I’m what I call an “entrepreneur to the core”, having built businesses from home while raising my three kids for nearly 20 years.
My entrepreneurial experience includes:
- Freelance copywriting (my first business)
- Inventing two baby blankets called Swaddleaze and Blankeaze, which I sold to Summer Infant in 2008
- Developing a now-defunct WordPress plugin called May We Suggest
- Creating and selling a mobile apps portfolio (apps were an epic fail for me)
- Founding, building, and selling TheMogulMom.com, the leading website for mom entrepreneurs
- Being interviewed and featured in The New York Times, Working Mother, Fox Business News, ProBlogger, Entrepreneur, Visa Business Network, Daily Worth, Etsy Blog, Simple Mom, American Express OPEN Forum, SheKnows and YellowPages.com, as well as several best-selling books including The $100 Startup and The Well-Fed Writer: Back for Seconds
Over the years, I’ve used many tools and services to run my various businesses. Here is a list of my timeless favorites. :)
Business Favorites
Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means that I will earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you) when you make a purchase. Please know that I only recommend things that I personally use and love, and that I feel may be useful to you as well. These commissions help keep me in wine and non-fiction, and I’m very grateful when you support my site in this way. ;)
Blogging/Website
WordPress: In my book, WordPress is the absolute best publishing platform. It’s free, easy to manage, and has a great community. You can set up your own WordPress site for about $150.
Siteground: Super fast, secure, affordable hosting. My site runs on the Grow Big plan with the annual billing option which costs just $71 per year!
Genesis: Genesis is a WordPress framework that provides a secure and search engine optimized foundation that’s easy to customize and very user-friendly. I use the Genesis framework with a StudioPress theme.
StudioPress: Make your website yours without spending a ton of time or money (been there, done that) with awesome themes from StudioPress. I’m currently using the Essence Pro theme.
Bookkeeping
GoDaddy Bookkeeping: When I started my first business, I didn’t track income or expenses. What a nightmare that turned out to be when I was audited by the IRS. Since 2010, I’ve used GoDaddy Bookkeeping (formerly Outright), and it makes my life, business, and tax time infinitely easier. You can be up and running on GDB in about 10 minutes, and with just one-click, you can have your Schedule-C done and ready for Uncle Sam at tax time.
Marketing
SmarterQueue: After using a different, more expensive service, I switched to SmarterQueue for my social media scheduling. Create categories for your social updates, design a custom posting schedule for each of your social networks, and build a library of social updates. Then, SmarterQueue takes care of the rest. You can get a free 30-day SmarterQueue trial, and then it’s just $19.99 per month. (While I no longer use social media to market my business, I still recommend SmarterQueue for anyone who does.)
Is It Possible to Run a Business Without Using Social Media?: As an entrepreneur who built multiple businesses using social media, marketing without it didn’t seem feasible. And though I felt pulled to minimize the role social media plays in my marketing plan (and life), I wondered if not using it was really possible. In this article, Alexandra Franzen shows that it is.
Marketing Without Social Media: This workshop from Leonie Dawson offers tons of ideas for marketing your business without using social media. Leonie is an 8-figure entrepreneur and best selling author who tells you like it is, often with some colorful language. Besides this workshop, she has a number of awesome programs that can help you at every step of building your business.
