Start your Business
If you want to start your own business, you are in the right place! The Makers’ Co website is full of tips, advice, tutorials, support and encouragement.
This page details all the resources I currently use or have previously used in the day-to-day running of my business, that I would recommend to family and friends (this includes you!).
Some of the links below help support the running of the Makers’ Co community if you decide to purchase through them, in the form of an affiliate commission (this doesn’t increase the price for you, it just gives The Makers’ Co a percentage of the payment made). So if you purchase through these links, a big thanks and a high five to you!
CAN YOU CONFIDENTLY SAY YOU ARE WORKING ON THE RIGHT THING, RIGHT NOW IN YOUR BUSINESS?
Sometimes, even when we are doing all the right things, it can feel like we’re spinning our wheels and not moving forward at all. This could be because you’re focusing on the wrong area of your business – or doing all the right things, but at the wrong time.
Building a Website / Blog
Build Your Own Website free course – it’s FREE, get on it 😉
FlyWheel – dedicated wordpress website hosting with stellar customer support
BlueHost – one-click wordpress installation, VERY affordable
Elegant Themes – I recommend the Divi theme
Wistia – for hosting private videos
YouTube – for hosting public videos
Wishlist Member – to turn your wordpress website into a membership site
Mailing List Management
MailChimp – easy to use and free for up to 2000 subscribers
Mailchimp for WordPress – great plugin for inserting opt-in forms on your website
Chimp Essentials – Mailchimp Lessons
Online Store
WooCommerce – One of the easiest and well supported (and free!) online shopping cart solutions
Stripe – really nice integration with your shop for credit card payments
Paypal – give your customers payment options
Admin & Organisation
Makers’ Collective Wall Planner – organise your year and start smashing some goals
Trello – Great for keeping track of pretty much EVERYTHING
Gsuite – email address using your website domain + use of all the google apps + storage
Google Analytics – track your website traffic
DropBox – Save EVERYTHING you can to the cloud, then when your laptop dies, you won’t cry (as much)
Printing & Packaging
Moo – High quality printing for Cards, Postcards, Flyers etc
Vista Print – Cheap Printing of promotional items and business collateral (I don’t recommend using their templates though, get your work custom designed!)
Print100 – Good quality and super affordable for larger quantities
Simon Stamps – very affordable and VERY fast from the US
PackQueen – great range of boxes for packaging products at competitive prices
Social Media Management
Later – Brilliant for searching, reposting and scheduling for Instagram (does not post for you as per Ig’s terms and conditions), can also schedule Facebook and Pinterest posts
MeetEdgar – A worthwhile investment for managing multiple social media accounts (does not schedule IG posts)
CoSchedule – I loved using coschedule until I upgraded to Meet Edgar
Bitly – great for shortening long urls for use in social media
Creating Graphics & Video Content
Adobe Creative Cloud – Industry standard design software
Canva – simple and free or very cheap ($1 per image)
Shutterstock – extremely high quality stock images with a massive image library
ScreenFlow – record your screen & edit videos easily
Online Learning
The Makers’ Academy – Business fundamentals, Photography and Graphic Design classes
SkillShare – Really great creative learning space, LOADS to learn here!
Craftsy – Online craft lessons
Podcasts
The Mind Your Business Podcast – James Wedmore
Online Marketing Made Easy – Amy Porterfield
Design Matters – Debbie Millman
The Deeply Graphic Designcast – Mikelle Morrison, Nick Longo & Jordan Wilson
Create and Thrive – Jess Van Den
SMINTY – Stuff Mom Never Told You by How stuff Works