October 2, 2024 • 16 mins
Welcome back to another episode of the Being Better Everyday podcast. I'm your host, Julie Wenzlick, and today we're diving into a topic that is near and dear to my heart: small business tools. Discover the tools that help me streamline my business, save time, and stay organized.
In this episode, I share my top five favorite business tools that I use most frequently. From Canva for design to Trello for organization, Procreate for creative work, Flodesk for email marketing, and Ubersuggest for SEO, these tools are game changers for any solopreneur or side hustler.
Join me as I discuss how I use these tools, the benefits they offer, and hopefully give you some new ideas for your business. Whether you're a solopreneur or managing a side hustle, these tools can make a significant difference in your workflow.
Grab your coffee, notebook, or Trello board, and let's get started.
Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast to support more women in their journey to living above the status quo. For more behind-the-scenes content, follow Julie on Instagram at @julie.pwdesigns , & don't forget to checkout my new website at bypwdesigns.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of the Being Better Every Day podcast.
I'm your host, Julie Wenzelig, and today we're diving into a topic that is near
and dear to my heart, small business tools.
I love discovering new tools that help me streamline my business,
save time, and stay organized.
So today I'm sharing some of my favorite business tools that I honestly couldn't live without.
(00:24):
Now it's really hard to consolidate this down to five, However,
I picked the ones that I'm using most frequently right now.
I'll talk about how I use them, when I use them, the benefits of them,
and hopefully give you some ideas of things you may not know about.
So whether you are a solopreneur or a side hustle-er like me,
(00:47):
these tools are game changers.
So grab your coffee, notebook, or even your Trello board because we're going
to to talk about that because you might want to jot these down. So let's get started.
I am on a journey to get better in all areas of my life, and I want to do it with you.
Welcome to the Being Better Every Day podcast, where we dig deep into all the
things a millennial mom needs to know, from how to juggle your passions with.
(01:11):
Music.
Your full-time job, to asking the hard questions about hormones and health,
and learning from one another along the way.
I am Julie Wenzelich, and as a mom, business owner, and corporate girly,
sometimes life can feel like a lot.
So join me in the journey of being better every day, where we create habits
and routines that support your
life, create calm in the chaos and put the you back in your every day.
(01:31):
Grab those headphones, put on your shoes and join me on a walk where we get
started with today's episode.
So number one is one that is not going to come to any surprise to anyone that
knows anything about my business.
(01:53):
And that is Canva. So I use Canva literally every day.
I cannot tell you the last time I didn't use it almost every day.
Every day that I'm in my business, I am using Canva.
I love that this was invented. I do have Canva Pro.
(02:16):
So first of all, let's rewind. What is Canva?
Canva is free, or it can be paid, but free online, almost like design suite.
And it's a lifesaver for creating professional graphics quickly and easily.
Whether I'm designing social media posts, client presentations,
(02:38):
course presentations for other entrepreneurs, or even my custom planners, my podcast cover art.
Canva makes this super simple and super easy.
I obviously didn't start out as a graphic designer, even though I'm leaning into that now.
Now, I started on Canva and I have everything from my social media templates,
(03:04):
everything you see on my social is created on Canva.
Everything that my podcast covers have been on Canva.
My course presentations that I've created for other entrepreneurs are on Canva.
Like I said, my custom planners are on Canva where I'm working to create the
2025 planner for another entrepreneur and that's on Canva.
(03:26):
I have all of my brand proposals, all of my service contract or service engagements
because it's like pretty, I don't know. I have...
All Pinterest pin templates. When we dive into Pinterest, I use Canva very heavily in Pinterest.
(03:46):
Seriously could not imagine my life without Canva at this point.
And I know that I'm in, I think I have over like 2000 designs in Canva.
The other amazing thing is you can upload your brand.
So for example, when I do branding work, I create a brand presentation.
I do that in Canva because I want the entrepreneur to be able to easily access
(04:06):
it. And entrepreneurs generally really don't have access to Adobe Illustrator.
And I also then upload all of their branding to Canva so that their logos and
color and font faces are readily available.
