In all the time since becoming an entrepreneur, running my own business and coaching other mom business owners through running their businesses, I have learned that its so easy to get stuck doing admin tasks and repetitive work that takes you away from growing your business! This summer I developed the MOMentum Method, a framework for us mamas to embrace the juggle and build a business that soars…all while leaving plenty of time for snuggles!
One of the key components to the MOMentum Method is leveraging systems, outsourcing and technology so you can focus on doing what you do best.
It can be really easy to get totally bogged down with figuring out the tech side of running our businesses, and not knowing where or who to turn for for help just makes it that much worse.
So, I want to help make it just a little bit easier for you to navigate. I have reached out to some of the leading experts in their industries, who all have thriving businesses online (and did I mention also happen to be moms!), and asked them to share some of their favorite, must-have tech tools and why exactly they love them so much!
Hopefully this roundup of tips, tricks, advice and resources will help you make some decisions about tech that may be helpful in running your business, and introduce you to a few of my fav faces who are Chasing Dreams and Littles!
LeadPages
“When I was first starting out, before I could afford a website, I used LeadPages to start my coaching business and collect emails with my freebie, which brought ended up bringing in over $20k in just a few months. If I would have attempted to DIY a website I know I would have given up – I don’t have the brain power to tackle technical projects and LeadPages was easy for me!”
A glimpse at Holly’s family life…..
I’m a mom of two kiddos (3 and 1) and a wife to a traveling hubby which makes my life crazy but beautiful. I love a delicious glass of red wine, a cozy couch and a warm fire in the fall.
Holly Diederich,Visibility Business Coach
Connect more with Holly on Twitter or Insta!
17 Hats
“The workflows in 17 Hats has streamlined my client and business project organization process and automated my work. I don’t have to remember to do anything! I have a detailed process of things I do before a service, during a service, and after I complete a service and I created workflows to automate those things. I’m very busy in my business (as we all are) and in order to be most efficient with my time, I commit to being organized, which 17 Hats really helps with!”
A glimpse at Monique’s family life….
“Family life is like a beautiful mixed salad. It all mixes together, one ingredient touches and overlaps with the next, while still having its own distinct flavor and flair. I have a husband and two small kids so life is full of love, hard work, intentional conversations and prayer!”
Monique Melton, Brand Strategist, Mentor, Author, Speaker
Connect more with Monique on Twitter and Insta!
Slack
“I rely on Slack to to interact with my virtual team and build relationships with them from a distance. I feel like they are right there with me even though we work in all different locations. Having a powerful, engaged, dynamic, team allows me to get the results I want with greater ease. It also allows me to be present for my family. My team can be working while I’m with my family and I can check in via Slack. You can set up different channels to keep your communication organized. You can call them whatever you want. My favorite channel is our random channel where we chit chat about life and joke around. It goes a long way in building deeper relationships. Some days it’s virtual water cooler chat!”
A glimpse at Tara’s family life….
“I have two littles ages 10 and 8. We live in a state of controlled chaos running between soccer, football, and scouts. My husband also runs a business so we live an entrepreneurial lifestyle and encourage the same spirit in our kids.”
Tara Newman, Tara Newman Coaching
Connect more with Tara on Twitter and Insta!
Schedugr.am
“For my business, I LOVE Acuity Scheduling, Google Docs, Schedugr.am, and Asana. As for my favorite, I’m going to talk about Schedugr.am because I don’t hear too many people talking about it. Schedugr.am saves me time because once a week, I sit down to map out my posts, figure out what pictures look great together, and I do everything from my computer. I don’t have to push to publish – it’s a mystery about how it all gets done, but I heard rumors that there are real humans somewhere in Australia or South East Asia pushing out my posts. I don’t have to be on my phone at all. It means I can focus on the part of Instagram I love – interaction!”
A glimpse at Reina’s family life….
“I have a 2 year old who we’re about to try potty training with (pray for me!) and I live with my Marine husband and furry Sheltie pup!”
Reina Pomeroy, Reina + Co
Connect more with Reina on Twitter and Insta!
Canva
“My tech tool must-have is Canva, a simple to use and FREE tool that helps me shine my business brightly to the world! There’s not a huge learning curve like so many other items I use for my business. I love Canva and recommend it highly to other entrepreneurs! It saves me time in that I can produce a professional looking graphic instantaneously (after having a 20 second tutorial). I am able to sit down at the beginning of the month, choose some amazing graphics and plan out my whole social media plan for the month. It takes me maybe an hour, tops! I use Hootsuite to automate my graphics and I love the fact that it doesn’t take me hours to use it, learn it and then apply it to my business. So, that’s extra time spent with my family, which is precious when you are a mama and making things happen in your business!
