Recommended Software for Creative or Wellness Businesses
The online tools I use, have used, or can recommend to you.
Every creative and wellness business is different, but I want to share the software and online tools that help me run my creative business. Some of this software no longer suits my business, but I still recommend!
My hope is that it will save you time researching (and I have spent a ton of time researching software). It can be a huge hassle and mental puzzle to figure out your software “tech stack,” as it’s best to have software that integrates, and every software does something just a little bit different.
For instance, if you have a checkout cart and plan to send emails to folks who purchase a specific product or service, then you’ll want that cart to integrate with your email marketing software.
If you’re totally lost and need one-on-one guidance, you can hire me for a strategy session to figure out your unique combination of software that will work best for you.
I will be updating this with new software that my creative and wellness clients enjoy and recommend, so I’d love to hear what you use and like in the comments.
Please note: Anything with an asterisk (*) is an affiliate link. I may receive a small commission or perk if you sign up for any of these services. That said, I’m only suggesting them because I have used them and like them, and think you may benefit from me listing them here.
Quick links:
Website Builders
Squarespace* —Save 10% off your first subscription of a website or domain by using code REBECCA10
Obviously, I am partial to Squarespace! My site is built on Squarespace, and I only build my clients’ sites on Squarespace.
Why? Squarespace is great for creative and wellness business owners who want beautiful design and all-the-functionality without paying an expensive Wordpress designer-developer. It’s also super user friendly, so you can go in and make copy or image changes on your own, no problem (unless you choose to hire me to maintain and update your site!). If you’re not a huge corporation that needs complicated customization, Squarespace will more than do the job.
Because I’m a Squarespace Circle Member, I can get you 20% off your first annual payment to your Squarespace site if we work together—if you plan on hiring me, I recommend allowing me to sign up on your behalf. (Also feel free to contact me, and I’ll start a trial for you on your behalf so you can get 20% off.) Otherwise, you can get 10% off your first subscription and enter the code REBECCA10.
Contracts & Legal Templates
The Contract Shop*
It’s vital to protect your business with contracts, and some contracts like a privacy policy are required by law when you have a website (and I highly recommend a website Terms & Conditions to protect your business)!
Instead of hiring an expensive lawyer to draw up language for your business, many entrepreneurs turn to contract template shops for their website, online courses, e-commerce shop and affiliate program terms.
I personally use the contracts from The Contract Shop for my website, website templates and online courses.
Creative Law Shop
I personally use the Creative Law Shop for my website design contract. Lawyer Paige Hulse of the Creative Law Shop is trusted by countless creative and wellness entrepreneurs.
*Use code REBECCA10 for 10% off any contract template at the Creative Law Shop.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and am not responsible for the legality of the contracts in the shops recommended above. You are responsible for consulting a lawyer and protecting your business.
Email Marketing + Automation Software
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is great if you don’t want to pay for email marketing (it’s free if you’re just starting to build your list and if you’re okay having the Mailchimp logo on the bottom of your email).
Only thing: it’s a little complicated to use for people who aren’t tech savvy or willing to sit and learn a new product. I used Mailchimp when I was first getting started, and it’s impressive what it can do. But I don’t find it particularly user friendly compared to ConvertKit and Flodesk.
ConvertKit*
I’m a massive fan! It integrates with so many programs, and it’s fairly easy to set up automations and sequences, and tag subscribers. (And because it can be a little challenging for those with technology blocks, I’m creating an email marketing basics course that will help you get set up with ConvertKit quickly and easily.)
The design has gotten better over the past year. It’s not as sleek as Flodesk (discussed below) but it does the job, and there are ways to work around its limitations.
This is a great program to use if you want to be able to “tag” your subscribers as having attended a certain workshop, or if they show interest in an offering by clicking a certain link. The functionality is top-notch, which is why I switched back to ConvertKit after using Flodesk for a while.
Lots of pros use ConvertKit—it’s a legit option!
Flodesk*
Last year I moved to Flodesk purely for their gorgeous email and form design.