You can upload custom fonts to Canva so you can use your own brand fonts.
You can upload all of your brand photography, your brand elements,
(04:29):
and then it's in the brand area, right? So it's readily available and easy easy to use.
You also can create brand templates. So for example, I have a Pinterest proposal
builder and my Pinterest proposal builder is a Canva brand template,
meaning I can click in the templates area,
pull up my Pinterest proposal and easily recreate it for a new proposal.
(04:55):
I sent out three Pinterest proposals
in the last week and I just used that template that I had created.
So if you're an entrepreneur and you don't use Canva, I honestly have no idea how you survive.
But obviously that is my number one tip and tool that I use.
Like I said, every single day that I'm working, I'm in Canva.
(05:19):
The second tool that I use is one that there are, I would say what I would call
sister tools, and that is Trello.
So I use Trello for social media and podcast planning.
There are many uses, and I mentioned this in the last episode.
This is my primary use for it, is social media and podcast planning.
(05:42):
Trello keeps all of my content organized and helps me see everything at a glance,
especially when I feel overwhelmed.
It helps me, I don't know, I like the widget side of it.
Now, I've tried Monday, I've tried ClickUp, I've tried Asana.
And for some reason, I like the simplicity of Trello.
(06:02):
I still have ClickUp because I use ClickUp for tracking time with my VA clients.
But Trello is where I live when it comes to social media management,
podcast episodes, client projects.
Again, I'll be doing some social media management for a client this winter.
And I will be doing that in Trello because it's just easy for me. For...
(06:25):
The podcast, for example, I track my podcast ideas, any research,
if I have ideas for guests, right?
It's just kind of, I don't know, I like the widgets. I can't explain it other
than that, but it's definitely like having a little personal assistant on my computer.
If you don't like Trello, you can definitely try others like Asana or Monday.
But again, I've had the best experience with Trello and I do use the free version.
(06:51):
I don't use the paid version.
They do have a paid version and I'm sure Trello can be way more robust than what I use it for.
For those on video, while I'm talking, I'm putting up kind of a screenshot of
how I use it, but it works for me and that's the most important.
Number three is one that is going to be more specific to the creative side and that is Procreate.
(07:14):
I took a Procreate last winter, which now that I'm realizing it,
I can't believe it's been almost a year, But anyways,
I took a Procreate course last winter and I learned how to do all of my line
drawing and graphic design work through Procreate on the iPad,
which has been incredible for my custom illustrations.
(07:37):
I use it for everything from designing logos to creating unique social media
graphics, but mostly I use it for elements and designing logos.
It's super intuitive and And once you kind of get the basics down, it's super easy to use.
And it's been a way for me to kind of bring my creative side and my love for art back out.
(07:57):
I do also use Adobe Illustrator.
Adobe Illustrator is much harder to use and much less intuitive.
So what I typically will do is, especially for my elements, I draw everything
in Procreate and then I import it into Adobe Illustrator and then I vectorize it from there.
A lot of graphic designers will talk about starting square one in Adobe Illustrator.
(08:22):
And honestly, I find it way more efficient to work in Procreate and then vectorize.
So Procreate is, I can't remember if it was free or not, but if it wasn't free,
it was very reasonably priced.
So if you like drawing, doodling, or if you like seeing other creatives when
they do letter art, letter designs, or any other doodles, most likely they're doing it in Procreate.
(08:44):
The fourth tool that I can't live without right now is one that I left and came back to.
And that is Flowdesk. So Flowdesk is an email marketing platform that is design focused first.
What I mean by that is it definitely has more of a creative edge to it than
(09:08):
other email marketing platforms.
I was on Flowdesk for years. And then when I started my Squarespace site.
I don't know, six to eight months in, I moved to Squarespace email marketing
because honestly, it was cheaper by like $30 a month. And I didn't want to pay the price.
However, I will tell you, I missed Flowdesk.
(09:29):
So there are definitely other email marketing platforms out there.
I think ConvertKit is one that is very popular with entrepreneurs.
However, I find Flowdesk affordable and easy to use.
