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April 14, 2015 By Sara Nguyen 1 Comment

15 Essential Business Tools for running a business online

Running a business online is a popular way of doing business, as people realise the freedom, opportunity and versatility of being able to do so. I have been running my online business for over 4 years and couldn’t get by with some of the essential tools that help me operate online. In this blog post I share the essential tools I use and recommend to run an online business efficiently.

I have been running my online business for over 4 years and couldn’t get by with some of the essential tools that help me operate online. In this blog post I share the essential tools I use and recommend to run an online business efficiently.

In this blog post I share the essential business tools I use and recommend to run an online business efficiently.  

Web hostingbusiness tools

In order to have an online business, you need to have a website and subsequently your website needs to be hosted with a web hosting provider.

There are many web hosting providers out there, the key is to find a web hosting provider who has great support (so you can call on them when things inevitably go wrong), who is focused on security (to protect your site from constant internet threats) and who is reliable (high up time, so the site doesn’t go down often – or ideally at all!)

The two providers who I use and recommend are:
A2 Hosting and WP Engine.

I love both A2 Hosting and WP Engine for their security, speed and customer service.

Domain name registration

When you set up a website for your business, you need to have a domain name – which is essentially the address for your website on the internet. I use GoDaddy for their domain name registration services. I find their customer service for this area exceptional (I have heard from my peers that other services they offer are not so great…).

I also love GoDaddy as you can easily find coupons online to get discounts off the regular price. And really, who doesn’t love a good discount? 😉

Website Theme

Once you have your web hosting and domain name registration complete, the next step is to get a website theme so you can start building (whether you do it yourself or outsource it) your website.

It’s important to have a good theme that is clean, functional and flexible to grow as your online business needs develops

See my post on Top 20 Must Use WordPress Plugins to Power Up your website

Website Backups

It’s important to regularly back up your website. The possibility of something “going wrong” with your website is a reality. If you backup your website regularly, you can save time, tears and money of having to rebuild a website from scratch, when something goes wrong.

I use ManageWP and Updraft to manage my backups and schedule them to automatically update regularly, so I don’t have to worry about it.

Email marketing software

One of the best ways to leverage your website to help you make money is to build an email list. This requires capturing people’s names and emails using email marketing software. You can use your email list to communicate with people who have registered an interest with you. Once you have people on your list, you can engage with them easily with online events, offers and all sorts of high value campaigns to help you convert them into customers.

You need an email marketing software service to help you manage your email list and comply with international email and anti-spam regulations

I use Aweber.com as a flexible and easy to use email marketing software provider.

Website Tracking Software

Once you have your website set up and running, it is important to see how users are interacting with the content and pages on your site. Having website tracking software helps you with this, by proving data on what pages people are going to, where people are coming from and how long they are staying. With insights like this, you can adapt your future content based off the data.

Google Analytics is by far the most superior website tracking service out there. It’s also free.

Google Apps for work

Google has a great suite of apps to help you work online extremely efficiently. Not only are they hosted online for you, you can easily add collaborators and control access to your documents.

Google Docs – is a great word processor, so you can get your information down on a page and start sharing and editing with other users.

Google Sheets – easy to manage spreadsheet system, that you can also share with others easily.

Gmail – quality, secure email. Moving your email to Gmail is one of the best decisions you can make for your business. Their email is reliable, secure and simple to manage.

Using Google Apps for work, you can create documents that you can share with your staff or clients easily. One of the best parts is that you can track changes in real time. So everyone can work on the 1 document at the same time, instead of having 10 different versions of a document floating on different email attachments. It’s much more efficient and easier to operate using these tools.

Online Storage

When running an online business, having a space where you, your staff and your clients can easily access common documents is essential. For example, I use Google Drive to store design work with my graphic designer. We keep

For example, I use Google Drive to store design work with my graphic designer. We keep record of current and past jobs on the drive, so we can both access designs and design assets (templates, stock images, client briefs) as we need them.

