Tools, Tips, and Resources for Online Small Business Owners

**In all transparency, this post has affiliate links for several resources, which I promote because I love and trust these companies and their products or services! If you use my link to make a purchase, I will get a small commission at no extra cost to you. This post is not legal or business advice, and I recommend you always speak to a licensed lawyer or accountant in your jurisdiction for professional advice. I am not a lawyer, attorney, business advisor, or accountant.**

Whether you are starting a product-based or service-based business, you will need to have the following pieces in place for a solid online business foundation:

• Email Marketing
• Contracts
• Website
• Web Hosting
• Social Media Marketing
• Graphic Design & Visual Template Resources for Content Creation

Contracts for Your Small Online Business

No matter what you are selling online, you need to do it legally and protect your business (and yourself) from liability. Even if you simply have a website to serve as a portfolio, you need to have website Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, and Disclaimer. 

This is where solid contracts, created by practicing lawyers, come in handy. I have used Contracts for Entrepreneurs and am confident that my contracts are set up legally. The website bundle they offer is a solid investment, so you can focus on other parts of your business instead of worrying whether those ChatGPT DIY T&C’s will work. 

If you want more info about Contracts for Entrepreneurs, head over to this guest blog post for the full story.

Your Online Small Business Needs a Website

Your website is your online storefront or office. It creates a level of trust and respect from potential clients and customers so that you can be viewed as a legitimate business. 

This is where I didn’t get off to a good start, and I hope you can learn from my mistakes rather than making the same ones! 

When I was starting Creatively Social Co. five years ago (btw, WOW!), I crowd-sourced information about the best website building platform and was eventually led to WordPress. 

Great. So I enrolled in a “How to Build a WordPress Site the Easy Way” course and thought, “how hard could it really be to create my vision for a multipage website with literally ZERO web design or coding skills?!” LOL! 

Let’s just say, three and a half years later, and the site still wasn’t built, pretty much answered that question.

I still believe that WordPress can be a good option if you know what you’re doing, or you can outsource your website building. 

But, if you’re like me (or are on a tight budget) and need a super simple platform that still has decent search capabilities and additional features like blog hosting or online storefronts, then I highly recommend Showit! They offer an easy drag-and-drop website builder that even I can use to customize designs. 

I started with a template from their Design Market that I customized using their tutorials and incredibly helpful support team chat feature. The bonus is that if you have a blog through Showit, it is supported by WordPress, so you get all the search engine optimization perks anyway.

Now, if you’re thinking that Showit is the right website provider for you, but don’t want the hassle (or don’t have the time), then you may want to consider hiring a website designer who works with Showit sites to do the nitty-gritty for you. 

Erin Neisewander, founder of Neise Design, is a thoughtful, creative, and completely custom website designer working with Squarespace, Showit, and Wix. The sites she designs showcase her clients’ brands’ individuality and uniqueness, while generating engagement and contributing to the success of their business goals. You can contact her here to inquire about your custom website project.

Web Hosting for Your New Online Business

The only downside I can think of with Showit (which, in my opinion, isn’t really a downside) is that your site needs to be hosted somewhere else. I currently use BlueHost for my web hosting needs, including managing my Google Workspace and email. So far, I am satisfied with their service and ease of managing my account and auto-renewals.

Marketing Your Small Business on Social Media

If you’re an online business owner, you will need to put some effort into social media marketing. Good thing for you, that’s where I started with my online business! 

I’ve been able to help small business owners in many different industries with social media marketing, and I’m confident I can give you some solid and practical information for your online business, too. 

I won’t get into a bunch of detail in this blog post about how to create a social media marketing strategy (that’ll be another post), but I’ll cover a few basics to get you started. 

First, you need to define your target (or ideal) audience and figure out where they spend their time online. This will help you focus your efforts and put your energy towards the platforms that will make the most sense and impact for you. 

If you’re having trouble narrowing down your ideal audience, then you need my Complimentary ICA Guide. You can use it as a fillable PDF or print it off and go old school with pen and paper.

Once you have figured out who you’re talking to and where they hang out online, you can choose the platforms that make the most sense for you. 

I’m personally a fan of Instagram, Threads, and Pinterest for my business goals. But maybe TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, or Facebook are better fits for you. 

No matter where you create content for your online business, you need a system to plan and organize it. This is where my Complimentary Content Calendar comes in handy. 

There is even a video tutorial that explains how to use and customize it to fit your needs. If you download either of my freebies, please email me at hello@creativelysocialco.com, to let me know how they work out for you!

Social Media Content Creation for Your Online Business

After you have created your social media marketing plan, you need to actually sit down and create the content. This step requires some online tools and resources to pull off. 

Enter stage left, Canva for graphic design software, and stage right, Styled Stock Society for stock photos, stock video, and social media templates. 

The great thing about these two resources is that they work together seamlessly! All of the templates in SSS are editable in Canva, and you can upload the stock photos and video clips to Canva to create your social media graphics and content.

If you’re just starting out, Canva does have a free plan with limited access to features, but you can do a 30-day trial of the paid version when you sign up. I do think the paid version is worth it, and I upgraded my subscription as soon as my trial period was over. Canva is incredibly user-friendly and my go-to design tool because of that simplicity.

Styled Stock Society focuses on providing high-quality stock photos and videos for creative entrepreneurs as well as social media templates, business resource templates, and more. 

I’ve been very impressed with the continued quality and have used SSS as a resource for my business since I started. They help me streamline my content creation process so I’m not staring at a blank Canva screen trying to conjure up a design miracle. 

If you’re interested, you can download 50 Complimentary Stock Photos here to try it out and explore everything they have available for their members.

Put Your Social Media Content on Auto-Pilot with Scheduling Software

After you have created your content, I recommend using a scheduling tool to save time by automating your posts. It’s a game-changer for the work-life balancing act you will be doing as a small business owner! 

I currently use (and thoroughly enjoy) Metricool. Even on the free plan, you have access to all features of the software, with some limitations. That’s almost unheard of for free plans for anything! 

Again, with client work, I have used many different schedulers like Later, Planoly, Plann, Rella, Hootsuite, Buffer, etc., but I keep going back to Metricool.

Email Marketing is a MUST For Your Small Business

Don’t worry, this is the last piece I want to share with you, and congrats if you’ve made it to the end! 

Social media is a great and low-cost way to market your business, but you don’t own your audience on those platforms. An easy fix for that is with email marketing. 

You know your business best and have clearly defined goals, so you will need to compare your business needs with different platforms, pricing, and features. 

Working with clients, I have used everything from Constant Contact, Kit (formerly ConvertKit), Wix Mail, Kajabi, Mail Chimp, and more! The one I ultimately settled on for Creatively Social Co. was Flodesk. 

Why? It’s simple. The features met my needs, the price doesn’t increase with an increase in your subscriber amount, and it’s pretty. 

Yes, being easy to use and pretty is important to me. If it is for you too, check out Flodesk!

It’s the end, I PROMISE!

Cheers to you if you made it to the end of this rather long-winded (but informative) blog post. There was probably a reason I was always told as a kid to say the “short version” of the story…I guess old habits die hard. My goal is always to provide practical help for fellow small business owners and entrepreneurs, no matter where they are in their journey. If that sounds like something you’re down for, please follow me on social @creativelysocialco and join the CSC email community.

xo Erika 💕