How do I run my business while on-the-go
and traveling the world?
While I don't go very far without my laptop in tow,
you might be surprised to learn
just how much of my business I'm able to run
from nothing but my smartphone.
So today I'm counting down the top 10 business apps
I can't live without.
(upbeat music)
Can you believe that it wasn't all that long ago
when you had to physically be in an office
in order to respond to an email, fax a file,
send an invoice, or even have a phone call with the client?
But now, thanks to the wonders of technology,
it is totally possible to do all of those things and more
from literally anywhere and everywhere.
Thanks to new tools and apps,
you can stay connected to your clients,
engage with your customers
and submit your work on time, every time.
Hey guys, what's up.
It's Alex, coming at you this week
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Now, I get a lot of questions flooding my DMs
from people asking me about my favorite tools and apps
that I use to run my business,
including - "Do I need a computer to be a copywriter?"
Well, in my opinion, the answer is yes.
While you can absolutely start learning
and practicing copywriting on your smartphone,
I think it would be pretty hard to sustainably run
and scale a longterm copywriting business
unless you have a computer to support you.
But I am open to being wrong about that,
so comment below and let me know your thoughts.
With that said, there are times
where I'm away from my computer for days on end.
And when that happens, my business continues to run smoothly
and I don't stress at all
because I have everything I need right here.
So here are the 10 apps I use everyday
to run my business from my phone.
Now, disclaimer, I am an Apple fan for life.
And so all of the apps that I'm sharing are iPhone apps
but I am pretty sure they exist on Android too.
And bonus guys, number one is a complete game-changer...
not just for running your business,
but for keeping your personal life in check too.
All right, number 10, Slack.
This is my absolute favorite tool
for communicating with my team and my clients' teams.
Slack is a channel-based instant messaging platform.
You can create as many different channels
as necessary for your business needs.
So you can have a channel for your social team,
a channel for your tech team, you get the idea.
You can also add multiple accounts or workspaces
for each project and clients that you can easily jump
from one to another and manage all communication
in one handy app.
Slack also integrates with a ton of other tools
and actually has a searchable history,
which is a real game-changer
if you need to quickly find a conversation, question,
link or resource that was shared in the Slack workspace
but you can't recall which channel.
I use this every day to keep in touch with my team
and handle requests and questions on the fly.
Number nine, Later.
Later is a scheduling app for social media posts,
which was originally developed for Instagram,
but now has expanded to include Facebook,
Twitter, and Pinterest.
And this is how I plan and post
all of my social media content.
Now, there are a ton of scheduling apps out there
but the reason I love Later so much
is because it actually helps you
visually plan your posts as well.
So you can get an idea of what your Instagram grid
will look like before you post something,
which is super helpful.
And then of course it has all those other bells and whistles
like auto-publishing, saved captions and stored hashtags.
My team and I collaborate on this app
literally every single day.
All right, number eight on my list is Google Drive.
This is where I do all of my copywriting.
You guys have heard me rave about Google Drive before,
it is the one and only app that I recommend
to my students when they're creating copy.
Google Drive is great
because it is cloud-based, collaborative and shareable.
And another reason why it's the freaking best?
It auto saves all of your work
which is invaluable as a copywriter.
Never again do you need to have a panic attack
when you're eight pages deep into writing a sales page
and your computer unexpectedly crashes
'cause it is all saved right there in the cloud.
But don't worry, all of your documents remain private
unless you decide to share them with specific people.
And then you can select the access rights
you want them to have, whether it be read-only
or allow them to leave comments for collaboration
or you can even give them full edit rights.
And yes, it has a mobile app,
which means you can access your work on the go
any time and make changes on the fly.
Now, while I don't necessarily use the mobile app
to do full-blown copywriting from scratch,
my thumbs just don't work that fast,
it definitely could be done in a pinch.
Pro Tip: I always view my copy docs in the mobile app
before submitting to my clients
to double check what my copy looks like on mobile.
Remember that more than 70% of people read copy
on their mobile devices,
so you always want to double-check your readability
on mobile before you submit your copy to a client.
Number seven, DocuSign.
DocuSign allows you to send,
sign and manage contracts digitally,
and yes, even through your mobile phone.
So when you have clients halfway across the world
and want to get work done fast,
this app is a major time saver.
Remember when you needed to sign a contract
or document for a client in the past?
You would have to print it out, sign it,
and then scan it back into your computer
before finally emailing it back to your client,
which is definitely not very convenient for anyone involved.
And let's be honest, when you're starting a new business,
the last thing you have time for is managing documents.
You want to focus on your craft
and delivering results as soon as possible.
So with this app, you can literally upload,
sign and send a contract to your client within minutes.
