedule
No matter how well-written an article is, it wonât work unless its heading is appealing. I always face a lot of trouble in coming up with interesting titles, so I resort to the CoSchedule tool, which gives me a detailed analysis of the overall structure, grammar, and readability of the proposed headline. And thatâs good enough to tell me if I should keep the headline or trash it.
Cost: Free
3. Grammarly
I hate making silly typos and grammatical errors while writing, but mistakes creep in no matter how careful one is. While Microsoft Word and Google Docs do a basic spell-check, that is not enough. Grammarlyâs paid version picks up wrongly spelled words, suggests synonyms, corrects an ill-framed sentence, and more. I always run all my articles through it.
Cost: Freemium
II. Website
4. WordPress
Website development is an expensive activity. So, I always kept a blog on WordPress to showcase my published work. But when my business started scaling up, I realized I needed a website with a custom URL. And since I was not financially strong enough to get a website designed from scratch, I upgraded my WordPress account.
That gave me access to their premium themes. I picked one and customized it according to my brand guidelines. If you have a Business plan, use free and paid plugins such as JetPack, YoastSEO, and Easy Google Fonts to enhance your user experience. You can check out my WordPress website here.
Cost: Paid
III. Social media
5. Buffer
I love Buffer! It is easy-to-use, offers useful analytics, and hardly ever has scheduling issues. Managing multiple social media accounts from a single dashboard is convenient. The free version allows the user to schedule up to 10 updates on any three social media channels.
Buffer also fetches images from the links you want to publish, which means you donât have to download pictures separately and upload them. The paid version is even better. For starters, you can schedule Pinterest Pins and have an approval system for scheduled posts (perfect when you are working with a team).
The analytics reports are more advanced too! I highly recommend the tool to my startup clients who are at the cusp of establishing a social presence.
Cost: Freemium
6. TweetDeck
As the name suggests, this is a tool only for Twitter posts, and I genuinely enjoy it. Thanks to its layout, you can not only use it to converse with influencers and connect with industry peers but also stay on the top daily news. I donât think there is any limit to the number of scheduled posts on TweetDeck. And, thatâs what makes it so awesome!
Cost: Free
7. HootSuite
I was once called the unofficial brand ambassador of HootSuite by my colleagues because I was mad about the tool and recommended it to everyone. Nothingâs changed even today. I use Buffer and HootSuite for different clients, and it works magically!
What I love about HootSuite is that you can monitor multiple streams in one place! You can add streams of new mentions, followers, and likes to keep up to date with what interactions customers have with you on social media. The tool is a boon for B2C businesses that deal with customers daily.
Cost: Freemium
IV. Analytics
8. Google Analytics
I am sure you have a website. So, how actively do you leverage Google Analytics? After all â it is the most basic tracking mechanism of a site! With the tool, study metrics such as bounce rate, average time spent on a page, customer acquisition through social channels, and trending keywords. Identify whatâs working with the website and what isnât. Trust me â it will help you create a far more effective inbound strategy for your business. (Photo from Neil Patel)
Cost: Free
9. Kissmetrics
Every solopreneur, irrespective of domain expertise, thinks they understand the target audience well, but such is usually not the case. With Kissmetrics, you can track the actions of every user on your website. I use the tool for one of my clients to study the weekly reports on monthly revenue projections, paying subscribers, top referrals, and results of any A/B tests.
According to its founder, Josh Ledgard, Kissmetrics helped his clients in calculating the Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) rate and making improvements in the landing page templates offered on the website. While Google Analytics highlights the data, this tool shows what needs to be done with that data.
Cost: Paid
V. Email marketing
10. MailChimp
I love MailChimp! It offers a range of templates, and its drag-and-drop editor makes it easy for anyone to design visually impressive emails. You can set up a drip-email campaign to educate the subscriber about your products or services and nurture them to become your customers. Even if you only want to send automated messages like a âthank youâ email in response to an email subscription, MailChimp is ideal.
Cost: Freemium
VI. Proposals
11. PandaDoc
A friend of mine introduced me to the tool, and I instantly got hooked! PandaDoc allows you to create custom branded documents for your business. I find its web-based document editor particular easy-to-use because of its drag and drop feature.
Moreover, your clients can electronically sign the document from any device. Sending proposals, invoices, contracts has never been this easy! And, it is cost-effective too.