This also eliminates the need for us to email attachments and files – which become problematic when you start working with lots of large sized files.

Google Drive is my highly recommended storage drive and Dropbox is a close second. 🙂 Both have free and paid options.

Screen capture software

Working online allows me the ability to have remote staff and clients. Communicating well with your staff and clients is essential for your business success. Whilst email is quick and easy, messages can get lost in text. I use screen capture software to record instructions, feedback and updates for my staff and clients.

Jing is a brilliant screencast software. I can easily record my screen and record voice dialogue (under 5 minutes worth) and quickly upload it to the web. Jing provides me with a link to the recording that I can share with anyone. You can also take screenshots, draw on them and upload them too.

Snagit is similar to Jing. They are actually owned by the same company. Jing is a great basic tool for screenshots and screen recordings but sometimes you need more. If you’re looking to add more to your images or record longer videos, Snagit gives you extra tools and flexibility to bring your ideas to life.

Screenflow is the big daddy of screen capture software. It allows you to record and edit video and screencast at a high quality. You get many more editing options than Jing and Snagit and can also integrate different media clips and images. It is a Mac-only app at the moment however, it’s PC rival- Camtasia is a good app as well.

Voice and Video Calls

The ability to have a video call with your staff and clients is a really cool thing. Although I live remote from my team and clients, I interact with them regularly on skype. We can chat and have a direct call when needed. I use both Skype and Google Hangouts which have video call capability and they’re both free too!

Task Management Software

When you start working online and need to manage multiple task, clients and staff members – being organised is important. It took me a while to find the right Task Management Software that I and my team could use efficiently. A system is no good to

A system is no good to you, unless you have people actually using it.

I use Asana and Redbooth to manage projects with my team and keep track of which task parts have been completed.

One of the advantages of using a task management system such as asana or Redbooth, is that it keeps a record of dialogues and free’s up your inbox.

A common issue with working online is the reliance on email. Email can be extremely inefficient as a way of communicating when there are lots of moving parts. Using Redbooth and Asana, I have the ability to view all of the documents and conversations for a project in the one task as opposed to searching across hundreds of emails.

Image editing software

No matter how hard you try and run from it, when you run an online business you constantly need to resize and edit images in some shape or form. Whether if it’s to include a thumbnail on your blog post or to add an image to your social media profile. Being able to do small image edits and resizes helps you get things done faster.

I have graphic designer who takes care of major design and resizing, however I invested in learning Photoshop many years ago so I can do small resizes myself. Free online editors you can use include Pixlr and Pic Monkey.

Mindmap Software

Mindmapping is a great way of brainstorming and getting all of the ideas from your head onto a page. I use mind maps as a way to plan when I am working on projects, as well as a way of creating content.

I am a visual learner and find it efficient to organise my ideas using a mind map. I use Mind Maple as it’s easy to use.

Accounting Software

One of the areas that I find many small business owners (myself included) really struggle with is accounting. For me, it’s one of the less desirable things I need to do in the business. For all of my journal entries, invoice tracking and reporting I use Quickbooks. I like Quickbooks as they are more user-friendly that their rival MYOB.

It’s important to have your accounting in order. You need to track your expenses, sales and income accurately using some system. I have friends who are great at spreadsheets and have a fantastic system where they don’t need software.

Me on the other hand…I need all of the automated help that I can get in this area, so I use Accounting Software to make this side of the business less painful and more streamlines.

Payment gateway

Getting paid and making money is important in any business. If you run an online business and have clients worldwide and staff worldwide, you need an easy way of taking and making payment.

Whilst it’s not the cheapest option – PayPal is a fast and easy solution to getting paid by your clients. PayPal don’t charge monthly fees, however they do sting you with transaction cost and skim money off international exchanges. You can send your clients invoices that they can pay via PayPal or credit card, and manage multiple currencies as well.

