Tools to successfully run your business from anywhere

Xero recently published a report on how businesses will operate in the ‘brave new world beyond lockdown’, Rebuilding Australia; The role of small business

As part of the report, Xero featured us – Unstoppable eCommerce founders, Karyn & Megan – and how we work together 2,500km apart. The aim of the feature was to give those in lockdown a glimpse into what successfully working from home looks like. 

Although some of us are out of lockdown (hooray!) the tools and tech we use can be implemented into your business so you can run your business successfully from anywhere. 

Curious to know what tech and tools we use and recommend? Read on to find out…

Tools to make running your online store easy:

Shopify

We recommend Shopify as the platform to set up your online store because it’s eCommerce centric, user friendly, integrates with marketing platforms and will scale with you.

Klayvio

For email marketing for your online store, we recommend Klayvio.

Xero

Xero is an easy-to-use accounting software that allows you to sync with third-party apps for inventory, point of sale and more. It allows you, and your accountant, to check cash flow and the health of your business – from anywhere.

Profit First for eCommerce

We also highly recommend the Profit First system of bookkeeping. You can buy the book here.

 

Keeping our business running:

Google G Suite

We use Google G Suite for our document, email and calendar management. This allows us to have multiple people working on the same document simultaneously and the changes are reflected in real-time.

Zoom

We use Zoom for our Monday check-in and Friday check-out, as well as for any midweek catch ups we may need. We also run our student coaching calls and client meetings on Zoom.

Facebook Messenger

For day-to-day chat we use Facebook Messenger. We use this for what would normally be office banter. We keep important and actionable information to email.

Email

Emails are the death of productivity. We hardly use cc at all and we try to be direct, short and sweet in emails. For example, I am responsible for our client management, so I am their port of call. There is no point in cc’ing Karyn in on all the back and forth I have with them. If something needs her attention or action I will email her directly. I only check my emails once or twice a day and I feel no obligation to respond immediately to an email.

We use prefixes in our subject lines too. Currently, our most used are Action Required and Response Required, and occasionally I’ll use Important & Urgent This just helps to filter to what’s important and kind of acts like a triage system.

Asana

We use Asana for our task management tool… lightly. It has way more capabilities than what we use, but we do use it.

Facebook Groups

We use Facebook Groups for our student support and we also have a private free Facebook Group we use to share our knowledge to help online store owners grow. Feel free to join.

Xero

We use Xero to send invoices and manage our bookkeeping, payroll and accounting. We do all our bookkeeping inhouse and have an external accountant. Xero makes it super simple and easy to do.

Thrive, Samcart & Stripe

We use these tools to automate and collect payments for our student enrolments and payment plans. Honestly, Karyn takes care of this so if you want more info, ask her. Haha.

Active Campaign

We use this as our Client Relationship Management and communication tool. We have some epic segmentation and flows set up thanks to Karyn. The backend is complex, but the front end is super smooth and it makes sure the right people get the right emails. I use this to send our broadcasts… or bunches of flowers, as we refer to them.

WordPress

Although we recommend Shopify for eCommerce websites, we use WordPress with the AccessAlly plugin to host our training. This allows our students to have a super-sexy learning experience when accessing our training.

Final word

If you have any questions around the tools and tech we use and recommend for running a successful online store from home please comment and let us know.

Written by Megan Winter

Megan is an award-winning marketer and has worked with some of the fastest-growing eCommerce brands in the world.

Megan loves helping ethically-produced, heart-centred, soul-driven online store owners to make more income and achieve more impact. 

eCommerce Facebook ad challenge

About Karyn Parkinson

Karyn (“with a Y!”) is an eCommerce marketing specialist with a knack for high-converting Facebook ad funnels and website optimisation. Through her eCommerce marketing agency and on-the-pulse training programs, Karyn’s helped hundreds of eCommerce store owners across the globe boost profits, generate more revenue, and achieve an ad-spend ROI of their dreams. 

LEARN MORE