business
CMS - Dubsado
As a stationer it is absolutely crucial to have a good client management system! You want to guide your clients through a smooth process that feels professional and intuitive. It’ll save you time, makes your clients feel taken care of and everything is perfectly organized! A win-win solution!
Use my link to get 20% off on your first month OR your first year (GREAT deal!)
Project Management - Asana
Your clients are taken care off with your Client Management System. But your business needs planning too. Asana is such a great (and free) tool!
You can make multiple projects, assign tasks, have follow-ups and reminders.
Email Marketing - Flodesk
Email marketing is the best way to make your clients and potential clients into trusted followers.
Flodesk is still in BETA mode, but boy is it good! The prettiest emails are all made with Flodesk, so you’ll stand out in your potential clients inbox and land that contract!
Get a 30 day trial period AND 50% off for life with my link. (YAY!)
Legal - Contracts
Contracts don’t just keep your business legit. They also make you look professional. If you want to book more clients, you’ll want a contract that works.
The Contract Shop has contract templates ready for you, so you don’t have to get lost in legal lingo and can go straight away back to creating!
Website - STNSVN
Make an impact with a beautiful and effective online presence.
Station Seven has gorgeous website templates AND social templates that match. Making it easy to stay ‘on brand’ and cohesive.
I built my website with one of their old templates and couldn’t be happier! So easy to use and the support is mind blowing!
Pinterest - Tailwind
Pinterest is not just for pinning recipes, pretty interiors and fancy hairdo’s you probably won’t ever attempt…
It’s a bit driver of traffic. But who has time to pin multiple times a day, at the most random hours. Luckily Tailwind has you covered. It’s easy to bulk schedule a bunch of pins and Tailwind does all the hard work of posting at 3.40am on a Thursday. (Apparently that’s a busy pinning time?)
Use my link for a free month of pinning!
CREATIVE
Adobe Creative Cloud
This is a no-brainer. I use Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign on an almost daily basis.
It’s integral in creating all my designs, from client setting up variable file envelope printing to extensive letterpress suites.
Next to that I use the free Lightroom app to edit my phone pictures.
CreativeLive
Classes taught online by industry leaders. I watched many CreativeLive classes from pattern design to slightly more advanced Photoshop classes.
You can find a class on pretty much any topic you’re looking for.
Can’t watch it live? No worries, you can purchase the class!
Skillshare
Skillshare is filled with amazing classes on all topics. From using Dubsado for stationers, to repeating pattern design.
It’s an amazing site for perpetual students!
Up until now my favourite classes were Bonnie Christine’s Pattern Design classes and Brent Eviston’s Figure Drawing class.
The next classes on my list are about investing and oil painting!
Cricut
The master of crafting. My Cricut goes from personal projects to professional ones on a weekly basis.
The boys love to craft and the Cricut helps me realize projects they can make at a much quicker pace.
For my business I love to use it to make stencils for engraving. Certain designs can use a good stencil to lay on your canvas of choice so you can ensure that your engraving comes out crisp and clean. It helps me to maintain quality without spending hours laying the sketch on.
Tombow
Where everyone is in love with the Dual Brush Pens, you’ll hear me raving about the Fudenosuke (although I will most like mispronounce that..)
Another favourite is the sand eraser.
There’s nothing like their sand eraser to make little smudges and ink blobs disappear.
A true leftie sidekick!
Pentel Sign Pen
My absolute favourite brush pen.
They come in a large range of colours, but I like the classics black and grey!