13 Essential Business Tools 2024

When it comes to good business tools that make your life easier, the search for them often seems endless. A lot of valuable time is wasted, and you end up buying many tools two or even three times.

I know exactly what I'm talking about 😉 Because that's how I choose my tools. It takes a while for a tool to really convince me, and the features then have to be top-notch.

To save you some time, I've listed the most important business tools here. This will give you a good foundation for your successful business. Many of the tools come with a voucher code or are already sufficient in their free version.

The most important reason why I recommend these business tools to you here: I use them all myself, and most of them for several years now.

1. Project Planning | CRM | Leads

Project Planning - Business Tools

Let's start right at the beginning, with the planning of your business and your products. A brilliant project planning tool is Monday.comBelieve me, I've tried some, including for client projects. From Asana, ..., which already offers quite a lot of good functions for project planning, from Jira, which is ideal for large companies and corporations but costs a fortune, to ClickUp, the little brother of Monday.com.

Ever since I started using Monday.com, I've been saving an incredible amount of time. Imagine you have a well-organized system of notes and think you have everything under control. No! You don't have everything under control, even if it feels like it.

Monday.com has an incredible number of features that will support you. For example, I use it to structure all my projects and can delegate individual tasks or entire areas completely. There are assistant accesses that you can assign, allowing employees or freelancers to support you.

It includes time tracking, so your freelancer can be tracked immediately. Additionally, you can attach documents to each individual step, such as PDFs or Word and Excel documents. These can contain small instructions or your extensive content plan for Instagram or LinkedIn. You set the limits yourself.

Customer Relationship Management

Monday.com is also a comprehensive CRM and therefore so important on this list of essential business tools. I manage all my clients with it and can even create custom boards for my premium clients. This allows me to directly hand off tasks to clients when, for example, texts for a website are still missing or I need some input.
In addition, customers can also see which points are still open. They can provide feedback directly in Monday.com. This is super practical and saves a lot of time.

You should definitely check it out. There are many more features, and surely exactly what you need.

BONUS TIP – Gmail and Google Drive

Even if you like Microsoft a lot, it's better to work with Google Drive and Gmail. It makes your life super easy because you can give your clients and employees access to folders. This way, you can easily share documents, upload pictures and videos, or whatever else you need.

With Microsoft, you often have access problems or need paid tools. Also, Gmail is significantly faster to connect than Outlook, which your calendar tool will thank you for, for example. But more on that in the chapter on appointment scheduling tools.

Leads

I also use Monday.com* for leads. I love the versatility of this tool. You can integrate a form here where customers can practically enter data directly into Monday via a so-called squeeze page (mini-landing page). You can also easily enter contacts yourself through it, and leads can be assigned to a salesperson. All of this can be automated in Monday.com.

2. Domain | Hosting

Uh, we're starting off right here with two technical terms that you'll surely already know. A good website is indispensable today. For that, you need a domain, such as wandernotizen.com. This domain should best describe your offering or your company. For example, if your business is called Floristik Bern, then a domain like florelei.ch Certainly a clever pun, but it's hard to remember and doesn't really say much about your business. A rather boring one floristik-bern.ch makes it immediately clear what this website is about.

Tip: If you've found a few good domain name ideas, spell them out to a friend over the phone. If they don't ask how they're spelled, that's already a very good sign.

Furthermore, you'll need a host that provides you with storage space for your website. It's best to book your domain and hosting with the same provider. This makes it easier to link your domain to your storage space.

I have had all my websites with All-Inkl.com*, a reliable provider for hosting and domains from Germany. Two huge advantages at All-Inkl.com have stood out to me since 2015, which I appreciate.

The automatic backup option has saved me from trouble several times. One call is all it takes, and a few minutes later, an older version is restored. Additionally, the uptime, meaning the time the website is available and accessible, is 100%.

When All-Inkl.com performs maintenance, it's usually at night, around 2:00 AM to 2:10 AM. You actually don't notice it. Therefore, All-Inkl.com rightly belongs on my list of Business Tools 2023.

3. Website | Landing Pages | Linktree

My pro tip: Get a professional website created. But, when you approach an agency, make sure that they WordPress and the Page Builder Elementor used.

