Investing your money wisely in your small business can be scary. I’m sharing a list of the most valuable small business tools that aren’t free and why you should invest in them too!
Need more ideas for your small business? Check out my favorite free business tools and 4 mistakes to avoid when starting your VA business.
I serve a lot of clients who are bloggers, but my heart is also in teaching those that may want to embark on a journey to become a virtual assistant in their own niche to serve clients one day.
Spending money when starting a business that you’re starting up is scary. What if you don’t see the return? Am I really ready for the long hours that come when starting a small business? How do I find new customers? What if you have to close up shop in under a year?
Let me be real with you – those things are all valid. But what’s more real is if you are paralyzed by the fears of what ifs, you’ll likely never begin and if you do, you’ll likely quit early because you’re just not sure if it’ll be worth it to be a small business owner.
I use lots of free tools in my small business. Lotssss. I wrote about my favorite free small business tools here that’s pack full of great information! In uncertain times that we are facing currently in the world, it almost seems counterintuitive to spend money doing something in the creative field not knowing how it will look in the near future.
But all of the small business tools I have decided to invest in have paid for themselves over and over and over. I know that sounds clichè and it may not even be a possibility if your budget is at or near zero, but these tools are so valuable, maybe you can keep them in your back pocket until you’re ready!
The Best Paid Tools To Help You Thrive In Your Small Business
*Some affiliate links may be used for your convenience. At no extra cost to you, affiliate links help me pay for things like web hosting, any of these tools listed here, and $2 wine from Aldi if any of those things decide not to work at any given moment.
1Password
This is one of the first tools I bought for my small business. Because of the nature of my work, I have to have a lot of log in information from my customers. This includes things like email addresses and passwords and I take security very seriously.
I don’t want a potential customer be nervous about sharing information with me, so I pay for this tool monthly so that I can create password “vaults” for each of my customers. They can go in and enter their usernames and passwords and I have a separate vault for each client. It’s absolutely crucial that password data is kept secure and so this is the easiest way that we can exchange this information that will remain secure. If you have passwords that are shared between your clients and yourself, I would highly suggest this tool.
Canva Pro
I actually talked about this when I spoke about my favorite free tools because Canva is for sure one of my favorite free tools, but I just finally took the plunge and paid for Canva pro and let me tell you – I could sing its praises for years.
Folders, organization options, ability to upload fonts and have separate brand identities and color combinations. Since I’ve started creating more graphics for clients, it was becoming super difficult to keep track of all the folders, but now it’s such a breeze! If you’re not a member of Canva Pro and are making graphics for clients or even yourself, this is a great tool to check out!
Adobe Creative Cloud
All the heart eyes for this paid business tool. I absolutely couldn’t do what I do without this. Specifically, Lightroom and Photoshop. If you are running a business, Photoshop is a great place to make graphics of any kind. There’s a bigger learning curve than there is with something like Canva Pro, but there is so much more customization and tools that you can use.
Lightroom is where allll the editing gets done. Running a blog means having to have something for people to look at and that requires me to edit photos to match my desired aesthetic.
Tailwind
While Pinterest is one of my absolute favorite free tools for business, Tailwind is the business partner to Pinterest. I couldn’t do what I do without Tailwind. I just don’t have the time for it.
I manage several Pinterest accounts for clients and this is a tool that I require because there’s no way that I could do day to day management of Pinterest without having some sort of tool to put it on autopilot. Tailwind provides the ability to remain active on Pinterest without having to spend hours on end engaging with the site.
FloDesk
Ahhh, FloDesk. This email service provider is a breath of fresh air. It is newer, so it doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles of ConvertKit, but it’s trending in the right direction. Their email templates are absolutely customizable and super easy to work with.
If pretty emails are important to you and your business success, I would strongly recommend looking into FloDesk. The best feature of this email marketing service is that the price never goes up based on the number of your subscribers. That’s unheard of! Every other popular paid email marketing service charges you per number of subscribers but FloDesk does not and by using my sign up code, you can actually score FloDesk for 50% off fo’ life! Say whaaaa!
Do you want to see an example of how gorgeous and simple these emails are? Sign up below to see what they look like in action!
A good, business focused WordPress theme
There are plenty of options to choose from, but for me, I was super picky. I’m very picky about the overall design, but also I didn’t want the site to appear too sales-y. You know what I’m talking about. The second you land on the page, even if it’s done well, you can just feel they’re trying to sell you something.
That’s why I went with BluChic! They’re a husband and wife team who create stunning WordPress themes for all kinds of businesses, including sales of a product, offering a service, or anyone in the creative field! Their customer service is top notch, which is something that I’m very big on as well. Whether you’re a small business or have 500 employees, having great customer service will always be number one for me.
KW Finder
I know, I know. SEO feels like Chinese to some people, but if you’re wanting to make it long term with an online presence today, having Google know (and trust!) you is key. There are quite literally millions of blogs out there today and so the market is extremely saturated.
There are hundreds of thousands of people out there trying to do what you do and it’s not about being “better” than them necessarily, but it’s about having the right tools in place to make your work seen and trusted. Having a good SEO tool like KW Finder helps me know what people are searching for and how I can write my posts to not only rank on Google, but more importantly, add value to those people who may be visiting my site.
Want to give it a try? Try typing in a keyword in your niche below! Something like “spring decor ideas” or “fashion trends for summer” or “summer grill recipes”.
Content Subscription Library
What is a content subscription library? It can be tons of things – stock photos, content calendars, social media prompts, templates, and the list goes on.
I absolutely love taking my own photographs and have a big girl camera and everything, but I’m not always good at “business” related content because my heart and mind are typically focused on all things home related. So, I invested in a lifetime membership to Pixistock and before I even launched my business, in less than 2 weeks, it had already paid for itself with the time it saved me.
The best part is it comes with a private group that members are a part of that can have access to Alicia for questions, feedback, and even suggestions about what we want her to create. And she is an absolute JOY of a human! I’m so grateful to be a part of that group and it’s helped tremendously as a business owner with two small businesses that I’m running from home!
Just to review my top paid business tools that I believe can help you:
What’s on your list of favorite business tools that you are willing to pay for? Let me know in the comments below!
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