Curious what tools I use to run my business?
Here are all the things I use day in and day out.
Curious about my favorite books? Then head here and check out the Creative Business Owner’s Bookshelf.
This page contains affiliate links. (All links with a * after them.) I use them because the small commission I make allows me to keep creating intuitive, practical legal (and biz) resources. Plus it never changes the price you pay. I own/use each of these resources and am including them because I think they might help you.
Tools I use to run the business side
- For the day to day to-do list, I use Post-It notes and my Bullet Journal hack in an A4 Leuchtturm1917 notebook*
- My daily to-do list is pulled from Asana where I keep a running to-do list and plan for all my projects
- Because I work between a 27-inch iMac, a MacBook, and an iPad I keep my work synced using Dropbox and Google Drive (Sheets and Docs)
- To manage my passwords and create strong secure ones, I use LastPass
- To handle my email, I’ve got a G Suite account (which also gives me Google Drive and Google Calendar)
- So I don’t have to worry about printing, signing, and scanning contracts I send them via HelloSign*
- My business cards were printed at Jakprints
Tools I use to run my email marketing
- Most of the email opt-in forms are powered by Gravity Forms (but a few are powered by Convertkit*
- I started off with MailChimp, but starting in 2016 I’ve sent emails via Convertkit*
- As part of the editing process, every email is run through Grammarly and Hemingway Editor
Tools I use to run my website + blog
- I host my site at Flywheel, run it using WordPress, and Dan designed it using the Genesis Framework*
- the artist’s Courtyard membership community is powered by Mighty Networks
- Typeform allows me to quickly survey my audience and visually see the results
- As part of the editing process, every piece of content is run through Grammarly and Hemingway Editor
- Before I settle on a headline, I run it through both the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer and the Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer
- For recorded videos, I use a mix of Quicktime, iMovie, and a Nikon D90 with a Manfrotto tripod
- To get better sound, I use a Blue Snowball microphone* when I’m hosting live sessions and a Rode smartLav+* for recorded videos
- To get a rough transcript of the videos, I use the Watson Speech to Text demo tool from IBM
- I use Pinecast to host the audio-only versions of Ask Kiff (If you sign up for Pinecast using the code r-bd0241 you’ll get 40% off for 4 months (and I’ll get a small discount)*)
- All the artist’s Courtyard videos are hosted on Vimeo using my Vimeo PRO account
- To create graphics, I get images from Pexels, Unsplash, and Creative Market*
- Most of the opt-in forms, the contact form, the Ask Kiff form, and the speaking page form are powered by Gravity Forms
- Of course, Google Analytics provides me lots of data on how visitors interact with my site
- The social media sharing buttons, click to tweet graphics, and the pre-populated social media content are all powered by Social Warfare*
Tools I use to learn and build community
- CreativeLive* (Want to check out my class? It’s Increasing Trust in Your Online Business* and it’s totally free!)
- I visit my local public library at least once a week to check out new books. You can see some of my favorites here.
