10 Software & Subscriptions Every Entrepreneur Needs to Have in 2024
Thank you to our sponsors!
Grab The Ultimate Digital Toolkit for the Busy Female Entrepreneur PDF here!
Links mentioned in today’s show:
Join the waitlist for The Branding Business School 2024!
Unravel the essential software and subscriptions vital for every female entrepreneur striving to scale their business in 2024. Victoria and Libby, BrandWell’s freshly appointed Chief Design Officer, sifted through years of trial and error to curate a list of their top-recommended tools—ones they use daily and suggest to their clients. Plus, don't miss out on the special PDF guide, packed with details, pros and cons, and even some hefty discount codes to get you started on the right foot.
Listen in as they explore the multifaceted benefits of HoneyBook, which has revolutionized the way they manage BrandWell's operations, from client interactions to internal workflows. Discover how this all-in-one platform not only streamlines the client journey but also maintains the personal touch essential in automated systems. They also shed light on the versatility of Squarespace, Canva, and Haute Stock, sharing insights into how these platforms aid in website maintenance, design creation, and reflecting diversity in stock photography, catering specifically to the needs of female business owners.
Rounding out the conversation, Victoria and Libby examine the strategic integration of tools like Google Workspace and Adobe Suite in daily operations, the practicality of Planoly for social media planning, and the legal ease provided by The Legal Paige’s template shop. You'll hear firsthand about the efficiency gains from using Loom in a virtual business setting and how Square Payroll can streamline your financial processes. After years of searching and finding our favorite platforms, this episode is a treasure trove of tips and tricks for the modern entrepreneur.
Catching up with BrandWell’s Chief Design Officer [2:57]
Since the last episode Libby was on, she stepped into the Senior Designer and Social Coordinator role at Brandwell and more recently she has received a title promotion to Chief Design Officer at BrandWell. In this role she still gets to work 1:1 with her own clients, but she also reviews designs and collaborates with other designers on the team. Additionally, she became a full time employee at BrandWell!
HoneyBook’s Partner Summit Recap [3:54]
Libby recently traveled to San Francisco on behalf of BrandWell to attend HoneyBook’s first ever partner summit. At this jam-packed two-day conference, Libby learned all about the future products coming to HoneyBook as well as marketing strategies to take home. Libby has never traveled alone before, but she thrived out in California, and fully felt confident in representing BrandWell.
10 Software and Subscriptions that BrandWell uses EVERY SINGLE DAY
#1 HoneyBook [8:14]
HoneyBook is for the small service-based entrepreneur. It’s perfect for someone who is working with a client for a long period of time, but it’s just a one-off project. BrandWell uses HoneyBook every single day with clients from start to finish. It handles contracts, invoices, design proofs, and all the communication. It truly is an all-in-one platform. From the business owner perspective, HoneyBook does all the financial reporting as well. It can tell you what overdue payments you have and also send automated payment reminders. BrandWell also uses HoneyBook’s smart files when sending out design proofs and feedback forms. This makes it super easy to see when your client is viewing the files and it’s easy for clients to give feedback right then and there.
PRO: You can control your client’s experience from start to finish. This also allows you to stay organized and branded throughout every stage of the process. Another pro is how many templates they have and how many options you have to reuse them. HoneyBook also has it’s own scheduler that you can put in with the smart files to make it super easy for your clients to book a call right away. HoneyBook in general speeds up the process by taking out the nitty gritty stuff and making it seem easier and faster.
CON: It’s still a growing platform so there may be features that you would expect to be there but are not available. Libby does share that there is a lot coming in 2024 including customized pipelines. Something to remember though is that even though HoneyBook is a fantastic tool to automate your systems, it’s still important to remember that it is not human. You can make a beautiful process that the client can easily understand but you also want to make sure that you’re adding your own personal touch to it.
Check out our PDF guide to get 50% off of your first year of HoneyBook!
#2 Squarespace [16:32]
Squarespace is for the business owner who needs a functioning website with all the tools for selling your product or service without a significant learning curve for maintenance. It’s easy to design and there’s a lot of tools available that you can use to run your business. It’s not just a design platform to make a beautiful website, but there are functional tools that you can use on a daily basis as well. BrandWell builds all their websites for clients on Squarespace, as well as their own and The Branding Business School. It’s the best platform for BrandWell’s clientele - the modern, creative entrepreneur, who at the end of the day, has no idea how to code a website.
