Must-have Tools for an Online Business

Man is a tool-using animal.

Nowhere you will find him without tools; without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all~ Thomas Carlyle

Every business has specialised tools…!

The best Carpenter knows the best drills, saws, glues, air guns etc

The best mechanic knows the best oils to use, the strongest spanners and crescents and tyre pressure kits.

I could go on with the examples! Did you get the picture?

Reading, researchingand running an online business is a fun exercise and I cherish the time I spent last week on writing about the ‘12 myths of starting an online business’. Do you know the most amazing part of running an online business? Let me tell you what it is! The most fabulous aspect of running an online business is the ‘experience’ you earn from it. Every victory, every failure and every incidence comes with an experience- for better, best or worse: it surely lands you making more maturity and skilled. And the way it powers up your passion is just beautiful… something which is certainly beyond the parameters of words!

Today through this blog post, I wish to continue the idea of sharing my experience and learning from running an online business. There are specialized tools that you need when you operate an online business and this is what I’ll be transferring to you through the blog post this week.  You know what??? These are the best tools you can find and it has taken me some time to find these tools for you. So keep them with you!

A few Pointers from mistakes that I have made:

Everywhere there are mediocrewebsites, There arecommonly used photos on  social media, bad videos or even irrelevant videos inspiring, educating or marketing taking away from your position and your brand.

You need to have creativity to produce consistent blogs and or posts to educate  your customers about your product or service.  You must have a product or a service or both.  You wouldn’t open a retail shop without any stock in it would you?

Make your education about your product unique, inspiring and even fun and experiential even.

Another point here is to learn the new language of the online world.  It has many aspects that have new terms, people use jargon to confuse the newbie or to make money from them.  For example a funnel is not difficult.. nothing is difficult if you are focussed and educated and taking one step at a time.  Do not rush throwing money at your online business, like any business that money will disappear with no return on your hard earned cash if you do not take care of what you are wanting, in return of the dollar spent.

The money that you earn from the online business, like an offline business, comes from the people who you give value for exchange of money.There is this thought out there on the World Wide Web that if I just put a product on a social media site (for instance in Facebook) than people will buy and it will be shipped I will never have to deal with people again. That’s not true – that’s not how you make money because you are not d building relationships. Online business is as an intimate affair as running a traditional business is. In fact, it is going to land you in a global sphere where you will find and interact with the global audiences. You cannot escape people so easily! Every business involves people in one way or another. So let’s get real about what is needed to share your product or service with your customers or potential customers.  To be able to maintain a business and an online business is no different to an offline business.

Any person who is handling an online business has to be able to maintain these 5 cycles in their business:

  • – They need to grab the attention of the audience
  • – They need to cater engagement for proactive audience response
  • – They need to educate through sharing their experience.
  • – They need to learn how to ‘Make a Sale’
  • – They need to learn how to make MORE SALES

I’m going to assume you have these basic information age Tools

  • A good computer
  • A Router or a dongle for internet connection
  • Smart Phone
  • Post – it – notes
  • Ideas Notebook will start you off

Tool 1: Photography

A picture is worth a thousand words– it says much more than a bunch of words! In a time where people have the least amount of attention span, a photograph can impact the 5 second attention span that is now in our culture.

  • There are more Visual people than Auditory or Kinesthetic.
  • Visual memories are the strongest memories.
  • YOU MUST HAVE GOOD PHOTOGRAPHS to engage your audience.
  • Focus on getting a photograph with a message for the best Memory Recall

Research tools such asCanva, Light room, Photoshop, PowerPoint, etc.  Research photograph apps on your phone you may want to take and edit photos straight from your phone.

Tool 2: Resources Tools

Generally  women entrepreneurs are proudly “Jacks of all trades” who are chasing their dreams to turn their ideas into reality. I find it is almost impossible to run my online business by myself and therefore, I have specialised people helping me in their area of expertise. I work out what my attributes are, what my skills are and pay people to do what I’m really bad at.  LOL!!!!  Being a small business person I could have the attitude that no-one can do it better than me.  Fortunately, I dropped that believe several years.

Research:   Upwork, Airtasker, Fiverr, etc.

Tool 3: Video Production Tools

Speaking about the current trends- the online world is ‘absolutely’ in love with the video culture. Video is what everyone wants because it’s quick, it’s precise, it’s moving and it’s cheap.Although for some of your videos like sizzle reels you may want to pay a professional to produce it. For your everyday content you may find your phone does a good enough job for your small messages. For your blogs, your strong bite pieces of education or inspiration you will eventually want a movie editing program like I Movie on a Mac or Movie Maker for your PC.  If you are dabbling with an online idea, start playing with a movie application.  Use Google to help educate you.  Learning skills is only difficult when you don’t know that skill!

