Lately, I’ve been looking a lot at the tech that I use the tech that I recommend. And my favourite programs.
These tools will help you to…
- Save time running your business
- Automate sales and payments
- Scale your business and get help
- Simplify your business and make more profit
There are more as I test and try options but they tend to come and go before I recommend them to my clients – but these are my ride or die tools.
The only tech tools that you need to run a six-figure online business when you are coaching, consulting, offering online courses.
1. WordPress
So first and foremost, my website, no I love this, I love WordPress.
We use it for all our websites yeah we build everything in WordPress basically because we can keep everything in one system. So, we offer courses as well as consulting and services, we do all of our live programs we do help webinars even all using WordPress.
It is an absolute no brainer and we can actually expand it as we need to as well so you can keep growing these, and really making sure that your business, evolves with you.
And it’s one of the reasons that I still use and recommend it, you’ll see a lot of the big guys in the online space, online coaching things, entrepreneurs like Amy Porterfield Marie Forleo all run their websites through WordPress as well.
It actually powers over 30% of the internet still, which is incredible!
And the big bonus is that there is always a developer, a freelance or a designer who can actually work with your program as well. So you’re never stuck in that one space where you can only get limited help.
2. Divi by Elegant Themes
My number two on that front is using the Divi platform.
Now, I’ve been playing with a lot of website builders late trying different options. Personally, my clients, and I really prefer to stick with the Divi Theme by Elegant Themes, It’s an amazingly robust program, there are some limitations, which is why we did try Elementor.
I wanted to love it really really hard wanted to love it. The countdowns and things in Elementor phenomenal. (SPOILER ALERT: I’ve got a new tool that I’m testing here for Divi too!) But honestly, the ease of use with Divi, hands down beats, all of them.
It’s really simple to add templates, upload different layouts and things like that so I’m still using the Divi theme and still recommending that to my clients as well.
3. LearnDash LMS
I actually sell online courses as well as my discovery sessions for working with me one on one.
The way that I do that is through LearnDash from my courses. It’s a learning management system that is built-in WordPress so you can add it into WordPress. It does naturally work with Divi as well.
It allows me to offer multiple courses so I have the Site that Sells Academy, I have The Elevate Formula which goes directly to my VIP clients.
It really sets out that learning experience really nicely so you can move step by step through each module, step by step through each course. I can add videos downloads, text, any kind of options in there. It’s a really easy one to just get in and really get your course platform, built and up and running.
4. 17Hats
I then look at my coaching side of things, where I have a workflow set up in a program called 17 hats.
I don’t use it by any means to the full extent of its capabilities, but it allows me to invoice to sit in contracts to keep up with all of my book work, and also keep track of all of my clients.
It has a full user platform where I can see emails that have been sent. What contracts have been signed what invoices are due, it automates the follow up for me as well.
So, if I send a quote out, it will actually follow up and say hey, we’re just checking in you received your quote, It’s gone to the expiry date, etc etc. and allows me to automate that process so I’m not constantly trying to remember to do things, is one of the biggest things that I talk about with The Elevate Formula is automating some of those processes that you need to do manually, all the time.
The more easily automate those processes the easier life becomes, and the more fun you get back in your business because you’re not doing all of the things over and over and over again.
So that’s what I used to automate, most of my business.
5. Acuity Scheduling
Acuity does exactly what I needed to do, straight out of the box, I have reminders set up.
So a client can book in on my website a client can book in a call to speak with me, find a time on my calendar that synced to my Google Calendar automatically.
I can also then set up follow up email so automatically email them in between, and let me know that they’re actually getting all the information off, really, really cool way to do that.
And, again, automation makes it really, really simple. I don’t have to remind people to be showing up to work or 15 minutes because acuity is already doing that for me. Love. Love. Love. Absolutely, hands down, one of my happy money spends.
6. G Suite by Google
I would be remiss in saying that I didn’t adore the Google suite of products.
Moving over to Gmail was a no brainer. I had a coach that I spoke to about eight years ago now, that has had just said if you want to me outsource your email get into Gmail now sorted out. It’s Global Access. That’s one of the biggest reasons that I joined up.
And then I fell in love with the whole suite of programs so you get.
You get all of your emails through Google Drive. If you’re in any of my programs, you’ll know how much to rave on about Google Drive, and you’ll find most of the workbooks are in Google Drive to allow you to actually contribute to it together so we actually get through Google Docs slideshows and stuff like that, we can actually collaborate on all the work together and it makes such a difference in the whole process.
I can actually help you through those documents, write better copy get more traction through your preparation in your website.
And it’s one of the cool ways that we can just make sure that we’re getting on the right track, and getting to the place you need to be. So, that is my top six.
You don’t need much more than that.
Everything that you can do in WordPress you can do everything you do in click funnels, you can do it in WordPress, everything you can do in lead pages, you can do in WordPress, everything you can do in Kajabi, you can do in WordPress. So it’s a matter of looking at your tech stack.
If you are interested, any one or more, you can reach out to me here. leave a comment below. I’d be happy to chat about it.
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