Highly Recommended Business Tools

These business tools for creatives have brought ease, structure, and creative flow back to my brand and web design business by giving me peace of mind and more time to create while making sure my clients are taken care of and my business is protected. Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links and I receive credit if you sign up using my link or code. I only recommend tools that I use myself and absolutely love. Through years of trial and error, I’m so happy with the daily business tools I’m using now. So here’s what I recommend…

Sending Proposals and Managing Client Relationships: Dubsado

I used to spend forever onboarding new clients, searching through emails for change requests and approvals, and generally pulling out my hair from trying to wing it. Dubasdo has straight up changed the game for feeling like I have my s*** together when it comes to the admin tasks that tend to get less attention when you absolutely love the core of what you do (way more fun to design brands and websites that do admin work, in my opinion…)

Dubsado has features for workflows, standardized emails, scheduling, questionnaire and feedback forms, financial tracking, and automated proposals that make admin work a breeze and don’t leave you wondering if you sent so-and-so client that crucial piece of info already. If that’s all overwhelming already, you can start with a simple setup and then scale up as you grow and keep yourself sane and your clients feeling super nurtured along the way.

I recommend it to everyone who has a service-based business because I know how much it has helped my own business. Try it out and see if it’s for you too. Get 20% off your first month or year with Dubsado.

Email Marketing and Newsletters: Flodesk

Flodesk is for anyone looking to send beautiful emails. If you can design a Canva graphic, you can create a beautiful email with Flodesk’s drag-and-drop style set-up. After trying Mailchimp and other platforms, Flodesk definitely has the best options for beautiful templates to start from and they make it really easy to add your brand colors, fonts, and logos. Not many other email platforms allow you to customize fonts and as a brand designer I can confidently say that, yes, being consistent with your fonts everywhere really does matter.

They get bonus points for giving such awesome options for embedding on-brand sign-up forms on your Showit website, allowing people to even select the things they want to hear about most from you (like freebies, tips and tricks, business updates, etc).

They also make analytics easy, like seeing how many people are opening or clicking on things in your emails. So yeah, Flodesk is awesome. Get 50% off your first year here.

Legal Templates from The Contract Shop®

When I first started my business, I had NO clue what to include in my contract or website terms and conditions. Now I know that solid legal docs are a must-have when it comes to business tools for creatives.

Half-asses legal documentation like that can lead to:

• Awkward client disputes
• Unrealistic expectations
• A working relationship without set boundaries
• Just plain ol’ problems for your business

Despite best intentions and hopeful thinking, every strong contract needs to have three things to make them legally legit:

1. An offer
2. An acceptance of that offer
3. Each party gives something up

If you want to prioritize protecting your business and your sanity but you don’t want to fork out your life savings for an attorney, then I strongly recommend taking a look at The Contract Shop®’s pre-written templates!