Why WordPress? The reason is very simple. Not only is it free, but it is also the most used tool to create a website. The next time you visit a website, there's a 90% chance% it will be WordPress presenting all the content to you.

If your site is set up in WordPress, you have many great plugins to choose from that can solve almost any conceivable problem. In addition, a WordPress website can be easily optimized for search engines. You don't have to be an SEO professional. With a plugin like Yoast SEO or Rank Math achieves good%optimization quickly. That's enough for now so that the majority of your target audience can find you online.

Why Elementor is so important

I enjoy using the Elementor page builder because it's modern and easy to use, which means it's easy to learn. It gives you a lot of freedom for design and allows you to manage and continue to maintain a website on your own after it's been created. Elementor isn't the cheapest tool on the market. However, it offers pre-built features that save you a lot of time, whether you're creating your website or later when writing blog posts and texts. This investment is worthwhile and pays off directly.

With these two tools, WordPress and Elementor Can you already create a wonderful website?.

Landing page

For that, at least at the beginning, you don't need a separate tool. Do it with WordPress. When you create the page, simply hide the menu and footer, and place the link to your privacy policy and imprint in the last section.

An additional tool for landing pages only makes sense once you invest a lot of money in marketing and want to measure where your visitors click accordingly. This is important if you are running paid advertising. As long as you are not at that point, WordPress is sufficient.

BONUS TIP – Create your own Linktree

Everyone uses a Linktree for social media nowadays. I'll give you a cool tip on how to create your own Linktree. Create an additional page on your website where you hide the header and footer. Just like with the landing page. Then, put a box on it where you embed your buttons. Feel free to check out the Webnomad's Linktree and let yourself be inspired.

The advantage is that creating your own Linktree costs you no money, you don't need an additional platform to maintain, and you have all your content with you.

One more serious piece of advice at the end of the website chapter. Please stay away from Wix.com or Jimdo and all the like. Yes, you can quickly build a good-looking website with it, but they are not professional business tools.

But: This is hardly ever found, and you end up doing the work twice. If you already have a website like this, grab a free WordPress version from WordPress.org and design the website there. You will thank me later for this. 🙂

4. Graphics | Logo | Templates

Now we're right in the middle of it. Of course, you'll need graphics. These include templates for social media, but also for your website or invoice form. First and foremost, of course, your logo. Naturally, you can have an agency create this, and I would advise you to do so. However, most people lack the financial resources at the beginning. But there's a great solution for that, where you don't need to be a designer, graphic designer, or particularly creative in any other way.

The solution is called Canva And Canva is a top-notch graphic design tool that is also free and can be used from a desktop, laptop, and mobile phone. It's an app that lives online, so you don't need to install anything.

You can get an incredible amount done yourself in Canva in a short amount of time. Canva has numerous templates that you just need to adapt to your business.

Another advantage of Canva is that it's the most popular tool among virtual assistants (VAs) and freelancers. Most of them can handle it, so you can give employees direct access to your Canva. This collaboration is valuable when you're creating worksheets or workbooks, for example, or even templates for social media. This makes Canva one of the best business tools out there.

I had a free account for two years and I got very far with it. Canva has also developed a lot in recent years. As I said, I still know Canva from its early days and with many, many gaps, but nowadays it's a professional graphics program with which you can create really beautiful designs.

By the way, Canva's Pro account includes an extensive image library where you can find the right photo for any situation, for your website, your Instagram channel, and much more.

Here is a link to a blog post from Webnomadin, in which she gives you tips for getting started with Canva. So that it's fun right from the start.

But beware: Canva has a catch! It's truly addictive!!! If you're like me, you'll quickly lose yourself in all the beautiful graphics and images. Don't get too distracted. Design your logo, your templates, and then keep moving.

5. Appointment Booking

The market for appointment booking tools is huge. How many have I tried. There is a dominant player, that is Calendly. Calendly is an excellent tool, but it's also quite expensive, especially if you involve people who also need access, like freelancers. Also, YouCanBook.Me and Appointly work very well. I used Appointly for a very long time. I know Youcanbookme very well through some of my clients. But a single tool clearly stood out a few years ago. It's called Tidycal And you haven't heard of that yet, I'm sure of it.

