Running a business is hard – having the right tools makes it a little bit easier. Here are the tools we use at Bloom Online to get the work done:
Productivity
Clickup
Clickup is hands down my favourite project management software. We use it for team communication (in place of Slack), for documentation (in place of Google Docs), as a CRM, and to manage all our internal and client projects.
Arc
Arc is my web browser of choice. I love it because its easy to set up in ways that help me get my work done, faster than Chrome and still lets me use all my favourite Chrome extensions.
Cayzu
Our ticketed support desk is run through Cayzu. Originally I chose it because they offered a life time deal on Appsumo that was ridiculously cheap compared to alternatives like Freshdesk or Zoho Desk, and let us manage the support for both Bloom Online & Crisp Apple Web Design from the same place. To be honest, there are things I really don’t like about Cayzu – mostly that it doesn’t integrate with the other tools we use as easily as I would like. But overall it does the trick.
Boomerang
Boomerang is an extension for Gmail that gives you an extra layer of control over your inbox. I love the Inbox Pause function that lets you turn off your emails while you get the work done, and the Send Later button is great when you work in the evenings or weekends but don’t want to send your emails until you get back to the office in official work hours. It also has a great meeting scheduler that makes it easy to set up meetings with people without all that back and forth.
Google Workspace
All the Google goodness that you know and love – but for business.
Balance
Balance is my meditation app of choice. Their midday reset gets me back in the game when I’m starting to flag in the afternoon … that and coffee (from Devils Cup Coffee).
Finances
Xero
Xero makes is easy to manage your business finances. Since I started using it a few years ago now, tax time is no longer the nightmare it used to be.
Beany
My end of year accounts are prepared by the team at Beany.
Stripe
Stripe is my preferred online payment processor. Its easy to use, the dashboard is relatively easy to find your way around, and their documentation is pretty thorough.
Marketing
Missinglettr
Missinglettr makes scheduling posts to Facebook, Instagram and Google My Business really quick. However, its best feature is that it creates social media campaigns from your blog posts – so every time you add a new post to your website, Missinglettr creates a draft campaign for you. All you have to do is tweak it to your satisfaction and hit ‘schedule’.
MailerLite
MailerLite is our preferred email marketing and automation tool. For transactional emails we use Postmark.
WordPress
Kadence
Kadence theme and the Kadence Blocks plugin are our preferred tools for building client sites with WordPress.
* As a disclaimer – this site is built using GeneratePress & GenerateBlocks – they are also awesome tools.
Beaver Builder
When we need to use a pagebuilder for a project, we use Beaver Builder & the Beaver Builder PowerPack.
SeoPress
Our preferred SEO plugin is SEOPress Pro. Its lightweight, discrete, and manages adding in Google Analytics Code, redirects and more – which means we can install less plugins to our sites.
WPEngine
We host most of our client sites on WPEngine.
People
While we definitely don’t consider people to be tools – these people & businesses are invaluable resources and we couldn’t do Bloom Online without them:
House of Jam
All online projects use words – and House of Jam is the very best place to get them.
Crispin Design
If you need design work for your online or offline marketing, the team at Crispin Design does beautiful work.
