The tools powering my business
Jay Clouse
Founder of Creator Science — helping creators get uncommon results. Studying others, running experiments, and sharing it all with 60,000+ readers!
If you're trying to make a living as an independent creative, you're familiar with your two most important resources: time and money.
Doing your work takes time. Software costs money.
But in some cases, software can improve your work or make you more efficient with your time (which means more money!)
For years I've been obsessive about creating better and better systems for my business. And I've been obsessive about finding the right software that makes me the most effective and doesn't cost more than it's worth.
A lot of people ask me what tools I use for different aspects of my business, so I created this resource to show you the most important tools I use on a daily basis.
Some of the links below are affiliate links. For some, that gives you a BETTER price. But none of the links give you a worse price. And rest assured, these are all tools that I ACTUALLY use and recommend.
[Websites]: WordPress and PRO theme
I currently maintain four separate websites for my own projects. Those are my personal website, Freelancing School, Unreal Collective, and the upside podcast.
All four of those sites are custom built on WordPress using the PRO Theme by Themeco.
I've been using this theme for years and absolutely love it.
This Theme combines a beautiful visual editor (like Squarespace) with much more robust functionality. Once you learn how to use the theme, you can customize any aspect of your WordPress site without needing to touch any actual code.
And, because it's WordPress, it's setup really well for writing and SEO. They have a great video tutorial at the link below.
Click here to check out PRO Theme by Themeco
[Email]: ConvertKit
Just a couple of weeks ago, I finally made the switch from MailChimp to ConvertKit.
A HUGE part of my business revolves around email.
Each week, I send several emails to creatives who are trying to build more profitable freelance businesses.
I also write emails to help people become better digital creators.
My email list is really the heart of my business, and I was feeling limited by what I could do with MailChimp.
ConvertKit has a much more intelligent system for segmenting my list, fantastic automations, and creates great forms and landing pages.
I love that I can immediately see how my forms are performing relative to each other, and easily change them to test new copy or even new designs.
Using ConvertKit has reignited my excitement for writing email, and I highly recommend it for anyone who considers email a core component to their business.
[Process Management]: Airtable
If ConvertKit is the heart of my business, Airtable is the glue holding everything together.
Airtable works like a spreadsheet, but has the power of a database built in. It's honestly pretty hard to explain, so let me show you instead:
Looks cool, right? Now, take into account that the product has had 4 years worth of improvements since that demo!
I use Airtable for:
- My client CRM
- My partner CRM
- Managing podcast booking
- Managing podcast production
- Managing my editorial calendar
- Managing keyword research and article planning
- Tracking affiliate links
It's incredibly flexible and customizable. I've added text fields to all my client records to keep notes of the last time I spoke with a prospect, client, partner, or podcast guest – so at a glance, I can remember where that conversation left off.
Click here to try Airtable for free
[Task Management]: Trello
Trello has been my go-to task management tool for years.
Any time there is a specific task that I want to remember to take action on, I create a card in Trello.
This eliminates my need to remember what I need to do, or when it needs to be completed – every day, I can just check my Trello board and have a good idea of what I need to complete.
Here's a tutorial of exactly how I use Trello:
I use Trello to manage tasks with my virtual assistant too, because it's collaborative.
And the best part is that it's free.
Click here to try Trello for free
[Scheduling]: Calendly
Before I had a real virtual assistant, Calendly was basically my virtual assistant.
Calendly makes scheduling so incredibly easy – it saves me so much time coordinating with people over email. And because it connects to your calendar in real time, you never worry about double-booking yourself.
I create specific event types within Calendly, so that people can easily book time with me for whatever we need. Things like:
- Podcast recordings
- 20, 30, 45, or 60 minute Zoom meetings
Whatever amount of time we need, I have a dedicated Calendly link for that meeting purpose.
The best part is that you can create rules for your own availability. My Calendly knows that I don't take meetings on Mondays or Fridays, or any day before 11am.
And because of that, I'm able to protect my most productive times from meetings.
