You might be overwhelmed, stressed, have no time with everything you have to do and feel on the verge of burnout. Having good systems and processes will free up your time to do the thing you love so much.

There is a minefield of tech tools out there, you may have tried some really expensive tools over the years. Or you’ve just become used to being your own PA, and doing every admin and operational role in-between.

The fact is that the developer wizards in Silicone Valley and beyond have actually made it easy to automate most of your processes. It’s just the overwhelm of what’s necessary and which software are best for you.

Do you really need any of these tech tools & systems?

Especially if you’re a service based mostly offline business????……

If you’re still unsure you need any tech, let me tell you about the overwhelmed, overworked, entrepreneur who is not hitting her sales targets.

She spends night and day interrupted by social media posts, call requests, direct messages, preparing invoices, chasing payments, manually replying to email enquiries, scheduling calls & wondering where her next sale will come from….. you get the gist.

None of this makes her money yet it all needs doing. This is where smart online business systems can help you leverage time & technology to build the perfect lifestyle business. And make you so professional that your customers will love the experience.

The Tech Tools & Systems I Use

When I first started I had nothing and manually hand held everything. Then I was so impressed by the top influencers in my field I signed up to every subscription based tool going. Remember many chat? before FaceBook bought What’s app? Well before I knew it I was spending over £400 pm on tools and wasn’t bringing anything into the business.

That’s when I learnt how to streamline by systems tools and leverage the tech to give a great customer experience and allow me to walk away from my desk at night, arriving to sales and client calls the next day.

My top 7 Essential Business Tools / Tech & Systems For a Lifestyle Business

A Tool for Creating Lead Magnets & Social Posts

My Favourite – Canva

Website including Blog

Content creation is essential even if you’re not a writer. A website helps you to curate your videos & podcasts. Plus build your list and home landing sales pages.

My Favourite – WordPress – hands down most flexibility as your grow. Website hosts like Bluehost and Site Ground make it super easy to host and install a WordPress site at a low cost. GoDaddy is another example and you’ve probably heard of their domain (web address) buying services.

Calendar scheduling system

Whether it’s client discovery calls or simply arranging a podcast guest. Stop the DMs back & forth, get professional and use a booking tool. We underestimate the time lost to distraction and customer experience when we’ve forever chasing each other for a convenient time for a call.

In 40 mins you take the bootcamp and set up your Smart Automated Client Booking tool.

It didn’t matter if it was virtual networking, a strategy call, a coaching session or podcast interview this simple tool gave me back so much time.

Email marketing

You need sign up forms, email automation and integrations. To grow your audience, nurture potential clients, serve and share when you have products or services to sell.

My Favourite – Budget: Low: Mailerlite — Med: Convertkit — High: Active Campaign

Custom Domain Email Provider & File Storage

Having an email adress that corresponds with your website domain is how to look like a professional business 101! For years I made do with sueparker123@gmail…

When I realised that for a decent Gmail or MS Outlook account it was going to cost me anything as low as $25, I could have kicked myself.

Plus Google Works[ace, MS Office 365 often include file storage so you can access anywhere and share with new members of the team.

My Favourite : Google Workspace (with Gmail).

Video & Podcast Editing

I can’t stress enough the importance of make content and sharing it. It’s like the new advertisement. Only much better! If you can make the choice early on to outsource then don’t worry too much in this area.

But if you’re going to do some simple edits for social, you tube or your podcast then garb some decent editing tools.

My Favourites: Garage band for audio & iMovie (free with mac)

E-commerce / Cart & Payment System

Your needs will vary depending on the product. Most digital products for online businesses just need a cart & payment facility.

My Favourite :Thrive Cart & Paypal, alternatives inc Sam Cart, Woo-commerce & Stripe for payments

If you want the download of these business tools you can grab it here in a handy checklist:

Taking your business seriously

One of the biggest blockers to our success is not committing to making something work, no matter what it takes.

Most entrepreneurs try a tool, start a business and if it’s not looking good go back to the day job. We don’t give it the same focus. The same success mindset that we gave ourselves when learning to drive.

If you are serious about getting your systems in place for a semi passive, lifestyle business, that’s easily scalable to serving 1: many. One that means you’re not chained to your desk doing admin and that sales flow to you.

Join me in the Ultimate Online Business System Program, I’ll show you all this & more..

Sue xx