Listen to the audio version. 👆
As nice as it would be to have an extra arm or six to manage all of the things you need to get done in your business, that simply isn’t the reality we live in. Although, I would like to put in an official request for that upgrade option.
The closest thing you can get is having the right software to help you do what you do better and more efficiently and eliminate the need to repeat yourself.
WHY IT MATTERS:
When you run a business on your own, time is the one resource you can’t create more of. The right software can not only save you time and money long term, but it can also amplify your efforts and create far better customer experiences.
WHAT’S NEXT:
The Best Software For Better Communication
The Best Software For Better Organization and Business Management
The Best Software for Your Creative Side
Two quick notes before I dive in.
None of the software links are affiliate links. These are just recommendations based on what I use and find to be the most helpful.
These are recommendations that are helpful to almost all personal service providers. There is other software out there that may be more specific to the industry that you're in that is worth looking at.
Okay, now let's talk sexy software.
The Best Software For Communication
How we communicate with customers is one of the biggest sources of possible tension. However, it's also a spot that can create fantastic customer experiences when done right.
Loom
Loom is video recording software that aims to minimize the need for meetings, improve productivity, and better connect with those we communicate with.
What to use Loom for:
The possibilities are endless. The biggest opportunities I see for personal service solopreneurs are things like:
Creating help documentation so you can answer a question once really well and reshare that video as needed.
Sharing educational materials and ethical bribes. You can gather email addresses and create call-to-action buttons to help prompt the next steps.
Responding to customers/clients in a personal way.
I use it for creating help documentation and responding to people almost daily. I find that it’s especially useful when you get an email that is asking a question that has a lot of nuances, or it’s just easier to record a video because otherwise, you’d write a novel.
My Three Favorite Features:
1️⃣ Viewers can comment and “react” to different parts of the video.
When someone comments or reacts, it’s time-stamped, so you can easily refer back to that part of the video they responded to.
This can also be a great way to learn where people may be struggling to understand something, capture questions, and build relationships within the video comments.
2️⃣ The editing options include things like being able to trim, stitch videos together, and remove word fillers.
We sometimes put a lot of pressure on ourselves to make videos look and sound as good as possible. This can result in a ton of retakes, and it’s exhausting.
The editing options make it much easier and faster to put together a great video without having to get everything perfect at once.
3️⃣ Loom AI automatically names the video, creates the description, creates chapters, and creates tasks for people to complete.
I often think a lot of AI stuff is overrated, but in this case - I love it. Coming up with helpful titles and descriptions is time-consuming and difficult to do well. Let alone finding where to put chapter markers.
Then being able to add tasks for people to do? Forgettaboutit.
Cost:
Freemium pricing model.
Business: $12.50/month
Loom AI add-on: $48/year per creator.
Which plan do I have? This is one software I gladly pay for. I pay for both the business and AI option.
Butter.us
Think of Butter like a God-tier level of Zoom.
It’s a video collaboration platform that is absolutely packed to the gills with helpful, engaging features.
What to use Butter for:
For personal service providers, this would most likely be used for three main things:
Sales calls
Meetings and group educational workshops
Community building
For me, I use it for sales calls and collaboration meetings mainly.
My Three Favorite Features:
It’s hard to narrow it down to just three things, but Nerf gun to my head, I’d have to say these:
1️⃣ The customizable waiting room
If you know anything about me - I like to be a little extra. I want to have fun and be silly in as many spaces as I can, and Butter lets me do that with the waiting room.
You can choose waiting room music, colors, and an image.
2️⃣ The engagement tools
Most meetings are boring, and it’s hard to keep people engaged. Butter has an entire toolbox full of ways to get people to participate.
They have everything from polls, flashcards, breakout rooms, interactive whiteboards, timers,
3️⃣ Agendas to help keep you on track and on time
As someone who is known to get sidetracked, creating an agenda with a timer to keep me moving is wildly helpful.
It alleviates a lot of stress of having to remember what to do and creates a far better experience for anyone I chat with.
And as a bonus, they have a TON of templates to either use or draw inspiration from.
Cost:
Freemium pricing model.
Prices range from $24-$39/month
Which plan do I have? I have a paid plan but bought the lifetime deal on AppSumo when Butter was first getting started.
Tally
Tally is a form builder like no other. It’s simple, beautiful, and offers a ton of great features. Tally simply performs better than most form builders out there.
What to use Tally for:
Custom intake or information-gathering forms
Calculate pricing for services or other lead magnets
Customer feedback or testimonials
My Three Favorite Features:
There's a lot to love about Tally, but here are the big ones:
1️⃣ They support over 40 different languages for the text that you can’t edit, making the user experience much nicer.
2️⃣ Unlimited electronic signatures are included with the free version of Tally.
3️⃣ Answer piping - where the form can reference previously given answers into new questions for a more personal experience.
