I don’t know about you but I personally love discovering new small business tools, tips and experts to help us run our business more smoothly. 

Sometimes we stumble across them ourselves, but often we find them when other business owners generously share behind the scenes!

So today I thought I’d lay out all the tools, apps, and people that we would recommend, because they help power our business. Let us know in the comments below if any help you! – Just to add some of these are affiliate links, however everything on here is what we use.

Tools that help us with marketing

Flodesk – We build our mailing list and emails using Flodesk. Create super pretty emails, they also offer a shop/checkout element too if you need a quick win type website! Great way to build up a mailing list, personally find it really easy to use. Get 50% off with our referral link

Planoly – I tried so many scheduling apps, settled with this one although I have yet to find a tool that does exactly what I want it to yet! This is definitely the best one I tried when having numerous channels to schedule for.

Tailwind – If you want to get on top of your Pinterest this year, this is the tool for you. Once set up does amazing tricks to repost/post/pin things constantly so you dont need to do too much.

Canva – the dreamiest tool for creating your pics/graphics/logo/adverts. It literally does so much. Type in the type of doc you require and I’m pretty sure a template will exist for you! E.g type in ‘competition instagram post’ it will create for you. You do need to edit it so it becomes your own. It recently added incredibly powerful new tools and techniques to edit photos and batch create content.

Ticket tailor – ever since Eventbrite changed their ticketing prices 😭 we moved over to Ticket Tailor to help direct customers to events that require booking a ticket. Low priced fees and free for free ticketed events, we were converted! Still recommend adding your events to Eventbrite for the free 25 people it allows you have, to help market the event to more people.

Splice – we edit videos using this app, great for putting together a quick reel or tutorial videos

Capcut – this is a fab one for reel making

Placeit – Recently discovered this one! It lets you create mockup pics using your products! A very handy 7 day free trial!

Beacons – Create the prettiest ‘link in bio’. Beacons lets you create a page that users can click on from your social media account that will direct your customers to the next touchpoint.

Business tools to help with finances

Xero – We use Xero for creating all our invoices and balancing the books

Penfold – Did you know when you’re self-employed you can make payments into your pension, and Penfold will claim tax relief and automatically adds it to your pension pot? I have used penfold from the start of running my business.

Starling – personally love Starling, its free, super easy to use, love the way you can create pots to save for different things

Go Cardless – we use this for collecting and managing subscription or regular, recurring payments, highly recommend if needing an easy payment tool without all the faff!

Rachel Harris – Rachel inspires me daily with her incredible accountancy business she’s built up from the start. If you want to look to manage your finances better, or looking for an accountant that will help your business, check out Rachel

Other small business tools we use and love

Your Parking Space – I personally hate travelling by train anywhere! If I can drive I would prefer to, so have this link saved on my phone for when I need to find somewhere to park. In London there can be limited options, but this handy link you’ll discover people list their driveways, permit spaces and private carparks there! Opening up so many more parking locations across the city

Headway – This fab app summarises books into shorter chunks. I’m useless at making time for reading, but this app has helped me discover some real author gems out there!

Godaddy – we got our website domain there, they usually have good offers when you’re starting out and need a new site

Chalkboard – If you don’t want to use your own personal phone number on your website, this super handy app creates a new number for you and lets you communicate with your customers using the app. It has helpful tools to never miss a text, automated replies and the support team has actually been incredibly helpful and have always responded super quickly if we’ve ever been unsure how to do something

Pedddle – We advertise our pop-up markets on here, but if you’re a product seller, they offer a fab subscription to be able to apply for markets across the UK and helps customers to find you increasing exposure

Jotform – We love jotform for forms and adhoc surveys. It’s free to use, offers an embed tool which can help you capture customer feedback instantly without sending your user away to another page.

Other small businesses we’ve worked with and love

Eleanor Mollie – Ellie has helped us with creating written copy for projects. Her talent is incredible and can truly get the message across

Virtual Nat – Nat has supported us over the year with various administrative support, from website to content creation, to blogging to inbox management. She is also an absolute wizz with Etsy and has given our Etsy shop a bit of a zhuzh!

Business coach – Alice Benham is an expert in digital marketing and business strategy. I attended her business retreat and its was SO incredible. Alice offers coaching, group workshops and a heap of useful business stationery and downloadable tools on her site, plus the super practical podcast that offers so much wisdom when it comes to running a business.

Market and Me – Sophie runs an amazing coaching business and has hosted several of our workshops. Sophie offers so much knowledge on being in the retail industry thanks to her years of experience. Highly recommend giving a follow if you’re a product selling business looking to make traction amongst your networks.

Jenna Farmer – I met Jenna about 4 years ago when we used to sell craft kits, and she helped me get our business into various magazines and blog posts through her PR support. Highly recommend if you’re looking to get some exposure on your brand

Rachel Emma Waring – I’ve done two of Rachel’s Pinterest courses and she helps you get to grips with how to use Pinterest in your business. After doing both courses, our Pinterest traffic increased by thousands by doing a few simple steps that Rachel lines up so clearly!

Sophie Griffiths Co – If you’re after facebook ads support, Sophie is your gal! She offers courses, tips and lots of ideas on how to grow your business using ads.

Photographers we’ve worked with and recommend

Emily Jane Morgan – incredible product and event photographer. We work with Emily to host our monthly product photoshoot offer

Mollie Manning Creative – A super talented photographer. Mollie has captured all of our Westfield and Lakeside pop-ups on camera! I also had a virtual photoshoot on facetime during covid which was so amazing how she pivoted when the world shut down

Stories by Chloe – amazing headshot and event photographer captured beautiful imagery at an event I went to earlier in the year plus some headshots I use now on our linked in!

What small business tools do you use? Or do you have any questions about any of the above tools? Let us know in the comments!