There are so many different tools available that help you run a business online. The 15 tools I shared, help keep me operational, functioning and efficient. I hope you enjoyed the blog post…please feel free to share the love if you did 😉

Sara oxoxox

 

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    By: Sara Nguyen

    Digital Marketing Strategist | Wine Lover | Coffee Addict | Geeky techy lady| 😀 Helping small businesses accelerate their business growth online.

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  1. William Gleason says

    August 12, 2016 at 9:13 pm

    Wonderful and useful business tools list. I agree with you SARA NGUYEN. All the tools is very useful for business. I am using Quickbooks now. Thank you

    Reply

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Because COVID has completely taken over our lives Because COVID has completely taken over our lives this year, it’s hard to imagine life in this world without it now. When life finally goes back to the new normal, are we going to be ready for it?Are we ready for the income/impact/growth we desire now?The truth is that you’ll never feel ready enough, and chances are ⁣that nobody is going to ‘choose’ you. ⁣Instead, what if you do it. What if you choose yourself?When I first started teaching social media, I didn’t exactly ⁣look and feel like a success story, especially when I made videos from my derelict apartment. But I started small, and even more importantly, I showed up and declared myself ready. ⁣No one was going to do that for me.My first few videos had 30 views on average. Then 50, then 100, and now, my top videos have over 100 000 views.  ⁣Maybe one day, millions. I declared myself a content creator, social media and video strategist and coach way before anyone else believed I was one. I set up my own website, created my own content and uploaded my own videos and it was the combination of that hustle that was what started everything. ⁣I wasn’t waiting for someone else to choose me, and I wasn’t waiting until I got a sign from the universe. ⁣I decided that there was ⁣room for me (why not me?), and yes, there’s so much room for you too. ⁣There’s room for:⁣The quiet and the louder ones
The introverts and extroverts.
The out there quirky and the inward.

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You’ve seen the quote…Comparison is the thie You’ve seen the quote…Comparison is the thief of joy.All the gorgeously curated Instagram squares and perfectly styled YouTube videos will get you in comparison mode pretty easily.(I totally get it ——> says the woman who has been told that she’s either ’too Asian’ or ‘not Asian enough’ her whole life.)When you see other successful businesses posting on social media…...it's easy to let your reptilian brain take over…...and to start thinking that success is limited to only a few people in the world.Unfortunately, once you start thinking down that path…...you open yourself up to believing that you aren't good enough.I’ve seen too many incredible coaches, consultants and creatives get bogged down by allowing themselves to believe:"I’m not enough. I don’t have what it takes."But you can choose to do things differently.Do you think that Patty Jenkins, Director and Writer of Wonder Woman looked up and said, “Well, Wonder Woman has already been done…guess I’ll just go home and not make a new, amazing movie?”What if she had done that?!The truth is…...if you want to transform your business, livestream, put yourself out there and see the growth that you deserve, you need to stop comparing yourself to other people.Or like our school teachers used to say…