A glimpse at Laurie Joy’s family life….
“My husband, our son (who is 6) and I love to go on cruises, have movie nights and play LEGO!”
Laurie Joy, Mama Mojo Movement
Connect with Laurie more on Twitter and Insta!
AwesomeNote for iPhone
“I know this is obvious and overdone I’m sure, but seriously as a Mac user, my iPhone is a GAME CHANGER. I would be 100% lost without being able to sync my Gmail, iCal, podcasts, etc. And don’t even get me started about the convenience of having my [Face]book of Business at my disposal any time! There is literally NO WAY I would be a mompreneur without my iPhone. Sick days, play dates, beach days, vacations, etc – I can work because of my iPhone. My favorite app is AwesomeNote so that I can organize all of my to-do’s every day. It’s truly the best tool I’ve found, and I have been using it since 2011! I have folder for different areas of life (personal, financial, business, etc) and then put to-do items in each folder that I can then see is one giant list with reminders and badges to keep me accountable every. damn. day. And I use this to remind me to schedule our kids’ dentist appointments, post a recent podcast episode, and even wash my face at night! If I need a reminder, AwesomeNote provides it.”
A glimpse at Jennelle’s family life….
“I am the co-parent of three amazing kids – The Tines (our twin 5-year-old sons) and The Little (our almost 8-year-old daughter).”
Jennelle, Dr. Jennelle
Connect more with Jennelle on Twitter and Insta!
Evernote
“Evernote is my tech tool must-have because it keeps all my notes in ONE place. From grocery lists to blog posts, to instagram posts and photos. It’s all there! This really allows me the freedom to work from anywhere and still enjoy time with my family. Last weekend, I completed all of my social media posts for a month while my husband drove us to Los Angeles! I’m not confined to sitting in front of my computer at home. Also, I don’t need to always be carrying a notebook with me. As a busy mom, I’m already always carrying a lot of baby stuff!”
A glimpse at Brenda’s family life….
“I live in sunny San Diego with my husband, my son Diego who just turned 3 years old and my daughter Sofia who is just 2 months old. They are both such a blessing! Diego is my precious #HealthyChefDiego. He loves cooking and baking healthy recipes with me. I strongly believe that health begins with us and therefore our kids will follow.”
Brenda Sillas, Certified Holistic Health Coach, Certified Health Education Specialist
Connect more with Brenda on Twitter and Insta!
Google Keep
“I love Google Keep because I can use it to record voice messages of all my ideas, plans, and marketing strategies on the go. It also lets me add collaborators to any voice message or assignment, so I can easily add in certain team members and they receive my voicemail and can easily respond back. This saves me time because I can delegate and strategize on the go. One of my team members has even created entire beautiful, formatted emails for me by editing my Google Keep dictation. It’s so great! And it saves me sanity because I never worry that I’ll forget a great new idea or forget to tell someone on my team something important. I can do more business in the car, so it frees me up for more fun time at home with my family.”
A glimpse at Beth Anne’s family life….
“I’m a wife and mom to Holden. He’s 5, and we adopted him from India 3 years ago. He’s super fun, smart, and loves dinosaurs and wrestling. He is the biggest joy and blessing we’ve ever had! We hope to add to our family in the future (and Holden is constantly begging for a sibling!)”
Beth Anne Schwamberger, Founder of Brilliant Business Moms
Connect more with Beth Anne on Twitter and Insta!
Yoast SEO
“For my business, I’m crushing on Yoast SEO right now. If you’re not familiar, it’s a WordPress plugin that allows you to ‘beef up’ the search engine optimization on your posts, pages and entire site. Yoast helps me get my posts on the first (or, at the least, second) pages of Google for their specific keywords and it takes the headache out of worrying about my SEO and how my content is performing. I’m able to do more internal marketing and promoting of my posts and business because I know that I don’t have to worry about Google’s ranking or trying to hard to work on my SEO. The red light, yellow light, green light system is amazing! You get a green light when you do “good” things and can see what you can improve on, etc. There are specific things that the plugin tells you to do, so you know what to do at the very basic level. And it works!”
A glimpse at Jessica’s family life….
“I have two boys, ages [almost] 6 and 3, and we live on my husband’s family’s farm with about 100 sheep, some goats, a few horses, two pigs and just about any other animal you can imagine. I am NOT naturally a farm girl but I love it.”
Jessica Stansberry, Web Designer & Techy Biz Teacher
Connect more with Jessica on Twitter and Insta!