Here's an example template I made a long time ago for my full-time job.
Cost:
Freemium pricing model.
Paid tier is $29/month
Which plan do I have? Free plan
The Best Software For Organization and Business Management
Staying organized is one of the biggest complaints I hear from solopreneurs. They feel like they have stuff all over the place.
Being that scattered can waste a lot of time and money, so having a good organizational method is vital. The right software can help you do that more easily.
Notion
Notion is the damn-near-everything tool. It honestly does so much that it’s hard to explain exactly what it is. Its users, including myself, are almost cult-like in their love of Notion.
The one thing I will say is that it is so flexible and open-ended that it can be overwhelming if you’re unsure about what you want to create. Luckily there are tons of templates (free and paid) that you can get to help you dive in.
What to use Notion for:
The biggest uses that personal service-providing solopreneurs would love Notion for are:
a. Creating a wiki for customers or clients to see help documentation, how-to guides, or other informational sources.
Here’s an example of a help desk that I am working on rebuilding in my day job.
b. As a CRM to keep track of customers and create collaboration spaces.
c. As a business and project management tool.
My Three Favorite Features:
The ultimate reason Notion makes such a fantastic tool is the flexibility to create something that works based on how your brain works best. The reasons I share below all fall into this reason.
1️⃣ The different database views. There are times when you want to view your data as a table, timeline, board, or gallery view.
2️⃣ You can have fun with it by creating your own page icons, using custom cover images, and embedding gifs, images, videos, and a number of other things to make the space personal.
3️⃣ There is a host of ways to save time by creating templates or boxes that sync together so if you update the main one, it updates all of them.
Cost:
Freemium pricing model.
Paid tiers range from $12-$18 per seat per month.
Which plan do I have? Free plan
Arc
Arc is the browser that is aiming to replace Chrome - and I think it’s got a fair shot.
It only recently released a Windows version. It doesn’t have all of the same features as the Mac version, but they’re working on it. Even so, the Windows version is pretty fantastic, and I won’t be going back to Chrome. There's also a mobile version that you can sync with.
What to use Arc for:
To organize your online needs and bookmarks so they’re easier to navigate and create less frustration.
My Three Favorite Features:
1️⃣ You can create different work spaces that you switch between and you can customize the look and feel of each space.
For example, I have a space for my full-time job, a space for Five Pineapples Consulting, and a space that’s all related to my son, like his homeschooling.
2️⃣ Video mini-viewer makes my ADHD brain happy. If you have a YouTube video playing in one tab and go to another tab, you’ll get a mini viewer of that video in your new tab. You can move around and resize while you work on that other tab.
This is especially helpful if you’re learning how to do something online.
3️⃣ Being able to save split-screen views in your folders is helpful. I often need to look at two sites side by side, so being able to save those frequent views is helpful.
Cost:
Free
The Best Software For Your Creative Side
Whether you offer a creative personal service or something less obviously creative like HVAC repair work, there are times when you'll need access to creative software.
Canva
Canva is a design software that is focused on being simpler to use than software like Photoshop while still being capable of creating beautiful graphics.
What to use Canva for:
Designing social media images, reels, and videos.
Create welcome packets or onboarding PDFs or prints
Use as an alternative to Word or Google Docs
My Three Favorite Features:
1️⃣ I need visuals to help me think through my processes, so the whiteboard feature is a big win. It’s a fantastic place to brainstorm, collaborate with customers or plan workflows.
2️⃣ Being able to create a template link to let others make a copy of a design to use on their own. Plus, you can also create a public link so you can share something you’ve made with customers without them editing it.
Here's an example template link to a scratch-off poster I made a long time ago.
3️⃣ You’re able to translate entire documents into another language. If you work with customers where your language isn’t their first language, being able to translate something into their own language can be a great touch.
Cost:
Freemium pricing model.
The paid tier for one person is $15/month.
Which plan do I have? I pay for Canva Pro.
GIPHY
Okay, GIPHY isn't exactly software but it's an honorable mention for the fun and personal factor.
GIPHY is where you find all of the fun gifs (pronounced with a soft g. Get out of here with that hard G nonsense.)
If you have a brand account, you can create your own gifs to upload and be findable wherever GIPHY is.
What to use GIPHY for:
To create fun gifs that create more personal experiences for customers.
To share short "how-to's" as a gif or clip that you can pull into different communication.
Marketing, believe it or not.
My Three Favorite Features:
1️⃣ You can upload your own images or videos or pull from YouTube.
2️⃣ It has a built-in animation feature to give your images some oomph.
3️⃣ The dashboard that lets you see how many views your gifs have gotten.
Cost:
It's free, but you need a brand account to be able to be found on GIPHY.
THE BIG TAKEAWAY
While you don't want to overload yourself with software, it's important to choose the best software for you to help amplify the great work you do while also saving you time and money.