Managing your small business – whether it’s your own blog, YouTube channel, online store, or social media influencing – can be fun and fulfilling. Once you’ve started working as your own boss, it’s really hard to go back to the typical 9-to-5. But we don’t blame you if you feel exhausted having to be a jack-of-all-trades doing everything all at once. In this post, you’ll learn the 10 best tools available online that can help you run your operations like a pro, even with limited manpower and resources.
1. Surfer
Surfer
To maximize your exposure online, your website, social media, and other platforms need to be SEO-friendly. You can achieve this with content intelligence tools like Surfer, which integrates content strategy, execution, and optimization so that your content has the potential to rank high on search engines while still being reader- and customer-friendly. Surfer offers a paid plan starting at $49 USD a month, but they also have free tools like the Keyword Surfer Extension, a plugin that checks Google keywords for you.
2. CF Spark Writer
CF Spark Writer
Not every digital creator can be expected to write their own content, but oftentimes, as a one-person operation, you have to: whether it’s your bio, a caption for a social media post, or a blog update on your newest product or venture. With CF Spark Writer, you can draft all kinds of texts – ad copy, email, blog articles, landing page copy, and more – that you may need for your day-to-day operations.
3. Grammarly
Grammarly
Screenshot via Grammarly
Not everyone can catch a typo or bad grammar, especially if you’re writing on top of everything else. Having the Grammarly plugin lets you catch all those errors and mistakes so you can maintain a level of professionalism even when you’re updating your content on the go.
4. CF Spark Art
CF Spark Art
If you want to experiment with creative ideas but feel like you don’t have time (just like other independent creators out there), use CF Spark Art. This nifty text-to-image generator by Creative Fabrica can turn up unique images based on your text prompts. It’s the best tool if you simply want to try out your creative ideas to see if they work. You can also use it to brainstorm different concepts.
5. Creative Fabrica
If you’re an online creator or digital entrepreneur, you need a vast library of digital assets to create eye-catching content. But you don’t want just any asset – you want one-of-a-kind graphics and fonts. Invest in a Creative Fabrica subscription so you can have unlimited access to such digital assets. Having one is even more useful if you plan to sell merch or designs as the digital assets come with a Commercial License.
6. Animoto
Animoto
Another type of creative marketing content that more small business owners should pay more attention to is video marketing. Since the pandemic, video marketing has been on the rise, with Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok leveraging on its ability to engage audiences. Even if you don’t have a ton of equipment or manpower, you can still create simple video content like explainers, how-to’s and more with Animoto. Its free version comes with the Animoto watermark. To remove this, you can upgrade to a paid plan that starts at $8 USD a month.
7. AgoraPulse
AgoraPulse
An inescapable part of being an independent creator or small business owner is social media promotions. AgoraPulse is a good tool not just to help you automate your social media posts. It also has features like Social Media Monitoring and Reporting which give you data-driven insights on what your target audience wants to see and what they’re engaging with. These facts can then give you ideas on what posts to create to maximize your social media presence.
8. Drip
Drip
Email marketing is crucial if you want to build long-term relationships with your customers in this digital age. It’s useful whether you have your own online store, a blog, podcast, or website, and even as an influencer. Drip is one of the best email marketing tools available, with functionalities that make automation and insightful content creation more efficient. It also has hundreds of integrations, so you can use it in tandem with whatever tools you use in your business operations.
9. Notion
Notion
As a one-person operation, you may need help managing your tasks, brainstorming, organizing your projects, and more. Notion is a great software for that purpose. It has an easy-to-use and customizable interface, so you can virtually switch it up to find a virtual work desk that addresses your needs. It has Enterprise and Small Business versions, which you can easily use to collaborate with your team.
10. PromptoMANIA
PromptoMANIA
With AI art generators, it’s oftentimes tricky to come up with exact prompts that fully describe what you have in mind. PromptoMANIA offers a solution for this situation. The online prompt builder is designed to be compatible with different AI art generators, including CF Spark Art, Midjourney, DreamStudio, Stable Diffusion, and other diffusion model-based generators. To use the app, you need to choose your AI art generator. Then type your basic prompt or the subject of the image you wish to generate. You will then be led down steps with details, references, and art styles that you can choose from to help you build your prompt. Be as detailed as you can. You will then be transferred to your AI art generator’s main page where you can use the prompts to generate a unique AI art.
Working for yourself or with a small team can be rewarding, but with everything you need to keep up with, you may find yourself getting overwhelmed and burnt out. Don’t try to be a superhero or leave your operations to chance – equip yourself with tools that have been created to make your day-to-day tasks manageable and dare we say, even fun.
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