I am so excited to bring you this page full of resources for creative small business owners like yourself! Many of them are free, which is great for those starting out. I will update this as often as I can, as I find new resources to share with you. If you have a favorite resource I'm missing out on, please share it with me, I'd love to check it out!
*please be aware that some of these links may be affiliate links, but know I would never endorse or recommend something that I didn't already love myself!
Planoly - I use this app to schedule my Instagram posts throughout the week. It has some great built-in features including saving a group of hashtags to use later and capturing analytics on your posts. FREE
Mailchimp - I used this as my email marketing provider up until very recently. It's a great tool that is very user-friendly if you're just getting started with your newsletter and email list. FREE
ConvertKit - I just recently switched over to ConvertKit so I could have a bit more control over the design elements, the segmenting and the email sequences. I'm still learning about this powerful email tool, but so far I really like it!
Tailwind - If you have a website that you're hoping to drive traffic to, I would highly, highly recommend Tailwind for Pinterest. It lets you schedule Pins daily so that you can be active even when you don't have time. The best feature is the Tailwind Tribes you can join to drive even more traffic to your site.
Grammarly - I have the Chrome extension currently for Grammarly and it has helped my email writing, blog post creation and just writing in general. It does a great job catching grammar mistakes in addition to spelling mistakes. FREE
Google Docs - This is a must as I'm sure you already know. I have all of my brain dumps, my blog posts, my notes and ideas, literally EVERYTHING in Google Docs. The nice thing about them is that you can open them on any device. FREE
Canva - This is an amazing free option for making any graphic you can think of. Pinterest graphics, Instagram Story graphics, anything you need for social media. FREE
Adobe Creative Cloud - You already know if you need to invest in Adobe Creative Cloud, if you need design software that is a bit more robust than the free Canva. You can find Photoshop, Ligthroom, Illustrator and more in this cloud subscription based software.
SC Stock Shop - Stunning, on brand stock photos is what you will find at SC Stock Shop. I've purchased some beautiful images from here and I also have a subscription to Social Squares which provides images to make your social platforms beautiful and uniform.
Follower to Fan Society - If you've ever wanted to take your Instagram to the next level, to really find your people and learn how to sell to them (in a not icky way) then you NEED to be part of this membership community. Tyler J McCall is an Instagram guru and offers some very actionable and insightful information.
Creative 24/7 - From the beautiful soul that leads the Creative at Heart Conference comes this awesome membership community. Every month has a new theme, wonderful industry leaders and quality content. From Email Marketing to systems and even finances, you're going to find just what you need to make your business thrive.
Podcasts - Some of my favorite creative small business podcast right now are The Modern Creative, Proof to Product, Creative Biz Rebellion and The Product Boss Podcast.
YouTube - I have loved watching YouTube lately, they are often times short educational videos. The shorter form is great for specific topics and quick tips. Some of my favorites are Ashlyn Writes, Jessica Stansberry and Creative at Heart.
Books - I love reading books on craft, business and personal development. I'm working on a blog post with all my favorites, but off the top of my head I've loved Big Magic, Grace Not Perfection and 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to start!
Trello - I use Trello to organize everything! It's an online tool that visually organizes things using headings and lists. It's a great place to keep things for future reference and it makes planning things so easy. FREE
Trello For Business Course - I took this low-cost program to learn how to best utilize Trello. It's a great companion to the free software.
Emily Ley Weekly Planner - As much as I love online planning software, I always have to have something paper to keep me organized. I have been using an Emily Ley Simplified Planner the past 3 years and I don't see myself going back.
Cultivate What Matters Goal Setting Powersheets - One of the best ways to get things done is to set goals the right way. These Powersheets are amazing and have kept me organized and reaching goals the past three years. I wouldn't be where I am today without them.
Quickbooks Self Employed - I grew up watching my mom do all of their bookkeeping on Quickbooks, back when you had to purchase a software. It was a no-brainer when I was looking for my bookkeeping. Quickbooks Self Employed has everything I need at a low monthly cost.