All businesses have their own requirements -- and even consultancies that are very similar can have different needs when it comes to choosing marketing or business technology solutions. I always recommend going through a structured technology assessment exercise when looking at investing your time and energy into the tools you use to run your business.

That said, it's also helpful to see what others are doing, and get real thoughts and opinions behind the recommendations. So, without further ado, here's the list of tools I use to run my small consulting firm after 6 years (Yes, there are some affiliate links, but these are all genuine recommendations based on what we use!)

Accounting and Bookkeeping: 

Quickbooks: ~$60/mo

Quickbooks represents the *master location* for any and all accounting data. I have it connected directly to our bank accounts so that transactions are automatically imported. I invoice clients directly through Quickbooks (where they can pay directly online, or pay offline via check or ACH).

In the beginning, I tried to shop around and tried Freshbooks, Zoho Books, and Zipbooks, and what I found was that even these "simpler" tools weren't really much simpler, but rather more limiting (which is a fine line that warrants its own blog post). At the end of the day, Quickbooks is a tool than *can* be super simple or super complex -- depending on what your business requires.

Gusto Payroll: ~$90/mo

Unless you're a sole proprietor who does not file W2s (even for yourself), I highly highly recommend using a Payroll Service, and for us, Gusto is the absolute best value. Not only does Gusto make it easy to manage your payroll (i.e. Keeps a 'roster' of your employees with salary, tax withholding status, PTO plans, etc.), the service behind the software also automates the withholding and filing of both employee and employer taxes. This alone is worth the monthly subscription fee. If you have employees, or even pay yourself via W2 paychecks, get Gusto now. The peace of mind of knowing that the confusing world of payroll taxes is done correctly is a huge stress reliever.

Guideline Retirement Savings: ~$70/mo

You may have employees, or you may not. Either way, retirement savings should be something you consider -- even if just for yourself. We've used Guideline to provide 401k plans to employees, but also just to create/fund retirement accounts individually as business owners. The cool thing (especially with employees), is that each user gets access to manage their own account -- so once you invite your employees to participate in the retirement plan, they get a login and manage everything on their own.‍

Accounting/Tax Prep - Baker Holtz

Even with a suite of really really helpful tools, we still work with a local accounting firm for ongoing financial/tax guidance, as well as filing of our quarterly and annual tax returns. If you have a business of even moderate complexity, you may not even realize how much a tax professional can save you. Disclaimer: We tried 2 different accounting firms before landing on Baker Holtz, and had the exact opposite experience -- we ended paying up WAY MORE in taxes than we should have. The first two CPAs did not take the time to make recommendations based on our specific business, and as a result we flushed a ton of money down the toilet (Some of which Baker Holtz was able to help us reclaim -- thank goodness). Our annual cost feels  like a lot for a company our size, but their services and expertise have helped us save much much more than their fees every single year. 10/10 would recommend!

Marketing Technology

Hubspot: $50/mo

Believe me, I've tried a lot of different CRM & Marketing Automation tools. But no matter what I try, I always come back to Hubspot -- especially with their current Starter Pack deal of $50/month. This gives you a super robust set of CRM, Email, and Marketing Automation capabilities for a fraction of what some other providers charge. If you're working with a patchwork tech stack, I highly recommend looking into Hubspot. Disclaimer: The subscription price takes quite a jump if you outgrow the Starter Package. If you want to do more advanced marketing automation, build your website, or manage your social media marketing through Hubspot, the next level pricing starts at $800/mo. and goes up quickly from there. But if you just want the basics -- which is what most of us really need -- check out the starter package.

Teamwork Projects: $0-90/mo for 5 users

At Fox, our mature and structured approach to project management is a value-add that keeps clients happy, and keeps them coming back. With that, it's very important that our Project Management tool is robust enough to be embedded in our workflow, and not be a bottleneck to doing good work. Yes, there are far simpler choices (Monday, Trello), but for the benchmark of project management we set, they just don't cut it. We pay for one of the higher-end plans, but you can get by with a more inexpensive (or even free) plan to get started.

Webflow: $50/mo

I'm a control freak when it comes to our website, and I have a little bit of design experience -- which is the perfect combination for a Webflow website. After pushing past the learning curve, Webflow provides a 'no code' custom web development platform that allows me to build the *exact* website I want for Fox. I love Squarespace for business owners with no design/development skills, but for me, the templates are just slightly too limiting (but to customize them takes real coding experience). Webflow does offer a community-driven marketplace of templates, which are a great place to get started, but I'd highly recommend Webflow to someone who wants to take a little more granular control of your website (without needing to learn how to code).

SEMRush: $0-120/month

A paid SEMRush account isn't right for everybody. If you're not already committed to the time/energy/learning that it takes to execute a content-led SEO strategy, you won't get your money's worth with the paid SEMRush subscription. In that case, I'd just recommend signing up for a Free account, and using it for light keyword research and page rank tracking. Here's a list of all of the things you can do on SEMRush for free. But if you are ready to give SEO the commitment it deserves, I HIGHLY recommend a paid plan. I haven't found a better tool for operationalizing an SEO strategy. *Bonus* SEMRush has a product roadmap that seems to want to turn itself into an all-in-one marketing platform, which is awesome. The social media management tools are surprisingly robust, and competitive with tools like Hootsuite and Buffer.

Google Workspace: $12/mo/user

Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Meet. Domains, Google Drive, Google Docs -- this is almost a no-brainer. If you're using a different service for these functions, please tell me why!

Adobe Creative Cloud: $58/mo

Simlar to Webflow, this product is not recommended/necessary for everyone. If you're a strategy consultant with little/no need to design/create assets, you do not need Adobe Creative Cloud (which is the full subscription of Adobe tools like Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere Pro, XD, etc.). You can absolutely find alternative solutions like Canva.com to use in a pinch. For me, I use these tools *just enough* to warrant the subscription fee.

Supermetrics: $239

If you don't provide analytics as a service to your clients, please scroll past this recommendation -- I do not recommend Supermetrics to individual consultancies for their own analytics. It's way too expensive (and they seem to be all too comfortable raising prices and limiting services regularly). We maintain our Supermetrics subscription because we use it for client accounts who need to build Google Data Studio dashbboards that include data from 3rd party sources like Facebook, LinkedIn, MailChimp, etc.

Calendly: $12/mo

I've just started to scratch the surface of really using Calendly, but I would highly recommend building your scheduling/meeting workflow around this tool. It integrates with Google Calendar perfectly, and allows you to do a couple really valuable things:

1. Offer paid consultations online -- if you offer paid consultations or workshops, you can accept payment from your customers within the scheduling workflow.

2. Avoid the scheduling "back and forth" emails -- Instead of going back and forth 10 times with colleagues, you can simply send a Calendly link, and ask your colleague to book a meeting directly. This is a HUGE timesaver for everyone involved.

99designs for design projects

I mentioned before that I have some design experience. What I really meant by that is that I'm competent enough to get a design 70-80% of the way, but am not a professional designer by any means. For my brand design, and for things like business cards, I've had really good luck with 99designs. I love the process of seeing a wide range of submissions from multiple designers -- this alone makes the service stand out from simply hiring an individual designer. (That said, if I have a project that I know is a good fit for a local designer, I will always consider working locally as well!)

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