TOOLS OF THE TRADE
THE TOOLS, APPS AND SOFTWARE I USE TO RUN MY
BIZ LIKE A LEAN, MEAN, PROFIT GENERATING MACHINE!
No matter where you are in your biz there are tools that can obliterate hours of work every week and save you thousands of dollars from having to hire tasks out that fall beyond your skill set.
To make sure you don’t end up with a budget sucking stack of pricey resources you don’t need (been there, done that), I’m pulling back the wine stained drop cloths to give you unfettered access to my business’s toolbox.
I’m constantly updating this list with new tools my biz can’t live without so it’s always a current snapshot of my latest and greatest arsenal of geeked out goodies. Do yourself a favor and pin or bookmark this page so it’s handy when you need it, because a toolbox is only useful if it’s at arms reach! 
Full Disclosure: Many of these links are affiliate links, which means I get a little pot of gold at the end of your checkout rainbow BUT, rest easy because my ethics are NOT for sale! I pinky promise to ONLY include tools I use and absolutely la la loooove. No ifs, ands, or butts about it – you have my word.
To get started click on the areas of your biz that could use some repairs and/or upgrades.
WEBSITE TOOLS
DOMAIN NAMES
GODADDY
Best place to purchase domains from. Cost will vary depending on the domain being purchased.
Rates vary
WORDPRESS HOSTING
WP ACADEMY
WP Academy managed WordPress hosting gives you performance comparable to the best WordPress managed hosts (under 0.2 seconds page loads on your home page html), with full support for all your WordPress issues.
Plans starting at $10.50/month
website platform
wordpress
The #1 website building platform out there. It’s a platform any non-designer can build a great website or blog on AND it’s completely free! There are tons of great themes and plug-ins available to make it whatever you want it to be.
Free
WORDPRESS PAGE BUILDER
THRIVE ARCHITECT
Thrive Architect is not the only visual editor for WordPress, but it’s the only one that is laser focused on business websites, built by DIY entrepreneurs.
$67/per website
POPUP PLUGIN
ninja popup
Drag and drop visual editor that’s packed with features for creating beautifully branded popups to convert visitors on your site into subscribers.
$26/per website
WORDPRESS PREMIUM THEMES
STUDIOPRESS
StudioPress offers world-class themes that excel in both design and infrastructure, all of which are built on the Genesis Framework, which makes your site faster, more secure, and more SEO-friendly.
Prices vary
FTP PROGRAM
FILEZILLA
Used to transfer files from your computer to your website server or other remote location.
Free
code editor
notepad ++
Notepad++ is the perfect tool to tweak style sheets and blog posts before copying them into WordPress or whatever program you run your website(s) on.
Free
WORDPRESS concierge
wp site care
A personal WordPress concierge that offers 24/7 security monitoring, automated backups, performance optimization, and hands on support.
Plans start at $79/month
WORDPRESS social sharing plugin
social warfare
This is my go to social sharing WordPress plugin of all time because it has a “click to tweet” feature, it gives you the ability to load a different optimized image (in the background) for Pinterest, it’s responsive and it’s 100% customizable.
$29/year
wordpress seo plugin
yoast seo
My go to plugin for adding my meta titles, keywords and other SEO elements on my website.
Free
IMAGE COMPRESSION
COMPRESSOR.IO
A powerful tool for drastically reducing the size of your images and photos with almost no difference before and after compression.
Free
DESIGN TOOLS
COMMERCIAL FONTS
GOOGLE WEB FONTS
Google’s vast collection of web friendly and downloadable fonts that can be used anyway you choose without a license.
Free
FONT VIEWER
AMP FONT VIEWER
A font managing tool that lets you view customizable text snippets of all the fonts installed on your computer or laptop. You can also organize your fonts into categories and even install and remove fonts from your system.
Free
VECTOR design APP
ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR
A vector graphics app lets you create logos, icons, drawings, typography, and illustrations for print, web, video, and mobile.
$20.99/month
graphic design app
canva
Use Canva’s drag-and-drop feature and professional layouts to design consistently stunning graphics and documents.
Free & Paid plans
DESIGN MARKETPLACE
CREATIVE MARKET
An online market of thousands of fonts, website themes, graphics, patterns, and textures that are sold by individuals.