They have user-friendly templates and automation features where you can build
emails that reflect your brand.
And it's just never been easier to do that, right? It allows me to send personalized
(09:51):
messages to subscribers without getting bogged down by any of the technical stuff.
And I will tell you, if you stay tuned for some of my upcoming coming podcast
episodes, you will learn how the automation sequences are a lifesaver for me too.
It is something that I am leaning more into as I look to grow and scale my business.
(10:16):
And having workflows set up for welcoming new subscribers, promoting Pinterest
or promoting my SEO services or my branding services, delivering my freemiums,
right? I don't have have to do anything.
And with the integrations of ManyChat, Zapier, and Flowdesk,
literally somebody can be typing into my Instagram DMs and they get an email
(10:36):
from me without me having to do a thing.
And those automations are going to be what helps me continue to keep my brain
sane while working full-time and running this business on the side.
So it's definitely perfect for busy small business owners like myself who need
things to run smoothly in the background while focusing And then the fifth and
(10:59):
final tool is something that I've been using for a long time.
Is going to be a little bit geeky. And that is Ubersuggest.
So Ubersuggest, I would say it's within the marketing realm.
And I use this tool for SEO, keyword research, and content ideas.
(11:20):
Ubersuggest helps me understand what people are searching for,
what obviously is super important when content creation that actually resonates
with female entrepreneurs like yourself. I love the site audit feature. I use it all the time.
I also have the plugin on Google Chrome because I have the paid version of Ubersuggest
(11:41):
and it helps me look at improving my own online presence, but also my clients.
So I will do an entire episode or series on SEO and web design,
but I can't stress how important it is to have a web designer who understands
SEO for this reason, right?
(12:03):
It just helps me so much understand keyword research and optimizing websites
as well as creating keyword lists, right?
So if I'm looking to brainstorm on Pinterest, I can see all the keyword metrics
and then save it to a keyword list.
And if SEO and invisibility is important to you, Ubersuggest is definitely worth
(12:28):
checking out. But like I said, stay tuned.
I think maybe next episode we'll do just like an SEO 101 before we dive into
Pinterest because there are so many things that entrepreneurs are missing when
it comes to web design and starting their website,
including myself until about two months ago.
(12:49):
No, probably three months ago. But anyway, I have been learning about SEO all
of 2024 and I invested a pretty penny into to an SEO course that has been absolutely amazing.
And it just really has shown me how much,
I even missed out in the first couple of years of my business,
but not optimizing search engine optimization, which is SEO.
(13:11):
So number five is Ubersuggest. And it's kind of just like a tiptoe into what
you need to know as a small business owner, as it relates to SEO and web design.
So, and there you have it, my top five current favorite small business tools
that I seriously can't live without.
From design to organization, SEO and email marketing, these tools have saved
(13:33):
me tons of time and energy.
Oh, okay, bonus.
I can't believe that I forgot to mention AI in this.
So we'll probably have to do like a standalone AI episode at some point. I actually use AI a ton.
And my favorite right now is still just ChatGPT. I know there's a million other AI tools out there.
(13:56):
But having ChatGPT, oh, definitely number six.
But I feel like it needs to be its own episode of how I use it.
Other people have certainly talked about this too.
But if you are not using AI tools in your business as a small business owner
to save yourself time and give you just ideas, ideation, a starting place, right?
(14:19):
It's not replacing anything, but it's definitely a starting place,
you are absolutely missing out.
Anyway, so let me know if you're using any of these tools or if you love one that I didn't mention.
Connect with me on Instagram again at julie.pwdesigns or drop a comment wherever
you're listening to this podcast.
I always love hearing what's working for you. So please tell me and let me know
(14:43):
and share Share this with a fellow small business owner who needs some more
efficiency in their life.
So until next time, keep on taking one step towards being better every day.
And thanks for tuning in.
And that's a wrap on today's episode of the Being Better Every Day podcast.
Thank you for listening. I truly appreciate each listener.
