My Top 10 Tools
The ultimate way to get all those simple mundain tasks done without even the click of a button.
This tool connects all your systems together – I personally use if for tracking web sign ups in a spreadsheet, logging attendees at my eventbrite events and sending information to and from my email CRM.
Zapier basically takes information from 1 system and copies it to another – you tell the system what to copy (e.g. name and email address from my eventbrite sign up) to where (e.g. add to my email list in excel and to my email CRM client) and when to do it (e.g. start the process when a person buys an eventbrite ticket) and thats it!
Once you get your head around it, it’s genius.
This tool saves me hours every day, the free version is really good and even though I’ve upgraded to get more “zaps” – it still only costs $29.99 per month! Bargain!
I’ve spent the last 8 years as a management consultant working all over the UK in a wide variety of businesses so I have tried out a good many tools to make my presentations and reports stand out from the crowd – Visme has always been my go to tool.
I’ve written many (many!) business cases and created a raft of presentations, interactive infographics, business cards, leaflets and ebooks in Visme over the years and could not be happier with them.
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I Prefer the Visme interface, it’s very user friendly and I’ve never had any issues with it at all, and if you really just want the simple graphics without the super fancy animations – it’s probably the best in my opinion.
However, the world of social graphics moves very quickly and if you want to stand out it’s important be be at the cutting edge.
That said, Visme animations are still really very good (they are adding new stuff all the time) and also quite different style wise from the Crello and Canva bank of options so it comes down to your budget, your style and what you want to use the tool for outside of pinterest and social media graphic creations.
More plus points that I feel I need to mention in favour of Visme are their blog, [extensive] instruction videos and regular live training webinars – they are soooo much more than a graphics tool – so despite my slight invidelity when it comes to the occassional animated pin, I’m definatly sticking with Visme.
Visme’s standard package is $15 (£11 ish) per month so similar to Canva but there are some features missing from this lower level that you do get with the other two plus you only get that price when you pay annually.
If you’re looking at this from a larger organisation point of view and you want more than just pretty pins, Visme has more to offer in my opinion – but it costs.
#4 top tools
Google Workspace
(Productivity & Collaboration)
What is Google Workspace?
Google Workspace is a cloud-based productivity suite that helps teams communicate, collaborate and get things done from anywhere and on any device. It's simple to set up, use and manage, so your business can focus on what really matters.
Millions of organizations around the world count on Google Workspace for professional email, file storage, video meetings, online calendars, document editing and more.
Watch a video or find out more here.
Here are some highlights:
Business email for your domainLooking professional matters, and that means communicating as you@yourcompany.com. Gmail’s simple, powerful features help you build your brand while getting more done.
Access from any location or deviceCheck email, share files, edit documents, hold video meetings and more whether you’re at work, at home or in transit. You can pick up where you left off from a computer, tablet or phone.
Enterprise-level management toolsRobust admin settings give you total command over users, devices, security and more. Your data always belongs to you, and it goes with you if you switch solutions.
Start free trialThis tool is a very recent find but an absolute must for anyone looking for customers in a particular areas, and / or a particular niche.
It basically trawls google for you.
I recently did some work for a provider of mental health therapies in a certain area of the UK (its works in the US too) and it allowed me to search for a keyword, in this case “therapist” in a particular city.
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Within 3 minutes I had hundreds of results including their web site links, phone numbers AND email addresses!
Hours and hours of work saved for less than $30.
The tools looks for and returns links to facebook, instagram, twitter and other social accounts too, and you can perform multiple searches per day.
Even if you just sign up and max out your searches in the first month you’d have so many leads to go fo it would keep you going for a year!
Plus, if you follow my link in the button below – you get an extra 10% off.
When I first started building web sites, I watched hundreds of hours of your tube looking for tips and recomendations on where to start. Hosting is by far the biggest & most expensive, initial decision that needs to be made.
I’m so pleased I didn’t just jump at the first recommendation as the many videos I’ve seen since opting for siteground has reaffirmed my choice.
Read More
If you are in the process of looking for hosting or wanting to switch to a faster and more reliable provider, just be aware that the ones that rank highest in many of the “hosting reviews” are the ones that pay the affiliate the most money!
