All The Resources + Tools You Need To Run Your Online Business

Sue's Tried + Tested Toolkit

With SOOO many different software tools, apps, and websites available for running your business, it can be SUPER confusing trying to work out what to use, especially when this is your first business or you’re running a lean ship and don’t have time to try everything.

Lucky for you, I’ve done all the hard work for you!

Being a self-confessed marketing nerd, I’ve spent countless hours researching and testing literally hundreds of tools, apps, and websites over the last few years, to find ways to make life easier, better, and importantly - save you time!

You want to spend your time growing your business and making money, not bogged down trying to figure out what tech you need.

I'm happy to share the tools and websites I have found most useful for mine and my client’s businesses, so you have a great starting point of tools and sites you can trust, for many different business situations. Plus - these are up-to-date recommendations - what I suggest right now, in 2020, to be the best of the best.

Even better many of them are FREE to use!

Heads up- some of these links are affiliate links. Which just means I may get a couple of bucks for recommending something to you - at zero cost to you and puts a few bucks in the family holiday piggy bank, so win-win!

Don’t worry - I ONLY recommend products I have personally used and LOVE- you can read all about my no bullshit affiliate promise here ;) 

Kajabi

The tool we run our entire business on and couldn't be without is Kajabi. This is an all-in-one software for digital product entrepreneurs selling courses, memberships, and coaching programs. You can build your website + blog, host courses, take payments, and send emails, so you don't need to get 5 different programs and link them all up, just Kajabi.

ClickUp

ClickUp is at the heart of The Unicorn Advisory - all our tasks, projects, content - everything is managed in ClickUp. There are great features like tracking time, estimating time, seeing your tasks as a list or board, or even on a calendar. And the FREE version is awesome!

Slack

I never knew how helpful slack could be until we started using it. Now it has cemented its place in the top 5 software. If you have a team or work with clients, slack lets you stay away from endless emails and keep communication in one place. The best thing the free version is more than enough for most small teams.

Canva

If you're DIY'ing your own social media posts and graphics, you need Canva. I use it to create website banners, all the graphics for the website, social media post images, youtube thumbnails, lead magnets (like this one!), and more. The best part it is FREE! And the paid version just makes things even better.

Loom

This awesome and FREE software works as a Chrome extension or a desktop app. You can record your screen and put a little bubble of yourself in the corner while doing a software demo or explaining to someone how to do things. Film powerpoints for presentations. You can download the video or just quickly email the link.

Kajabi

The tool we run our entire business on and couldn't be without is Kajabi. This is an all-in-one software for digital product entrepreneurs selling courses, memberships, and coaching programs. You can build your website + blog, host courses, take payments, and send emails, so you don't need to get 5 different programs and link them all up, just Kajabi.

Shopify

For eCommerce, you can’t go past Shopify. You can purchase themes and add a multitude of apps to make the site do pretty much anything you want. Integrate with a powerful email marketing tool like Klaviyo and your site will be a lean, mean, marketing machine! You can also integrate Shopify Lite to your Kajabi site to sell physical products.

Squarespace

If you're not yet selling a digital program, Squarespace is perfect if you want an awesome-looking site that you can easily change yourself! Squarespace features stunning templates and easy design. Note that you will have to host courses/memberships on a separate platform and the email marketing software is quite limited

Namecheap

If you need a domain name - you can’t go past NameCheap. They are usually the cheapest domains you can get AND they come with free privacy protection, we have over 35 domains registered with them. The backend of the site where you manage the domains is really easy to navigate and I found the help articles easy to use and great customer service.

Creative Market

If you want to find amazing templates for social media graphics, pins, lead magnets, etc that can be edited in Canva. Plus beautiful fonts, mock-ups, themes, presentation templates, and other design elements, Creative Market will be paradise to you! Great quality, amazing selection, and prices are really reasonable.

Envato Elements

This monthly membership site is AMAZING! It has an extensive range of pretty much everything you could need for an online business. Stock photos + videos, vectors, design elements, website themes, presentation templates, icons, social templates, music, sound effects, and more! Plus access to Envato Tuts course library included. Just $29 a month!