(15:05):
If you've enjoyed the conversation, I'd love if you would leave a rating and
review or or share it with your bestie to help me reach more women looking to
ask the hard questions and live above that status quo.
To see any visuals, head over to my YouTube channel. Links, socials,
and resources mentioned can be found in today's show notes.
If you're looking for more, you can find me on Instagram at julie.pwdesigns,
(15:27):
sharing the behind the scenes of my everyday life as a millennial mom,
corporate girly, and small business owner.
Until next time, keep on taking one step at a time towards your version of being better every day.
Welcome back to another episode of the Being Better Every Day podcast.
I'm your host, Julie Wenzelig, and today we're diving into a topic that is near
and dear to my heart, small business tools.
I love discovering new tools that help me streamline my business,
save time, and stay organized.
So today I'm sharing some of my favorite business tools that I honestly couldn't live without.
(00:24):
Now it's really hard to consolidate this down to five, However,
I picked the ones that I'm using most frequently right now.
I'll talk about how I use them, when I use them, the benefits of them,
and hopefully give you some ideas of things you may not know about.
So whether you are a solopreneur or a side hustle-er like me,
(00:47):
these tools are game changers.
So grab your coffee, notebook, or even your Trello board because we're going
to to talk about that because you might want to jot these down. So let's get started.
I am on a journey to get better in all areas of my life, and I want to do it with you.
Welcome to the Being Better Every Day podcast, where we dig deep into all the
things a millennial mom needs to know, from how to juggle your passions with.
(01:11):
Music.
Your full-time job, to asking the hard questions about hormones and health,
and learning from one another along the way.
I am Julie Wenzelich, and as a mom, business owner, and corporate girly,
sometimes life can feel like a lot.
So join me in the journey of being better every day, where we create habits
and routines that support your
life, create calm in the chaos and put the you back in your every day.
(01:31):
Grab those headphones, put on your shoes and join me on a walk where we get
started with today's episode.
So number one is one that is not going to come to any surprise to anyone that
knows anything about my business.
(01:53):
And that is Canva. So I use Canva literally every day.
I cannot tell you the last time I didn't use it almost every day.
Every day that I'm in my business, I am using Canva.
I love that this was invented. I do have Canva Pro.
(02:16):
So first of all, let's rewind. What is Canva?
Canva is free, or it can be paid, but free online, almost like design suite.
And it's a lifesaver for creating professional graphics quickly and easily.
Whether I'm designing social media posts, client presentations,
(02:38):
course presentations for other entrepreneurs, or even my custom planners, my podcast cover art.
Canva makes this super simple and super easy.
I obviously didn't start out as a graphic designer, even though I'm leaning into that now.
Now, I started on Canva and I have everything from my social media templates,
(03:04):
everything you see on my social is created on Canva.
Everything that my podcast covers have been on Canva.
My course presentations that I've created for other entrepreneurs are on Canva.
Like I said, my custom planners are on Canva where I'm working to create the
2025 planner for another entrepreneur and that's on Canva.
(03:26):
I have all of my brand proposals, all of my service contract or service engagements
because it's like pretty, I don't know. I have...
All Pinterest pin templates. When we dive into Pinterest, I use Canva very heavily in Pinterest.
(03:46):
Seriously could not imagine my life without Canva at this point.
And I know that I'm in, I think I have over like 2000 designs in Canva.
The other amazing thing is you can upload your brand.
So for example, when I do branding work, I create a brand presentation.
I do that in Canva because I want the entrepreneur to be able to easily access
(04:06):
it. And entrepreneurs generally really don't have access to Adobe Illustrator.
And I also then upload all of their branding to Canva so that their logos and
color and font faces are readily available.
You can upload custom fonts to Canva so you can use your own brand fonts.
You can upload all of your brand photography, your brand elements,
(04:29):
and then it's in the brand area, right? So it's readily available and easy easy to use.
You also can create brand templates. So for example, I have a Pinterest proposal
builder and my Pinterest proposal builder is a Canva brand template,
meaning I can click in the templates area,
pull up my Pinterest proposal and easily recreate it for a new proposal.