Later
“Later is the only Instagram scheduling app I’ve ever used, and I loved it even before their recent updates. It is a free app that allows me to upload numerous photos, write captions, and schedule posts right from my phone. It has an Instagram view that allows you to see what your past posts and future posts will look like in Instagram so that you can ensure cohesiveness as well as variety when it comes to topics or images. I will upload entire photo shoot sessions and then use images as I choose throughout the month. Before using this tool I was emailing myself photos and had to watch the clock and stop what I was doing when I needed to post.
I can now schedule my launch posts weeks or months at a time and leave space to schedule topical posts a few days in advance. I don’t like to post too far in advance because I feel that I lose touch with what is going on TODAY with my audience by doing that. It’s taken many steps out of the process and allowed me to look at my Instagram from a big picture view rather than simply post to post.
Throughout the years of being on Instagram with my business I’ve wrestled with the idea of sharing images + stories of my family, specifically of my children and my role as a mother. For awhile, a few months maybe, I thought it was something I had to do. That for women to connect to me they needed to feel connected to the entirety of who I am, including my family life. And then on a few occasions I noticed myself pulling away from the family activity in order to look around and find the perfect image to tell the story of what we were doing. At my daughter’s soccer game I wanted to find the perfect lighting. At our trip to the zoo I kicked myself for leaving my phone in the car because a trip to the zoo is “so iconic”. After a few of these events I made the conscious decision to not use photos of my family life, especially my children. Now I do product photoshoots and some days I take the morning to go around and take photos of nature, of the beautiful flowers at the grocery store, or of simple ‘life’ photos. I do this on my business time, upload them all into the Later app, and pull them as needed. It’s not a specific feature of the app, but the concept of the app itself has allowed me to shift my thought process and keep my children from feeling like props in my business. And for that I am forever grateful.”
A glimpse at Ashley’s family life….
“I’ve been married for 11+ years now to a soccer-loving Norwegian I met while we were both getting our MBAs. Now, 11 years later, we are parents to four young girls – ages 11, 9, and twins who are 4. We have a very busy house, at least from the perspective of this only child, but it’s exactly what I was looking for. We lived in Virginia until our move to Houston, TX just two years ago. We love the experience, but this east coast girl would jump at the chance to move “home” again in a heartbeat.”
Ashley Staum, Owner, Creative Director of She Plans
Connect more with Ashley on Twitter and Insta!
Trello
“I don’t know how I would run my business without Trello. It is this beautiful mix of project management, workflow management and content cataloging. It is hands-down the one tool that my team and I live in every day. I love that Trello is a visual drag and drop tool, so it works the way my brain works. When it comes to managing the Boss Mom Podcast my 4 team members can all access the appropriate boards, inform each other when they are done with their steps, and make it all happen seamlessly each week. My process and links board makes accessing frequently used content easy and has shaved off so much wasted time in my day. I am continually finding new things I love about this tool and happily refer to it as my ‘work wife’. If you don’t currently use a task, project, or workflow manager, or haven’t found one your love, then you have to try this tool. It has changed how I run my business.”
A glimpse at Dana’s family life….
“I live in San Diego with my husband and two little ones, Jake and Jo Jo. I can usually be found building homemade tents with her son, or trying to get her daughter to say her first words. She can say hot now, so there’s progress. We love to be creative and make up new stories and adventures together as often as possible.”
Dana Malstaff, Founder of Boss Mom, Business & Content Strategist
Connect with Dana more on Twitter and Insta!
ConvertKit
My All Up in Your Lady Business co-host, Jessica Stansberry and I are both obsessed. In March I reached out to them to be a sponsor for our podcast. We became affiliates and they gave us a 30 day free trial to share with you if you want to check it out for yourself!”
A glimpse at Jaclyn’s family life….
“Life with a toddler and a newborn, there is a lot of noise, tears and nudity, for all parties involved! lol But lots of laughs, snuggles, slow dances and rockin’ out to shake it off too! My 3 year old daughter is always performing for us, my favorite is a toss up between Hard Knock Life with a toy broom or the Alphabet, which she thinks includes her name – HIJK Eleanor P. Could it possibly get any cuter than that?”
Jaclyn Mellone, Founder of Chasing Dreams and Littles
+ Online Business Strategist
You can connect more with Jaclyn on Twitter and Insta!
Interested in learning about more ways you can streamline your business, find your focus, and truly start making an impact? Join us in the Chasing Dreams and Littles Free Community for our FB Live Series on building MOMentum in your biz.
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