My top 10 business tools for running a design studio
My top 10 business tools for running a design studio
Starting a business can be a daunting venture. Preparation to take the leap into self-employment can only get you so far. The key to maintaining the momentum gained during the launch of your business is by adopting sustainable processes to manage it. Since starting my branding studio, I have often felt like I needed help managing certain processes and keeping things organised. There are so many resources that have helped take the weight off my shoulders and enabled me to streamline my business - so I’ve collated my top ten to share with you in this post!
1. Quickbooks
I’ve been using Quickbooks for invoicing and keeping track of my finances for a while now and I love it! It acts as a stable and reliable management tool for your expenses and keeps everything digital - which is hugely efficient when tax season arrives. It’s incredibly user friendly and takes all the stress away from thinking about money. You can even link it to your online banking system to ensure all bills are being paid on time. Before automating my finance management, I had to set aside time to make my own invoices and set up spreadsheets to track all of my expenses - it was a lot of work, for absolutely no reward. With Quickbooks, when you input that data, it gives you so many options for how to use that information. You can keep track of everything with very little effort, it’s a total game-changer.
2. Adobe Creative Cloud
I always recommend that new designers get familiar with the core Adobe creative programs from the get-go. They may take a while to get used to, but once you know one app, the rest are pretty similar - so your new skills will be completely transferable. I use four main apps to create my branding projects: Illustrator is perfect for creating logos and drawing digital artwork, Indesign is typically used for presentations and editorial design, I utilise Adobe XD for creating website wireframes and social media kits and Photoshop is perfect for mock-ups. The results look a lot more refined than if you used something like Canva, and you will also be able to put Adobe on your resume, which helps reassure clients that your skills are top tier.
3. Notion
Notion has completely levelled up my business in terms of organisation. I worked with my assistant to set up an online portal for my business. Notion now acts as the main hub for all my ideas and client work. I use it for all my business tasks, client portals, content ideas and a code database. It also comes in handy when working with a team - we can input data into the same board and work together to realise new ideas and projects. It’s also the best looking organisational app I’ve used - compared to something like Trello, Notion has so many options for customisation and lets you control every aspect to form your ideal organisational hub.
4. Slack
Slack makes client communication feel so relaxed, yet keeps you in control. I tend to use email when onboarding clients and for more formal conversations, but Slack has cut casual mid-project conversation time in half! I get notifications on my phone and am able to respond quickly to any queries my client may have. It’s perfect for sending files, as it has the option to create a secure channel for sending more private information. It also lets you easily create new chat’s with multiple team members - so it grows with you as your business does. It allows me to spend less time managing my emails and lets me see all of my client conversations in the sidebar so I can simply switch between on busy days. I also love that you can schedule messages to send out the next morning - this is especially helpful when communicating with clients in different time zones. It even lets you set a snooze time so that all notifications are muted - so no more temptation to get back to late-night messages when your work hours are over. It almost feels like you’re chatting on social media, but with the benefit of it being way more secure and infinitely less distracting.
5. Pexels
Pexels is by far my favourite site for gathering aesthetic stock imagery. Anyone that’s tried to source stock images for a business will know the struggle of finding aesthetic pictures - but there are a surprising amount of photographers on Pexels who capture aesthetic images that could pass for brand photography. The key to using a site like this is using the right keywords. Once you’ve found an image you like, it’s always worth clicking on the original photographer who uploaded it and you’ll usually find a gallery of images they’ve created in the same style! it’s so easy to gather a group of images that can be weaved seamlessly into your personal brand or for a client. Compared to other stock imagery sites, Pexels definitely offers the highest quality images for free.
6. Airtable
I use Airtable to organise and schedule tasks for my Virtual Assistant. Since we only work with each other virtually, it’s the perfect way to assign tasks and stay in the loop without having to lose time updating each other on calls or on slack. You are able to do so much with the free version - like set up client portals to keep track of specific tasks, as well as coordinate jobs with team members and make sure everyone knows what tasks are to do and are in progress. The great thing about Airtable - compared to using a simple spreadsheet, is that you can link it to your Slack channel and get updates whenever a task’s status is changed. This keeps everyone in the loop and keeps you organised and accountable for your time when working on a project.
7. YouWorkForThem
YouWorkForThem is a great site that I use often for purchasing fonts, mockups, photos & graphics. They have infinite designs which act as a great source of inspiration when beginning a project. I love that this site feels a bit more arty and less cliché than sites like Creative Market. love finding fonts and graphics by other designers to help elevate my own vision and it often sparks new ideas. Thanks to the power of the internet, collaboration has never been easier. I’d definitely suggest supporting online artists during your next project, it’s so rewarding to go beyond what you already know and utilise someone else’s details within your own work!
8. Calendly
Calendly has made booking and scheduling discovery calls so much easier. I simply input my availability into Calendly and then leave it to the client to select a time to book that suits them. It eliminates all back and forth over email during the initial call phase. You can link it up to zoom so that once the client has scheduled the call, we both automatically receive an email with the zoom link set up with no hassle. Not only does it make you look super professional, but it also saves a tonne of time! I can use it to set boundaries and schedule reminders, making the onboarding process a breeze for both me and my potential client.
9. Later
One of my favourite things to automate is posting on social media, which I why I recommend Later! With this super organised app, you can upload all of your posts ahead of time, organise them in a mock-up feed, add captions and schedule for auto-posting. This is perfect for busy work weeks, when social media is the last thing on my mind, as I can schedule my posts at the start of the week and give my followers the impression that I’m active online, whilst I’m actually busy with client tasks. I love that it sends reminders to your phone when it’s scheduled to post, so you are never out of control of your Instagram feed. It honestly feels like I have a social media manager who takes the work out of my hands. There are similar apps, like Planoly, but I’ve personally found Later to be the most user friendly!
10. Dribbble
Last, but certainly not least, is Dribbble. Sometimes Pinterest just doesn’t cut it, not to mention everyone finds the same images so it becomes pretty saturated! To find inspiration that’s a bit different, I love using Dribbble. Before covid, I loved venturing out to find inspiration - visiting new cities, looking at packaging and design in shops and spaces. But, since the pandemic, getting out and about has been a no go. So, it seemed like the perfect time to carve out some similar spaces online. It has work from the worlds top designers & creatives and also allows you to connect the work to the artist. I often find that Pinterest images can become so disconnected from the original artist. So many creatives repost without giving proper credit - Dribbble makes it so easy not to fall into that habit. You can find infinite sources of inspiration and connect with the creatives behind it all. Here’s my dribble account if you’d like to connect on there as well!
It’s taken quite some time to refine my core resources to those that help my business grow - but this list has helped me on so many occasions, I don’t know what I would have done without them! There are so many ways to streamline a business as it grows, but using apps created by other entrepreneurs and creatives brings a real community feel to the process. I know it seems like we are all working alone, sitting behind a screen, but in reality, we are connecting with hundreds of people each week through viewing their images for inspiration or using an app that was developed to make our lives easier. When you really think about it, this daunting venture into self-employment goes ways beyond ourselves - and that makes me so excited and hopeful for the future.
I’d love to know what resources your business relies on! Let’s discuss in the comments below.
