Back to Blog
 

Tools to Grow Your Business - Business Funsize Live

Aug 06, 2021

This week, Debbie and Bertie are talking about the tools we use to grow our business that save us time and money!

You don't want to miss this one! 😉


Transcript

Bertie: That was quick. We didn't even have, any preamble at the bottom. Boom. We are straight to good morning, everybody. Hello? Hello.

Debbie: I, we're talking about business tools that we use the things and the tools that we use. And I just had a quick write down. There are a lot, the things I use kind of on a weekly basis.

And I was like, oh my God. Like, thank God for all these tools enable me to be. On time while scout good grammar, hate money, all of that stuff. So there were a lot of them out

Bertie: there. Th th th there are, and that, and that's just one of those questions in the gas, what tools to use in your business. So that's what we're going to go today.

We're not going to hold back. We're going to give you everything before we do, before we do, I'm getting pointed out. Let me put down my pencil. No, one's pointy Friday before we do. I just. I

Debbie: was just a great, nobody wants you to be pointed on a Friday.

Bertie: Nope. Nobody wants to be pointing on a Friday. So what we were going to say was about all of these tools, it's very easy when you start a business to think, right, I need this and I need that and I need a website and I've got to get good at this and all this other stuff.

Like just take it easy. So we're going to probably bombard you with a list today. What this doesn't mean though. Go out and get all those tools because they're amazing. They're going to change your business. That's not the point. So we're going to talk to you that the things that we use and why we use them but equally if you're just starting out just using like the stock apps on your computer, like notes and things like that, like they're the things that I use more than anything.

So you don't necessarily need all these tools, but there'll be a point and you'll hit a wall with something, you know, Hmm, what do I do? And that's when you really start to look at using the best tool for the job, essentially. And that's what we're getting at here. So there are, there are some things that you can use that just don't don't really, aren't really fit for purpose.

So yeah. Debbie, let's go straight in. What's your, what's your favorite tool of choice? What's in your bed, slack. Now what's in what, what do you go for your iPhone?

Debbie: Like the best tool for businesses. Oh, our phones aren't they amazing. We can run our businesses from beaches, from our bedrooms, from wherever we are.

So the best thing you've got is your phone. And I think if you're like taking photos or you're taking videos, you don't need to go and get an SLR camera. You don't need to go and get a video. This thing is amazing. So just that in itself is great and can do so many things has got so many apps on there to kind of help you.

So I think my favorite tool is my phone because it goes everywhere with me and it means that I can manage my business on the go and gives me freedom, which is, which is great. Aside from that, I think. Some of the tools that kind of help me run my business the most are things like Squarespace, which I run my business from.

It's a really good, good website. And so that enables me to get out there and put it out there to people. And the other thing for me is how do I take money? How can I take those recurring payments and how can I make that payment process? Really simple. So I use GoCardless and Stripe and a thing called member space on the back of my website and member space enables me to create pages that are locked down that only members can see.

And I'm also using a thing called Kajabi. In a new venture with Debbie and Emmy. So I think the first things are those kinds of nuts and bolts stuff that you need to be seen to take money, to create those products. And for me, the, the simplest things, the best, I created a WordPress website with my very first business and that frustrated the hell out of me because I didn't have the technical ability to be able to edit it myself.

I could do some bits, but not all of it. And so Squarespace was revolutionary for me because it meant that I could take back control. So for me, it's those initial kind of foundational things that enable me to really run my business and bring that money in and kind of look perfect.

Bertie: Yeah, absolutely. And I think the, I think the phone is a really good one when you were talking about like the phone canvas, right?

It's very easy when people start like, okay, I'm going to record a podcast and I'll need loads of fancy equipment, or I'm going to start doing video podcasts, you know, whatever. And yeah. People will go out and invest in other stuff. The cameras on your phone, even a phone that's like been out in the last five years.

We're like piss all over any webcam that is out there. Like just use that. Yeah, it's really good. So yeah, you could be buying like a really fancy camera with a focal length, and then you've got to find a solution to Mount it. If you're going to be doing webinars, like just use your phone, use your phone record on there.

And then if those things get traction and if you start getting the views, et cetera, that you want, and if you do want to upgrade your equipment absolutely fine, but you don't need all of that stuff to stop. It's really, really important. So, yeah, I think that's a good, that's a good thing. So yeah, I was talking about the stockouts earlier.

