When it comes to running a leveraged online business that gives you your time back while also giving you unlimited income possibilities, you need software and tools to make your life easier. Investing in the right software can absolutely change the game for your business.
Here are the best tools I have personally used, either for my own business or for my clients. I highly recommend everything on this list. If something is not on this list, it’s likely I’ve tried it and I didn’t like it.
There are some affiliate links in this list. That means that if you sign up to the software and pay fees I may get a small commission.
Membership & Online Course Platforms
Kajabi
I’ve tried most of them, and in my books Kajabi is the best platform there is for hosting your online courses and memberships.
Kajabi is an all-in-one course platform, but its strength lies in the way you can host your digital products. It is simple and intuitive to use for your customers, and provides an excellent experience. It is also straightforward and easy to learn for course creators.
If you consider yourself a bit tech-phobic, Kajabi is the way you will get up and running the fastest. There is excellent support on hand from the Kajabi team too.
Kajabi also includes all the marketing tools you will need to get started, such as email marketing, checkouts and a landing page builder.
It’s worth investing in the right tool that has everything you need, and for that you simply cannot go past Kajabi.
You can get an extended 30 day free trial of Kajabi here >>
Kajabi Templates
Want an amazing looking landing page, sales page or website? These templates from Launch In Style are my personal favourite Kajabi templates. You simply change the colours and fonts to your own, and off you go. These templates save you hours of work trying to create your own.
View the templates in the Launch In Style store here >>
Email Marketing
Drip
I personally use Drip for a variety of reasons, and I love it! I recommend that all my clients who want to have a dedicated email tool (meaning they don’t want to use Kajabi).
I used Active Campaign for a long time because everyone talks about it as being THE tool, but I had a lot of issues with it. The user interface is fugly and the deliverability was really bad. I switched to Drip and have never looked back.
Drip has a beautiful user interface which makes it easy to use. Deliverability has been amazing for me, I’ve never had any issues with that side of things on Drip. And the integrations that Drip has with other software is very extensive.
It starts at just $19/month and goes up from there so it’s very cost effective too!
Landing page builders
LeadPages
This is a great option if you already have a place to host your online course, but it doesn’t provide landing pages suitable for registration pages and sales pages. It’s very affordable too, at only $37 a month on the lowest plan. It’s not an all in one tool, it’s just for building pages but it’s great. They have lots of gorgeous templates so it’s really easy to get up and running.
Graphic Design
Canva Pro
Let’s face it, most of us are not designers and never will be. Not having this skill set can be a bit of an issue to making our marketing look good. Fortunately there’s Canva – the best design platform for non-designers out!
Canva has a free level, which is great if you just want to try it out. However I find the Pro version absolutely essential if you’re running a business. You can store all your brand colours, fonts etc, you have access to a magic background remover + more!
I recommend giving Canva Pro a try now!
Pop Up Software
Convert Box
Having a well-positioned pop up box on your website can boost your email list exponentially. Convert Box is a great tool for this, as it allows not only pop-ups, but also embedded forms with in your page. This is a feature that I absolutely love. You can personalise the form that your website visitors see based on their previous interactions with you, to add that personal flavour. The best thing about this tool – it’s a lifetime offer so no monthly subscription fees.
Quiz builders
Interact
If you’re focused on growing the size of your email list, a quiz is a great option. Something quirky that will not only help you meet your lead generation goals, but also provide a fun and interactive experience for your new leads! Interact is a great easy to use and affordable option.
Check out pages for your digital products
Thrive Cart
This is what I personally use to process all my online payments. It’s secure, it’s reliable and it provides some great integrations with a range of email service providers. You are also able to design a shopping cart experience that promotes conversions and is seamless from a customer viewpoint. Bonus – it’s a one time purchase so no ongoing fees. I highly recommend this one!
Evergreen countdown timers
Deadline Funnel
If you’re running evergreen offers that are only available for a certain period of time, then you need an automated countdown timer like Deadline Funnel.
You can embed this countdown timer either on your sales page or inside your emails.
This is a must for a fully automated business.
Check out Deadline Funnel here
Payment processors
Stripe
If you’re looking for a reliable payment processor, then Stripe is the way to go. It integrates with most shopping carts and payment is delivered to your bank account within days.
PayPal
This is a good option to have available as many people are already using PayPa to make purchases online! That is the number one reason to use it, otherwise Stripe offers cheaper transaction fees.
Accounting Software
Xero
Xero is my favourite accounting software because it’s made in NZ of course! Besides that little fact though, it’s a very robust accounting tool that will allow you to keep track of all your business moneys and give you the reports you need to make smart business decisions.
Proposals and Contracts
Proposify
If you are providing services, it’s vital that you present what you can provide in a way that showcases the quality of work they can expect from you. And it’s also vital that you lay out the conditions of the contract and have your client sign them before you get started. This can sometimes turn into a real hassle if you’re not using an electronic signing tool. Proposify is a tool that I personally use and combines both proposals into one platform. It’s so intuitive and easy to use – I couldn’t do business without it.
