Best Resources

I get it. There is so much information swirling around out there for business owners that it can be tough to know what products to trust. The resources on this page are my favorite services, products, and companies all in one place. And I did all of the hard work for you. I have tested thousands of small business tools and products over the past decade and weeded out some of the duds for you.

These are tools that I use, either for my own businesses or for my clients and I know are valuable. Most of these tools are useful across all businesses and some are more exclusive to one type of business or another. I will do my best to keep them neatly categorized as I add to this list.

Disclosure: Some of these links are affiliate links and are all products I highly recommend. I won’t put anything on this page that I haven’t verified and/or personally used.

Taking the First Step

You have to crawl before you walk. Getting your small business set up correctly from the beginning will give you the proper foundation to scale your business into the money making enterprise you imagine. Here are my preferred tools for getting the foundation of my businesses set up correctly from the very start.

Every one of my niche websites are hosted on Bluehost. And I recommend Bluehost to my marketing consulting clients, as well. Why? Because the great people at Bluehost make it ridiculously easy to get a new site up and running with their one-click automatic WordPress installation.

You can use your Bluehost account to host multiple domains—no need to pay more for hosting when you’re ready to start another website. The customer service is outstanding. I prefer their chat feature, but they are happy to talk direct by phone, also.

I highly recommend using Bluehost for your first website, and you can get started as low as $3.95/month. If you sign up using my link, your domain and SSL certificate will be free.

Selecting a WordPress theme doesn’t have to be a major production anymore. AlienWP themes are all minimalistic, responsive, and easy to customize. For only $59, you will have access to 20 themes, all with clean lines, plenty of options, and amazing customer support. My theme is Anissa and I absolutely love it. There is no need to pay hundreds of dollars for a theme when Anissa and the other AlienWP themes have everything that a small business needs to professionally represent their business.

If you have decided to create an online store, Shopify is the perfect platform. Several years ago, I began to forge my own ecommerce path and migrated my stores from Ebay and Amazon to Shopify. I was fed up with the high fees and strict, unwavering rules. Marketplaces have turned into micromanagers, always telling us how to run our businesses. After considerable research, I decided to use Shopify as my platform. It was a great decision and I highly recommend them to anyone considering ecommerce. Easy to set up and manage. Use this link to receive your free trial.

Need help getting started with your website or online store? Check out these helpful articles:

How to Start a Website for Your Small Business

How to Start an Ecommerce Store Today

Must-Have Marketing Tools

I have worked with AWeber, Constant Contact and a number of other email management platforms and I remain faithful to Mailchimp and Constant Contact for several reasons. Mailchimp’s drag and drop format is so quick and simple for setting up any type of mass email I need. Plus, automating emails is simple with them, too. I set it up and then forget about it. The Mailchimp Easy Forms plugin integrates seamlessly with all of my email opt ins. The daily subscribe reports let me know that Mailchimp is working for me. The email marketing platform is free up until 2,000 subscribers per month. But I upgraded sooner than that because I like the added integration features. Mailchimp now automates Facebook ads and opt in landing pages in addition to the email marketing tools. The only downfall of Mailchimp is that they do not have any phone support. I have never personally needed tech support, but I can imagine that it could be frustrating not to be able to speak to someone. Still A+ in my bag of tricks.

If you want to learn how I generate hundreds of emails from my websites each month, read this article on giveaways.

Several of my clients rely on Constant Contact to keep their email marketing running smoothly. The custom templates are beautiful and simple to customize with a drag and drop format. One thing that I love about Constant Contact is their image library, which makes it super simple to search and throw an eye catching image into an email campaign. The resource library that is offered to all customers will get you started building and growing email lists. Where Constant Contact stands out the most is with their customer support. One quick phone call is all it ever takes to resolve issues with lists, templates, or even just to ask a question to an email expert. If you are managing several email lists and think that you will need customer support from time to time, Constant Contact is your best bet.

If you want to learn how I generate hundreds of emails from my websites each month, read this article on giveaways.