Start Practising

Tool 4 : Research

Knowing about Google Keyword planner is one of the best ways to do you research and to look at the analytics of your search. You must do research for your content if you are to have eyeballs to your education or inspiration especially for blog post ranking. Research other people you maybe can align yourself with them, you may be able to compare yourself with them.You may find updated stats that you can use.

Start practising… with Google Keyword Planner.

Tool 5: Communication

Communication is the essence of every interaction! Tell me how are you are going to inspire and educate your customers online when they don’t come into a shop? You will need a couple of online communication tools like a webinar platform and a autoresponderto handle them.  You will need to be confident with the buttons to press.  You will need to know what to do if something goes wrong (just like the mechanic needs to know what to do when his spanner snaps).

Things to do: Research platforms like Webinarjam, Zoom, Any Meeting, Get response, A Webber,  Unless you have over a couple of thousand people you email every week A Webber and Get Response will give you a good start.

Tool 6: Storage

Heard about the famous ‘backing up mantra’?? Well, just like an offline business, you need somewhere to store your product, your ideas, your templates, and your system.  Please DO NOT store anything on your computer. Your computer is just a machine that can fail any moment so never trust it fully. Apart from the normal hardrive options, learn about some cloud storage options.

Things to do: Hard drives, drop box and Google Drive are the only I recommend for storage and these three are the only 3 I recommend for project management Trello, Quora and Asana.

Tool 7: ‘Website’ YOUR HOME

You must have a website- a good ‘expressive’ website.  It can start off simple but start with a good website and WordPress is fine.  If you are bit techie you could add in the photos and the words yourself into a WordPress theme you like. It’s your home where you let people know about YOU, where you have them come from, what results you have had, what you love, what you struggle with. Your Home should have a weekly blog post where people can come and learn and be inspired by you.  A blog is always moving and interacting and is often the beginning of your community online.  People will fall in love with you through your blogging when you are consistent and authentic.

Start blogging

Of course there are other more advanced tools that you will need. You will certainly need a funnel or two either through something like click funnels or lead pages or simply through your website which is more cost effective, however might not give you the analytics that you might need. SEO is another topic but I’m not here to be like any other blog… I’m here to give you some baby steps to begin with.

Being in the online world is nothing but a ‘travelling’ experience where you meet new people and you learn new things. Please be a traveller and not a tourist. Try new experiences and things to meet new people and go beyond the things that you can see or feel from your naked eyes. The world is an amazing place to be!

I will be eagerly waiting for your lovely comments this week. Tell me what you think about these tools? Do you have any additions to make???

Hugs and love

Di

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12 thoughts on “Must-have Tools for an Online Business”

  1. I agree with you 100%. In order t look the part, you have to be the part. That means having good tools in your business, a good looking website with properly sourced pictures, your own Autoresponder and lead funnel. and of course, not looking like everyone else online. Great post..

    1. Hi Keith,

      Thankyou for your comprehensive comment. Your website is your home online so important to have other aspects for online living set up like you say.

      Di

  2. If you wish to succeed in life you gotta have the right tools. Your take on this topic was surprisingly refreshing. I had expected a slew of the products you use, instead you served me caviar…Awesome Di! 🙂

    1. To take a different approach to identify the tools I trust will assist people on how to join the dots for their online activities.

      Thanks for coming over Kenny.

  3. These are the best tips Di, for must-haves for ANY online business! Your website is your HOME where people come and check what it is that you are all about and these tools will help you to stand out much better!! Thanks for sharing your wonderful value!! Great post!

    1. Hello Joan,

      I trust that this way of explaining the tools will stick in your mind for further independence Joan.

      Always love to see you here

      Di

  4. Di, thank you for the great advice on blogging and social media. I will be implementing some of theses ideas !

    1. Hi Jodi,

      Tell me what you ended up implementing Jodi.

      Im simply sharing what I had learnt so Id love to know what you end up using.

      Thankyou

      Di

    1. Hello Tara,

      The areas that we need tools are no really no different to any business, however we are more impacted with
      visual ads now with online marketing and the degree of distractions we truly need to discover what works for us.

      Di

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Must-have Tools for an Online Business - Di Downie