Pricing varies
GRAPHIC MARKETPLACE
adobe stock
A marketplace with millions of images, templates, and 3d assets.
Plans start at $29.99/month
color marketplace
colourlovers
COLOURlovers is a creative community where people from around the world create and share colors, palettes and patterns for design inspiration, color combinations, and so much more! I use this site all the time to find the perfect color combinations and tones.
Free
COLOR palette app
ADOBE COLOR CC
A tool for creating color palettes swiped off of photographs. Upload your photograph and this tool will create six different color palettes, all taken from colors in the photograph.
Free
color palette app
photocopa
Photocopa is great tool to make a photo inspired color palette. Load your own photo from anywhere on the web and get each and every color represented in the photograph. You can then add it to the gallery for others to use as inspiration or keep it private for your use only. You can also create color palettes from photographs searched on Flickr.
Free
freelance marketplace
fiverr
Get small projects done for as little as $5. It’s amazing what quality work people will do on this site for $5. It can help get all those little tasks done for your next project. Launch quickly and on a small budget.
Pricing starts at $5
photography filtering
photogramio
This is a site that allows you to upload images and apply filters, overlays and borders to them. Their collection of options is incredibly comprehensive. It makes Instagram look like child’s play.
Free
seamless patterns
pattern cooler
Create 100% customizable seamless patterns with your color palette. You can also customize the seamless pattern repeat size and the texture then download the seamless pattern at a variety of sizes.
Free
3d marketing mockups
my ecover maker
Now it’s easy to create beautiful and professional mockups, even if you’ve never designed anything in your life. Just point-and-click with this online tool and your mockup is done in minutes.
Free
BUSINESS TOOLS
web countdown timer
DEADLINE FUNNEL
Add urgency to your offers by including countdown timers in your emails that are synced with your sales page timers.
Plans starting at $37/month
notes app
EVERNOTE
Capture, organize, and share notes across all of your devices. The best thing about Evernote is that it syncs automatically across all your devices and operating systems.
Free & Paid plans
cloud storage
google drive
Online storage, so you can access photos, stories, designs, drawings, recordings, and videos from any smartphone, tablet, or computer. So wherever you go, your files follow.
Free & Paid plans
EMAIL MARKETING
CONVERTKIT
Your email list is your greatest asset. ConvertKit helps you use that list to grow your business through responsive forms, trackable data, and simple but powerful automations.
Plans starting at $24/month
quiz software
INTERACT
Create quizzes you can use to grow your email list, drive sales, and increase your social media presence.
Free & Paid plans
webinar streaming app
webinarjam
WebinarJam’s flexible JamCast Broadcast Engine allows you to stream directly to your attendees in all the popular places: Facebook Live, YouTube Live, not to mention their own private and secure network.
Free 60 day trial then $479/year
screen capture
jing
Jing allows you to take a picture or video of your computer screen and uploads it to the Web, FTP, computer, or clipboard. If uploaded to the web, the program automatically creates a URL to the image that can be shared with others.
Free
VIDEO EDITING SOFTWARE
CAMTASIA
You can record anything, including your whole screen or just a specific window, or you can add any video, images, audio, and/or PowerPoint presentations that you already have.
$249
course platform
TEACHABLE
Easily create an online course with Teachable’s powerful yet simple all-in-one platform.
Plans starting at $39
social media scheduler
tailwind
Schedule social media posts, discover content, monitor conversations, and measure results all in this one tool.
Plans starting at $9.99/month
password security
lastpass
If you’re still committing passwords to memory or worse, using the same password for all of your accounts, it’s time to get a password manager. Lastpass allows you to securely save and share login credentials as well as create truly unique passwords so your accounts can’t be hacked.
Free & Paid plans
automation workflow app
zapier
Build automation workflows in a matter of a few clicks. Zapier allows you to set up “Zaps” which connect apps you’re already using everyday to create workflows that are triggered by actions you specify. For example, posting your Instagram posts on your Facebook page, or tagging a new student in your email marketing software.
