I'll be honest, I didn't love Clickup when I first tried it - I struggled to get my head around their system of workspaces, folders and lists, but with a little time (and a lot of help from the amazing Process Driven membership which allowed me to map my business and translate it into Clickup) I now wouldn't be without it! I use it for client tasks, my own business stuff, planning, accounting...everything!

I am absolutely NOT the world's greatest graphic designer. My art teacher BEGGED me not to do an art GCSE.  But even I can make things look reasonably pretty in Canva with their fabulous templates and intuitive systems for creating. I used the free month about 2 years ago with the intention of cancelling once it was up.  I never did.

Email marketing is a big subject and I'd never recommend just one system, because it all depends on what you want to get out of it.  That said, if you're after a FREE system to get started on, or if you don't ever see yourself needing to scale your list past the free version, Mailerlite is awesome. Automation on a free plan? Yes please. It's the system I use for my business' email marketing needs.

Another email marketing system?!  Yes, but this is SO much more. It has CRM capabilities and the integration capabilities are endless. It's not perfect, no systems are, and the present email builder leaves a lot to be desired, but for most businesses whose list is too big for a free plan in Mailerlite, I recommend ActiveCampaign.  It's FABULOUS for e-commerce too.

Airtable is AMAZING. It's a bit like Excel, but sexier and more integratable (and automatable...)  It works great as a database in it's own right, and I do this for stuff in my business like accounting and client contact details, but if you really want to see the power involved, hook it up to other software.  Airtable+Zapier+ActiveCampaign = backing up your AC account easily. It can work as a stop-gap between two pieces of software that don't play nicely together, like Mailerlite and TutorCruncher.  Honestly, the only real limits to what it can do are set by your imagination.

I wouldn't be without Dubs for my CRM stuff - particularly my onboarding process.  The "contact me" form on this website? Dubsado - and when you complete it (because you need an awesome VA 😇) Dubs automates the process of sending you a link to my scheduler, so you can book call when the iron's hot.

Once we've had our call, it's the magic of Dubsado that let's me create a beautiful-looking proposal in 15 minutes flat, attach a contract and send it out to you. In this, like so many other service-based businesses, speed matters, and Dubsado lets me stay speedy while never compromising on style or quality.