15 tools every Side Hustle needs!
From website to social media to productivity, these diverse tools will save you time and money.
For a side hustle to be successful, you need to treat it like an actual business. This involves making certain investments that will ensure your side hustle runs smoothly. These investments will pay off over the long term saving you time and money while leading to increased productivity. It's all about having your systems in place, following which you can easily scale your mini business.
Now you don't need to invest a fortune, many of us aren't in that situation, particularly when starting out. However, many of these tools are free and you can choose to get the paid ones whenever you can afford to.
WordPress - Having a website for your side hustle is super essential. It gives you an edge over your competitors. You have an online presence where you can reach a much larger audience. Google and even Pinterest are great sources of traffic to your website. WordPress is sworn by many to be the best platform to build and customize your website. It allows you to have every aspect the way you want with multiple plug-ins which you may not get with a drag and drop website builder. It involves a bit of a learning curve and an initial investment but it pays off over the long run.
Bluehost - Once you have a WordPress theme and a domain name, you need to host your website on the web to be seen by people around the world. Bluehost is a platform that provides such hosting solutions. This also requires an initial investment. Alternatives to Bluehost are Siteground and Hostgator. You can look at the pricing plans of each and work out what works best for you.
G-Suite - The biggest advantage of G-Suite is having a custom domain email. Instead of the usual Gmail address, you can have an email address that has your website domain name. It gives you a more professional edge. Besides that, G-Suite also gives you a larger Google Drive Storage, access to Google Docs, Sheets, Calendar, Slides, Video Conferencing, and so much more.
Trello - Trello's free features provide more than what you could ask for. Highly beneficial in improving workflow and productivity, Trello's boards, lists, and cards enable you to organize and prioritize your projects in a fun, flexible, and rewarding way. A good alternative to Trello is Asana.
Mailchimp - Even though many people have stopped using email marketing as a strategy to increase sales, it is still a wonderful way of doing so. Mailchimp can help you capture your email list, send email campaigns and newsletters, and track how your customers interact with your communications. Mailerlite is a good alternative to Mailchimp.
Buffer - You may get away without having a full-fledged website, but you cannot get away with not being on social media. Having an account on social media will also require you to be consistent with your posting. Buffer is a social media management tool for all social media platforms that lets you organize and schedule your posts and even generates insights and analytics so that you know what's working and what's not. Alternatives to Buffer are Hootsuite, CoSchedule, and SproutSocial. They are paid tools, so you'll have to assess what works the best for you as per your budget.
Udemy - As a side hustler, you should ensure that your learning never stops. Always look to continually learn and upgrade your skills. Udemy is an online video library with more than 55,000 courses on a broad range of topics that you can choose to learn about. Alternatives to Udemy are Skillshare and LinkedIn Learning.
Upwork - As your side hustle grows, you may be required to outsource your work. You may also need help for areas of your business that you don't have time for or are not of your expertise. Considering help is good, Upwork is a platform where you can find freelancers around the world to help you with those tasks.
Canva - Canva is a brilliant platform to help you create graphics for your business including social media posts. You can also create them using the app, however, the website has a lot more features and is more user-friendly. The free version of Canva has loads of features but the premium version provides you with plenty more. Alternatives to Canva are Crello, Over, and PicMonkey.
Freepik - Need to find stock images, templates, icons, illustrations, and more for your side hustle? Freepik provides all of that, some are free and some are paid. Freepik also has an online editor that you can use to create graphics. Alternatives to Freepik are Unsplash and Pexels.
Creator Studio - Creator Studio by Facebook lets you schedule and manage posts, view insights and messages of your Facebook and Instagram pages in one place. It is absolutely free and is also available for use as an app.
Quickbooks - Accounting is a vital part of your side hustle, even if you hate dealing with it. Move away from the excel sheets and invest in accounting software that makes dealing with business-related expenses much easier to manage. Quickbooks help you do that and also send invoices, set reminders, track receivables, and much more.
Lastpass - If you are one of those that forget your passwords, Lastpass is your friend. Besides that, it is wiser to have different passwords for your accounts and have them saved in a secure place such as Lastpass. You can even securely share your usernames and passwords through Lastpass with the members of your team.
PayPal - If you have a side hustle that deals with clients from across the world, you need a platform that makes it easier to accept payments as well. Alternatively, you may look into Stripe or Transferwise and opt for a platform that has the lowest deductible charges.
Toggl - Always finding yourself short on time? You never have to wonder where your time has gone with an efficient time-tracking app. Toggl allows you to allocate time for tasks or track how many hours you spend on each task. Want to give the Pomodoro technique a try? Toggl is your friend.
Related -
At The Side Hustler, we realize the importance of social media for your blog/side hustle/business, which is why we are offering you an opportunity to avail of our Social Media Services that include Social Media Audits, Content Creation, Community Management, and Consultation.
Write to info@thesidehustler.org for more details.
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