Tools I Use To Run My Business
Website Tools
- Squarespace Domains for registering domain names.
- Simplero for website hosting, design, and email list hosting. Here's why I chose Simplero.
- MyAskAi for website chatbot (try it out -- click the button on the bottom right!)
Video Tools
- Kapwing is how I make my shorter videos with colorful subtitles or a lower third. (Tutorial: how to put colorful subtitles to a video using Kapwing)
- Snagit -- how I make my screencasts, e.g. the kapwing tutorial above.
- Streamyard -- to stream live video to multiple platforms at once, e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, LinkedIn.
My Productivity Tools
- Focusmate -- virtual co-working for accountability
- Todoist -- task-management software. Simple, fast.
- Google Voice -- separate accounts for business / personal
- Squarespace Scheduling -- what I use for client scheduling and group call signups.
- Tomato Timer for pomodoros. E.ggtimer.com is more flexible.
- Poe.com for Ai chatbots including Google Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, Meta Llama, and Mistral.
Money Tools
- For USA -- Tiller is what I use. Some of my clients like YouNeedABudget.
- For Canada -- Mint.ca
- For AU and NZ -- Getpocketbook
- Europe & other countries -- Xero
- Send money internationally using Wise for better exchange rates
- Healthy Money (my thoughts and methodology on money management)
Getting Help For Your Website, Copy Editing, Graphic Design & Technical Needs
- Fiverr (For $5 to $50 you can get logos and graphics created, as well as many other little jobs done. Could be a good place to find contractors for bigger projects too, by testing their skill with smaller ones. Here's my video on how I use fiverr.)
- TaskRabbit (hire local help)
- 99designs (get professional designs, use my link to get $60 off your first design -- the best discount available online, since I opted to give 100% of my affiliate commissions to the discount)
Image Tools
- Ideogram.ai is what I use most of the time. Here's my tutorial.
- Canva for my IG carousel posts. How's how I use it.
- Compressor.io -- reduce file size of images so they're faster to load online
Online Survey Tools
- Google Forms (for tutorials, click here.)
- Clients also like TypeForm.
Audio Tools
- Vocaroo.com -- Easily Record Short Audio
- Speakpipe -- allow website visitors to leave you voicemail without the phone
Podcasting Tools
- Substack is the podcast host I use for the George Kao Podcast.
- I recommend either not starting a podcast (because of how challenging it is to grow listeners) or making it so low-maintenance that it's easy for you to keep going. It takes me 5 minutes to upload each episode onto my podcast... because I basically download my best Youtube videos and upload them to my podcast!
- I actually have a short course about this -- how to easily launch a podcast and keep it low maintenance.
Automation Tools
- Zapier -- for linking together many tools, e.g. Simplero, Google Sheets, Gmail, etc. Lots of possibilities in how to automate your virtual tasks.
- As mentioned above, for most of my business software, I'm now happily using Simplero.
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