Eyes on your own work.#beyourownboss #bosswoman #hersuccess #savvybusinessowners #womenceo #womenwhodo  #womenwholead #womeninbiz #businessgrowth #businesssuccess #entrepreneurgoals #entrepreneurlife #goaldigger #solopreneur
We make time for what we want. I'm calling it as i We make time for what we want. I'm calling it as it is. You can livestream effectively in 15-20 minutes a day...and *basically* for free using your mobile device. As one of the most efficient ways of producing content, building authority and generating trust and leads...why wouldn't you start your live journey? :)#fempreneurs #bosswomanmindset  #coursecreator #ceomindset #businessstrategist #onlinebusinesscoach #bossbabemovement #sheconquers #womanceo #buildyourbusiness #ceolife #womenwholead #fempreneur #buildinganempire #beingboss #digitalcoursecreator #marketingstrategist #aspiringentrepreneur #growyourbiz #businessmoves #coursecreators #businessgrowthstrategy #onlinecoursecreators #onlinecoursecreator #hersuccess #womenceo #solopreneurs #entrepreneurher #buildingmyempire #businesstraining
“Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your “Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames 🔥 “ ~ Rumi#rumiquotes #poetryislife #poetryofinstagram #motivationalwednesday #beautyinwords
Live streaming and being on camera can feel SCARY. Live streaming and being on camera can feel SCARY...⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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...that’s totally NORMAL. But it also doesn’t have to stop you.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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The difference between SUCCESSFUL content creators and those who stay STUCK is that successful creators take action DESPITE the fear and anxiety they feel. ⠀⠀
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They do things to keep moving forward…⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀...even if they don’t feel ready…⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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...even if they’re not sure about what others will think...⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀...they don’t “wait until everything is perfect.” —> They take imperfect action.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀How will you take imperfect action this week?⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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#fempreneurs  #coursecreator #ceomindset #businessstrategist #onlinebusinesscoach #bossbabemovement #sheconquers #womanceo #buildyourbusiness #ceolife #womenwholead #fempreneur #buildinganempire #beingboss #digitalcoursecreator #marketingstrategist #aspiringentrepreneur #growyourbiz #businessmoves #coursecreators #businessgrowthstrategy #onlinecoursecreators #onlinecoursecreator #hersuccess #womenceo #solopreneurs #entrepreneurher #buildingmyempire #businesstraining
Your livestreams, whether you’re on YouTube or F Your livestreams, whether you’re on YouTube or Facebook (or multi stream like me) should be generating desire for your products/services.
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If they’re not…you may be focusing on the wrong things. It’s not the best light, camera or fancy animated overlay that makes a good livestream…yet this is where most people spend their time obsessing over.
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Your content and how you deliver it will be the difference between a successful livestream strategy vs going live for the sake of going live…and seeing no results.
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#successbound #bossmentality #bossquotes #gogetit #millionaireinthemaking #businesscoaches #buildingempires #entrepreneurthing #womenbuildingempires #businessmoves #bosschic #bossladystatus #ladypreneur #buildinganempire #dreamchaser #ceomillionaires #womanceo #girlsbuildingempires #immyownboss #goaldigger #bossbabes #ladypreneurs #womaninbusiness #femaleentreprenuer #hersuccess #buildanempire #thesixfigurechick #goalgetter #dreambigger
One of the comments I get most often is…"Sara, One of the comments I get most often is…"Sara, you’re such a natural in front of the camera. I could never do that."And I find that rather amusing.Why? Because that was NEVER me.I was always the person behind the scenes — producing other people’s shows and webinars and livestreams.And you know what?I was comfortable.Comfortable with my job. Comfortable with my life. Comfortable all around, really.And that comfort made me feel safe.… but it also ate me away inside.Why? Because I knew I had a message to share, and I knew I could be in front of the camera sharing it… instead of stuck in the background building someone else’s dreams.But alas, it stayed that way far longer than I want to admit.And it stayed that way because of my own limiting beliefs — because of all the little stories I kept telling myself.Every time I thought about getting in front of the camera, a little voice would pop in my head and say:"What makes you think you’re good enough to be on camera?"It was torture.And it wasn’t until I overcame my limiting beliefs that I began to see real change.The truth is…I’ve never been ‘natural on camera’ or ‘made for the screen.’I worked very hard to develop these muscles… especially as an introvert who’s naturally shy and insanely awkward.It was very challenging for me.But it was also the thing I knew I had to do if I ever wanted to rise above.