I developed this tool together with the manufacturer, among other things, because I gave the developer an incredible amount of feedback and it cost me a lot of nerves to get the tool running properly. But meanwhile, for a good year now, it has been by far the best tool on the market. Almost all of my clients use it and I get bookings with it daily.

It does exactly what it's supposed to do! It allows your customers to book an appointment with you. Nothing more, nothing less. Sometimes programs should just do what they're supposed to do. Tidycal's price is extremely fair. Where other tools cost 25 EUR a month, it costs Tidycal 29 EUR (one-time, Lifetime!)*.

My link leads you to a shop where you can enter Tidycal into the search bar. This will take you directly to the booking tool, and you can purchase it. After that, the tool is incredibly easy to set up, connect and sync with your Google, Apple Calendar, or Outlook, and you can then place the tool on your website or in your Linktree.

Bonus Tip

The software shop AppSumo hält noch einige weitere coole Programme bereit, die teilweise 80% günstiger sind. Aber Achtung: Zeitfresser!!! Du benötigst erstmal kein weiteres Tool von dort.

6. Member Areas

The be-all and end-all when you want to deliver your content to your customers. A membership area is therefore one of the most important business tools for your online business.

I think I've now gone through every single member area that our beautiful world has to offer. And that includes both the well-known ones and the niche products that nobody knows.

There really is a variety of great products, first and foremost Kajabi, the market leader. But Elopage and Coachy should also be mentioned here. In recent years, I have hosted my online courses on all platforms, partly because some of my clients need membership areas, and in those cases I choose the best one.

In the series, Builderall, as an all-in-one platform, should of course not be missing, as well as Digimember and Member Mambo. I am currently using the latter for a client and it also makes a good impression. However, it is only suitable for rather small online courses.
My recommendation comes at the very end., Spoiler* 😉

ALL-IN | Member Areas

With that, I mean membership areas that are more than just membership areas. These are tools that also offer email marketing, even have booking tools, or provide landing pages.

Kajabi

Kajabi It's the top dog among membership areas. It works technically great, but is unfortunately “not yet” GDPR compliant and therefore not ideal for the European market. You always have to go through detours via third-party providers. Kajabi, at almost EUR 200/month, is one of the more expensive providers.

Builderall

Unfortunately, my disappointment here was really great. Builderall can do everything, but still only 80%. Sometimes 80%is enough (see my SEO tip above, for example). But if you want to professionally sell your products, stay away!! Builderall is constantly developing its platform. What sounds like an advantage turned out to be a big disadvantage. Services are constantly failing, emails were not sent, or landing pages were unreachable. Also, Builderall is still not GDPR-compliant. This has been promised for quite some time.

Elopage

The first German provider on my list, which is therefore GDPR-compliant. With Elopage You're not doing anything wrong. Elopage can do a lot and, in addition to a members' area, offers payment processing, landing pages, and more. Of course, there's a but, as I no longer use Elopage and no longer recommend it.

Little by little, I've discovered more and more hidden costs. They also charge extra for currency conversion from EUR to CHF. Invoice processing costs extra, as do design templates. The latter especially was a no-go for me. I want creative freedom, which I had to buy at a high price.

WordPress Plugins | Member Areas

Digimember

You need for Digimember an additional WordPress installation and can run it there as a plugin. The monthly fees are manageable, but the technical effort is immense. Furthermore, because the technology is entirely on your end, it won't be developed as quickly as other business tools.

Member Mambo

This tool is absolutely unknown. Here too, you need a second WordPress installation with a separate domain. However, unlike Digimember, you can design it more freely and it has a much simpler structure. This also means it's only suitable for simple and short online courses. Nevertheless, I am impressed by the performance of Member Mambo Enthusiastic. It does what it's supposed to.

Classic membership areas

These are member areas that are exclusively for members. As also mentioned above with the appointment booking tools, it is not a mistake, especially for such tools, to concentrate on the main function. They simply need to work reliably. For example, your customers automatically receive their login details via email as soon as they purchase your online course.

Coachy

And again, a German provider. For beginners it's Coachy perfectly suitable. The slogan is: Your member area in 6 minutes. And I can only agree with that. I hosted my very first online course on Coachy. However, Coachy offers little scope for customization, and you quickly reach your limits if you want to release modules with a time delay, for example.