Bluehost often comes out on top because they pay the best.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not squeeky clean here – the link below is an affiliate link but I can honestly say that I have all my sites with siteground, they are really fast (site speed wise) and very helpful if you get stuck – although admitedly not the cheapest.
Many of the web development youtubers that I follow agree with this sentiment and also stick with siteground as their provider, so I’m not alone in my thoughts on this.
Currency fair was one of my best finds after being stung with a few horendous USD to GBP transfer rates.
This is basically a bank that allows you to hold multiple accounts in a range of currencies.
Nothing special yet – but…
With a normal account, when you want to transfer the money out – or exchange it to another currency to pay someone else, you have to just take pot luck on what their bank transfer rate is at that time.
Currency fair allows you to “set up and exchange” and wait for the rate to hit something decent.
Read More
For example, I get paid in USD quite a lot so if that comes into my UK account i might get an exchange rate of about 0.7 – so my $1000 becomes £700.
If I’m ok to wait a week or so, I can set up an exchange in Currency fair at a rate of 0.74 and as soon as the markets hit that rate they will exchange the money for me.
My $1000 is now £740.
It might not sound like a lot but over the year it really adds up to quite a bit!
The layout of the Crello dashboard, the editing tools and even quite a lot of the available images are very similar to Canva though it doesn’t have the publish to pinterest option or the ability to schedule pins directly from the software (it does have a share facility though) as you can with the paid Canva subscription.
Read More
I do however like a lot of the additional Crello features such as their animated graphics and free video clips that you can use inside your chosen graphic.
These options are all available in Canva and Visme too but the range inside the free accounts is different and it’s just my personal preferance to like the crello ones.
Crello has a distinct advantage if you’re going for the premium version in that it’s pretty darn cheap compared to the other 2 that are most popular in this space.
Crello also has a free version so it would cost nothing to try creating a few graphics on each platform to see which style and free elements suits you best.
PRO = upto 10 members on this plan
£7.50 ish ($9.99) paid monthly – (so cheaper than canva)
Creative, Graphics & Presentation Tools
I’ve spent the last 10 years as a management consultant working all over the UK in a wide variety of businesses so I have tried out a good many tools to make my presentations and reports stand out from the crowd – Visme has always been my go to tool.
I’ve written many (many!) business cases and created a raft of presentations, interactive infographics, business cards, leaflets and ebooks in Visme over the years and could not be happier with them.
Read More
I like the Visme interface, it’s very user friendly and I’ve never had any issues with it at all, and if you really just want the simple graphics without the super fancy animations – it’s probably the best in my opinion.
That said, Visme animations are still really very good (they are adding new stuff all the time) and also quite different style wise from the Crello and Canva bank of options (these are the only other 2 similar tools I’ve used) so it comes down to your budget, your style and what you want to use the tool for outside of pinterest and social media graphic creations.
More plus points that I feel I need to mention in favour of Visme are their blog, [extensive] instruction videos and regular live training webinars – they are soooo much more than a graphics tool – so despite my slight infividelity when it comes to the occassional animated pin, I’m definatly sticking with Visme.
If you’re looking at this from a larger organisation point of view and you want more than just pretty social graphics, Visme has more to offer in my opinion – but it costs.
It amazes me how many people still use powerpoint presentations when there are FREE to use tools like Prezi on the market.
I started using this tool in 2011 during my MBA and it has wowed every audience I have used it with since.
If you are a visual person who imagines projects and processes like a story (or would like to) then this is the tool for you.
As prezi is a visual tool, it is better to show than tell. See below for a sample of what prezi can do.
It is far less complicated than it looks to create presentations like this one but it does take a bit of a learning curve to get into the process.
The layout of the Crello dashboard, the editing tools and even quite a lot of the available images are very similar to Canva though it doesn’t have the publish to pinterest option or the ability to schedule pins directly from the software (it does have a share facility though) as you can with the paid Canva subscription.
Read More
I do however like a lot of the additional Crello features such as their animated graphics and free video clips that you can use inside your chosen graphic.
These options are all available in Canva and Visme too but the range inside the free accounts is different and it’s just my personal preferance to like the crello ones.
Crello has a distinct advantage if you’re going for the premium version in that it’s pretty darn cheap compared to the other 2 that are most popular in this space.
