New Entrepreneur Shopping List
New Entrepreneur Shopping List
April 12, 2019
Starting a business can be super overwhelming. You can go from “Wohoooo, this is happening!” to “Holy Sh*t! Where do I even start!”
There are countless options on the internet that you can use for list building, sending emails, collecting leads, housing your course, accepting payments, designing, etc….
Seriously, that list goes on and on and on.
When I started my business not one single person told me what I should be investing in for my business. I was bootstrapping my buns off so I did a lot of research to find the right platforms that worked for me and my clients. Now three years later I’ve come to love a few specific platforms and tools and recommend them to all my clients.
So I thought why keep them to myself - so many of you need this information in your back pocket.
If you’re a new or aspiring entrepreneur read on for my Ultimate New Entrepreneur Shopping List!
1. Kajabi
If I had known about Kajabi from the beginning of my business it would have saved me so many freaking headaches. Now, we are working on moving all my stuff to Kajabi because it can do #allthethings. Kajabi is an amazing platform that allows you to house your website, grow your email list, house your courses and accept payments.
Some of my favorite features in Kajabi are:
Course Creation
Membership Sites
Email Marketing
Lead Generation (including landing pages)
Automation (i.e. sales funnels)
Webinars
Accepting payments
It’s now my #1 suggestion for entrepreneurs because it’s that good. The best part is even if you don’t have a course or membership site now you can grow into it. Now, I know it might seem like a scary investment right out of the gate, but when you add up all the individual platforms trust me you’ll spend just as much and end up switching later. You can test out Kajabi with their 30-day money-back guarantee!
2. Email Marketing
If you’re really bootstrapping or currently loving your website provider, you still need a strong email marketing platform. A community is everything when you are starting out and you NEED to be connecting with them beyond social media.
Creating an email list allows you to stay in contact with your audience, build trust with them through consistency and ultimately sell your offers and products, so this is an area you can’t skimp. I love Convertkit because it gives me the high-level segmenting (like Kajabi) without a major price tag.
If you’re looking for an email platform that can grow with you, I highly recommend. Get a free trial here.
3. Roadmap to Freedom
Shameless plug? I think so. Look, I’ve been doing this business thing for a few years now and if there is one thing I see so many entrepreneurs missing it is a step-by-step plan that supports them from start to finish.
I know if I had this at the beginning of my business I could have grown even faster. And this step-by-step plan does not mean starting on social media - that’s a big fat NO!
It’s following the 5-step roadmap to build a solid foundation, community and so much more. I’m sharing this exact roadmap in my upcoming masterclass, sign up here.
Want to learn more about the Roadmap to Freedom program that has helped so many women creating a thriving online business that allows them to make money on their terms and create a life bigger than their dreams? Head here: brandmerry.com/freedom
4. SmarterQueue
It’s no secret that social media is one of the best free tools for growing your business. It’s important when utilizing these platforms (think Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Facebook Groups and more) that you are consistent.
If you’re currently flying by the seat of your pants and coming up with content every day you’re going to get overwhelmed super quick AND if you’re posting your content once and then letting it drift away into the social media black hole you’re wasting time.
Enter SmarterQueue! SmarterQueue allows you to pre-schedule your content across multiple platforms and evergreen your content, meaning you can recycle your posts every few weeks so your great content is actually seen.
You need a social media scheduler for your business and your sanity and SmarterQueue is my favorite. Test out SmarterQueue for 30 days
5. Trello
And finally we get to my favorite topic...organization! Remember when I talked about flying by the seat of your pants and how that just doesn’t work?! Well, there is an easy and free fix to this and it’s Trello.
Trello allows you to create boards for your business, organize tasks, evergreen recurring tasks, communicate with team and so much more.
I don’t go a freaking day without utilizing my weekly Trello board and have boards for all areas of my life, including our full-time travel schedule. Read more about how I use Trello in my business.
And did I mention it’s free? There is literally no reason for you to NOT sign up. Sign up for Trello
There’s a lot of information, tools, resources, etc in the online space (mine included), but it really comes down to finding something that works well for someone else, testing it for 30 days and making modifications.
Trust me when I tell you I’ve done the testing and these are my top recommendations and shopping list for new and aspiring online biz owners.
Reminder: If you’re just getting started I highly recommend Kajabi so you don’t have to piece it all together and can create a platform that grows WITH YOU!
Please share your biggest takeaways from this blog post and how you’re going to implement this information in your own business!
P.S. Are we connected on Instagram? No? Well lady what’s happening here we’ve got to fix that. Come hang out with me on my favorite social media platform. Follow for inspiration and send me a DM to know we’re connected.