Teachable

This tool offers a great members' area. Teachable is an American, and therefore difficult regarding GDPR. However, the member area is top-notch. It is fast, cleanly structured, and I have already consumed countless online courses on Teachable. Unfortunately, Teachable can only be recommended with reservations for the European market. But I don't want to leave this provider out of my list of the best business tools, as it really does many things right.

But which member area do I recommend then?

If you think that was all the business tools in the area of membership sites. No, there's a very intuitive and exciting provider on the market. Many call it the German Kajabi, but this membership site has now earned the right to be mentioned by its own name.

Memberspot – The best members area 2023

You've already got your course online here in a short amount of time. Member spot is really super intuitively laid out. You find your way around immediately and the setup is really simple. Member spot is the best member area with a clear structure for your participants and one of the best business tools of 2023 for your company. For example, you can release your course content with a time delay, which is important to many of my clients and possibly to you too. However, action-triggered release is also possible, meaning module 2 will only be unlocked once module 1 has been completed.

With the voucher code “Webnomadin10” you save 10% in the first year

Another top point for Memberspot is the design. You don't pay extra for course design, but can integrate your corporate design via the platform, and your courses will be attractively designed according to your visual branding. Payment processing is also clearly displayed. Since it's a German provider, you are also legally on safe ground. Memberspot is, of course, GDPR compliant.

BONUS FREE WEBNOMADIN VIDEO COURSE

And you know what? Web nomad Helene told me her Branding Toolkit provided. These are almost all the business tools from here, plus some helpful freebies. This tool list is free and in Memberspot created. This way, you can take your time to see what the member area looks like and how it works.

Take a look at how she implemented the course view. Memberspot is a professional tool for your member area. But it doesn't do anything else. The developer focuses on ensuring that your courses and content are always displayed in a modern and professional way, and of course, always available. New updates and patches are constantly released, so your content and member data are safe and protected.

Additional features like email marketing or calendar bookings are not available here. But that's exactly what was important to me. A member area should be a member area and not contain other business tools.

With the voucher code “Webnomadin10” you save 10% in the first year

7. Payment Providers

Now let's get to the cash flow. What would be a list of the best business tools without payment providers that ensure your customers can pay easily and quickly?.

There are only two providers in the German-speaking market that make sense for digital products and are viable options for me. Copecart and Digistore24. While Stripe, PayPal, and Mollie still exist, they are pure payment processors and only offer indirectly via means such as Zapier a connection to your member area or email marketing tool.

With both providers, you can sell digital products and have them shipped directly. As soon as you sell courses, your customers will automatically receive the access data. With Member spot Can both providers be connected directly?.

I chose Copecart because it allows for the sale of physical products in addition to digital ones. You never know what else might come.

BONUS TIP – BUSINESS TOOLS

You can also register a so-called joint venture with both providers. If you had help creating the course, or if you employ freelancers and staff, you can have them compensated with a percentage directly through the platform. Fully automated.
Both providers also offer an affiliate option that you can use for your salespeople.

8. Invoices | Accounting

Who doesn't love it! Writing invoices! At least it's much better than paying bills. =)

It is, of course, indispensable. Especially if you're not using a payment provider. But finding an invoicing tool was incredibly difficult for me. For years, I wrote my invoices with Google Docs and sent them manually. The difficulty for me was finding an invoicing tool that I could use to send subscription invoices. This is important for monthly invoices that are always the same, and this automation saves you an incredible amount of time. After all, business tools are supposed to provide exactly this time savings, and I would have loved to have had such a list of current business tools back then.

I started with Digistore24, which is more of a payment provider. But it also sends invoices. However, the costs for recurring payments are enormously high. I tried all other well-known invoicing programs, but none appealed to me.

After four years, I finally found accounting software that suited me. Yes, that might not be easy either, as my demands were very high.

The Nuremberg provider Billomat, which you've probably never heard of, has been sending my invoices to my customers punctually and reliably since 2022.

You need to set everything up once, including your corporate design (logo, colors, etc.), and then you're good to go.

Subsequently, you can use Billomat for invoices, quotes, and reminders. The workflow is super intuitive. You don't need a business degree to get by with it. A practical feature is the template texts, which you can create for each customer. This way, you can easily insert these text blocks into every invoice or quote for your customer.

