How to start using a variety of business platforms without having any (or little) tech skills.

"If everybody got somebody by the hand, maybe everyone could learn and understand." — Sebastian, The Little Mermaid

In this blog, let's have a chat about bringing in more tech into your business.

Now don't freak out and stop reading! I've got you - here's my hands 👐🏻

Starting a business is scary enough without dropping in lots and lots of jargon, things to learn, social media, email marketing, content creation and 'all the things' we SHOULD be doing (apparently!) as business owners.

When you first start, it's easy to download everything that's free - we all did it.

You will find that you soon get overwhelmed with the emails and you probably never read the PDFs (it's all good, a lot of us have an abundance of PDFs in our Google Drive or inbox folders too!).

Now if you're not techy either, it can get even harder because you have absolutely NO IDEA where to even begin searching for whatever the heck it is that you need.

Let's break it down into simple things that you need business platforms for:

1. Content creation - let's face it, we need to be on social media to grow our business, especially when we start out. Without it, no-one even knows we exist and we may be the best kept secret.

2. Email marketing - you may get advice that the money is in the list (and it's absolutely true). The sooner you can get yourself sorted with a lead magnet (some sort of free thing that you give away - it can be an ebook, a template, a Google Doc, a video, an audio file - whatever your DREAM client needs), the sooner you can start emailing people that want to be on your list and get your 'thing' sold.

3. Lead and client management - how on earth do you keep on top of all the client leads, let alone managing the clients from onboarding to offboarding once you have them.

4. Project management - you might be thinking, Jo, I don't have the first clue about this - what does that even mean? Managing a project can be as simple as going to the grocery store with a list or doing renovations in your house. There's a list of tasks, there might be a list of things you need to buy, there could be dates when things need to be done and then it's completed. Does that help?

5. Website management - you may not start out with having a website but most of us have one. It gives us an opportunity to have a blog or a podcast etc and also can be used to get seen on Google and other search engines.

Now what? Which platforms do you start with?

What business platforms should you use?

My recommendations for new(er) business owners are:

1. Content creation - I LOVE Canva - it's easy to use and there's a free and a paid version. You can totally start with the free version. Start simple with your social media - if you can afford it, get some branded templates done with your content and have some ideas on what you want to post about.

2. Email marketing - for those starting out, you cannot go past MailerLite. Their free plan is awesome - it's good for up to 1000 subscribers (at the time of writing) and you can also add an automation (a sequence of emails that get sent to your subscribers when they sign up for your free 'thing').

3. Lead and client management - let's start simple. Give Trello a try. Start with a very simple weekly board and go from there. Once you're up and running, you can give Notion a try (that's my favourite) - it can be fully customised and I even have my client portal on there where we can have a chat, upload stuff and keep on top of tasks.

4. Project management - I would start with a list (probably in Trello again) - start with Ideas, To Do, In Progress, On Hold, Complete. It doesn't have to be a complicated process.

5. Website management - depending on what you have, you may need a hand with your website. I recommend Wix to new(er) business owners as it's easy to update things after the initial build.

OK that's it for today. I hope I haven't bombarded you with too much information.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Let's work together

If you're interested in working with me but you're on a budget, you can start with my FREE mini course - create an animated and clickable email signature.

The next step is The 'Not-So-Techy' Magic Club, my $7.00 AUD a month membership built for new(er) business owners struggling to get started with biz platforms.

I still do some 1:1 work and you can check out my portfolio and get in touch if you need some help with graphics and documents.

Until next time, big love and chat soon,

Jo (and Scruff) xxx