Free & Paid plans
CHROME EXTENSIONS
COLOR PICKER
COLORZILLA
With ColorZilla you can grab a color from any where in your browser, quickly adjust this color and paste it into another program, and it does so much more too!
Free
ad blocker
adblock
Choose to continue seeing unobtrusive ads, whitelist your favorite sites, or block all ads by default.
Free
code viewer
web developer
The Web Developer extension adds various web developer tools to your browser that will help you see, adjust and decipher web coding of all languages.
Free
form recovery
TYPIO form recovery
Typio Form Recovery automatically saves text as you type and lets you easily recover input data in case of loss. You are in full control of which sites auto-save is enabled on and how long the input is saved.
Free
screen recorder
loom
Loom brings the richness of video to work. Capture your screen, record your front-facing camera, and narrate it all at once, then instantly share with a simple link.
Free
screenshots
nimbus
Create and edit notes, save full web pages, customize screenshots, and instantly share them. Important information can be instantly accessible to you and anyone else you want, anytime, anywhere.
Free
Oh My Word! Andrea, how comprehensive is this! I had no idea so many resources existed. So many cool geek stuff, and I am really a geek and I am drooling at these. Thanks so much for this list. Amazing. And how I adore your style, your thing with words. It’s a gift. Truly.
Awwww, look what you did, now I’m drunk on the best warm & fuzzies! ? I guess it’s only fair since I drenched you in all this geekery. You’re so welcome, sweetie and THANK YOU, truly, from the bottom of my wine filled heart, for the love on my writing. You have no idea what a tremendous compliment that is. It took me a long time to be brave enough to use my real voice in my copy. Just a whole lot of love coming at ya, Jane!! *wine clinks*
Hi Dre, this was interesting and I’m impressed by your fearless motivation. I Created my wix website (with help from my son!) as I started my psychotherapy business last year. At 51, this doesn’t come easy. Everyone keeps telling me how easy it is to blog etc, but I’m scared shitless! I can’t get my head around how it works and why I ought to do it . Can you give me a perverbial kick? Website is called ‘theredchairtgerapy’ and it’s STILL not finished although it’s live. I find it overwhelming. Ugh!!
Hey babe….well, hot damn have you come to the right place for a loving kick in the arse! That’s my specialty. ?
I’d be happy to help with your overwhelm, in all its forms. Shoot me an email at [email protected] with what you’re struggling with and I’ll lob advice and resources your way.
Don’t let ANYONE tell you this shiz is easy, it’s not – and it comes with a painful learning curve at times. Instead, I’d say it’s POSSIBLE..not easy, but POSSIBLE. It takes a lot of persistence, heart, and learning, but you GOT THIS and I’m here to help so holler anytime.
Fist bumps and martini clinks,
Dre
Just found this page (where has it been my whole entrepreneurial life?) What I’m looking for wasn’t in this list, though – I need SYSTEMS – or even better, *A* system. I looked at 17 Hats and it’s not going to work for me (I don’t need all the invoicing stuff) but something like it … OR a CRM and to do list that will play nicely together and integrate with MailChimp (or comparable system)… Or something.
It’s been hiding in this lil corner of the web! ?
Have you looked into Trello?
Love your site and your resources. I like you logo font! Are you perhaps a B-School graduate? I just finishied B-School 2016 ?
Awww, BIG ass high five coming at ya for the love, Anette!!! Nope, I’m not a B-School grad, I went the Brendon Burchard way…but I’m always jealous of the epic community Marie’s created. Holler anytime questions come up…you know where to stalk me down now. ; )
Hello,
Great article! Lots of new information for me to research:) I’d love to hear your thoughts on social media and specifically the best apps to schedule social posts for business. I’ve tried Klout and Hootsuite, but neither is working great for me. Do you have suggestions for other apps?
Thank you! ?
Awwww, thanks again for all the love, lady!! I actually prefer and la la looove Buffer for scheduling. You can only include up to 5 accounts I think but that number suites me well. Mostly I use the app for Twitter and Pinterest scheduling. It’s worth the $10/month by FAR. They do have a free plan too, so you should check it out!
Great read. So many great offerings and tips for a fellow solopreneur. Thanks!!
You bet, lady!!
This is so awesome Dre! You are awesome!
