As a small business owner, I wear a lot of hats. I also have a long to-do list each week. Without these essential tools I am certain I would lose my mind, so today I am going to share them with you, to help you make your life a little bit easier.

Acuity

This is an online scheduling software that is very flexible and helps me manage my client sessions. It lets my clients easily book appointments. I love that it is a great tool for my clients and I!

An online scheduler will make your life easier in two different ways. First off it will save you loads of time because going back and forth with someone to find a time that works for both of you takes up way too much time. Second, it helps you keep your boundaries. You set the hours that you want to work seeing clients and your scheduler keeps you to those hours.

Cost: There are different levels of plans. There is a free option if you are starting out. There is also a savings if you pay annually.

Paid plans start at $15 USD/month and go up to $50 USE/month. I have the lowest paid plan and it does what I need it to do.

There is a phone app which allows you to easily manage your client appointments on the go.

Google Streak

This is a CRM tool (Customer Relationship Management), it allows you to keep track of clients and customers, your communication with them, as well as track tasks that you need to complete. This is the backbone of my business as it helps me to track my clients and stay on top of the things I need to do. I resisted getting started with a CRM tool until almost 2 years into my business and I wish I had started with it earlier, when I had less clients to add to it.

If you find yourself with lists or trying to remember everything you need to do for your clients, a CRM will be a huge help for you.

Cost: The basic plan is included with a business gmail account and goes up to $129 USD/month. I use the basic plan and it works well for what I need.

Yes, there’s an app for that. You can easily see your tasks at a glance and you have visibility of the rest of the information as well, it just isn’t as user friendly as the desktop version. :)

Buffer

This is a tool to schedule your content for social media. You can create a post and share it across multiple platforms based on your scheduled post times for each platform. It allows you to modify the same post for each platform. It also has a handy shuffle feature so you can mix up your content if you are using similar content on multiple platforms and don’t want it to be shared at the same time. It can be used for Instagram, Facebook (pages and groups), LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter.

Cost: There is a free version, but it has limits on the number of accounts and number of posts you can have ready to go. Paid plans start at $15 USD/month and go up to $99 USD/month. I have the lowest paid plan but did use the free plan for a long time.

The app is really user friendly and let’s you create, share and edit posts on the go.

Canva

This tool lets you create beautiful visual content from social media posts to ebooks to posters. You name it, Canva can most likely help you create it. It has a huge amount of templates to give you ideas, along with so many graphics and pictures to help you create content that is relevant to your business.

Cost: You can get started with the free version but that doesn’t give you access to everything. It can be frustrating when something you have added to a piece of content is not a free feature. The paid plan is $16.99 CAD per month or $149.00 CAD per year.

Yes, you guessed it, there is an app for that too! It makes it so easy to create on the go.

What tools are essential to your business?

-Sherry