PRO: BrandWell’s goal is to deliver a website with training so that they can maintain their design and don’t have to hire a developer every time they want to make minor changes, and Squarespace has been the easiest platform to do this with. It is also one of the most fully integrated platforms in terms of you can sell on Squarespace, you can educate, and you can entertain e-commerce focused platforms like Shopify.
CON: Similarly to HoneyBook, Squarespace is also always improving. However, if you are a product-based business where e-commerce is your bread and butter, Squarespace may not be for you. They can handle a small shop, but the ability to import large quantities of products with ease is probably not what you’re going to find on Squarespace. Lastly, to Victoria’s knowledge, Sqarespace does not have the same functionality in terms of Pinterest marketing and Instagram shopping that Shopify does.
Check out our PDF guide to get 20% off of your first year of hosting on Squarespace.
#3 Flodesk [22:12]
Flodesk is for anyone who writes emails for their business. Email is probably the number one way to attract clients and get clients to you. BrandWell uses Flodesk for sending emails to everyone on the BrandWell Insider list or The Branding Business School list. Victoria has also recently used Flodesk to create a sales funnel using their workflows tab when launching The Branding Business School.
PRO: It’s customizable! As a brand design agency, BrandWell cares so much about not only honoring their brand, but also that their clients can honor their brands as well. Flodesk allows you to implement your branding to the fullest, including fonts and colors! It’s also embeddable on Squarespace and it’s so easy to navigate.
CON: There is a higher monthly fee when starting out, but if email marketing strategy is important to you, Flodesk is the place to go for constantly sending out emails and staying super recognizable. It’s also not as heavily focused on the sales funnel like competitors might be but it’s working towards that. In respect to the higher cost of joining Flodesk, the positive thing is that you are not going to get penalized as your email list grows. Competitors like Mail Chimp or other free options are free to start but as your list grows, you will start to have to pay more and more. In the long run, Flodesk will be the more affordable option.
Check out our PDF guide to get 50% off of your first year of Flodesk.
Listen to Victoria’s interview with the Co-Founder of Flodesk, Rebecca Shostak here!
#4 Canva [26:42]
Canva is for the designer who isn’t a designer and for those who are constantly needing to reuse design. BrandWell uses Canva for all of their social media as well as for sending out mood boards and style guides. They also use the template feature, where you can create your own design, make it a template and then share it with the rest of your team. Libby also finds really good stock photos in Canva and she has put together all her favorites in the PDF!
PRO: Template feature where you keep the same design, but you update content necessary. It can help you create the vision even if you’re not a designer.
CON: With so many people using Canva now, it’s easy to spot a Canva template on social media. Which then makes it difficult to differentiate yourself. Canva cannot replace custom design but it’s great for templates and when you’re just starting out.
#5 Haute Stock [29:51]
Haute Stock is a curated stock photo library of mostly lifestyle photos, created for the creative female entrepreneur. They have beautiful photos that are perfect for mood boards, style guides, or even early stages of a website.
PRO: There is a diversity of models, so you’ll see images of different body types, different ethnicities, and even photos of moms working with little kids around them. Photos are styled better than traditional stock photos and all are edited beautifully.
CON: Stock photography will never replace custom photography. It can be great inspiration for clients in the early stages of business before they have a branded photography session. It’s not as extensive as Adobe Stock or Unsplash, because it’s very specific for lifestyle, so you may not find a specific photo you’re looking for.
Check out our PDF guide to get 15% off your subscription!
Listen to Victoria’s interview with Founder of Haute Stock, Rachel Rouhana here!
#6 Planoly [34:11]
Planoly is a social media planner that allows you to batch out social media content and curate a grid. Libby, being the social coordinator for BrandWell, will plan content, create graphics, write captions, and oversee the monthly strategy for BrandWell’s Instagram presence. She does this all in Planoly. You can curate the grid, prewrite the captions, and schedule everything out. Between Libby and Bailey, they will craft a month’s worth of social media content and then Victoria will go into Planoly, tweak a few things or ask for revisions, and then give her stamp of approval. From there, Libby will take care of posting it.
