10 Cool Automation Tools for Your Business

One of the questions I get all of the time, is “What new ‘toys’ are out there for small business owners?”  

The list I’m giving you is ever changing, however, they are proven and used by some of my most successful clients.

And several of them are FREE!

1. Calendly - Calendly is a simple appointment tool that helps you schedule meetings without the back-and-forth emails.  Send someone the calendly link and they can select a time that is available, and It syncs with your existing calendar and sends them reminders for the appointment.
2. Gmail Auto Follow Up – Tired of following up and following up?  For Gmail users, Gmail Auto Follow Up is the tool to use.  Simply send your email and then schedule the follow-up emails to make sure you get a response. 
3. Google Tools – All of the Google tools are very easy to use and implement, i.e., Calendar, Gmail, Drive, etc.
4. Moment or Screen Time – We spend over 5 hours a day on our phones.  That’s way too much!  I personally use Moment, which is an app, that tells me how long I am on my phone, what I am using, and will even kick me off my phone if I go over a designated amount of time.
5. RescueTime - A Chrome extension that shows you how you spend your time and provides tools to help you be more productive. 
6. Grammarly – Autocorrect has lowered our ability to actually spell anything.  Grammarly takes that one step further by checking your spelling and grammar whenever you’re typing, no matter what site you are using.
7. MailChimp – Email marketing is not dead.  In fact, there are 3 times more email accounts than there are Facebook and Twitter accounts combined.  MailChimp is a free email marketing service (up to 2,000 contacts), that lets you send your content directly to your customers and centers of influence.  The key is sending information that is relevant and not boring.
8. Hootsuite or Buffer – Either of these online tools allows you to schedule your social media posts to the most popular platforms.
9. QuickBooks – QuickBooks is still the gold standard for small business accounting.  Whether you are using the Desktop or Cloud version, QuickBooks will integrate with a majority of CRM’s and your bank account.
10. Freshbooks – A cloud-based accounting program that is getting more popular and is easy to use.