Clever business tools and services

If you’re an Aussie business and want to keep your tools local when possible, Campaign Monitor is a great option. I’ve used them for years and still recommend Campaign Monitor for a lot of my clients. So why am I not currently using Campaign Monitor for Studio Clvr? My specific setup requirements made Kit (formerly ConvertKit) an easier integration — it’s all about what fits best with your tech stack.

For those still using Google Analytics but feeling overwhelmed by the GA dashboard, Clicky is a nice alternative. There may be all sorts of legacy reasons why your tech stack can’t move away from Google Analytics, and if that’s the case, Clicky is a good filter. It looks super dated, but it is quick to set up and doesn’t require much tech knowledge to get useful insights about your website. I’d still use Fathom over Clicky, but sometimes you just can’t move away from Google — I get it.

Like many, I’ve become increasingly aware of privacy — not only around my own data, but the data of my clients, too. I’ve decided that I don’t need to track the cookies of where you’ve come from or where you’re going after interacting with my website. I have no intention of following anyone around the internet with annoying ads. So I use Fathom to ensure that I’m not collecting any data I don’t need, nor am I sharing your data with third parties like Google. It feels great for the world. And fathom’s goal-setting capabilities make the data easier to interpret and far more purposeful than Google Analytics any day.

This grammar tool will keep everything you write in ship shape. I have it overlaid on my email, socials and documents to keep me professional and to help pick up at least some of my bad speed typing errors before I hit send! The pro version includes a plagiarism checker which I find really useful to double check I’m writing truly original content.

I record literally everything. It sounds over the top, but I find that recording how much time I’m spending on specific tasks helps me to keep a lid on admin and clearly see where I’m bleeding time that I could otherwise claw back. Time recording is key to help you accurately set prices, know where your time is going, and stay organised.

Any business serious about automation needs a solid email marketing platform. I’ve used big CRMs (Keap, Hubspot) that combine email marketing as part of the big plan bundle, but have come back to using separate tools for my CRM and email marketing functions. The main benefit of Kit for me is the ease of use of their automations, and at a great price compared to other providers for the tech benefits. I can also say that I have been really happy with Kit, both with the tools and their customer service. The whole experience has been excellent, and far superior to others I’ve tried (MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, Drip). ConvertKit also integrates easily with all StudioClvr web builds and with cheaper CRMs like ClickUp, Notion or Fern.

Missinglettr is one of my favourite tools. It is awesome; saves SO much time and manual admin! It’ll create a 365 day social campaign across all of your social channels automatically when you publish a new blog post and you can then review, then have social done at the click of a button! It takes 10 mins max to confirm a year’s worth of scheduled social content.

I love Notion. It looks simple on the face of it, but is such a powerful tool for use across project management, but also as a CRM and a great HubSpot alternative when combined with task-specific tools like Kit. The best bit is that the free plan is very generous, and take a small business a long way until you’re ready to start investing in more robust tools.

If you are a solo operator and don’t need payroll functionality, I highly recommend Rounded. Rounded is specifically designed to be simpler to use than the big players like Xero, with all of the cumbersome stuff stripped out so it’s perfect for the needs of sole traders. The team behind Rounded are amazing and their support is top notch.

Most people have heard of Yoast, but SEOPress is a far cheaper and easier to use equivalent. SEOPress has a much nicer interface, and integrates easily with WordPress.

This is one of the best ‘unstocky’ stock libraries I’ve come across. Really nice images that are contemporary and on trend, with nothing staged or dated in their library.

Stripe is my preferred online payment gateway. I use PayPal when I can’t use Stripe, but Stripe has lower fees and intergrates really easily with Xero, making account reconciliation a breeze.

It’s a legal requirement for your business website to include a bunch of legal policies. Termageddon makes it really easy to generate the policies you need, AND to keep those policies updated as the law changes in any jurisdiction you do business with. Enter promo code STUDIOCLVR at checkout for 10% off your first year.

These guys have been doing my accounts for years and have annual plans to cover bookkeeping, quarterly BAS and annual returns for business (and personal too). They’re based in Sydney and Melbourne, and I can’t recommend Amit and the team highly enough.

Unsplash has a brilliant collection of free (with attribution) and paid pro images. They have a plugin that integrates easily with a lot of web builders too, making it easy to pull images onto your website for a blog post, without having to download it, resize it, upload it to your website first. This is a great tool for businesses just starting out, and even for more established businesses who produce a lot of content and need quick access to a variety of images.

We host all of our sites on Wordify’s WordPress-optimised Australian or US servers. Premium hosting includes blazing-fast site speed, CDN, SSL certificates, hacker-free security, free staging (test) site, and best of all, 24/7 customer support from real humans. They respond quickly to server issues and continue to be genuinely lovely to deal with.

I use Xero for my business accounting and love it. Way easier to use than MYOB, and with loads of business tools to make it easier to setup payroll, BAS, auto-super and invoicing (direct debits and credit card setup with Stripe integration).

Yield is a Melbourne-based financial services firm with particular expertise in wealth management and retirement planning. James and the team are passionate about growth and building strong relationships with their clients to help make dreams a reality. I’ve even partnered with them on a useful article on creating brand value in line with an exit strategy for your business.