Selecting tools for your business can be an overwhelming task. So I love it when I stumble upon tools that are so self-evident that you can’t live without them. As this year ramps up: I want to share my top 10 favorite online-business tools for 2023.
- Flodesk – I mentioned this tool in my list last year, and I will keep raving about this heroic tool everywhere and every chance I get. Writing emails used to be PAINFUL and feel like DRUDGERY that I avoided at every turn. On top of that, the other email list software I had used generated emails that looked like something that stepped out of the early 2000s when they landed in your inbox. Flodesk’s minimalist interface keeps things from being overwhelming, which makes sense, since it’s designed by designers, and the emails are BEAU-TI-FUL. And what’s more: it’s FUN. I finally enjoy writing emails, and I am getting pretty good at being consistent with it. The only thing that could be a bit more robust is the analytics, but it is a new tool and new features are being developed all the time. This past year, they also added Checkouts, which is a Landing Page tool that integrates to take payments via Stripe. What’s more, if you use my link here, you can get 50% off your first year.
- Mighty Networks – I host my online community on Mighty. It is also the platform where I offer all my online courses and programs. Best of all, it has an app – so you can access your courses and your community on the go. I have tested several platforms and none of them come close to comparing with respect to community building.
- WordPress + Elementor – Honestly, not much has changed regarding how hard I am crushing on Elementor, so I will just leave last year’s summary right here. I started designing websites back in 1999, when the HTML was coded in notepad and uploaded to the server through FTP. I begrudgingly went to WordPress sometime around 2013-2014 and have enjoyed watching it develop through the years. Elementor was not a hard choice – there are some amazing themes / templates out there, and it makes it super easy to get your website up and running in a minimal amount of time (even for someone with absolutely no programming knowledge).
- Tidycal – Move over Calendly, there’s a new scheduling tool in town. It is easy to use, aesthetically pleasing and has all the great features of Calendly like calendar integrations and connections to Zapier. It makes it so easy to allow others to find a time that is convenient for them and book a slot directly in your calendar. Best of all, it costs $29 FOR LIFE, as opposed to the $144 per year you would be paying for Calendly. So you’re saving dough with no sacrifices. Nothing but love for Tidycal.
- Airtable – this is another tool I can’t stop raving about. It’s a whiz-bang, all-rounder of a tool and can be counted on for just about anything you would want a database for. You can make online questionnaires / forms, you can use it as a CRM, track your budget, treat it like a Kanban board or make dashboards in it. Which leads me to my only one complaint – I wish the expanded dashboard was the native view, but alas, as my mother reminds me: you can’t have it all.
- Mural – This is another all-rounder tool that I can’t imagine being without. It is meant to be a collaborative whiteboard, but I also use it for brainstorming, mind-mapping and presenting learning material when I am teaching others online.
- Canva – Who doesn’t love Canva? This tool has democratized graphic design and made it accessible to the masses. You no longer need to be an Adobe Photoshop Pro to have nice graphics. If you go for Canva Pro – you get access to a tonne of templates and there are a load of third-party designers selling design bundles and packs.
- Zapier – The ultimate matchmaker, Zapier connects everything that doesn’t integrate natively. I don’t think there is anything that Zapier doesn’t connect up.
- Zoom & Slack – I would be remiss if this list didn’t include these two insanely ubiquitous tools. I know I am cheating a bit because this actually makes it 11 on the list, but I have been using these tools for the last 4-5 years and can hardly imagine my life without them. Zoom started out as a work tool but became a lifeline for keeping up with family across the ocean in Covid times. I think we can all relate to living in Zoom over the last few years and even though I miss seeing people in person – I am extremely greatful we don’t have to go back to the 2006 Skype days of no videos, sketchy connections and dropped calls.
So these are my top choices of tools for 2023, and I will be using them both personally and professionally.
What did I miss, and what are you using in your business this year?
