Tools

Some of the best tools I've found and the reason that some people get their business set up quickly and find all the customers they want…these are the tools I use in my business and heartily recommend to you

Tools For Your New Business

ubiquitous capture

Ubiquitous Capture

Yep. Equiping yourself with the ability to capture every thought, idea, action or half-formed notion that pops into your head. This is probably the most powerful tool for setting up your business and getting going. And the good news is all you need is a pen and paper. It constantly surprises me to see people who come along to a workshop without a pen or notebook and no other visible means of capturing what happens inside their heads. Unless there's been an outbreak of photographic memory you have to create a deliberate capture system for yourself. Ubiquitous capture means you always have with you a means of securing ideas, actions and thoughts. And the cheapest and most widely available are analog tools like pen and paper - no batteries, no recharging and completely versatile. It means that the second something pops in your head you will capture it because otherwise it is often gone. Ubiquitous capture is the first principle in a system called Getting Things Done. Do whatever you need to make sure you always have a capture tool with you and make it a habit to write down things as soon as they come to you. My basic tools are a Fisher Space Pen and Index Cards but it can be anything.

Why is this so important? When you start a business it's like someone turned on a firehose in your head. The learning curve is close to vertical and unless you have a way of capturing this flood of thoughts, ideas, hints, actions and notions you will find it overwhelming. Put something in place to capture them all. As David Allen often says “Your brain is for having ideas, not holding ideas”. Explore the rest of this page for some tools to help you implement your ideas.

Just the best business cards; highly recommended. Create custom Business Cards with MOO.COM

Everything you need to know about the mechanics of setting up a business in the UK

Just released! The Red Stuff Handbook™

Understand the 12 key decisions you need to make to set up your business.

Who is this for? It isn't for people who just want the theory and don't want to use it. Only purchase this product if you want fast, practical help with the mechanics. It's for people at the transition stage who have been curious and concerned about the mechanics and want to arm themselves with some information and answers before talking to other professionals. It is, for example, an ideal handbook to work through before you start talking to accountants.

As you read through this guide you'll pick up all the tips you need to master the mechanics of setting up a business. Take a look now.

Infoguru Marketing Manual

Info Guru Marketing Manual

It's hard to find good stuff on marketing services and I've finally found someone who specialises in this area. Robert Middleton has a great marketing e-zine and lots of free stuff to help service professionals get more business.

I used his marketing materials to change my business and can't recommend it enough. Click on the cover to take a look.

Web Site ToolKit

Web Site Toolkit

I wish I'd had this when I started out. Robert Middleton is a marketing specialist and his website is a model of the kind of site that attracts customer interest and gets them engaged with his products and services.

If you would like to have the same sort of website for your business then take a look his website toolkit - practical, relevant, useful and he tells you exactly what to do step by step. Best of all the price is less than the cost of a good book.

Get Dropbox to stay in sync

With Dropbox, your files are always in sync. Let's say you're editing a document at home. As soon as you click Save, Dropbox will sync this same file to all your other computers (and now your iPhone!) instantly and automatically. It's as if you saved the document to all of your computers. This gives you the freedom to work on any of your computers and always have the files you need. A 2GB Dropbox is FREE.

First, Know What You Want

An insider’s guide for making up your mind. It’s a book with online support to help you discover what you really want AND the motivation to go after it.

I wrote this book because I kept meeting clients who knew what they didn’t want but were having a struggle to be clear and motivated about what they did want. If this is you, the book will take you through 12 exercises to get to the heart of what you want. Learn more and read extracts.

If you are unsure of your next decision in life or are in two minds (or more) about what to do then this is for you. Take a look now.

Remember everything

Remember Everything. Use Evernote to save your ideas, things you see, and things you like. Then find them all on any computer or device you use. For free. I use Evernote as my ideas factory, everytime I see something I want to keep or make a note of I send it to Evernote who make this process very easy and it is then available across all my computers and my phone. You can even forward emails to Evernote which is really handy for keeping a notebook of hotel reservations on my phone. It's free and works across nearly all platforms and devices.

Buying a website

Are you looking for your own website? I buy my domain names from Namesco who have proved to be very helpful and reliable. I have found their customer service to be prompt and friendly too.

Click here for domain name registration and web hosting

Taking Website Payments

I use possibly the biggest system out there for taking secure payments - PayPal - and the nice thing about it is that customers do not need to have a pay pal account to use it - they can just pay by credit card. Read more about getting a PayPal Account for your business.

My email list service…

Many people ask me how I manage my email list service for selling products and delivering e-courses. I use a great service called AWeber. I'm still impressed with how fast they manage to deliver email, their delivery is superb and customer service is excellent. Best of all, you can take a free test drive to see how it would work for you. Find out more about them at AWeber Test Drive

Here are some examples of Aweber news headlines

Contracts & Terms

clickdocs

Clickdocs is a great place to find low cost business documents like terms and conditions or contracts. They supply templates which you can make your own by just using find and replace. A good fast way of getting started. Use the link above to explore their range.

Confidentiality Agreement

Standard Terms and Conditions of sale & purchase

Consultancy Agreement

Partnership Agreement Forms

Terms and Conditions for a business