I have many talents, but designing in PhotoShop is not one of them. I started using Canva a couple of years ago to create ecommerce product photos, Facebook ad photos and blog featured images for my various businesses. I could not believe that it was a free service. About a year ago, I upgraded to the paid version because of the Magic Resize and branded color palette features. Now, I create one image and then magic resize it for all platforms. Canva makes my life so easy and saves so much time. I have recently started using it to develop PDFs and sales materials and they truly look like they are professionally designed.

A few years ago, I read a couple of articles about how Pat Flynn uses giveaways as a primary method of growing his email list and it took me a while to wrap my head around it. But, once I did, I was off and running. KingSumo Giveaways is a very powerful WordPress plugin that will walk you through the giveaway set up. The end result is a professionally looking giveaway that will yield hundreds or thousands of entries. Those entries are great additions to your email marketing lists. I use KingSumo over any other giveaway platform because it rewards sharing. I have had many giveaways go viral with KingSumo and it is because of the brilliant architecture of the platform. The best part is that there is no monthly subscription. Pay a one time licensing fee and own it forever. I own the professional license so that I can add it to every WordPress site I ever own. KingSumo has agreed to provide my readers with 20% off when they sign up with my link and use PromoCode: PSHQ20.

Traffic Driving Tools

Whether you use the free Mangools KWFinder tool or sign up for the upgraded service (you will if you are serious about traffic), never write a blog post or ecommerce product description without this tool. If you feel like your blog or online store budget is too small to compete with the bigger players, you need this tool. You can compete within your niche market and create an organic reach without breaking the bank. But you will have to be a diligent keyword researcher. The KWFinder and SERP Checker will help you to identify low competition keywords, their search volume, and how you rank against others.

If you own a Shopify store and you are sick of throwing money at Facebook ads, Pinterest for Shopify Ultimate Guide is here to rescue your store. Over the past three years, I have been testing different Pinterest strategies on my own Shopify stores, determined to figure out how to drive BUYERS to my Shopify store without paid ads. My testing paid off and I bundled everything I learned into a step by step ebook, so that you can duplicate my results. Once you purchases the ebook you will be added to the private Pinterest for Shopify Facebook group and the exclusive Top Shopify Products group board, where you may advertise your products to thousands of followers.

Learn more about my amazing Pinterest for Shopify results and Grab your copy today.

If you want to take advantage of the tremendous free traffic and exposure that Pinterest offers to bloggers, but don’t know where to start, Pinteresting Strategies is the ebook you want to grab. Packed full of no nonsense tricks and strategies to master Pinterest, the step by step format will have your Pinterest account up and driving traffic to your blog in less than a week. Carly, the author, isn’t a Pinterest expert. She is a successful blogger who is eager to share what she has learned.

Blogging for Profit

If you are thinking about making extra income or even creating a full-time work from home income with affiliate marketing, you will want to take this course. In Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing, you will learn how to master affiliate marketing, without coming across as too salesy or selling your soul. It is entirely possible to begin a brand new blog with zero traffic and be profitable. By following this affiliate marketing strategy course, you will increase the amount of passive income you are earning, and have even more fun with your business. I started my blog as a money making pro and I owe it largely to this course. The course instructor, Michelle, earns more than $50,000 per month in affiliate income and she regularly updates the course to keep up with trends.

If you are interested in starting a blogging website using WordPress, Bluehost is the hosting I recommend. Bluehost seamlessly integrates with WordPress and makes starting a website simple. One of the top web hosting companies in 2018, starting your own website with them is simple and affordable. For as low as $3.95 a month, your hosting will be covered. And if you sign up using my link, your domain and SSL certificate will be free. Bluehost is the hosting trusted by the greats, including Pat Flynn, Michelle Schroeder-Gardner and many others.

Ecommerce Tools

Several years ago, I began to forge my own ecommerce path and migrated my stores from Ebay and Amazon to Shopify. I was fed up with the high fees and strict, unwavering rules. Marketplaces have turned into micromanagers, always telling us how to run our businesses. After considerable research, I decided to use Shopify as my platform. It was a great decision and I highly recommend them to anyone considering ecommerce. Easy to set up and manage. Use this link to receive your free trial.

Learn more about my amazing Pinterest for Shopify results and Grab your copy today.