Probably just to take a step back. I'm a big believer now in cloud computing. So what that means is rather than having things stored on your computer, things are stored in the cloud. So tools I've used for years or Dropbox, and now I use Google drive. And what that means is that all my files are accessible on Dropbox or Google drive, no matter what computer device I'm using now, I'm very, very hot, paranoid, and security.

Maybe we do a separate a separate thing on that altogether. But you know, because there's always the argument. Oh, well, what if someone gets in and get all your files full yet? You know, that's it. But you have to, you have to keep them secure. There's a whole password thing and we'll talk about seven.

But by keeping things in the cloud, we can help you keep super organized. And it just means that anything is accessible anywhere. So, as an example, I have been scanning every piece of paperwork that comes into my house, probably for about the last 10, 15 years with that same scanner that. All of this time.

So it gets scanned in there instantly upload this Dropbox done receipts, the law. If I need the receipt from 10 years ago, I worked for that has been times where I've been in John Lewis and either something I can search it instantly bang, and it's there. And that's the power of having everything in the clouds.

He laughing at me now, aren't you? I

Debbie: mean, that's hard,

Bertie: it's a process. It's just a process of getting it. Like it sounds cool now, but. Anything comes to the door. I hit that button and I don't have to do anything it's in Dropbox. That's it.

Debbie: That's all I do is kind of

Bertie: magical. So once you've set that process up, it's really, really simple. It's all filed. And I just searched for things in the same way that I talk about with email, you just search for something.

So having things in the cloud, having your files in the cloud is really important. So there's Dropbox, you've got iCloud drive, Google drive, whichever one you choose. Any of those things are really, really useful and can be a massive time saver for you.

Debbie: And you can have a mixture of both. I've got a bit of Google drive and I've got a bit of drop-off depends what projects I'm working on with different people.

Where are they going? And I do pay for both of those actually, because I've amassed so much stuff in that cloud, but it's like actually easier for me to pay. I think Google like two pounds a month, then have to go through and delete the stuff. So you can pay for extra storage and it's. Pretty minimal. So we've kind of covered off the basis, basic stuff of the business and like keeping that stuff in the cloud.

And then I think other things that are really useful for me are things around like helping me create great content, helping me, my business get. On on Google essentially. So how do I do that marketing bit? So for me, Google analytics is one of my favorite tools because it's free and it enables me to see who's coming to my website.

Where do they come from? What pages do they visit? Who buys my products? And the more that I understand that information, the more I can say. Well, I spent a year on Pinterest, but it's not really driven any sales. So I'll do less of that. And more of this thing that is driving sales. And I think that the more that we can use some of these free analytical tools and every single social media platform has them as well.

The more we can understand what's working. Not working with our business and on that as well. There's a really great free tool called Grammarly, which I love, even though I've got an English degree, I still get it wrong. And I, I write the way that I speak. Portsmouth English, which isn't particularly, you know, the Queen's English.

And so using that free tool called Grammarly means that I spell it, spell checks, what I'm writing on social media, it's spell checks and grammar checks all of my emails. And it does all of my kind of word documents with Google documents. So that free tool alone has saved me so much heartache of posting stuff out into the world and looking a bit shonky cause I've got the grammar wrong.

So. Like me and I think we all need a bit of a spell check that has been an invaluable tool. Just making sure that I've kind of got my words right.

Bertie: Exactly. I use grumbly as well, so I can second that and I did pay for it now I've just got the free version. I'll probably be paying for it again when they do offers.

I just wait. But yeah, Grammarly is fantastic and it sits in your browser or like, for example, it sits over when I'm in MailChimp, which is what I use to send out my emails and it just, it just sits over. It sits over and above what you, where you're just working anyway to sits in the background. So very, very easy tool.

Like what you've done with your hair. That's right. At least at that as well.

Debbie: I think it's just that I put it up in a, in a scrunchie fall asleep. And then when I wake up it's tussled. So that that's, that's how tips 1 0 1 from me, just put it up and go to sleep a bit slightly worse and it looks amazing. I'm just thinking about other things I use.

Cause obviously. That thing around creating content. Another tool that I share a lot of the time that I use is a thing called kosher schedule headline analyzer. It's like an American thing. And what this does, is it. You may all of us to make sure that our headlines are written well, because if we're creating content for YouTube, for podcasts, for blogs, emails, actually, it's that headline that captures people's attention.

So you could spend all day creating an amazing video. If you've given it a shonky headline and nobody clicks and watches it, then all that time is wasted. So this free tool, the headline. Analyzer American with a Zed. It gives you a score of a hundred of how clickable its headline is, and it gives you ways to improve it.

