A lot of people ask about the tools used in accounting tools for small business or for those used to run this blog, so I thought it’d make sense to put together a list for your reference here. If anything is missing from this list that you’d like to see, drop me a note and I’ll get this updated. I recommend bookmarking this site for convenience.
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you decide to make a purchase. I only recommend these products because they are helpful and useful. If you don’t think you have a need for these products or that they will help you achieve your goals, please DO NOT BUY THEM.
Books
Entrepreneurial Finance: is the first book I read about entrepreneurial finance. Fortunately, I had the privilege of being able to take the author’s course at Kellogg. Unfortunately, Profess Rogers gone back to his alma mater, Harvard, to teach but that was easily one of the top 2 courses I took there. In case you’re wondering, the other course was called Empirical Methods, taught by Professor Leemore Dafny. More on great classes here.
80/20 Sales and Marketing: This book honestly blew my mind. I thought I knew about the pareto principle but this book really took it next level. It really teaches you what it means to prioritize your time. The thing is the trade-off that people think they’re making isn’t nearly as costly as they think it is. After I read this book, it helped me get laser focused on what gives the highest returns. Anything else has to be delegated elsewhere or isn’t important enough to get done. It really is a must read.
Site Management
Grammarly: If you struggle with grammar or are just looking for a way to trim time on any sort of writing you do, from personal blog post to business email, Grammarly provides a cool to help with that. I actually wrote about it a while back where you can see some screenshots (click here to read the review). Since then they’ve added a Microsoft add-on feature (only for PC) and a Chrome extension that can edit directly in WordPress, Gmail, etc.
Siteground: If you want to host your own site, it doesn’t get better than Siteground. They have chat and phone support 24/7. Or maybe it just felt that way because they were there whenever I needed them. They blow Bluehost out of the water based on my experience, which is why Bluehost lost its spot on this page.
Studiopress: For a while, I tried out a bunch of different free themes, of which Customizr was my favorite. It had decent forum support, but eventually I felt like I was ready to take my site to the next level. One thing that I value in any product or service is customer support and that’s why I decided to try Studiopress. The price point isn’t the lowest, but the customer service and design are great, and I felt like the trust was already there with Copyblogger since I’ve been a long-time reader/listener of content they produce.
Active Campaign: If you’re running a business online (or offline), one of the things you should do is build an email list to keep in touch with your people. It complies with SPAM laws but also gives you certain automation you can’t do in your standard Gmail. I’ve used a couple of others but this is the one I currently recommend.
GroovePages: When you’re collecting emails or making sales, you need to make sure you have a page builder that is flexible enough to do different things. Right now, my choice for that is GroovePages. There is a free option (no credit card required) where you can get lifetime access to make 3 websites.