Number six, Loom.
Loom is an app that allows you to record your screen
and your face simultaneously in a video message
and then instantly share it with the recipient.
So this is how I give feedback to all of my students
and do copy critiques for every single one of my clients.
I especially like it because there's a desktop app,
a Chrome extension, and yes, you guessed it, a mobile app.
Now, I've been doing screen-sharing videos
for years in my business, but before Loom,
I would have to load up a screen-sharing app on my computer,
record the video, save the video,
then manually upload the video to YouTube,
before getting the link to send to my clients.
It was a very time-consuming process.
With Loom, you can start recording in one click
and then immediately afterwards it's available to share.
All you have to do is copy the link and then text message it
or send an email to whoever needs to see it.
This tool has single-handedly saved me
probably weeks of time over the last decade.
Number five, Asana.
Asana is a cloud-based task management solution
that allows businesses to manage, collaborate, communicate
and organize their tasks and projects.
So this app is literally
how you keep your business running smoothly
especially if you have teams
and multiple projects or deadlines floating around.
When you're working with a remote team,
it's just not realistic to hop on daily calls
or check in on tasks and communicate important deadlines
and expectations over Slack.
And this is especially helpful
if your team is global or living in different time zones
like we are here at the Copy Posse.
Asana can be used to keep track of your day-to-day tasks,
as well as monitor the overall goals
and progress of projects as a whole.
You can even use this app if you're a solopreneur
and just assign yourself tasks and projects.
That way you'll never lose track
or forget about an upcoming deadline.
And you can even set milestones
for each stage of the writing process
to help you stay focused.
Number four, Canva.
Canva is a drag-and-drop graphic design app
that makes creating amazing social media posts
and images an absolute breeze.
I use Canva for literally everything in my business,
branded PDFs for my coaching programs,
documents, statements of work, and I even use Canva
for all of my YouTube thumbnails, which you have seen.
And, of course, my social media manager
and I collaborate on Canva daily
to create all of those amazing social media posts,
stories, and graphics that you see
over on my Instagram @CopyPosse.
I love Canva because it literally has a template
for everything you might need.
So you can easily create beautiful images
without paying for Photoshop
or learning extensive design skills
because I literally have none.
Number three, FreshBooks.
It's how I get my money, honey.
FreshBooks is a cloud-based accounting app
that lets you track time, manage receipts,
track your expenses and handle all of your clients
all in one place.
So as opposed to other accounting apps out there,
I find FreshBooks to be super user-friendly
and easy to navigate.
It simplifies and streamlines
the entire accounting process too,
which will make your bookkeeper love you come tax time.
And of course on FreshBooks, you can also create
and send invoices and link your banking information
so that your clients can pay you swiftly and easily.
And for all of my peeps out there
who are dealing with international clients
or for projects that are just too small
to warrant a wire transfer,
FreshBooks makes it really easy
to accept credit card payments
by integrating with the next app on my list.
Number two, Stripe.
Stripe is a payment processing app
that makes collecting credit card payments super easy
for any type of business.
I use it for both my clients
and my students in my Copy Posse programs.
And like I already mentioned,
you can sync your Stripe account directly with FreshBooks
to make your invoicing and payment process
a breeze for both you and your clients,
then Stripe just automatically transfers money
into your bank account.
Okay, and now for the 10th and final app
that I cannot run my business without.
BONUS: I use this app
literally every single day to manage my personal life too.
Number one, Microsoft To-Do.
It's exactly what it sounds like.
It is a digital to-do list, but what makes it so great
is that you can make collaborative lists
that you can share with anyone.
So it acts like a live running to-do list.
In my business,
I love using it to keep track of my personal to-dos,
ideas and tasks. In my personal life,
my partner and I share to-do lists for just about everything
from the things that need to be done around the house,
to the groceries we need, to the bills that need to be paid,
to the movies we want to watch on Friday night.
It's a great way to keep us both on the same page
and avoid that... "oh, I thought you did that" situation.
As opposed to Asana,
which is a full blown project management tool,
Microsoft To-Do is more for quick checklists.
Oh, and my absolute favorite thing about this app
is the sound it makes
when you check something off your list.
"Record episode 94" (ding). So satisfying.
All right, now it's your turn.
What apps do you use to run your business?
Comment below and let me know.
And I will see you next week.
Until then, I'm Alex, ciao for now.
All right guys, if you enjoyed that video
make sure to check out the next one from me right here.
And you can click right here to get a free gift.
I won't lie, I wish I knew about these
when I started my copywriting business eight years ago.
Keep watching for my list of eight crazy cool
and insanely simple tools
that will make you a better writer.