I have spent years researching tools and using different software with every project that I start to generate income from. I’ve used dozens of different tools for helping launch blog sites, tools for email marketing, tools for tracking customer outreach and relationships (CRMs).
In the video below, I go through some top tools for business that I’m using to run my projects (you’ll find the list with links below the video – note that many of them are affiliate links, which means I will be paid a commission if you use the link – but you’ll pay the same price and will often be given a special deal from the company by using my link).
Below are currently my top favorites in each of those categories.
I have a larger resource list here, but this is the main page I revisit to update the tools that I’m using to run my businesses. I could talk about each of these for days and am happy to do so over in the YouTube comments.
My Current Top Tools For Business Are…
Grammarly
Grammarly is a life-saving tool for me. I started out using it as a simple spelling tool. I downloaded the free version and used it for a year. As I began writing blog content and hiring writers, I needed a way to confirm that my writers weren’t copying parts of other articles on the internet. Grammarly has a plagiarism checker that checks your content across billions of indexed pages of online data. I also began copying anything important I was writing into Grammarly – bios, important emails, copy for letters – Grammarly can make any of these things better!
Streamyard
I use Streamyard for live streaming on Facebook and YouTube as well as creating video podcasts. It creates really professional streams. What I like is that you can also just use it to record things like professional interviews without live streaming. Then I have a final video that has intros, outros, overlays, and music – all done live during the interview so that I don’t have to go back and post edit the content.
Buzzsprout
I love Buzzsprout and use it as our Podcast Host. After using Libsyn for a year, I made the decision to switch over to Buzzsprout once I found it. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be and was definitely worth it.
Divi WordPress Theme
The Divi Theme is my favorite WordPress Theme and is currently used for this site. I fell in love with the Divi builder that makes creating beautiful websites really easy. The long-term issue with the theme might be speed. As speed becomes more and more important, Elegant Themes (the maker of Divi) will have to keep improving and speeding up the theme in order to remain at the top of my list.
Bluehost Web Hosting
I have used Bluehost for 7 years. It’s very affordable and is perfect for hosting smaller websites where you are just getting started. You can switch to a better web host (like WPX) when your site traffic grows to 10,000+ visitors per month.
WPX Web Hosting
I moved this site over to WPX hosting because I felt that my site was slow and I knew that upgrading my hosting could be one of the many moves that I could make to help speed up my site. Plus, I had heard great things about WPX. I was right and my site now loads faster. The service at WPX has been incredible, but it’s a bit more expensive. Read about my switch to WPX.
Legendary Marketer
If you’re not sure of what hustle or business to start then you’ll want a system like Legendary Marketer that can fully help guide and coach you through that process. It will help you begin from scratch to help you with niche selection and how to appropriately market online.
ConvertKit
For Email Marketing I use ConvertKit. I switched from Mailchimp and am loving ConvertKit so far. Nothing personal against Mailchimp, and I still use it for other projects. But I had heard so many great things about ConvertKit’s simplicity, deliverability, and automation tools – I just had to use it for my brand. And it’s great.
Canva
My favorite tool of the year is Canva! I feel like a professional designer because of it. I don’t mean to scare designers, but this tool has made most of our projects doable with our staff where I would have needed to hire a designer in the past. Header images, media kits, social media graphics, promo images, and more. Of course, if I need creative branding ideas or logo design, I will continue to hire graphic designers.
Screencast-O-Matic
I use Screencast-O-Matic as a screen recording both for training my employees as well as for making YouTube videos. It has a built-in screen capture tool, but the editing that it can handle is impressive as well. Oh, and it’s super affordable.
That list of top tools is enough to handle most of what you’ll need to do as an entrepreneur. But if you’d like to see my exhaustive list of tools, I’m happy to share it with you.