Kajabi Template Shop

If you're building a website or landing pages with Kajabi you can shortcut the build time substantially with The Unicorn Advisory's designer Kajabi templates. The template collections include a matching product template, so your student portal area will match the design of your site. Check the wide range of designs.

Canva

If you're DIY'ing your own social media posts and graphics, you need Canva. I use it to create website banners, all the graphics for the website, social media post images, youtube thumbnails, lead magnets (like this one!), and more. The best part it is FREE! And the paid version just makes things even better.

Pexels

This popular free photo resource does have a huge variety, mostly contributed by hobby and amateur photographers, but dig deep to find unique pics, as the best ones are used a lot. There's a cool trick to find unique pics on Pexels on the unicorn blog. Click here for more info.

Unsplash

Another super popular site, linked up to a lot of other platforms like Squarespace. Lots of variety and thousands of beautiful images at Unsplash, you’re sure to find something great for your site and graphics.

Kajabi

One of the reasons we love Kajabi so much here at The Unicorn Advisory is that you can also use it for your email marketing and it doesn't cost any extra. The subscriber numbers are extremely generous compared to software specifically for email marketing - up to 10000 subscribers on the basic plan.

Convert Kit

If you're not using Kajabi email, Convert Kit would be the next best option. It offers powerful segmenting tools and automation to keep your email marketing relevant for your audience. It can be difficult to create good-looking emails however and will require some coding to their templates, thankfully there are many instruction guides and templates online! Free for first 1000 subscribers

Interact

This quiz software is perfect if you want to grow your email list by creating a Buzzfeed style quiz, or a quiz to help customers on their buying path. Embed it straight on your website or link to the quiz. You can also use ads to drive traffic to your Interact quiz and even retarget people who've taken the quiz. There is a free plan so you can try it out.

Kajabi

The tool we run our entire business on and couldn't be without is Kajabi. This is an all-in-one software for digital product entrepreneurs selling courses, memberships, and coaching programs. You can build your website + blog, host courses, take payments, and send emails, so you don't need to get 5 different programs and link them all up, just Kajabi.

Tailwind

Tailwind almost made it to the top 5 list as a significant amount of our website traffic comes from Pinterest - mostly thanks to Tailwind. Tailwind tribes are amazing for extending your reach (30.1 million for us so far 😮). Get your first 100 scheduled pins for free.

Later

We love Later for Instagram and also use it to schedule Facebook posts. The visual feed view for Instagram makes sure everything is going to look good once it is published. You can manage the comments from within the app which is really handy and I use the search + repost feature a lot too. 

Demio

Having used and tried a number of different types of webinar software, Demio is our pick for the best! Easily run evergreen or live webinars, reply to comments on your evergreen webinars and email those who've commented. Track statistics to see who has watched your webinar and for how long. 

Zoom

If you're not already using zoom, it's one software you need to have. Essential for meetings, especially if you have a remote team, coaching calls and you can upgrade your plan to use zoom for webinars. Can also be used to record training videos for your course or membership.

Slack

I never knew how helpful slack could be until we started using it. Now it has cemented its place in the top 5 software. If you have a team or work with clients, slack lets you stay away from endless emails and keep communication in one place. The best thing the free version is more than enough for most small teams.

Otter.ai

Otter.ai is your secret weapon when it comes to making the most of your hard work! This transcription tool is computer-driven, you can use it to transcribe your meetings, your live videos, podcasts, and more and get a written transcript almost instantly! Take pieces out to use on social media captions, blogs, and other content. You can even get 600 minutes per month for free.

ClickUp

ClickUp is at the heart of The Unicorn Advisory - all our tasks, projects, content - everything is managed in ClickUp. There are great features like tracking time, estimating time, seeing your tasks as a list or board, or even on a calendar. And the FREE version is awesome!

Todoist

Todoist is a fantastic to-do list app if you're working on your own. I used this for almost 4 years, only moving off it due to the business growing. For a team - ClickUp has better functionality. Todoist is easy to use and intuitive and best of all the free version is brilliant!

RescueTime

Rescue Time is the procrastinator's best friend! Track exactly where you spend all your time (down to how many minutes on each website!) The weekly reports are eye-opening. If you need to really focus, you can even block distracting websites for a defined amount of time, which is super helpful. There is a free and paid option.

