5 of the Best Small Business Tools to Grow Your Business

Are you a creative entrepreneur excited to up-level your business? While new and shiny software, platforms, and tools aren't necessary to get things off the ground, they can make a world of a difference in growing your business, streamlining your systems, and improving your client experience.

Here's a look at the best small business tools to grow your business. Some of these will help you on the backend, while others will improve your front-end marketing. As a marketing strategist, these are all tools I have been using and loving for years in my business and what I cannot live without!

5 Favorite Small Business Tools

1. ClickUp for Task Management and Content Calendars

ClickUp is a task management software that will streamline every single aspect of your business, from tracking admin and financial tasks, to communicating with clients and team members, creating and managing content, and so much more. I will be a ClickUp fan for the lifespan of my business.

Unlike its competitors (Asana, Trello, etc.), ClickUp is robust and fully customizable, meaning that you can make it work for YOU. I have ClickUp lists and folders for everything from strategic planning, to content calendar management, to even personal life things like tracking important dates, birthdays, and meal planning. You can create custom fields and statuses for each list to fully integrate ClickUp into your business's workflows.

ClickUp is also phenomenal for creating and managing a content calendar. I created a ClickUp content calendar template that I use myself and with all my clients, and it's so easy to track the progress of content across all platforms and collaborate with others via ClickUp. If you're looking for an easy way to stay up-to-date with deadlines and organize your business, ClickUp is the tool you need.

2. Flodesk for Email Marketing

Flodesk is an affordable, beautiful, women-owned email marketing platform that is perfect for any business owner. I recommend Flodesk because it's so user-friendly and more approachable than other platforms like Mailchimp, Mailerlite, and Convertkit. Flodesk was created with visuals in mind, meaning that your emails can be beautiful, on-brand, and fun to open. Click here for a blog post covering a full Flodesk review and look at its features!

One thing that sets Flodesk apart is that they have a flat monthly rate, regardless of your email list size. This means that you don't get penalized for growing your list, and they truly do want to see business owners succeed. They're always adding new features based on what their community is asking for, and I've had the pleasure of seeing Flodesk grow and improve over the years as a loyal user. Click here for a free 30-day trial and 50% off your first year of Flodesk!

3. Honeybook for Customer Relationship Management

Are you tired of sending emails back-and-forth with clients? Would you love to have a simple way to streamline communication and contracts and track leads without expensive or complicated software? Honeybook is an all-in-one customer relationship management platform that gives both the business owner AND the client a seamless experience. Click here to read a blog post all about Honeybook's pricing, features, and why I recommend it for business owners.

Honeybook literally does everything, from capturing leads, integrating with your Google Calendar to schedule meetings, connects payments, sends questionnaires, and stores templates for emails and proposals. They even have automations so you can instantly respond to new leads, meaning a higher conversion rate for you. Honeybook eliminates the need for other software such as Calendly, DocuSign, Zapier, and more. Click here to sign up for Honeybook and receive 25% off your first year!

4. Canva for Graphics Creation

Need to create graphics for your business but aren't a graphic designer? Canva has you covered! Canva is basically user-friendly Photoshop for people who don't know Photoshop. Canva makes graphics creation fun with a full library of templates for all your desired platforms.

Searching for something specific? You can create a new design in Canva fit for a particular platform! For example, if you search "Instagram story", Canva will give you all the Instagram story templates you could use. Select one you like, swap in your brand colors and fonts, add your text and images, and BOOM—you have a design to export and share with your community.

5. Squarespace for Website Hosting

Do you need to create a new website? Squarespace is the website hosting platform I use and highly recommend, especially if you aren't familiar with coding. Sqaurespace uses drag-and-drop web design features and is so dang easy to use, even for beginners. There are also all the SEO (search engine optimization) features you need to get your website found organically via Google.

I switched to Squarespace after years of having a Wordpress website, and instantly my website received more viewers and was faster. I enjoy updating my website because it's fun and simple to do without complicated code and plugins. Squarespace also offers a mobile and desktop viewing option, so you can ensure that your website looks perfect no matter how visitors are viewing it.

Bootstrapping in Business

While I highly recommend all of these small business tools to grow your business, I do want to add a caveat that these are not technically necessary—especially if you are just starting out. These are "nice to have", but not crucial. You DO need a way to collect payments. You DO need some sort of product or service to offer and some way to market it. You SHOULD have an email list (my personal opinion, but it's been proven to be one of the best way to boost sales).

However, sometimes bootstrapping in business is a necessary first step. Certain companies try to entice the brand new entrepreneur with fancy, expensive equipment that they don't even need until years down the line. Go with your gut, and make smart investments. There is nothing wrong with bootstrapping, especially if you're new. In fact, that's something to take pride in. Cheering for you always, friend!