My Top 4 Most Loved Online Tools to Help Make Your Biz Life Easier

Running any kind of business all on your lonesome is challenging. You’re trying to keep on top of all the things, all the time. Often it feels like you’re constantly switching gears, donning a precarious stack of business hats, and all the while you feel like you’re never going to quite catch up on that mammoth to-do list.

Honestly, the to-do list never really ends. And there’s always a new goal in your sights so you can continue to grow and evolve as a biz owner. That’s what makes this rollercoaster so damn exciting anyway, right?

But there are a few ways to make your life easier. Especially in this new-fangled digital age we find ourselves navigating.

And for me, as a first-time entrepreneur, there have been four standout tools that have helped me organise my shiz, remove some of that daunting overwhelm, and elevate my online presence.

Maybe you’re just starting out, or maybe you’ve been at the game for a while now and you want to improve your workflow and amplify your brand. Wherever you’re at on your business journey, these tools are sure to help.

And as a disclaimer - if you sign up for any of these great tools via the links below, I’ll get a little extra boost of moola, which is always nice, dontcha think? And that means you’ll have some powerful karmic energy floating your way soon, too!

Freshbooks

Speaking of moola… I can’t stress enough how important it is to stay on top of your business finances. And manually keeping track of your earnings and expenses can be a massive time-suck.

Don’t get me wrong - I love faffing around with a sexy spreadsheet. I’m a nerd like that. But when everything’s automated it makes life oh-so-much-easier.

Freshbooks not only tracks your money coming in and out, it can also be used to send things like invoice reminders - so you can get paid on time, which is obviously a big deal, especially to those of us who are running the show solo. And because you can schedule the reminders to automatically send at certain time intervals, it takes away some of that icky feeling you get when you have to chase up your money directly.

Created using MOYO Studio’s Valencia Collection.

Freshbooks also has a bunch of ready-to-use templates so you can keep your proposals, invoices, and reports all looking super professional. And because Freshbooks accepts almost every kind of payment, it will make your clients’ lives easier, as well as your own.

Canva

Don’t know about you, but I think whoever invented Canva was one smart cookie.

When you’re starting your biz you want to look the part. You want to have some compelling graphics to entice those all-important early audience members. But you don’t want to spend a fortune on a professional graphic design service quite yet. You know every penny counts in the beginning.

Here’s where Canva comes in.

You can quickly and easily design your branding so you have something gorgeous to put out to the world and differentiate your service from everyone else’s.

And if you’ve tried to use Photoshop and felt a tad intimidated, you’re gonna love the intuitive experience of Canva.

You can make your biz logo, your website favicon, create all your marketing materials all within Canva. And your brand colours and fonts can be saved so you can easily play with different designs.

Created using MOYO Studio’s Vienna Collection.

When you sign up for the Premium version you can instantly resize your designs so they’re optimised for whatever social media platform you want to post on - easily switch your Insta post and optimise it for Facebook or Pinterest or LinkedIn. Easy!

One word of warning about Canva: If you’re easily distracted by pretty things, Canva can be dangerous. All too often I look up from my screen and realise I’ve been diddling with my designs for far longer than I intended.

I recommend setting yourself a limit on how much time you want to spend every week prepping your content, and getting those designs D-O-N-E. Because done is better than perfect, right?!

MOYO Studio

I cannot shout about the amazing MOYO team enough. Not only are this husband and wife duo supremely talented, they’re also truly wonderful human beings. I know this because for the past 15+ years they’ve been two of my favourite people. So yes, I’m rather biased, but I also like to think of myself as a terrific judge of character.

And once you see their work, you’ll understand exactly what I mean.

MOYO Studio creates absolutely stunning photos and digital mockups for the creatively-minded entrepreneur. Whether you’re a designer, copywriter, illustrator, or web developer, you’re going to find the perfect assets to elevate your brand.

Created using MOYO Studio’s Sienna Collection.

Want to show off your shiny new website to your audience? Or promote an exciting new product? Or maybe you just want to up your visual game on social? MOYO has a ton of beautifully curated images to choose from, plus an impressive array of digital design mockups that are easily customisable.

For ideas and inspiration on how to use MOYO in your creative business, search #madebymoyo. Ooh là là!

Planoly

This year I’ve gone through long stints of “social media paralysis”. You know, when the sense of dread and overwhelm about posting anything becomes so monumental that you end up completely abandoning your audience. You’ve spent so long nurturing and serving your beloved followers only to leave them wondering “where did Robyn go?”.

But one tool has really turned my online marketing around. Planoly.

Created using MOYO Studio’s Sienna Collection.

And because of Planoly I can now say I fully appreciate the value of batching! Writing a bunch of Insta posts in advance and having them all queued to auto post has totally shifted my attitude towards social media.

After all, your social media should feel like it’s working for you, not against you.

Planoly allows you to visually plan your Insta grid and line up all your posts weeks, or - if you’re feeling really organised - months in advance. Because you can do all this on your laptop, it makes writing compelling posts much easier. (Thumb writing at length is no fun, in my opinion.)

It also means you won’t be spending as much time distractedly scrolling, giving you more time to focus on those income-generating tasks. Double win!

Of course, it’s still important to make sure you’re actually engaging with your audience and not just posting then ducking out. But instead of getting caught up in the feed/scroll trap, be intentional about your socialisation. Try setting a timer and only reply, comment, or repost during that time every day. Believe me, your brain will thank you.

So, there you have it! My four most loved online business tools. What are some of your favourite game changing tools for running your own biz? Share yours in the comments below.

And if you think someone you know would enjoy this post, go on and send this their way - I always love connecting with new biz friends!