When I find apps, items, clothing, food, or anything that works or that I love, I feel the need to share it! I am not one of those girls who refuses to tell you where I got my shirt from lol (nowadays it's always VERRE, gotta advertise)! In this blog, I am going to share five of my favorite business tools right now. Whether you're a current business owner or desire to start a business someday, these tools are sure to be of some assistance. Let's get into it!
My first and definitely all-time favorite tool for business is Canva. I have been using this tool for the past 3-4 years and it makes creating content so much easier. And best of all you can get so many great features for free! Recently, I invested in my business by signing up for the monthly subscription as you can get even more awesome features, but if you are not able to afford it or simply just don't want to sign up for another subscription, don't worry! You still get a lot in the free version. In Canva I have made flyers for school organizations, birthday slideshows for family, tickets for events, and plenty of marketing material for VERRE. Do you feel that you aren't that creative? The best and main feature of Canva is that there are sooooo many templates for anything you could imagine. Templates for Instagram and Facebook Posts, Slideshows, Flyers, Logos, Business Cards, Invitations, and so many others. You can even turn almost any design into a t-shirt. It is very easy to create your whole business aesthetic using Canva's tools.
Next up we have Planoly. One of the best things you can do as a business owner who utilizes social media is to plan and schedule posts. There are many apps and programs out there to choose from, but Planoly is one of my favorites (Later is next in line for sure). My advice to you is to try the free trial first. Most have a 7-14 day free trial that allows you to get a feel for the program. Scheduling programs allow you to schedule various types of content in advance. You can upload your caption, content and choose what day and time you'd like it to upload. You can also post to multiple platforms! I can post to my Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter all at once. Now back to Planoly! A great feature of Planoly is that you can also schedule stories. For me personally, I am still learning to navigate story scheduling, but I do love Planoly's post-scheduling option and I highly recommend the app to you all.
Another tool that is a must is Pexels. Finding quality, relevant stock photos for free is a task and a half. On Pexels, you simply type in a keyword or two and you can find the photos you need. For example, I use a lot of photos of women dressed in bohemian fashions. I type in "boho style" or "bohemian girl" and I have access to thousands of pictures. A problem I also find is that unfortunately many other sites lack diversity in their models. I own a proudly black-owned brand and featuring black women is a must for me. Pexels has an abundance of black photographers and black models which is another reason why I love the site so much.
My fourth favorite tool is Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Someday I will learn to use Photoshop and buy the very expensive program lol but for now, Lightroom is my BFF. The app is free and there are plenty of free presets to use to edit your photos. If you are interested in purchasing other presets, Etsy is a great site/app to try. It is full of sellers who create their own presets that you can purchase for under $5. Recently, I purchased a preset package that included a few presets for editing melanated skin as many filters in my opinion do not truly show the beauty of our melanated skin.
The fifth and final tool I would love to share with my #bohobabes is Wix Owner. This app is of course only useful if you have a website through Wix. I'm sure sites like Shopify have their equivalent to it, but I'm a Wix girl so Wix Owner it is! (Edit: this was obviously said before I switched to Shopify lol, more on that in another blog). On this app, you can do almost everything pertaining to your store. You can fulfill orders, manage your products, edit and post blogs, respond to customers' messages, create invoices and send out emails. It is perfect for business babes on the go.
As always, thank you so much for reading! It means a lot. I will include the links to each tool below. Check them out and please come back and let us know how you like or even dislike them. We're open to all comments!
App Store: Lightroom
App Store: Wix Owner
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xo,
CEO Sam✨
#bohochic #bohoblogger #bohemainchic #modernboho #afroboho #businessblog #businessblogger #womanowned #blackowned #njsmallbusiness #smallbiz #smallbizblogs #njblogger #shopsmall #supportsmallbrands
Originally Published: August 26, 2021
