Adventure Business – Online Office Tools

Website Platform

Today it simply isn’t enough to just have a Facebook page or have nothing at all. People need to be able to find you and like a physical location, a website is your digital location. To have a website you need two things;

• website hosting (domain and hosting service, your address online)
• website platform (WordPress, WIX etc., your online house/store)

Recommendations

• Get your domain and hosting from BlueHost.
• Use WordPress for a customized site.
• Use WIX, Shopify or Square for a more plug and play approach.

CRM Platform

How are you keeping track of all your client details? Scraps of paper? Email threads? Contacts in your phone?

There are many ways to do this but why not make your life EASIER with a CRM system? CRM = Customer Relationship Management and this is the hub of all client communication for you and your team.

Recommendations

Set up HubSpot for FREE and start tracking all your customer interactions today.

Invoicing & Payment Processing Platforms

Still printing and mailing invoices? Time to jump into the 21st century folks! It’s now easier than ever to take credit card payments, send digital invoices and track incomes and expenses with online software.

To collect money, you need two things;

1. invoicing platform (create invoices, email receipts)
2. payment processor (charge credit cards)

Many platforms do both of these actions, so going with something simple like PayPal or Square gets this all done in one step.

Alternately, you can use a CRM (like HubSpot) connected to a processor (like Stripe) and keep all your invoices in your client profiles and ALL in one place!

Recommendations

Need online and in-store processing? Go with Square.

Want to integrate with your CRM, Website or other specialty software? Go with Stripe.

Bookkeeping & Accounting Platform

Are you pen and papering it still? Really? How does your accountant feel about that? Let’s help all three people out and make everyone’s life easier.

Bookkeeping is tedious but made a whole lot easier with QuickBooks. Whether you’re DIY’ing it or outsourcing this task, using the QB app allows you to capture receipts, view cash flow and manage your finances on the go.

QuickBooks is the leading software for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Its powerful integrations allow it to connect to specific software as well as payment platforms, like Square.

Recommendation

One word. QuickBooks.

Email Platforms

Email is the leading communication method today. As a business, you need an email address that is consistent with your name and brand so it’s easy for people to reach you. Ideally, it matches your domain like this: katie@katiebroadhurst.com or team@katiebroadhurst.com.

There are three email platforms at work in my business;

1. Gsuite a.k.a. Gmail (inbox+way more!)
2. HubSpot (that CRM we talked about sends emails and reads incoming emails from Gsuite)
3. MailChimp (email marketing platform)

I know what your thinking – why 3 email platforms?! Well, Gsuite doesn’t do email marketing. HubSpot tracks all customer communications. And Mailchimp sends beautiful marketing emails. BUT HubSpot is integrated with both, so there is NO manual updating required!

Recommendations

Budget Option: Gmail+HubSpot+MailChimp ($FREE)

Mid-range Option: Gsuite+HubSpot+MailChimp or Active Campaign ($99+ annually)

Go All In Option: Gsuite + HubSpot ($700+ annually)