AUTOMATE YOUR BUSINESS FOR PRODUCTIVITY

One thing about being an online business owner is that there are so many software tools and applications to make your business and your life easier. New ones are coming out all the time! I know all that blog and business admin stuff can add up and eat through hours of your day, so here are 12 best tools for productivity for your business. I use automation to save time so I can focus on more important (and let’s face it, more fun) tasks!

Infographic included!

Every part of my business is run online, which means printing/scanning/snail mailing contracts was just not going to work. HelloSign is the perfect solution. I create a contract and save to Dropbox, open it in HelloSign, add a little box for the client’s signature and off it goes. They sign electronically, it’s legally binding, and it’ ends up in my email inbox done!

This is very similar to Zapier where you create recipes that when a task is complete, then it can trigger another task. This is a free tool and they keep adding applications. Try it!

Customers now click a button to make their purchase and immediately receive their files without me having to lift a finger.

Before a client email ever lands in my inbox I ask them a series of questions through a form on my website that gives me all the pertinent info and what they’ll be like to work with. It cuts down on the back and forth emails and sends us straight into nailing down a schedule.

I use this tool to tweet my post and share other people’s posts and content. The Chrome extension makes it easier. I can even highlight a sentence and turn it into a tweet!

I use PayPal to run take care of installment billing as an option for my clients. This way I do not have to keep track of what day they each need to be billed.

The best tool for social sharing. They show up on the side of a post and scroll with the user so they do not have to search for the buttons.when ready to share my content.

Most bookkeeping apps make you create a client to invoice process. With Xero you can record income as an item and this comes in handy for my e-products.

I spend an hour to 2 hours each week to schedule my pins across multiple boards. This app allows you to have lists of boards which cuts down on Pinterest time to practically nothing!.

Asana allows me to create to-dos, add notes for each project (like links or instructions), upload files, set due dates, track time, include comments and conversations. There are filter options for things you wish to keep an eye on. Save time in scrolling your list!

This is the easiest calendar appointment scheduler I have ever used. You send the link to your client and they choose the time and date. You can also sync it to your Google calendar.

This app has been my go-to for saving blog post ideas, email inspiration, appointments and my shopping list too. Runs on your desktop, phone or tablet. There is also a Chrome extension called Web Clipper where you can save pages from the web and make notes with the annotate function.