10 Digital Tools to Run Your Company Remotely

Tools of the Trade

What tools can help you work on your business and not in it? There are hundreds, thousands of potential apps and sites that can help – but here are some that I highly recommend.

1. GMail

If you’re still using some kind of server based email, you’re missing out. Gmail has heaps of awesome add-ons, like snoozing emails you want to answer later, great iPhone apps, archiving emails which you can locate with powerful Google search technology and this great app called Sanebox. ($7/month) I never have more than 10 emails in my inbox at a time and it really helps me focus.

GMail is also connected to Google Docs, where I keep all my SOPs. Then when I’m away and something goes wrong, my staff can look up the problem in the SOPs and figure out how to solve it.

2. Timely

Timely is great for booking appointments online. If you’re still using a book (paper? WHAT?) and having someone manually enter appointments, there are much better things they could be doing. Your clients can schedule themselves into your calendar online at your convenience – (or someone else’s, if you’re in Spain.) Starting at $19/month it’s a no brainer.

3. Mailchimp

This is the best thing anyone can do for their business – build up an email list. People aren’t into taking phone calls unless there’s a good reason, the best way to get noticed is by email. You can send people valuable information via email and build yourself up as an authority in your niche. Start collecting email addresses as fast as you can – they’re more valuable than you know. Mailchimp is free for up to 500 subscribers.

4. Dropbox

Dropbox is an online storage system. With a quick drag and drop, you can access any file, anytime on any device. You can add a file into a folder and share that folder with a contact easily. Dropbox is changing the way people work, and best of all it’s free :)

5. Asana

Another free tool designed to help with tasks – Asana is a project management system. You can add people on your team, assign tasks within a project and due dates. Sharing things online with the team means there are no more lost bits of paper and everyone’s up to speed on the project at all times.

6. Highrise

If you need to keep track of who your customers are, Highrise is a good place to start. Your team can keep each other up to date on who last talked to who and easily find customer details (as well as social media information!) Keep track of your customers and don’t let any slip through the cracks! Highrise is free for 2 users but not much for more.

7. Freshbooks

Freshbooks is awesome for keeping track of invoices. It’s perfect for freelancers – I use it to invoice clients and it’s the only thing I need. Clients are able to pay online and you’re notified instantly – it’s also recorded in your accounts within Freshbooks. $20 month and totally worth it.

8. Odesk

Odesk isn’t a piece of “tech” exactly but it’s an outsourcing tool I use to find team members. It’s the biggest platform of freelancers around – if you want to outsource some of your tasks and you need a remote team member, it’s free to place a job. Tasks include social media, graphic design, website work and about a zillion other things – you’ll find what you need on Odesk.

9. Buffer

Buffer is a free app that takes the Tweets and Facebook posts you write and spreads them a few hours apart, so your feeds are consistent. You can choose when they should be posted and the app stores them up for you and releases them at the appropriate time. Even if you’re at the beach. Plus, you don’t have to be the one who stocks up the content. Social media, taken care of!

10. Zapier

This is one of the coolest web apps out there for automation. Essentially you can set up ‘zaps’ for processes you have that you want to automate online. You can create anything you want with Zapier and automate different parts of your business.

Use technology to your advantage and don’t give up until things are the way you want them. This may require some patience, but it’ll be worth it in the end when you’re sipping mojitos and the money is rolling in!