Tools to run your online business with ease…

Business is supposed to be easy… and luckily there are some amazing people out there who have created the products and services out there that makes running an online business a synch! Below are the ones I have used to get myself up and running to where I am today.

Remember though… your mindset and energy alignment with your desires is paramount. That is 80% of what you need to be successful. The rest is just structure and tools. Remember, the tools come after your mindset. The tools are just here to serve us in making our lives as easy and effortless as possible while we create what we already have in our heart. 

XOXO Arwen

COMMUNICATION

Acuity Scheduling – Great scheduling app. I like it because I can do free calls as well as paid calls. Integrates with QuickBooks, MailChimp, PayPal and your GoogleCalendar or iCloud calendar. Free account available. With the $10 a month plan you can hook it up to paypal and get reminders before your calls etc.

Skype – For having conversations or ‘video phone calls’ online. (Zoom is good too.)

FreeConferenceCall.com – For having phone conversations with clients.

FILMING

Canon VIXIA HF R600 (Black) – Great camera, good sound without a mic (but you can plug one in if need be) and a flip around viewfinder which I love. I make all my YouTube Videos with this.

Photography Photo Portrait Studio 600W Day Light Umbrella Continuous Lighting Kit by LimoStudio – Best lighting kit for around $50. It lets me film at night and you would never know! Its great and folds up easily to go in the closet.

Sunpak 620-020 Tripod – Simple easy tripod to use for filming video.

2TeraByte Seagate Hard Drive – Back up your computer no excuses! They have it for Mac & Windows.

WEBSITE

Divi Theme By Elegant Themes – When I was a web designer this was the theme I came back to time and time again. It’s such a user friendly interface and Elegant Themes has tons of videos on YouTube walking you thru how to use their theme. There is no excuse not to have a great professional looking website.

GoDaddy Hosting – For your WordPress hosting. I prefer it over HostGator and I’ve had both. GoDaddy’s support is fantastic. Definitely start with GoDaddy. When you have a bazillion visitors later you’ll have to upgrade your hosting at WP Engine or something similar.

WordPress – The software your website will sit on.

MailChimp – For collecting emails, organizing your lists, and automating your newsletter.

PayPal – For taking payments from clients or for your online courses.

Amazons S3 Account – Good for delivering PDF’s as well as audio downloads.

Pixlr.com – (free) for editing your pictures. Just like Photoshop but with less features, but most likely can fulfill all your needs. And best of all there are tons of YouTube videos showing you how to use it.

Pixlr Auto Desk – ($15 a year) Has lots of overlays and things that the regular free Pixlr doesn’t have. I used this to create the pictures of the universe with the geometric overlay you see on my website.

All the tools you see above I use in my business almost daily and couldn’t run it without it. The tools below you don’t have to have… but they are things I have used on my journey.

iTunes – Use this to back up your iPhone. I back mine up on iTunes & iCloud. Better to be safe than sorry.

iCloud – Tell your iPhone to auto back up your contacts and calendar to iCloud daily. (It’s under settings) that way if something happens to your iPhone, you have access to all your contacts and calendar when you log into iCloud from your computer. And you can put all that info on your new iPhone. Note -I don’t back up my pictures to iCloud because I don’t want them there, and it takes up to much space. I take the pictures from my phone and put them onto my computer (by using ‘My Computer’ if you have windows), then put them on my Seagate External Hard Drive.

Wacom Intus 4 Drawing Tablet – Amazingly simple tool for people who would rather draw when doing graphic work on the computer instead of using a mouse. After using this at my local college, I fell in love with it, and now I’m like… what mouse?

Audio Technica Lav Mic – Great Lav mic for $20. Has smart phone attachment so you can use it on your phone or camera. If your sitting in a quiet place within 5 feel of the canon camera I have mentioned above, you don’t need a mic.

Canva.com – Also a fantastic tool for creating images for your website. What is nice about Canva is that it has templates for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc. (If you want to use Pixlr to create these social media temples, you can just Google the dimensions for these different things and then create a new canvas in the correct dimensions.)

Squrespace.logo.com – Best place to get a logo for $10 in 10 minutes. When purchased it you your Logo in color, black with a white background, and white with a clear background. You should focus on what your special sauce is and why people should hire you, and NOT spend 2 weeks on your logo. Use this resource and move on to the important things in your business.

Adobe Color CC – Fun place to see already created color schemes.

Adobe Color CC Color Wheel – Fun way to come up with new color schemes.

Fiverr – Great place to get simple graphic design work done.

Audacity – I use this to save and record the ‘audio only’ off of videos that I’m playing on my computer.

Ecamm Call Recorder – For recording your Skype conversations (on MAC only).

E-Junkie – Delivers your electronic products.

YouTube – Where I host my free public videos.

Vimeo – For $200 a year Vimeo will hosts your private videos, like those you want create for an online course.

LearnDash – Great Plugin to use with WordPress if you’re going to create online courses.

iTalk App – For my iPhone to record notes to myself when I’m in the car or for recording face to face interviews. I can easily put the MP3 file on my computer by plugging my phone into iTunes and pulling it off that way.

Device Pitstop (formerly LapTop Exchange) – If there is one in your city (they’re a franchise I think), consider checking them out if you need an almost new computer. You can get a good computer for a great price.

FileZilla – Allows you to upload files directly to your WordPress database or copy them in case your website crashes. Only do this if you know what you’re doing.

Google Analytics – For tracking visitors to your website.

TransferBigFiles – Allows you to send really big files for free! (bigger than HighTail (formerly YouSendIt))

HighTail (formerly YouSendIt) –Allows you to send big files also, and is what I use to send audio files to clients for them to download. They can create an account also and save it there for themselves if they like.

Everytimezone – Cool visual website for checking Time Zones.