Business Tools I Use & Love

For being a creative person I’m very “Type A” and enjoy running the business side of things as much as the creative work I do. In fact, before Brand Photography I worked as an Administrative Assistant. For many entrepreneurs, the business side of things seems daunting and intimidating. These are a few of the tools I use daily to keep myself sane and my business thriving. Some affiliate links are below but trust me when I say I’d be sharing the heck out of these products and services if I didn’t have affiliate links. They’re THAT worth it 👍

Dubsado: My client tracker, invoice sender, and workflow workhorse! I LOVE Dubsado for all things client management. This is where I track new inquiries, send proposals and contracts, onboard clients, schedule meetings, collect questionnaires, and send client communication. I have templates for EVERYTHING (emails, proposals, contracts, etc.) which saves me countless hours and keeps my business streamlined. It can take a while to set up but I promise it's worth it. Sign-up using my link and you’ll receive 20% off your first month or annual plan!

Wave: It’s the free version of Quickbooks and is one of the financial world's best-kept secrets. I don’t know how they’re able to offer it for free but I’ve used it for years and LOVE it. It imports all my bank transactions so I can easily plug them into the correct expense account making things SUPER streamlined for tax season! If you’re not a numbers person, welcome to the club! Math was my worst subject in school so if I can figure this out you can too.

Canva: The place where I create any social media graphic, Pinterest templates, business freebies and pretend to be a graphic designer 😉 I used to have the paid version but found that everything I really needed was included in the FREE version. Hands down, the easiest way to market my business professionally and maintain a cohesive brand.

Asana: My daily task-tracking and business checklist. I’ve only used Asana for a few weeks but am already feeling a surge of productivity by having all my daily to-do’s in ONE place instead of scraps of paper around my office and on the notes app on my phone. I use it to schedule my ongoing monthly tasks and plan my content calendar too. The free version has all the features I need so no extra business costs here.

Toggl Tracking: I track my time during the workday so I know how long it takes me to do marketing, email, business tasks, and client projects. Toggl makes this SUPER easy. I love using both the desktop and app version.

Google Workspace: I use Google Docs to create Photo Directive's for each of my Brand Photoshoot clients. Being able to highlight text and comment back and forth within the doc makes solidifying the photoshoot plan super easy - no more sending revisions through email 🎉 I also love Google Sheets for tracking marketing metrics and creating my annual money plan.

I’d love to hear if you use any of these tools in your business or what products you’ve found helpful. Drop a comment below!