Thanks for sharing this to us. ?
Right back at ya, babe!! ; )
Great list of resources! Thanks for sharing. Did you forget to include Studio Press? ?
Good catch, I sure did! High five for the love, Quentin!
Dre… you rock Chicca!!!! Just found your website and have been all over it. Seriously helpful. Like MEGA! helpful. And your branding… swoon. Love love love it all.
Daaaaaaayum girl, I’ve got an epic case of warm & fuzzies going on over here, so THANK YOU!! I’m stoked ya found me, so don’t go being a stranger now, you hear me? ; ) Holler anytime, I’m here to be a resource for you any way I can! ROCK ON, sista…
Thanks Dre’ – I’m think Popup Ally would be great for my blog. Been looking for that type of tool. Glad to have found your site!
You’re going to la la looove that plugin, Laura! I’m stoked you found me too – holler if you ever have questions!
Hi Dre, thanks for sharing all this information! I’m super impressed with how active you are! ? I just joined this group and I’m super excited to be part of it! I hope it will help my business and hopefully I can help other people too!
BIG ass high five for the love, Fernanda! The Society is jam packed with the most epic of badasses so I KNOW we can help you however you need. It’s absolutely fantastic to have ya, lady – WELCOME! ; )
Thanks Dre, great tools with a lot of good resources! For making video I use Shakr, if you want quality video ads for your business you can’t beat it! I wish they had subscriptions though as making several can add up but I emailed them and apparently it is coming soon…
Hi would you mind sharing which blog platform you’re working with? I’m planning to start my own blog in the near future but I’m having a hard time selecting to go with Drupal.
Hey Minta, I swear by and exclusively use WordPress, it’s all I’ve ever needed in a web platform. Hope that helps.
I like the helpful information you provide in your articles. I’ll bookmark your blog and check again here regularly. I am quite certain I will learn many new stuff right here! Best of luck for the next!
Sweeeet, stoked to hear that, Katherine!
Hi Dre! Just came across your website during research for my e-commerce business I am hoping to launch. Love your no BS, REAL style. Your Tools Resource Page is a huge help. But, I am one of those entrepreneurs with control issues.. I want to develop my own website, branding, logo, etc, ( I can see it, I am just tech challenged). The thought of outsourcing the website design makes me crazy, but, I can certainly use services down the road, like yours, that will help with the content.
I agree 100% on visual importance of anything. A picture is worth a 1000 words, as they say.
Anyway, I noticed you listed WordPress as the best website tool. Currently, I am deciding on which platform to build on.
Do you feel WordPress is good for both Blog and E Commerce or just blog? If not, do you have any opinions/suggestions for someone just starting out? Should I just stick with something like Shopify? I have to be able to link to FB, Pinterest, and Etsy. I appreciate any advice you will offer! Learning is awesome, but the decision process SUCKS!
I’ve been right where you are, Christine! Without a doubt I would recommend WordPress to you for your blog and ecommerce needs. There are a ton of plugins that can assist you in anything you need to do and they allow you to keep control of it all. It’s really a control freaks dream come true. I’m a control freak too, so I say this as much for myself as you…don’t try and do it all yourself or you’re going to reach burn out. MASSIVE burn out. Focus on what you’re best at and find people that can help you accomplish the other stuff. It’s tough, but it’ll get you the success without the down side. Holler anytime, girl – I’m happy to help anyway I can.
Hi Dre, I’m fairly new to social media. I like the idea of using photos when I post something on google+ . Access to photos-is that a part of what you provide? If so, how does it work?
Hey Thomas! I don’t provide access to photos, I provide image creation services.I have an image membership that provides 4 branded images to you a month for $97/month, which includes a custom image template. If you simply looking for raw stock photography to use, check Thomas E Hanna’s site – he gives away his photography royalty free every week and he has a very affordable monthly membership to his entire collection. Hope that helps, brotha!
Here’s a link to Thomas’ site: https://blogphoto.tv/premium/
Holler if you’d like more deets on my image creation services…
I have only just started thinking of starting a blog. I can already tell your resources will be invaluable. I also love your style!! Thanks so much!
Holler anytime you have questions, Cheryl! I’m happy to help.