PRO: It’s great for visualizing content ahead of time and if you have someone helping you with social media, then it’s a great way for a couple of people to be collaborating on a grid together.
CON: You have to have a Facebook Page to set up your Instagram account with Planoly. It can also glitch. In order to use the auto posting tool, you have to have a business Instagram account, so if you have a creator account and want to use all the music features and things like that, then you cannot use the auto posting feature. However, they do have the option for you to set scheduling reminders. So everyday at 9am, Libby will get a notification reminding her to post on social media.
#7 Google Workspace [37:28]
Google Workspace is for everyone! This is hugely how BrandWell collaborates as a team and with their clients. BrandWell uses Gmail, with a custom domain name, Google Chat, Google Drive, and Google Meet.
PRO: It’s pretty universal. The ability to toggle between Gmail and Google Chat in one window is also nice. Many of BrandWell’s clients also use Gmail, which makes it really easy to set up a client meeting using Google Meet. Having emails at your custom domain is one of the best ways to showcase that you are a professional.
CON: It’s a big company, so you’re not going to find one on one support. You also cannot record Google Meets.
**After recording, it was brought to our attention that you can record Google Meet’s but it is part of a higher paying plan.
#8 Adobe Suite [40:43]
Adobe Suite is meant for the creatives and the designers. BrandWell uses Illustrator, Photoshop, Audition, any sort of custom design they work on they are using Adobe for.
PRO: The font library in Adobe is really extensive. Squarespace also partners with Adobe Fonts! Also their cloud makes it super easy to keep track of things, Libby uses it for color palettes by creating a folder for each design so if you have elements or specific fonts that you want to assign to a certain project, you can do that.
CON: It does take hard skills to use many of these programs in the Adobe Suite.
#9 The Legal Paige Template Shop [42:39]
The Legal Paige template shop is for small business owners who want to get legally legit but maybe have a hard time understanding the law. BrandWell frequently recommends clients to visit this template shop for the Terms of Use on a website, or their privacy policy, etc.
PRO: There are hundreds of contracts available right down to your specific niche! Buying a template will obviously be way more affordable than hiring a lawyer and The Legal Paige has great customer support! For all of their templates, whenever there are revisions made, you will get an updated version of it, no matter how long ago you purchased it.
CON: It doesn’t replace having an attorney look over or prepare your documents.
Listen to Victoria’s interview with The Legal Paige founder, Paige Griffith here!
#10 Loom [46:10]
Loom is a screen recording platform for the busy online business owner. It’s for someone who might need to give feedback, review things, or just any time you would need to talk through something but don’t necessarily need to have a meeting for it. Libby uses it mostly for reviewing designs from the other designers on the team. BrandWell also uses it to record client training such as their Squarespace training.
PRO: You can rewatch the video as many times as you want, pause it, or even watch at two times speed. It’s also cloud based storage so you don’t have to download and send large files, it’s just sending a quick link that you can open in your browser. Loom does give notifications when people watch your videos which can be nice to keep track of too! AI Summary is also a nice feature to have so you can read what is covered during the video or skip to a certain point of the video when rewatching for something specific. Loom can even remove your filler words such as “um” or “like”!
CON: If you use it on the daily, you’re going to want the paid version of it.
#11 BONUS: Square Payroll [50:20]
Square serves all types of businesses and is probably most commonly known for their point of sales (POS) platform used to manage inventory, communicate with customers, book appointments, purchase sales in person, or even order online! For BrandWell, Square is primarily used for payroll.
PRO: Employees payroll can be set to automatic, so Victoria just has to go in to manually add her contractor’s payment. From an employee standpoint, the square app is nice to look at how much paid time off they have, their pay stubs are held there, and it’s all in one place.
Key Quotes
“Being confident online does not start and stop with your website, but that you know your whole client experience is so important.”
Victoria Marcouillier
Stay connected!
Follow The Branding Business School on Instagram and Facebook.
Follow BrandWell Designs on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest
LEAVE A REVIEW + and SHARE this episode with someone who wants to build a go to brand in this online era. You can listen to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!
