Entrepreneurs like you never stop moving, never stop working. Every business has plenty of moving parts, and if you’re a solopreneur, you’re responsible for all of it. Fortunately, there are tools which make handling all of these aspects much easier for someone who’s going it alone.

In this post, we’re going to take a look at tools that can help save you time or money in three huge areas of business. You’ll learn about tools that you can use for:

●     Hiring Subcontractors

●     Invoicing Clients

●     Email Automation

So, whether you’re interested in adding more services to your company or finding the perfect follow up tool for your email campaign, you’ll enjoy this post.

Low-code/No-code – Silent but Effective

Over the past 10 years, tools have been developed that let a business owner without any programming background develop applications without writing any code (“No-code”) or writing just a few lines of connecting linkages to no-code modules (“Low Code”).These no-code tools and Low-code tools have been silently overtaking the custom code world for the last decade.

Previously, there had been a gap between a business’s software development providers and the business teams (sales and marketing, for example) needing the applications. Today low-code automation tools allow people with little or no coding skills to create applications designed for their own business needs or as an online application for customers, instead of spending resources and time on hand-coding fully personalized software that could take months.

The trend toward No-code/ Low-code applications continues to grow. The many restrictions caused by COVID-19 crisis have accelerated this trend. That being said, identifying the applications where low-code works, correctly designing the user interface, the data structures needed for the application, and then creating the app, while easier than before, aren’t trivial. So if you are thinking of an application, give some thought to whether you want to DIY No-code/ Low-code solution or hire a programmer to build custom code.

This article give some pros and cons of these alternative approaches:

This chart lists some of the reasons people have decided to use No-code/ Low-code tools to create applications: Reasons for using low-code platforms.

Some Tools for Developing No-code/ Low-code Applications

m-Power

There are low-code platforms like m-Power that help anyone create web applications and automate business processes without coding. From a small business perspective, m-Power lets you do more with less. Small businesses can use m-Power to keep up with larger competitors. You can create complex web applications (that would normally require weeks of coding) in hours or days. You can even turn your existing employees or virtual assistants into web developers with this tool. Rather than outsource development projects, you and your helpers can create web apps easily using a point-and-click interface. These can be applications you use to run your business, or they can be SaaS applications you charge a fee for.

Email Automation

Email remains the most powerful marketing method to keep clients coming to you and generating revenue for you. Setting your email follow-up automation sequence with the perfect follow up tool can turn the art of revenue generation from being a hit or miss process into being steady and growth centered. Here are a few tools you can use for email automation.

Mailchimp

With over 12 million active customers, Mailchimp sends out an amazing amount of email each month. With a free program that allows for 7 marketing channels and 1-click automation to the premium plan ($299 / month) which offers advanced segmentation, phone support, and event-based automation series, Mailchimp gives entrepreneurs the ability to compete on the larger playing field.

Emma

Emma brings a lot to the table. Automation, segmentation, A/B testing, varied landing pages, forms, and more are all popular uses for Emma users. You can set up potent activity-based email sequences for your users. You’ll also find that their segmentation tools are easy to use and welcome for any entrepreneur.

Drip

Drip helps eCommerce entrepreneurs learn about their customers by collecting, organizing, and maximizing every piece of information that comes through. It allows for deep segmentation of email lists, behavior-based automation, and personalized content. One of the better parts is that it allows for email automation from multiple touchpoints, making it quite a potent tool.

Hiring Subcontractors

Entrepreneurs quickly find that there aren’t enough hours in the day to do what needs to be done. Copywriters, designers, social media schedulers, and more all come into play when you’re promoting a product. To do it effectively, you need staff. If you don’t have an expansive resource list, here are a few suggestions.

Upwork

If you are looking for specialized talent, then Upwork is ta good place to go. Here, you can find developers, creative designers, writers of all calibers, marketing professionals, virtual assistants, analytics geeks, and more. There are even people who work on legal projects on the platform. All you need to do is sign up and then send out a request for proposals.

Fiverr

Fiverr got its name by completing the sentence, ‘For five dollars, I will…’ and freelancers would fill in the blank. Entrepreneurs can come to the platform and get nearly any service done, from audio bumpers for podcasts to writing SEO articles to doing complex design work. It’s invigorating to see what services you can receive.

Freelancer

The Freelancer.com platform is much like Upwork in that it offers a wide array of talent on tap for the entrepreneur. The site boasts over 1300 categories, including PHP, Logistics, and Android apps. It works in the same way as Upwork in that you place an ad for your work and then receive bids from freelancers all around the world for your project.

Money and Invoicing

Regardless of the type of business, it’s necessary to bring money into it. To do that, there has to be some sort of
payment processing and invoicing system in place.

Paypal

There’s a reason that Paypal has been around for over 20 years and their subscriber count just keeps growing. This platform is simply a payment powerhouse as it adds new features to its services. You can do invoicing, subscriptions, receive a credit line, account customization, and much more.

Freshbooks

Freshbooks prides itself on being simple and intuitive to its users, emphasizing that you’ll be able to ‘wow your clients with how professional your invoices look.’ There is a wide range of features included with Freshbooks, including the ability to receive PayPal payments for only 50 cents a transaction. You can become truly automated with your invoicing.

Due

Due may be newer, but it’s no less powerful. Able to perform credit and debit card processing, accept eCheck and ACH payments, process international items and send and receive payments in real-time, Due "helps your business expand without having to worry about accounting and billing software."

Graphic design

Canva

There’s no need to shell out money for a copy of Adobe Photoshop when Canva has all you need. To get started, all you need to do is sign up for a free account. Canva already has templates that anyone can use to make professional-looking graphics for their business, from social media posts to letterheads/print layouts. It also allows you to use free stock photos or even purchase ones from their library for a dollar–no need to get locked in into an expensive stock photo subscription when all you need is one, right?

Create Automated Connection between your Current Software Tools

Manually transferring information between your software tools takes a lot of time. To solve this problem, there are two solutions: use integrations and Zapier.

With integrations, your current software product has an automatic way to connect to another product and sync your automation tools. For example your company calendar (possibly Google Calendar) and your schedule management app (possibly Schedule Once). Instead of having back and forth emails about appointments, you can open calendar availability links through Schedule Once and book an
appointment. This appointment is then automatically created on your Google Calendar.

In certain cases, there is no integration available built between apps. Fortunately, there are still simple ways to integrate different tools without learning how to code.

Zapier

Zapier creates Low-code automation links between software. As of today, Zapier works with more than one hundred software products. Look for processes that you do on a regular basis. For example, an accountant might have a standard form that all new clients need to fill in 60 days before the tax filing deadline. With Zapier, you can create an automated workflow (called  a “Zap”) to send that form to all of your current clients two months before the deadline.

For the best long-term results, set a recurring calendar reminder each month to make time to look for Low-code automation opportunities. In this 30-minute appointment, reflect on the repetitive tasks that you and your day are regularly performing. Over time, you are bound to identify tasks that can be fully or partly automated each month.

New tools for entrepreneurs are entering the market all the time. Which ones are your favorites to use? Let us know in the comments!

Author bio:
Michael Habiger is a self-made marketing professional, and marketing automation enthusiast. Currently head of marketing department at FollowUpFred.

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