Solopreneurs Toolbox: 25 Tools Every Solopreneur Needs

As a solo entrepreneur, you’re used to handling things on your own.

As your business grows and you become busier, you may need help getting it all done. One of the most important skills of a solopreneur is using tools to automate your daily tasks so that you aren’t stuck doing everything.

This is key if you are wanting to scale your solopreneur business to be 7 figures. Lucky for you, we have compiled a list of some great tools every solo business owner needs to grow.

Here’s a list of resources that should help you to save time and be more productive.

Shoeboxed

This app will scan your receipts, prepare expense reports, track mileage and more. It works with several other apps, including Evernote and Quickbooks, to help you stay organized for tax time. If you already have a bunch of receipts and other documents and cringe at the idea of scanning every piece yourself, don’t worry. You can just stuff them all into a Shoeboxed postage-paid Magic Envelope and send it off.

Shoeboxed takes care of scanning and adding all documents to your account. Shoeboxed returns all items to you.

Infogr.am

Strong visuals can bring depth to even the best-written material.

Infogr.am makes it easy to add eye-catching images to support your copy. This tool provides templates for great-looking charts, infographics and maps. Not only do these images bring your message to life, but they’re easy to share on social media. More shares can mean more visits to your website.

Evernote

Ideas can occur to a creative solopreneur anywhere and everywhere. Those ideas can disappear just as quickly if they’re not documented.

With Evernote, you can create notes involving text, photos, links, and audio or video to illustrate your message. Keep the system streamlined by organizing everything into notebooks.

Grammarly

Whether you’re an inexperienced or seasoned writer, Grammarly can help you improve.

This writer’s helper does more than highlight grammatical errors. Grammarly lets you know when you’re making editorial mistakes, such as using passive voice or cliches. It includes a word counter and a readability score that help you manage the tone and vocabulary in your document.

RivalIQ

A business owner has to keep track of a lot of things, including the competition. The chaos of multiple social media platforms can leave you uncertain about whether your social media content is getting the job done.

RivalIq lets you see how much engagement your content gets in comparison to that of your rivals so you can tailor your message for best results.

Calendly

Do you dread the amount of emailing and texting involved in trying to schedule a meeting? Calendly makes booking appointments so much easier.

Embed the meeting scheduler in emails or blog posts so others can see and commit to one of your available meeting times.

LinkedIn

It may not be new, but it’s still a valuable networking tool for any business owner.

With LinkedIn, you’re visible and able to connect with potential clients and collaborators. Make sure to update your profile regularly so that it reflects your current skills and accomplishments.

Mention

What are they saying about you? Mention lets you keep track of all social media posts, comments and reporting regarding your brand.

You can also keep up with news about your rivals, and discover important influencers who can help you grow.

Trello

Make lists and organize to-dos with Trello.

Tasks are added to cards that get pinned onto a project board. If you sometimes collaborate with others, your team members can keep track of the project, including their assigned tasks.

RescueTime

Even the busiest of us can wind up spending more time than we realize doing things like watching cat videos or scrolling through Instagram photos.

RescueTime helps you monitor how you’re spending your time and then creates a graph showing how long you spent on activities, productive and otherwise.

TweetDeck

A visit to Twitter can be an overwhelming experience for a busy solopreneur. There’s so much content it can be hard to tell what’s important and what’s not.

With TweetDeck, you have the power to organize content into categories, or lists, that you choose. For instance, you can keep track of hashtags, mentions, and best influencers.

Square

Square’s portable payment terminal lets you process card transactions practically anywhere. You can create invoices and receipts with the small thermal printer, or you can email them directly to your customers.

Proposify

Writing up proposals, contracts and other documents has never been easier.

Proposify provides a content library where you can keep often-used verbiage, documents and images. Combine information from the library with data from your CRM system to create quotes and proposals.

WiseStamp

A professional and visually appealing signature closes out your emails and other messages in style.

WiseStamp includes lots of cool features such as social media badges, links to other content such as blog posts or your Etsy store. Keep in mind it only takes one or two features to make your signature stand out.

Google Docs

Google Docs is the popular web-based productivity suite offering word processing, spreadsheet and presentation apps, among others. Because content is automatically saved to your cloud drive, you don’t have to worry about losing your created work.

You work within the Chrome browser so you can share access to your documents with a URL link.

Hatchbuck

This customer relationship management tool provides services such as email marketing and content management. You also get feedback on which web pages and forms get the most response.

This insight into visitor and customer behavior can help you make the best strategic decisions.

Sighted

No entrepreneur can afford to forget the importance of invoicing and revenue generation. This invoicing tool provides 20 free invoices per month for up to 10 customers.

If you have a larger business, you may benefit from the paid services which allow payment processing and P & L reporting.

Portent Tools

When you type a subject into Portent’s well-known Content Idea Generator, you get hilarious yet interesting titles for blog content. It’s up to you whether you try to use the generator results as is, or if you just use the website as an inspiration for your creativity.

In addition to the free idea generator, Portent provides paid digital marketing services.

Zapier

Do you check one app for new subscribers, then open more apps to send an email and to add the new person to your contact list? Zapier can take care of all these steps for you automatically. You choose the Zap, or the sequence of events you want to occur. Zapier takes care of the rest.

Zapier can be one of the best tools in your toolbox as it can automate just about any digital events you want to happen between tools and software.

Upwork

While every solopreneur loves being busy, all that activity can get overwhelming. With Upwork, you can outsource tasks such as writing, accounting, web maintenance and administrative work. Contractors are available for short assignments, special projects and long-term contracts.

Upwork can save you a ton of time by allowing you to outsource your work to other people online.

Image Optimizer

This tool compresses images so your web page loads faster. This efficiency keeps potential customers from getting impatient and bouncing away from your site.

Anchor

Looking for an easy way to distribute your podcast to multiple platforms? Use Anchor to record, edit and upload your podcast. One simple tap sends your podcast to all the primary podcast sites.

You can even create an animated video for episodes that are less than two minutes long.

Legend

Keeping your viewer’s attention is vital to getting your message across. You can use Legend to turn your text into a colorful animated video. Post the eye-catching results to your social media profiles for maximum impact.

TextExpander

Most of us have a string of text, such as a URL, that we need to type on a regular basis.

TextExpander lets you set up keyboard shortcuts so you can breeze through repetitive typing tasks a lot faster.

Focus@Will

We all struggle to some degree with staying focused on tasks. Focus@will provides background music specifically chosen to help you stay engaged and productive.

Conclusion

Running a business by yourself doesn’t mean that you can’t accept a little help. At least a few of these tools should be helpful in keeping you organized, productive and sane.