Software and Systems for Online Business: Exactly What I Use
One of the most common questions I get is "what software do I need for my business?".
In this blog post, we're going to dive into software and systems for online businesses and focusing on what I use every day in my online small business (Lex Lancaster Creative Co.)
With so many options for software, so many existing opinions on what software is best, and so many different needs for software within a business, it can feel super overwhelming to choose (hello, decision fatigue).
As a small business owner myself, I understand how valuable it can be to have someone tell you exactly what you need based on your business model, your product or service, and your ideal client. This blog post will go into what I use in my business, but it doesn't mean you need all of these things.
This is a shameless plug for my coaching calls, where we can chat and determine what would be best for YOU as you are starting your business or just looking to get some insight on systems and software so you can elevate your business.
Now let's dive in.
Website builder/platform
My platform of choice is Squarespace. It offers the most control over design, it's easy to manage, and compared to other platforms, you can do things quickly inside of the website builder. Their help desk is also amazing.
If you're looking to get started with a website, I offer designed-for-you and fully customizable Squarespace templates as well as semi-custom website design for health and wellness businesses.
As a web designer, I can confidently say that I wouldn't choose any other platform for your website.
Online Course Platform
For online courses, I recommend Kajabi.
Kajabi has the best interface for those who enroll in your course and on the backend for you. It's fully customizable (for every possible thing), they have a great payout structure, you get your money fast (ie they don't hold onto it like some platforms do), their customer service is fantastic, and you have the ability to host your checkout on the platform for many things: online courses, in person courses and events, coaching, etc.
Huge bonus: they also allow for affiliate sales/affiliate marketing and they make it EASY.
You can get Kajabi for $69/mo for one course or try Kajabi for free for 30 days.
Email Marketing Platform
If you have a business, you need to be able to send emails to those who have subscribed to receive them via a mass emailing software.
The best one: ConvertKit (soon to be "Kit").
ConvertKit makes it easy to create landing pages and forms, opt-ins, free downloads, automated emails and nurture sequences, and has a great sender reputation, which means emails sent from their software actually land in inboxes, not spam (very important).
My ConvertKit resources:
I offer set-up of ConvertKit for you— book a discovery call to get started
Integrating software
Before I move on, I want to just state that the software above (Squarespace, ConvertKit, Kajabi), all integrate together. This means that when something happens on one software, I can automate something else to happen on the other without needing other software to connect them. This is key and the most ideal scenario.
Other software I use inside of my business
Below are software options that I use inside of my business as well as what I use them for.
Acuity: The best scheduling software (literally)
Honeybook: My client contracts, invoices, and service brochure (LOVE Honeybook)
Shift: multiple email management. I have a lot of Google accounts and Shift allows me to manage them all in one place.
Canva: I design a lot of graphics here as well as my Instagram posts, podcast art, and blog covers and so much more.
Voxer: Voice communication with clients
Zoom: Video calls, of course!
Vimeo: Hosting of videos that I do not want to be public-facing
Loom: my favorite screen recording software
InShot: Cellphone app to edit videos
Captions App: Cellphone app to add captions to reels
Namecheap: Where I host my domains (but you can use Squarespace)
SEMRush: SEO software for my clients
Keywords Everywhere: My favorite keyword software
Buzzsprout: My podcast host
Zapier: Check out this podcast episode to see how I use Zapier in my business
CutStory: Phone app to cut videos into 15-second snippets for IG Stories
Adobe: I use the whole Adobe suite for photo editing, PDF making, and more
Google Email: I love Gmail for my domain email (different than ConvertKit). This is used for sending emails back and forth, while ConvertKit is used for mass emails.
Elfsight: A plugin I love for countdown timers, pricing tables, Google Reviews, and more.
So while that's not a completely exhaustive list, this is the main software I use every day in my online business and it allows my business to run smoothly and allows for me to automate tasks and save SO much time.
If you have questions about what software and systems you're currently using and running inside your business, want to make sure you're being the most efficient, or want to choose the best software from the jump, I'd love to chat with you on a coaching call.
PS- some of the links you see inside of this blog post are affiliate links. I do get a small kickback when you use them :)
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