(04:55):
I sent out three Pinterest proposals
in the last week and I just used that template that I had created.
So if you're an entrepreneur and you don't use Canva, I honestly have no idea how you survive.
But obviously that is my number one tip and tool that I use.
Like I said, every single day that I'm working, I'm in Canva.
(05:19):
The second tool that I use is one that there are, I would say what I would call
sister tools, and that is Trello.
So I use Trello for social media and podcast planning.
There are many uses, and I mentioned this in the last episode.
This is my primary use for it, is social media and podcast planning.
(05:42):
Trello keeps all of my content organized and helps me see everything at a glance,
especially when I feel overwhelmed.
It helps me, I don't know, I like the widget side of it.
Now, I've tried Monday, I've tried ClickUp, I've tried Asana.
And for some reason, I like the simplicity of Trello.
(06:02):
I still have ClickUp because I use ClickUp for tracking time with my VA clients.
But Trello is where I live when it comes to social media management,
podcast episodes, client projects.
Again, I'll be doing some social media management for a client this winter.
And I will be doing that in Trello because it's just easy for me. For...
(06:25):
The podcast, for example, I track my podcast ideas, any research,
if I have ideas for guests, right?
It's just kind of, I don't know, I like the widgets. I can't explain it other
than that, but it's definitely like having a little personal assistant on my computer.
If you don't like Trello, you can definitely try others like Asana or Monday.
But again, I've had the best experience with Trello and I do use the free version.
(06:51):
I don't use the paid version.
They do have a paid version and I'm sure Trello can be way more robust than what I use it for.
For those on video, while I'm talking, I'm putting up kind of a screenshot of
how I use it, but it works for me and that's the most important.
Number three is one that is going to be more specific to the creative side and that is Procreate.
(07:14):
I took a Procreate last winter, which now that I'm realizing it,
I can't believe it's been almost a year, But anyways,
I took a Procreate course last winter and I learned how to do all of my line
drawing and graphic design work through Procreate on the iPad,
which has been incredible for my custom illustrations.
(07:37):
I use it for everything from designing logos to creating unique social media
graphics, but mostly I use it for elements and designing logos.
It's super intuitive and And once you kind of get the basics down, it's super easy to use.
And it's been a way for me to kind of bring my creative side and my love for art back out.
(07:57):
I do also use Adobe Illustrator.
Adobe Illustrator is much harder to use and much less intuitive.
So what I typically will do is, especially for my elements, I draw everything
in Procreate and then I import it into Adobe Illustrator and then I vectorize it from there.
A lot of graphic designers will talk about starting square one in Adobe Illustrator.
(08:22):
And honestly, I find it way more efficient to work in Procreate and then vectorize.
So Procreate is, I can't remember if it was free or not, but if it wasn't free,
it was very reasonably priced.
So if you like drawing, doodling, or if you like seeing other creatives when
they do letter art, letter designs, or any other doodles, most likely they're doing it in Procreate.
(08:44):
The fourth tool that I can't live without right now is one that I left and came back to.
And that is Flowdesk. So Flowdesk is an email marketing platform that is design focused first.
What I mean by that is it definitely has more of a creative edge to it than
(09:08):
other email marketing platforms.
I was on Flowdesk for years. And then when I started my Squarespace site.
I don't know, six to eight months in, I moved to Squarespace email marketing
because honestly, it was cheaper by like $30 a month. And I didn't want to pay the price.
However, I will tell you, I missed Flowdesk.
(09:29):
So there are definitely other email marketing platforms out there.
I think ConvertKit is one that is very popular with entrepreneurs.
However, I find Flowdesk affordable and easy to use.
They have user-friendly templates and automation features where you can build
emails that reflect your brand.
And it's just never been easier to do that, right? It allows me to send personalized
(09:51):
messages to subscribers without getting bogged down by any of the technical stuff.
And I will tell you, if you stay tuned for some of my upcoming coming podcast
episodes, you will learn how the automation sequences are a lifesaver for me too.
It is something that I am leaning more into as I look to grow and scale my business.