Flodesk is brand new and still in Beta, so it’s not going to be the same experience as working with a more established email provider. They are still working out the kinks. It works best for design-based businesses who are keeping their emails simple but need the wow factor.
If you just need email blasts, simple automations, simple segmenting, and need it to look gorgeous, I recommend Flodesk (here’s a link to 50% off forever*). It’s only $19/mo (a steal if you have a large list).
Invoicing, Contract + Payment Software
Bonsai*
I no longer use Bonsai because it didn’t have enough bells and whistles to support my growing business, but I recommend it to freelancers who need a simplified contracts, invoices and payments system.
I did love its simplicity in the beginning of my business, but it didn’t have autoresponders, questionnaires, lead capture forms, or automation like Dubsado. Still, high recommend if you need a simple e-signing and invoicing system.
Dubsado*
I use Dubsado for business management. It’s part customer relationship management (CRM), part lead generation, part invoices and payments. Get 20% off your first month or year with this link.
With Dubsado, I can send clients proposals with package options, they can choose what they want and the contract populates on the fly! They can e-sign and pay the first invoice, all in one-fell-swoop.
I can capture a lead on my website and automatically send them an email with a questionnaire to find out more about their project. Their answers, such as URL, business name, or phone number, can be mapped to fields on their profile. The canned emails feature ensures that you don’t write the same email over and over—just click a button and your often-used email template appears.
It’s extremely robust, but pretty challenging to set up. It’s great for anyone who contracts services, but may want to chat first during a consultation, or may want to offer several options, and have someone sign a contract.
Dubsado is great for photographers, website designers, illustrators, artists who commission paintings, graphic designers, and other creative business owners.
Online Scheduling Software
I am a big proponent of ensuring you have online booking on your site (for most service-based businesses).
Online booking software allows you to automate the process of booking, rescheduling and canceling, and even following up after a certain amount of time, and there is the potential to add payments and make it a revenue generating activity.
Acuity Scheduling
I love Acuity! I use it for my Digital Marketing Strategy Sessions, Offerings Clarity Sessions, and conference calls.
It’s easy to use, integrates with other platforms such as Instagram, so people can book straight from your Instagram business page. Plus, it can accept payments, deposits and tips.
It also integrates with Quickbooks, so invoices and payments go straight into Quickbooks. You can also integrate it with a paid Zoom account if video conference calls is part of your business, and it will generate a unique link within each client’s appointment confirmation email!
If you work with me on your website, I can setup Acuity Scheduling for you, and you’ll get 20% off your first payment as my client.
Dubsado*
I also use Dubsado for scheduling the clients that fill out a form on my website. It doesn’t integrate with the Instagram Book link or else I would use it there too, so that all of my leads are in one place.
I would only recommend Dubsado for creative professionals who have a need for invoicing, contracts and proposals—the scheduler isn’t a reason to get Dubsado. If you sign up through this link, you get 20% off your first month or year.
Checkout Carts
I’ve done a bunch of research on carts. Squarespace has a cart that is totally usable, but has its limitations depending on what you want to sell and how. It doesn’t have order bumps, one-click upsells or affiliate programs, for instance.
ThriveCart*
ThriveCart is all the rage right now because for a limited time you can get a lifetime license to this checkout cart.
If you need MORE in your checkout cart–i.e., you need a bunch of payment gateways, you want an affiliate program, you want order bumps or one-click upsells, and you don’t want to pay a monthly fee, ThriveCart is a one-time investment that can pay off long-term (it’s $495 now, but average that out over 5 years and that’s $8.25/mo for a serious checkout cart. Other carts like SamCart charge $99/MONTH).
SamCart*
Nicest design, easy to set up, can pause it for $9/mo, but it costs $99/mo. So you really need to have a plan if you’re going to use it regularly. Downsides: only uses a few payment gateways, extra cost to calculate VAT, expensive if you’re going to use the affiliate functionality ($199/mo).
Upside: nice design, used and recommended by pros.