EBates is the best savings tool I have used for both personal and business. EBates is free! Simply install the EBates extension so that it appears at the top of your screen and a popup reminds you to activate it every time you make an online purchase. How can this help with your online store savings? If your ecommerce store sources from AliExpress, EBates pays you 4.5% from every AliExpress purchase. That adds 4.5% back into your ecommerce sales profit margin. That is huge! EBates is invaluable to my business finances also. Here are a few of business purchases I have saved on with EBates:

Office supplies like paper, printer ink, paper clips, pens: Up to 10% cash back at Office Depot, Office Max, The Supplies Shops

Office furniture: 3.5% cash back at officefurniture.com and officedesigns.com

Vonage Business offers $10 cash back

Whether you use the free Mangools KWFinder tool or sign up for the upgraded service (you will if you are serious about traffic), never write an ecommerce product description or title without this tool. If you feel like your online store budget is too small to compete with the bigger players, you need this tool. You can compete within your niche market and create an organic reach without breaking the bank. But you will have to be a diligent keyword researcher. The KWFinder and SERP Checker will help you to identify low competition keywords, their search volume, and how you rank against others.

A few years ago, I read a couple of articles about how Pat Flynn uses giveaways as a primary method of growing his email list and it took me a while to wrap my head around it. But, once I did, I was off and running. KingSumo Giveaways is a very powerful WordPress plugin that will walk you through the giveaway set up. The end result is a professionally looking giveaway that will yield hundreds or thousands of entries. Those entries are great additions to your email marketing lists. I use KingSumo over any other giveaway platform because it rewards sharing. I have had many giveaways go viral with KingSumo and it is because of the brilliant architecture of the platform. The best part is that there is no monthly subscription. Pay a one time licensing fee and own it forever. I own the professional license so that I can add it to every WordPress site I ever own. If your online store is a WP site, this tool will make a big difference in how you approach email marketing. KingSumo has agreed to provide my readers with 20% off when they sign up with my link and use PromoCode: PSHQ20.

Small Business Savings Tools

EBates is the best savings tool I have used for both personal and business. And EBates is FREE! I installed the EBates extension so that it appears at the top of my screen and a popup reminds me to activate it every time I make an online purchase. EBates puts money back into my pocket with every gift I purchase and saves me tons during back to school and over the holidays. But, EBates is invaluable to my business finances also. Here are a few of business purchases I have saved on with EBates:

Office supplies like paper, printer ink, paper clips, pens: Up to 10% cash back at Office Depot, Office Max, The Supplies Shops

Office furniture: 3.5% cash back at officefurniture.com and officedesigns.com

Vonage Business offers $10 cash back

Another money savings tool that pins to the top of your screen is Honey. Rather than pay cash back, Honey provides an immediate discount. Unlike other savings tools, it combs the web for every discount available and delivers it directly to you before you make an online purchase. I have saved hundreds with Honey. AND, it can be used in addition to Groupon or EBates for the maximum savings on business expenses.

Organization and Productivity

I honestly can’t remember what I did before I started using Evernote. If you have multiple projects going on and need a way to track and organize content, Evernote is a great, low cost solution. I use it for saving and organizing blog content ideas, online store product ideas, research and stats for grants that I write, college research for my teens, and the list goes on and on. Simply create “Notebooks” and when you want to save an article, review, or anything you find online, add it to the relevant folder. Their mobile app is amazing for saving to notebooks while on the go.

If you schedule appointments for consulting, product demos, interviews, or for anything at all, you probably get tired of the back and forth trying to coordinate a good time for all parties. And let’s not even get started with coordinating time zones. I got sick of being frustrated with scheduling misunderstandings and delays, so I subscribed to Acuity Scheduling. Now, my clients are able to easily and quickly select an appointment time from my calendar link and a confirmation email is auto sent to all parties. With Acuity Scheduling, I can create multiple appointment types with different durations and select the dates and times when I am available. My only regret is that it took me so long to find this productivity solution.

Check out my brutally honest article called 7 Productivity Hacks I Use to Get Sh*t Done to see what my productivity strategy looks like.

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All About Self Employment

Graduate From Side Hustle to Small Business