Click here to try Calendly for free
[Accounting/Bookkeeping]: QuickBooks
I think you'll probably agree with me that tax time isn't much fun.
But it can be much more painless if you get into a good bookkeeping habit throughout the year! And that's why I love QuickBooks.
QuickBooks syncs with your bank and invoicing tools (PayPal, Stripe, Wave, etc.).
As you spend money or earn money, QuickBooks pulls in a record for that transaction. And then it's easy to go in and categorize those transactions (Meals, Income, Office Supplies, etc.)
And if you have recurring transactions, you can create Rules within QuickBooks so that you don't need to mark it manually next time, it will do it automatically.
You can use your QuickBooks data to file your own taxes at the end of the year. Personally, I like to team up with an accountant to take that QuickBooks data and maximize my refund.
I use QuickBooks Self Employed, but the Simple Start or Essentials Plan are much more powerful. And since I'm an ambassador for QuickBooks, you can save up to 55% on your first 3 months.
[Courses and Digital Products]: Podia
A little over a year ago, I decided to put everything I've learned about freelancing into some online courses. I have freelancing courses here on LinkedIn Learning, but I went even further with Freelancing School.
These courses cover everything I know about running a freelance business, marketing yourself, and selling more projects.
I wanted a platform that made my courses look good and trustworthy to potential students, which meant it needed to be beautifully designed and easy to use.
I looked at just about every online course platform. But finally I found Podia.
Podia makes my Freelancing School courses look great while also handling everything for me. They handle payments without charging a transaction fee, host your lesson videos, help you send email, and a lot more.
They even let you offer memberships, digital downloads, and webinars too.
You can try Podia with a 14-day free trial, and the link below will even get you 15% off Podia for life – FOR LIFE!
Click here to try Podia for free
[Podcasting]: SquadCast
A lot of people ask me how I make the audio in my podcasts sound so great. And besides having audio engineering help, the answer is SquadCast.
SquadCast is a beautiful tool because it records the audio of every guest locally. That means instead of my computer recording a guest's audio (after it travels across the internet) it records the audio in the guest's home and sends me the final file.
This way of recording makes it sound like everyone is in the same room.
And even better – the whole experience is incredible for the guest. They don't need to download any software, they don't need an account, they just click the link you send them and they can record right in their browser.
[Community]: Circle
For the last few months, I've been building a wonderful community for freelancers.
Every day, new freelancers are introducing themselves, asking questions about their business, connecting with each other, and more.
It's built on a new platform called Circle.
After years of being frustrated with community platforms, Circle finally feels like the platform I've been looking for for years.
If you're a big community person, I wrote a full, in-depth article about Circle here.
It's beautiful, easy to navigate, and combines the feel of a Facebook Group feed with total customization and your own branding.
But if you're building your own community, I highly recommend it.
Conclusion
There are tons of other tools that I use in smaller ways, but these tools have become by far the most important tools in my toolbox.
As I said, I've heavily weighted their usefulness against their cost, and these tools win out. They save me time or help me earn more money.
I think they can help you too!
If you have any questions about these tools or others that I may have tried, leave them in the comments below.
This week on Creative Elements
Matt D'Avella is a filmmaker, YouTuber & podcaster that explores what it means to live a good life.
Matt directed Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things, which was acquired by Netflix in 2016. His YouTube channel has nearly 3 million subscribers, and his videos have been viewed more than 175 million times.
In this episode we talk about his experience creating the Minimalism documentary, managing his creative energy, crafting a good story, and how Experimentation has helped him find success on YouTube.
Connect with me
- Subscribe to Work in Progress, my Sunday newsletter for creatives
- Join our free community for freelancers
- Check out my weekly podcast, Creative Elements
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Jay Clouse is the creator of Freelancing School, which provides the training and community to help people make a living freelancing. He is also the founder of Unreal Collective, a community for founders, freelancers, and creators that runs a 12-week accelerator program.
Jay hosts Creative Elements, which interviews high-profile creators who have made their own independent living.
You can connect with Jay on Twitter @jayclouse or sign up for his Sunday newsletter for creatives at jayclouse.com.