File Storage
Amazon s3
If you’re providing your customers with a lot of PDF downloads, then you need somewhere reliable to host them. Amazon s3 is a great option for this, because it is so cheap! It’s also very seamless for the person downloading the item, as it’s a simple click and download. No more telling people how to find the download button in Dropbox (PS. I’m not a Dropbox fan as it is far too expensive).
Don’t be put off by the techy jargon, you can easily set up what you need to deliver your goodies to your leads and clients at very little to no cost.
Google Drive
I honestly could not do business without Google Drive….well it would be a lot harder. With a GSuite account, you get access to a large amount of storage space inside Google Drive. Not to mention the collaborative documents, spreadsheets and slides. I share documents with my coaching clients for live edits and feedback. Everything important in my business is inside Google Drive! It’s an absolute must for your business.
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Email Hosting for Business
Google Workspace (previously GSuite)
This email hosting tool from Google offers much more than just email – in fact there’s an entire suite of products. Many of these products are ones I use every single day in my business. Collaborative tools such as Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides are vital for teams to work on the same document and see changes in real time. This is a must have business tool in my opinion.
If you use the link below with a referral link, you will get 20% off for your entire first year. Reach out to us to get your referral link.
Project management
Trello
I personally use Trello to run my business and keep track of all my tasks. I’m a visual person and like to see it all laid out in front of me and Trello just works with my brain! It’s great for setting up processes that you can then replicate over and over again to get things done. It’s also really easy to move tasks around – I just love it!
Asana
Asana is another great project management tool that works really well for a lot of people. Definitely worth trialling and I find most entrepreneurs either love this or prefer Trello – we’re all different!
Productivity
Focus Keeper – Pomodoro app
Sometimes when I’m struggling to focus, there is nothing more effective to break me out of the funk than a few sprints using the Pomodoro method. A Pomodoro is 25 minutes focus, with a 5 minute break, repeated four times. You can do it once a day or repeat multiple times – it really works!
I use the iOS app Focus Keeper on my iPhone to track all of this and get me moving.
Website Hosting
Siteground
If you’ve got a WordPress website, Siteground provides a really solid web hosting service. They are so quick with support too, which is the main reason I rate them so highly. Because when something goes wrong with your website, you will be so grateful for that fast support.
Screen recording
Screenflow
If you’re filming an online course where you’re recording lessons or slides on your screen, Screenflow is the best (for a Mac). I highly recommend it if you want to be able to edit your videos. You buy a license so buy it once, use it forever!
Video conferencing
Zoom
Zoom is my current favourite for my coaching calls as it’s secure, I can record all my calls and they save in the cloud or download to my computer. Another feature I love about it is that on the Pro plan, you can livestream straight to Facebook or YouTube, either by yourself or with guests on the call.
It’s fairly easy to use for your clients too, they have to download Zoom when they use it the first time and that’s it. You can dial in from your desktop, your laptop or your mobile from anywhere with an internet connection.
Video hosting
Vimeo
Online businesses often rely on a lot of video for marketing and for teaching your students. You need somewhere to store all of these videos so that they can embedded into your online course platform. Vimeo is great for this – it’s cost-effective, you have total control over the privacy settings and you can change the colours of the video functions to suit your brand!
Online appointment scheduling software
Calendly
Calendly is a great solution to set your calendar and just send your link quickly so people can book a time with you. This streamlines this whole process (because who wants to email back and forth about finding a time to meet!)
You can also embed these calendars onto a web page and it looks mint!
SEO Tools
SERanking
If you’re looking for an up-and-coming SEO tool but you’re not so keen on paying the big bucks, SE Ranking is a nice option in the middle. Easily track your keyword rankings and keep track of your websites performance.
Yoast Premium for WordPress
If you’ve got a WordPress website, it’s worth having a good SEO plugin that will help keep you on track with your on-page optimisation. For this I recommend the Yoast Premium plug-in which manages all of your redirects plus a whole bunch of handy features. It also has a free version so you can test it out first.
Social media scheduling
There’s no doubt that platforms favour if you post directly on their platform. But sometimes this isn’t possible if you’re on limited time. So below I am recommending the next best options.
Later
This scheduling app is really useful if you want to schedule your Instagram posts from your desktop. You can schedule up to 30 posts per month on their free plan, and have the option to schedule your Instagram stories from their paid plans. You can preview your feed before you post, and choose between auto posting or posting via a notification (which might improve your reach). A great Insta tool to have up your sleeve!
SmarterQueue
I have used SmarterQueue in the past and some of my clients use it with great success. It has such an intuitive calendar view that it really is so easy to use (unlike some other options out there). The true power in SmarterQueue though is that you can schedule posts to recycle more than once which is great for automation. You can also schedule to Facebook groups.