Now I've been writing blog content for like seven or eight years now. I still use it every time I write about. Because I still can be improving my headlines. So I think that's a really good tool and you can pay for it as well, and you can get extra SEO stuff. But just using these tools to learn how to create that better content craft it better, make it more clickable.

You know, you don't want people. Scrolling pasture stuff. You want them paying attention and clicking. So, yeah. CoSchedule headline analyzer. One of my favorite top tips.

Bertie: Okay. I remember you showed me that while ago and I'd forgot about it. So thank you for reminding me, I think getting onto like content creation as well.

So Canva, if you've not heard of, but like where have you been like canvas free versions of paid version as well? I would probably even pay for it for the amount of tools. So in my group coaching club, all this month, we've been going over creating content. We spent a whole session on CAMBA and the power of it is absolutely amazing.

So this is from someone that, so I'm not a designer, right? Let's just, let's just put that out there at all. But I do create all of my own contact, create the assets for these things, et cetera. Now I've come from a Photoshop background. I used to use Photoshop for everything. So designing websites, changing everything, doing flyers Photoshop nowadays is not the right tool for the jobs.

They're fantastic. But the names on the 10, right? It's for editing photos, there's loads and loads of benefits to something like Canva. Again, it's all cloud-based. You can resize to any size. There's just, and it's just super easy. To use. So if you're stuck in the old school, like, Hey, why is it like, oh, well I know how to use Photoshop.

It's great. It's brilliant. It's there are much better tools out there now. So it's always good to evaluate. Are there better things out there? Yes. So me to shift over to CAMBA was quite a. It wasn't necessarily learning care, but it was quite difficult for me to let go of Photoshop. I've not touched Photoshop for years now.

Still pay for it, which is ridiculous. So maybe I need to get rid of that. So, yeah, Canva for content. So I didn't realize Canva will do static content and also videos as well. Basic video editing is in there and audio. So yeah, there, there are other better video tools, but for the basic stuff, like if you want to put headlines on the video you know, top and tell them, et cetera, You can do it all.

And I didn't realize, so yeah, CAMBA is fantastic. So that's, that's a hot tall.

Debbie: Yeah. I love that. Cause it's kind of made designers out of all of us a little bit because it's got all those templates, so you can just drop your own branding in and your own fonts and all of that stuff and your own images and kind of make it.

Yeah. When I first started my business. So my partners are concept artists for games and film, and I asked him to show me Photoshop and he just laughed in my face and said, no. So then when I discovered camera, I was like, yay. I can create something that looks semi-good. With the limited design visual skills that I've got.

I also wanted to share some of the tools that. I use to create the podcasts and that we use. So one of the things that Amy and I use to record our podcasts, because this one is recorded in stream yard. So that's another tool that we're literally using now to stream these things live and record the audio and video.

It's audacity. So that's a really. A free tool that you can download to your computer and we'll record audio. So I record my hypnosis tracks on there. I would call it the podcast stuff on there. And so I found that to be the best thing. So if you want to get into recording audio for whatever reason or Udacity, really good free tool, lots of tutorials on YouTube of how to improve.

Audio and, you know, do all the tweaks and things. I probably use like a 10th of what I could use in there, cause I'm not an audio buff, but it's quite simple to get started with the news. So audacity is something that if you want to get into audio, that would be the way I go to down. Fantastic.

Bertie: Yeah, that's that's another good one.

So I've got a couple of ones for for video and then general organization as well too. D script is my favorite single tool for editing video. If you have not tried it, I can't tell you how good this tool is. So if you want to edit video, you record a video and you put it into the script and what these scripts will do, it will almost create a word document side-by-side but your video there and a word document.

You edit the video by editing the document. So like, you know, Debbie swimmers a lot. So if we record something that you just highlight a fucked up back, hit delete the videos edited. It's absolutely magical. There's loads of other tools on there for. Yeah, there's, there's so many things you can do on it. So really really, really good thing.

And for project management as well, I use Trello, Trello, Trello for collaboration, and if you've not used Trello before, you're, you're overwhelmed. By it it's think of it just like a whiteboard and you stick on post-it notes and you've got them in less and you can just move them about, but you can attach as much information into that post-it note as you want.

So you can attach images, you can attach links to web pages, et cetera. And the tool Kate was called de script. So yeah, like scripts, but the scripting it, and there's a free version of it. And I used the paid version, but the free one is perfectly good.

Debbie: Ali's asking, is there any good tutorials for CAMBA that you can record?