Design Software
Canva*
Canva is WONDERFUL for solo entrepreneurs who need professional-looking website and social media graphics.
You don’t need to be a design pro to use it—it’s very intuitive, drag-and-drop, and the answer for anyone who is design-challenged but isn’t ready to start paying a designer. I highly recommend paying $12.99 for CanvaPro just to have one-click image resizing for social media programs, a brand kit full of your brand assets, and folders to keep it all organized.
Canva is a must-have for social media images and cover photos. Get it!
Creative Market*
Here’s a great website to get pre-designed templates for marketing materials including social media post templates, banner images, workbook and e-book templates, lead magnet templates, marketing materials for your online course or challenge, blog posts thumbnail templates, and more!
Social Media Software
Hootsuite
Stay on top of your social media accounts, mentions, messages and influencers; batch schedule your posts in advance and more.
Operations Software
Google Workspace
Note: You’ll get Google Workspace free for a year if I build your Squarespace website, so don’t sign up yet if you plan to hire me!
Google Workspace is a must if you want to operate a professional, tight ship! It gives you better control if you have employees who use email or any of the apps.
In general, I recommend against using free Gmail for professional use. There are way more controls on Google Workspace , and it’s possible to sign a BAA with them if you need HIPAA compliance (note: you’d need to follow certain guidelines for it to be actually HIPAA compliant). Also, you cannot use a free Gmail address for email marketing! You must use a domain-based email address, which you can get from Google Workspace for $6/mo!
Google Docs
For word processing, gathering copy from clients, call notes
Google Calendar
Any scheduling program I use integrates with my personal and business Google calendar, so I can control my availability and stay organized with appointments
Google Drive
Free Cloud storage, and the ability to share and collect files with and from clients.
Google Sheets
To stay on top of my business goals and finances
Gmail
To communicate with clients
Organization + Productivity Software
Asana
I use Asana for website design project management, to assign tasks and deadlines to clients, and to keep my business organized.
Mindmeister
To brainstorm and have a visual map of my business and website, I use Mindmeister. It’s a great way to see all my pages at a glance, and what’s on each page.
Payment Processors
These are generally used in tandem with other software, such as checkout carts—if use software that collects payment, but isn’t a payment processor, you’ll need to sign up for and connect that payment processor.
There are instances in which you can use them solo—Stripe and PayPal both allow you to invoice clients. But they aren’t checkout carts, so if you use a checkout cart, you will need to integrate it with your chosen payment processor.
Stripe
I use Stripe to process payments through Dubsado. They charge a 2.9% +30 cents processing fee for each successful card charge. The only downside with them is it can take a week to get access to newly arrived funds.
Paypal
PayPal has the same fees as Stripe (see above), but you get your payments faster. I like to offer both because some people prefer to pay through PayPal.
Finances + Bookkeeping Software
Ooh, boy. Not my favorite part of online business! But we need to keep track of our expenses, payments and profits and loss in order to have a successful business. Doing this work in advance makes it much easier when tax time comes.
Quickbooks
Integrates with Dubsado, Acuity Scheduling, and many other invoicing and payment software. The gold standard in bookkeeping!
Communication Software
You may not want to give your phone number to everyone. Having an online conference system can not only help protect your phone number, but can also allow you to screen share, or conference for free with people who are outside of your country.
Zoom
I use Zoom to screen share with my clients and do walkthroughs of their new websites.
If you get the paid version, you can generate unique links for privacy, and you can integrate with Acuity Scheduling—it will automatically generate a new link for each new appointment!
UberConference
When a client wants their session recorded, I use UberConference, as their recording feature comes standard. To record on Zoom you need to be on a paid plan.
Slack
I use Slack to chat with clients instead of texting. You can control notifications, set yourself to “do not disturb,” and still communicate quickly and efficiently. You can even have voice and video conference calls via Slack.
What software is working for you in your creative or wellness business?
Do you have anything to add to this list? I’d love to hear what’s been working (or not working) for you.
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