Right now, you may be at the time in your life when you’re finally saying "No" to mediocrity, lame excuses, and all the so-called barriers standing between you and greatness…And finally saying "Yes!" to the specialized knowledge, strategies, tools, and techniques that can take your business and career to the next level.You’re becoming someone who won’t settle for anything less than you deserve.So hit record, go live and get that thing out into the world.#fempreneurs #coursecreator #ceomindset #businessstrategist #onlinebusinesscoach #bossbabemovement #sheconquers #womanceo #buildyourbusiness #ceolife #womenwholead #fempreneur #buildinganempire #beingboss #digitalcoursecreator #growyourbiz #businessmoves #coursecreators #businessgrowthstrategy #onlinecoursecreators
When it comes to putting yourself out there, I sti When it comes to putting yourself out there, I still feel nauseous before a livestream or hitting record.
Despite these feelings…it’s about continuing to show up for the people that you want to serve…even when it’s hard. And it’s always hard.
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If you keep going live and you keep hitting that record button…things start to happen. You get better at being on camera, you feel more confident, your audience see you and connect with you more and you can finally start moving the needle in your business with more reach, leads and sales.
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But you deny yourself and your audience the chance of any video magic…if you don’t take action.
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Take action my friend. No matter how imperfect you feel. No matter how uncomfortable you feel. With every opportunity, no matter what happens you will continue to learn and grow.
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#doitanyway #videocontent #contentmarketing #impostersyndrome #limitingbeliefs #creatorlife #youtuber #contentmarketingtips #contentcreation #fempreneurs #coursecreator #ceomindset #businessstrategist #onlinebusinesscoach #bossbabemovement #sheconquers #womanceo #buildyourbusiness #ceolife #womenwholead #fempreneur #buildinganempire #growyourbiz #hersuccess #womenceo #solopreneurs #entrepreneurher #buildingmyempire
#doneisbetterthanperfect Stop thinking that every #doneisbetterthanperfect
Stop thinking that everything needs to be perfect for your livestreams/videos. Perfection doesn’t exist. Create. Put it out there....and give yourself a chance to connect and impact people. #youvegotthis
Friendly reminder in case you’ve forgotten, with Friendly reminder in case you’ve forgotten, with all that is going on in the world right now.#sundaymotivation❤️ #bossbabequotes #risingtidesociety
Write down your ideas. I use the Notes app on my i Write down your ideas. I use the Notes app on my iPhone when I get ideas and then I can reference them when I’m on my computer as well. I also use Google Keep...so I can sync thoughts and ideas across my mobile and computer.I found that I’ve forgotten less ideas this way...you know that stroke of genius you get...that you swear you won’t forget about...until you do...lol 🤣I get ideas for videos and content all the time. Mostly when I’m about to fall asleep 😂...so I write them down and then later, I verify that there’s search volume/data to warrant a video. I believe in using data and not just our emotions (feels) to guide what we should create.I don’t always follow this workflow. Sometimes I look up trends and data volume first to give me inspiration on what content to create.And that’s ok too. As long as you’re creating...there’s no perfect formula or method.#contentideas #contentisking #contentisqueen #contentiseverything  #videoideas
Hey coaches, consultants, creatives...have a Q you Hey coaches, consultants, creatives...have a Q you'd like answered about livestreaming, social media or content creation? I'm considering doing a Q&A session...so submit your Q's and I'll look at covering it in a livestream :)
Link to the form in bio and here: https://forms.gle/bC6TBJfbkUwzMFvm7
Hello #weekendvibes ... brunch date. Zucchini frit Hello #weekendvibes ... brunch date. Zucchini fritters, poached egg, smoked salmon and #coffee (of course) 😍
#weekendbrunch
Behind the scenes. Dave helping me test out my set Behind the scenes. Dave helping me test out my set up the evening before a morning livestream. Yes, that’s a McDonalds cup...accompanied my shaker fries and nuggets (off screen)😛🍟#behindthescenes #mustbelove
🙌🙌🙌🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♀️🙋 🙌🙌🙌🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♀️ Me. You get better the more you execute.
Oh what a glorious mess 😝. I’m livestreaming Oh what a glorious mess 😝. I’m livestreaming about how to livestream with your DSLR. So if you want to use your DSLR camera as a webcam...I’ll show you how. You know the drill. Link to my YouTube channel in bio to join me live...or for the replay.#contentcreation #contentcreation #livestreaming #livestreamsetup #messydesk #videogear
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