Additionally, there are also accesses for your tax advisor or accountant. You can easily send or upload receipts to your Billomat email address, and they will be assigned to the supplier account. This is super easy and ensures that you have everything in one place for your tax return.

You've surely noticed I'm passionate about Billomat, and I don't even need to list the reasons why other programs weren't an option for me.

9. Newsletter

There are countless newsletter providers out there. The advice here is actually: Grab one and just go for it. ActiveCampaign, Getresponse, Mailchimp, and ConvertKit are probably the best known. But there are German options too: Klick-Tipp and Brevo, to name just two providers.

The dominant stag ActiveCampaign. While there isn't a free account like with most of my other business tools here, the costs remain manageable at currently around 8 EUR per month. In return, you get a top-notch newsletter service with automation. The big coaches and agencies in Germany and Switzerland predominantly use ActiveCampaign. You definitely can't go wrong with it, and ActiveCampaign is also GDPR compliant.

I have been using however for a few years Brevo, formerly Sendinblue. Once a French company, Brevo bought out Newsletter2Go from Berlin in 2021. Until now, this had advantages regarding the GDPR, which is why I prefer a European alternative. Other providers only joined last year in making everything legally compliant in Europe (ActiveCampaign). Sendinblue handles all your email automation. You can create different lists (Freebie 1, Freebie 2, Newsletter, Seminar 1, etc.) and share valuable tips with your customers or prospects. Remember, with an email list, you retain complete control and do not hand over data, unlike with Facebook, Instagram, and the like.

Brevo You can use it in the free version for up to 1000 contacts. That already gets you pretty far. From 1000 contacts, the premium version is then easily affordable. Where Getresponse costs over 120 EUR per month, Sendinblue is under 30 EUR.

TIP – BUSINESS TOOLS

When you start a newsletter, it makes sense to set up a welcome series. This way, new subscribers get to know you. I do it by adding new subscribers to a list, and then they receive four emails every two days, in which I introduce myself and my products. This takes care of Brevo.com automatically for me.

Since some of my clients ActiveCampaign use and I have had very good experiences with it, I recommend ActiveCampaign to you first. Sendinblue is great, but I quickly switched to a PRO account. ActiveCampaign offers you more benefits for just 8 EUR per month. This lets you get started a bit easier and faster.

10. BONUS TIP (PRICELESS)

When you go to an agency, they will certainly use a tool like the one I want to show you at the end. This way, the tip is affordable, of course. But for you here with me, it's still free, because as promised, there are also some free business tools here.

I have already once mentioned above in the text Zapier mentioned. But there is a clearly better, faster, and ultimately even significantly cheaper Zapier alternative.

For example, with the tool, you can have members of your online courses added to your newsletter list. Or, you can send contacts who book through a payment provider directly to your invoicing program and your newsletter service. You can also have contacts that you manually enter anywhere automatically transferred to other apps with it.

But out with it now!

It's about the unassuming tool called Make.com*. This will make your business a well-rounded affair. With the web service, you won't lose valuable contacts and can automate almost anything. This saves you a lot of time and money, while also reducing the susceptibility to errors. You should definitely integrate and use such business tools.

Check out Make. The possibilities are virtually endless. Around 4,000 different apps can be synchronized and connected with each other.

Definitely start with the free version here and get familiar with Make. The free version is sufficient for me so far, and I know you can also achieve quite a lot with it.

All business tools at a glance

1. MONDAY.COM Projects | CRM | Leads
2. ALL-INKL.COM* Domains | Hosting
3. WordPress Website software
4. ELEMENTOR* Page builder for WordPress
5. RANK MATH Search Engine Optimization SEO
6. CANVA.COM* Graphics program
7. TIDYCAL* Booking Tool Calendar
8. MEMBER SPOT Professional members' area
9. Copecart Payment provider
10. BILLOMAT Write invoices
11. ActiveCampaign* Newsletter service
12. BREVO Newsletter service
13. MAKE.COM Connect tools

Conclusion – Business Tools

I will keep this list updated and add to it for you. So the next time you're looking for good or new business tools, just stop by here. If you're missing a tool, please let me know. I love testing new tools.