(10:16):
And having workflows set up for welcoming new subscribers, promoting Pinterest
or promoting my SEO services or my branding services, delivering my freemiums,
right? I don't have have to do anything.
And with the integrations of ManyChat, Zapier, and Flowdesk,
literally somebody can be typing into my Instagram DMs and they get an email
(10:36):
from me without me having to do a thing.
And those automations are going to be what helps me continue to keep my brain
sane while working full-time and running this business on the side.
So it's definitely perfect for busy small business owners like myself who need
things to run smoothly in the background while focusing And then the fifth and
(10:59):
final tool is something that I've been using for a long time.
Is going to be a little bit geeky. And that is Ubersuggest.
So Ubersuggest, I would say it's within the marketing realm.
And I use this tool for SEO, keyword research, and content ideas.
(11:20):
Ubersuggest helps me understand what people are searching for,
what obviously is super important when content creation that actually resonates
with female entrepreneurs like yourself. I love the site audit feature. I use it all the time.
I also have the plugin on Google Chrome because I have the paid version of Ubersuggest
(11:41):
and it helps me look at improving my own online presence, but also my clients.
So I will do an entire episode or series on SEO and web design,
but I can't stress how important it is to have a web designer who understands
SEO for this reason, right?
(12:03):
It just helps me so much understand keyword research and optimizing websites
as well as creating keyword lists, right?
So if I'm looking to brainstorm on Pinterest, I can see all the keyword metrics
and then save it to a keyword list.
And if SEO and invisibility is important to you, Ubersuggest is definitely worth
(12:28):
checking out. But like I said, stay tuned.
I think maybe next episode we'll do just like an SEO 101 before we dive into
Pinterest because there are so many things that entrepreneurs are missing when
it comes to web design and starting their website,
including myself until about two months ago.
(12:49):
No, probably three months ago. But anyway, I have been learning about SEO all
of 2024 and I invested a pretty penny into to an SEO course that has been absolutely amazing.
And it just really has shown me how much,
I even missed out in the first couple of years of my business,
but not optimizing search engine optimization, which is SEO.
(13:11):
So number five is Ubersuggest. And it's kind of just like a tiptoe into what
you need to know as a small business owner, as it relates to SEO and web design.
So, and there you have it, my top five current favorite small business tools
that I seriously can't live without.
From design to organization, SEO and email marketing, these tools have saved
(13:33):
me tons of time and energy.
Oh, okay, bonus.
I can't believe that I forgot to mention AI in this.
So we'll probably have to do like a standalone AI episode at some point. I actually use AI a ton.
And my favorite right now is still just ChatGPT. I know there's a million other AI tools out there.
(13:56):
But having ChatGPT, oh, definitely number six.
But I feel like it needs to be its own episode of how I use it.
Other people have certainly talked about this too.
But if you are not using AI tools in your business as a small business owner
to save yourself time and give you just ideas, ideation, a starting place, right?
(14:19):
It's not replacing anything, but it's definitely a starting place,
you are absolutely missing out.
Anyway, so let me know if you're using any of these tools or if you love one that I didn't mention.
Connect with me on Instagram again at julie.pwdesigns or drop a comment wherever
you're listening to this podcast.
I always love hearing what's working for you. So please tell me and let me know
(14:43):
and share Share this with a fellow small business owner who needs some more
efficiency in their life.
So until next time, keep on taking one step towards being better every day.
And thanks for tuning in.
And that's a wrap on today's episode of the Being Better Every Day podcast.
Thank you for listening. I truly appreciate each listener.
(15:05):
If you've enjoyed the conversation, I'd love if you would leave a rating and
review or or share it with your bestie to help me reach more women looking to
ask the hard questions and live above that status quo.
To see any visuals, head over to my YouTube channel. Links, socials,
and resources mentioned can be found in today's show notes.
If you're looking for more, you can find me on Instagram at julie.pwdesigns,
(15:27):
sharing the behind the scenes of my everyday life as a millennial mom,
corporate girly, and small business owner.
Until next time, keep on taking one step at a time towards your version of being better every day.
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