Cost: Paid
VI. Finances
12. Wave
The same friend of mine also introduced me to Wave, and now I use it for creating invoices. But it is so much more than that! Exclusively designed for freelancers, businesses, and consultants, Wave comprises many features, including payment tracking, paid receipts, finance management, payroll, and more.
You can link your bank and PayPal accounts with Wave, and directly send the invoices to your clients. The tool will also send out a follow-up email to those clients who havenât paid up with a specific timeframe. Feel free to pick up a template and customize it as per your business needs.
Cost: Freemium
13. Quickbooks
Any new business would initially have just one finance person to maintain the books manually. But as a business grows, arises the need for a software that can do this task with ease and within a narrower timeframe. QuickBooks is a convenient tool to automate the entire bookkeeping process.
Cost: Paid (with a 30-day free trial)
VII. Project management
14. Trello
If you love to color-code your tasks and want to be able to see your entire schedule in one go, Trello is right for you! Seriously â I canât imagine my life without Trello and have made boards for both professional and personal tasks. It is such a simple tool!
Also apt for project management, Trello helps multiple teams categorize their tasks and conveniently displays what everyone is working on. If you work with a freelance team, go for it. It is also easier to chase deadlines on Trello because it shoots an email every time the user is near the deadline.
Cost: Freemium
15. Basecamp
If you work extensively with freelancers, then keeping track of them and their tasks daily is necessary. Basecamp is an efficient task management tool that offers a regular âcheck-inâ feature for keeping all the freelancers on the same page.
Cost: Paid
16. Asana
Project management is key to business growth, and thatâs a skill every solopreneur should master. Mapping out every task and organizing even the tiniest details under one dashboard can make it easier for solopreneurs to work through stages quickly.
Asana is the right tool for you and your freelancers if you wish to stay in sync, meet deadlines, and achieve business goals. It not only helps you work together transparently but also increases the ownership of each task and drives better results.
Cost: Paid
17. Airtable
A friend of mine suggested the tool to me almost three years ago. I didnât like it back then, but I decided to give it another try this year. And honestly, I canât get enough of it! I primarily use Airtable for curating the editorial calendar of my website.
It is a dynamic tool that allows me to create filters on the sheet and makes viewing tasks much more straightforward. Additionally, it offers multiple templates, including Marketing Asset Management, PR & Media CRM, Event Marketing, Design Project Pipeline, and more. And anyone who knows me knows that I love free templates. đ
Cost: Freemium (The paid version is definitely better!)
VIII. Communication
18. Slack
The idea behind Slack is to make business communication easier and transparent. One of my clients uses it extensively. I am a part of many channels on our dedicated account. On Slack, one can share files, gifs, and respond to conversation threads privately.
I have integrated my profile with the clientâs Google Drive and Trello. The tool is free to use, but you can also purchase it to access features such as group calls with screen sharing, corporate exports for all messages, and designated customer success teams.
Cost: Freemium
IX. Design
19. Canva
Designers are an invaluable but expensive resource for any solopreneur. My bootstrapped business has survived without a designer for the longest time â all thanks to Canva that converted me into an amateur designer in a matter of minutes!
I love Canva! It is easy-to-use, has multiple templates in different themes and for all types of digital platforms. Want to make a social media graphic for a school? Want to create a corporate presentation? Want to design an attractive leaflet to promote the business? Whatever your requirements are, you can design anything and everything on Canva.
Cost: Freemium
20. Unsplash
If your work is heavily focused on visuals, then you should keep an eye on platforms to access pre-stock images. One such publication is Unsplash, which features hundreds of thousands of images across multiple industries â be it lifestyle, travel, finance, marketing, branding. Who said searching for images was a task? It certainly isnât if you are using Unsplash!
Cost: Free
X. Storage
21. Google Drive
Your company is at a stage where it is growing at a rapid pace. Offline excel sheets are not handy anymore. You require a tool that allows smooth collaboration across teams, and what’s better than Google Drive?
I love the fact that I can access files on the Drive from anywhere and complete tasks quickly. It also helps me share edited work with my clients or freelancers, thus maintaining a convenient sense of transparency!
Cost: Free
Over to you
We solopreneurs are always short on resources â be it time, money, or staff. I am always on my toes, juggling different aspects of my business. It is fun and exciting to have something of my own, but I would also like to give my business a competitive advantage.
I believe with the right set of tools, solopreneurs can reduce their teething problems to a large extent, and focus solely on doing a good job and bagging more clients. If you want to sell your business, sell it right â with the help of technology â as I do!
What tools do you use for your business? I am all ears.