Freedom

Freedom is a great time blocker I love, as it also works well on phones. You can preset focused time blocks (and block distractions or particular websites) for as long as you need. This app is of great value if you just want to block distractions - especially on your phone, not track where you spend your time and there is a free version. 

Live Plan

This is the software I use with my clients when I create a business & marketing plan for them. It takes you through each section step by step and gives examples of what you should write - there are over 500 business plan example templates you can use for inspiration as well if you get stuck. 

Stripe

Stripe is the best way to accept credit card payments online and integrates with most software and website platforms. It is simple to set up a stripe account. Fees are around 1-2% and payment generally hits the bank account 1-2 business days after payment.

Paypal

If you’re going to run an online business, it is pretty much a necessity to use PayPal. Most businesses I know, including my own, get around 30-40% of their payments via PayPal as some customers will only use Paypal. Fees are around 2-3% and there is an instant payout option.

Thrivecart

If you want robust checkout AND affiliate software, Thrivecart is the standout choice for checkout software. Rather than having to pay monthly, you simply have a one-time charge. You can then link to your other software using Zapier and create one-page checkouts, include multiple upsells and payment options. For pay what you want pricing, Thrivecart is what you need.

Zapier

Zapier also links up software and programs. If something happens in one place - for example, a website purchase, you can create a zap for other things to happen as a result of that, such as create a new customer, create an invoice, etc. The options are endless and if you get creative can save you a LOT of time. Free and paid plans.

Google Drive

Google Drive comes with Gsuite and Google accounts. It is fantastic for collaboration - when more than one person is working on them, it updates changes live, so no more version control issues. You can also create google docs, sheets, and slides easily with google chrome by typing doc.new or slides.new etc. I don't love the layout of files.

OneDrive

The Unicorn Advisory team uses OneDrive via Sharepoint to create a virtual company drive. This means everyone can access all folders, just like you would if you were working in the same office. Comes with 1TB of storage per user with a Microsoft 365 account, which is great.

Acuity Scheduling

This software is perfect for automating any kind of booking process - you can even take payments at the time of the booking or on the day of the appointment. Sync to your Google calendar, so no double bookings! You can even set up gift certificates. It also handles all the reminders automatically. 

Google Calendar

I've tried lots of different calendars - free and paid and I always come back to Google Calendar. It is simple to use, syncs to everything and works perfectly on my phone and desktop. The best part is that it is totally free to use if you have a google account or Gsuite account.

Loom

This awesome and FREE software works as a Chrome extension or a desktop app. You can record your screen and put a little bubble of yourself in the corner while doing a software demo or explaining to someone how to do things. Film powerpoints for presentations. You can download the video or just quickly email the link.

Descript

If you get frustrated with video editing or find video editing software frustrating to use, you will LOVE descript. You can load your videos and edit the video via the transcript! Remove sections you don't want or where you make a mistake via the words, and it will be reflected in your video. Plus you can export your transcript or SRT files and an MP3 file of your video.

Powtoon

If you want to create cool animated videos or promo videos for social media, Powtoon is awesome! You can create cartoon-style typographic or footage-style videos. There is a huge database of templates and a great range of characters to use, or you can use their video and photo backgrounds. 

Adobe Premiere Pro

Patrick on team Unicorn is our video editor extraordinaire and he loves the functionality of Premiere Pro. This is a full-feature video editing tool that is part of Adobe Creative Cloud or available as stand-alone membership. This is the tool pro video editors use. 

Fiverr

A great place to start searching for freelancers is Fiverr. You do need to hunt a little to find good sellers, but they are there. Fiverr Pro, allows you to find expert-level freelancers with verified skills - you’ll have the confidence you’re getting top work. Order quickly straight from the gig or contact the seller first if you have any questions.

Upwork

If you get frustrated with video editing or find video editing software frustrating to use, you will LOVE descript. You can load your videos and edit the video via the transcript! Remove sections you don't want or where you make a mistake via the words, and it will be reflected in your video. Plus you can export your transcript or SRT files and an MP3 file of your video.

Envato Studio

This Australian freelance site is more like Fiverr, with gig style offerings, you can request custom work, however. Generally speaking, the quality is very high - it is a pretty stringent process to get accepted on the site as a freelancer - which ensures you’ll get professional and high caliber work from the curated talent