Crello also has a free version so it would cost nothing to try creating a few graphics on each platform to see which style and free elements suits you best.
PRO = upto 10 members on this plan
£7.50 ish ($9.99) paid monthly – (so cheaper than canva)
Collaboration & Productivity Tools
#1 Productivity
Google Workspace
(Productivity & Collaboration)
What is Google Workspace?
Google Workspace is a cloud-based productivity suite that helps teams communicate, collaborate and get things done from anywhere and on any device. It's simple to set up, use and manage, so your business can focus on what really matters.
Millions of organizations around the world count on Google Workspace for professional email, file storage, video meetings, online calendars, document editing and more.
Watch a video or find out more here.
Here are some highlights:
Business email for your domainLooking professional matters, and that means communicating as you@yourcompany.com. Gmail’s simple, powerful features help you build your brand while getting more done.
Access from any location or deviceCheck email, share files, edit documents, hold video meetings and more whether you’re at work, at home or in transit. You can pick up where you left off from a computer, tablet or phone.
Enterprise-level management toolsRobust admin settings give you total command over users, devices, security and more. Your data always belongs to you, and it goes with you if you switch solutions.
Start free trialMarketing Tools
This tool is a very recent find but an absolute must for anyone looking for customers in a particular areas, and / or a particular niche.
It basically trawls google for you.
I recently did some work for a provider of mental health therapies in a certain area of the UK (its works in the US too) and it allowed me to search for a keyword, in this case “therapist” in a particular city.
Within 3 minutes I had hundreds of results including their web site links, phone numbers AND email addresses!
Hours and hours of work saved for less than $30.
The tools looks for and returns links to facebook, instagram, twitter and other social accounts too, and you can perform multiple searches per day.
Even if you just sign up and max out your searches in the first month you’d have so many leads to go fo it would keep you going for a year!
Plus, if you follow my link in the button below – you get an extra 10% off.
Website Tools
When I first started building web sites, I watched hundreds of hours of your tube looking for tips and recomendations on where to start. Hosting is by far the biggest & most expensive, initial decision that needs to be made.
I’m so pleased I didn’t just jump at the first recommendation as the many videos I’ve seen since opting for siteground has reaffirmed my choice.
If you are in the process of looking for hosting or wanting to switch to a faster and more reliable provider, just be aware that the ones that rank highest in many of the “hosting reviews” are the ones that pay the affiliate the most money!
Bluehost often comes out on top because they pay the best.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not squeeky clean here – the link below is an affiliate link but I can honestly say that I have all my sites with siteground, they are really fast (site speed wise) and very helpful if you get stuck – although admitedly not the cheapest.
Many of the web development youtubers that I follow agree with this sentiment and also stick with siteground as their provider, so I’m not alone in my thoughts on this.
Money Management Tools
Currency fair was one of my best finds after being stung with a few horendous USD to GBP transfer rates.
This is basically a bank that allows you to hold multiple accounts in a range of currencies.
Nothing special yet – but…
With a normal account, when you want to transfer the money out – or exchange it to another currency to pay someone else, you have to just take pot luck on what their bank transfer rate is at that time.
Currency fair allows you to “set up and exchange” and wait for the rate to hit something decent.
Read More
For example, I get paid in USD quite a lot so if that comes into my UK account i might get an exchange rate of about 0.7 – so my $1000 becomes £700.
If I’m ok to wait a week or so, I can set up an exchange in Currency fair at a rate of 0.74 and as soon as the markets hit that rate they will exchange the money for me.
My $1000 is now £740.
It might not sound like a lot but over the year it really adds up to quite a bit!
#2 Money
Starling Bank
(Money Management)
I don’t often “bank hop”, in-fact, I’ve had my main personal account for over 20 years, but I did find business acounts a bit more taxing and expensive.
Whilst there are a lot of other banking apps on the market these days, I only have experience of this one, so you might already know of a bank that has the same swish interface and easy transaction set up as Starling without any noteable charges – so if you do – feel free to skip this bit.
Traditional business banking is a labour intensive process. I’m sure its designed to make you grateful to give them your money.
A really rather excellent UK finance youtuber has done a video on his Starling account – so have a look at his review….
#2 ?
Photobox
(Money Management)