What tech do you need to get started in your small business?
I come across many people who are at the very beginning of their online business journey, who have got stuck because they just don’t know what systems they need or are overwhelmed by the choices.
There are two types of people:
There’s the ones that want to make sure they have all their ducks in a row before they launch, but have trouble visualising how their business will run…
And there’s the ones that wade in and get on with things but before they know it, they get busy and find they don’t have what they need in place to operate smoothly.
Hey, I have been both of these people!
So what tech do you actually need to get started in your small business?
Website
A website is probably the biggest investment you will have to make at the start of your business journey. And it doesn’t matter what type of business you run, whether you have a shop, or provide a service, or are a coach, or a health provider - you do need a website. Unlike social media platforms, you own your website and it can’t be taken away from you. It provides a central location for all your content, information and most importantly how your customers can buy from you.
A website comes in three parts: the domain (name of your site), hosting (makes your site accessible to the world) and design (the content of your site). These can be three separate costs, or as a package, so you will need to do your research first.
It is entirely possible to create a website for free (without a custom domain name) via a free tool such as Wix, or a landing page via an email marketing tool such as MailerLite. This is far from ideal but would get you started.
Where to start: Wix and Squarespace have all in one packages of domain, hosting and design templates. Wordpress is one of the most popular and flexible tools but domain and hosting will need to be purchased separately.
My Recommendation: Squarespace for a one stop shop.
Email will be your main source of communication so it’s worth getting it right from the start. At the absolute minimum (although I highly recommend getting a professional email from the start) you can set up an email using one of the free providers: Gmail, Hotmail, iCloud, for instance. As an example, perhaps I would use thetechsidekick@gmail.com. But, it looks more professional if you email matches your website domain, i.e. hi@thetechsidekick.co.uk, and this can be purchased as an extra package when purchasing your domain.
Where to start: you can either purchase this as part of your domain, so with domain providers such as: GoDaddy, Domain.com, Namecheap.com, or as part of your website package: Wix or Squarespace (Google Workspace).
My Recommendation: Google Workspace (can be purchased via Squarespace).
Social Media
There’s no getting away from the fact that you need to be on social media for your business and it needs to be part of your marketing plan in some form. It’s free and doesn’t cost anything other than lots of your time! However, don’t think you need to be on all the platforms. There are two things you need to consider: 1) how many platforms do I have the energy for and which ones do I enjoy, and 2) where are my potential customers hanging out?
Where to start: as a quick and very rough guide - Instagram is very visual, Facebook is good for building relationships, LinkedIn is great for building business to business connections, Twitter is great for live and timely content, Pinterest is great for products and blogging.
What I use: I focus on Instagram, but share the same content to Facebook and LinkedIn. This blog post will also be shared to Pinterest.
Office Suite
Your office suite includes the tools you need to create your documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, along with a few other useful things. Long gone are the days when your only choice was to purchase the (very) expensive Microsoft Office package and install via a CD! Most of your work will be “in the Cloud”, meaning it is stored and saved on the Internet. This frees up space on your laptop or desktop, is easily backed up and accessible wherever you are.
The two big players here are Microsoft 365 (not free) and Google Drive (free). It’s a no brainer for me, I have always used Google Drive as my office suite. The free version includes your basic tool as mentioned above and also 15Gb of free storage that can quickly and easily be upgraded.
Where to start: Windows users seem to prefer Microsoft 365, Mac users prefer Google Drive. It comes down to personal preference. There are some free versions available such as OpenOffice and the iWork suite (Mac only) but I find these limited.
My Recommendation: Google Drive - use it, get used to it, never look back!
CRM System
This stands for Customer Relationship Management and sounds complicated, but it’s not! In a nutshell, it is basically a master list of all your clients, clients-to-be and leads. In its most simplest form you would keep this information in a spreadsheet. However, at some some point you are likely (and you should definitely start doing this) to email your followers with some news, an offer, or some tips. So from the very start you need a tool that enables you to collect email addresses without you having to lift a finger.
Using a tool such as MailChimp or MailerLite, it is possible to use these tools completely free until you either have many subscribers (1000+) or you need to use some fancy features (additional landing pages, time zone etc.) and although I hope this happens for you soon, it’s not going to happen overnight!
Where to start: Take a look at MailerLite and MailChimp. Other tools you could use: FloDesk, ActiveCampaign, Klayivo…and many, many others.
My Recommendation: MailerLite - simple, clean and straightforward to use and free up to 1000 subscribers.
Images and Graphics
We live in a quick, colourful, highly visual world, so you will no doubt need some images to get you off the ground in your business. This could be images for your website and social media posts, cover photos for your social media profiles, stock images for your newsletters, a logo, a presentation, a document, etc. etc.
Obviously, in a perfect world you go and find yourself a great designer who gets you and a fabulous brand photographer that makes it look like every side is your best side. However, at the start, tight budgets make this difficult and sometimes DIY is the only option.
There are many apps and tools you can use to create “good enough” images and graphics and it is far better to use stock photos and templates than none at all!
Where to start: For stock images take a look at some of the following sites to get yourself some free images; Unsplash, Shutterstock, iStockPhoto, Pexels, and so on.
My Recommendation: Get yourself a free Canva account. Everything you need to create good quality images and graphics, documents, presentations, eBooks etc.
In my opinion, these are the six tools that you need to get started, there are many, many other apps and tools you could use and probably will at some point. However, many people get overwhelmed at this stage so let’s start at the beginning.