I reckon there's tons on YouTube, but it's super simple. It's really simple. The good thing about Canberra is it has all of the sizing of all the different social media platforms in there. So if you need to make a Facebook. It's already sized up. If you need to make an Instagram post, it's already sized up.

So you pick the size of the thing that you want to make. And then it comes up with lots of already designed loveliness. So you can click on that and then just change the font, the color a bit like word document. Really. You're just pulling down a drop down box of funds, or you're just changing the font size.

Or you can start from scratch and start to design your own stuff. But I just thought having a play you can't break it. It's free. You can try it for free. So just for Allie, I just spent like half an hour, just go and make a Canva account and just start having a feeling about oh, Allie said we can swap that for our Reiki.

Yeah. Allie, you give me some Reiki. I'll teach you CAMBA. There you go. That's the swap.

Bertie: As well. So I run a weekly coaching club. It's called the get shit done club. And each month that month and each month we pick a topic. This topic is all around content creation. So last week, which has recorded, which you'll be able to watch back to the full thing, going through CAMBA, where you can work through enjoy.

And then this week we're doing these script and then we're going through all the different things of content creation throughout August. So if you want to join. Do you get in touch and I will send you some details. But yeah, really super cool club with some super cool people in. No, it didn't go through to go through the cold.

So what are the tools if we got there Duda, what other things are on your massive

Debbie: list? Good things on here. I, things like there's a tool that I love called. It's the weirdest name ever? Niblets silk tide soap tide. And essentially you put your. Into it. And it would tell you what you need to improve on your website to get it listed up in the Google ranking.

So it will tell you, like how good is your, how good is your image tagging? How good is your social media links? How good are links out? Are there any broken bits on your website? So the nibbler silk tide is a really good tool for kind of. Looking at how healthy your website is. Sounds a bit of 50 shades, the nipple silk tie.

Bertie: I think I told the same thing. K, but you said it watch this back. There's been some good innuendos in this one. Bite my tongue.

Debbie: The other thing thinking about content I've got done here is a tool called small PDF. That's a little bit boring. Maybe it has some innuendos, but what I love about the small PDF tool is that I have created years worth of workshops on camp.

And I make them into PDFs and then I can use a small PDF tool to Nick, other pits of workshops and mash them together and then put them as one PDF. So it enables me to match PDFs together, essentially which has saved me so much time in not having to kind of recreate workshops, but you're laughing so much, but it's a really good tool.

It's like,

We can mash up PDF. So the small PDF tool,

Bertie: it,

Debbie: somebody on the 10 said stop.

Bertie: I've lost completely. I've completely lost my train of thought.

Okay. Right. Back into character. So there's a there's, there's another

Debbie: Betsy. You can do it

Bertie: the first time. This is the first that we've never lost it before.

So noise canceling sounds boring. I could probably do it now. So there is a tool, a free tool called Chris, and it's called crisp with a K sits on your computer. If you ever have, is it, can you be my dog barking? I've not turned it on. I should've turned it up. I'll do it.

Debbie: It'll just,

Bertie: well, this could be it.

This could be a law. This could be alive, right, Chris? I'm not telling you basically, if I have Crispin store, now I could flick that on and it would just cancel that noise out altogether. Like I've been on workshops and people have sat with dogs next to them, barking, interrupting the thing and you've turned it on and it just turns it off.

It's a free tool, noise cancellation. So really, really fantastic. So if you work from home and you've got a noisy family environment, like high. Demonstration then then yeah, that, that will cancel out all that noise. So Chris is a fantastic, fantastic tool. Spell it out again. So it is, I'll put links to all of these things that we spoke about in the comments.

So crisp is K I'm reading it because I can't spell K R I S P. And that's it. And yeah, mine's disabled. It needed updating. So that's, that's why I couldn't swipe up.

Debbie: I think we need to end cause we've gotten, we've gotten 21 minutes, but

Bertie: today it's your

Debbie: fault. He would have felt that business toes would create so much joy and laughter on a Friday morning who,

Bertie: who knew who,

Debbie: Okay, well, join us next week for more fun.

And frolics in a business. Yes.

Bertie: Exactly. So we'll yes. Well, if you've watched this, thank you very much. Thank you very much for all your comments today. And if you're listening on the podcast, because it's now a podcast as well. Then yes. Thanks. Thanks. Thank you. I don't even know how to end it right.

Bye everyone.

Don't miss a beat!

New moves, motivation, and classes delivered to your inbox. 

I HATE spam as much as you do, and I'll never sell your information, for any reason.