3 Free (or almost free) Tools For Creative Small Business Owners

About 6 years ago we shut the doors on our six-figure wedding photography business to pursue a slower pace in the midst of having babies and growing families. Walking away from a thriving business is a really hard decision to make. But, at the time, it seemed like the best decision for the growing demands of our home lives as moms.

We floundered for a while, trying to get our bearings on what was next. After much back and forth, we decided to pivot into portrait photography. In hindsight, there are things we’d do differently, but at the end of the day pursuing another type of photography work was what we both wanted to do. Today we have a thriving small business, the opportunity to serve hundreds of families and clients every year, and the space to be present with our kids.

The transition was not easy, and some of it has been totally unexpected, but we are so thankful for where we have landed as photographers and small business partners.

When we started building Loft Creative as portrait photographers we were once again at the place of working with a shoestring budget, just like most people starting out in a creative small business, and just like we did in our wedding photography business at the beginning - we bootstrapped a lot. We have bootstrapped things more times than we can count, but along the way we’ve also stumbled upon some really amazing (and FREE, or almost free) tools that have freed up time and increased revenue.

Because we love seeing others begin and thrive in small business, we've put together a list of 3 of our favorite tools to help you stay organized, maximize time and save money. 

1. Canva (Free)
   

   Why we love it: It’s like design software for dummies!

   
   Here's the deal - we believe in outsourcing and paying people to do the things you don't do well. But, we also know what it's

   like to have limited funds and ever changing content design needs.
   
   Insert Canva. 
   
   Canva offers design templates for a plethora of needs. From email headers and business cards to creating ebooks, and online magazine content. Canva is a one stop shop design program.
   
   It's user-friendly and allows you to create content quickly and efficiently. In fact, it's our go-to place for creating all of our resource documents that we share with our email subscribers, as well as print materials that we mail to prospective schools in our portrait program.

   
   Another plus is that Canva has small batch printing. Most small business owners don’t need 1,000 postcards or brochures to start. We’ve used Canva’s printing for brochures, post cards, and more. It can be a little more expensive per unit, but if you need smaller quantities of print collateral it can be a great place to order from for your specific needs.
   
   We wholeheartedly believe in paying designers for things like logo design and content that's going to be around your brand for a while, but when you need to put together collateral quickly and affordably, Canva can be a great resource for you. 
   
   Biz Tip: Establish brand consistency by creating a brand profile - use the same fonts and colors across all fronts of your 
   brand. 
   

2. Wave Apps (Free)

   
   Why we love it: Well, it's free - duh! :) We no longer use Wave Apps in our business because we work out of a CRM system built specifically for photographers, but before we had consistent revenue and could justify paying for a subscription to a more robust system, Wave Apps was such a life saver.
   
   Business beginners often get stumped on how to send proposals, send invoices, and take payments online.

   We’ve noticed when people are just starting things, they tend to send invoices or estimates by manually typing them into the email body.
   
   Or they resort to creating invoices in Word or Excel. This is a major time suck.
   
   Wave Apps allows you to keep track of all estimates and turn them into invoices in a branded online portal. Their base plan is completely free and worth looking into if you need a way to present your proposals to your prospective clients.
   
   With Wave Apps you can create and send branded estimates and invoices, track expenses, and accept
   payments online and even set invoices to only allow clients to pay via check. 
   

   If you are just getting started in a service based business that requires you to create estimates and invoices, this tool is for you! A few minutes of setting up your brand preferences will have you up and running (and legit) in no time at all!
   
   Biz Tip: Not all businesses are created equal when it comes to sales tax. Be sure to check with your State Comptroller’s office about sales tax requirements for your specific line of business.
   
   

3. Flodesk (50% OFF your first year)

   
   *This section contains a referral link meaning we receive a small commission if you sign up for Flodesk with our link.*

   Why we love it: This is the most user friendly (and beautiful) email marketing program we’ve ever seen!
   
   Oh man, our pros list could go on and on for why we love Flodesk; but we will try to keep it short and sweet. First off, emails lists are so valuable to any business, but especially to an online business. If there is one thing we recommend you do from the get go of your business it is to start building an email list.
   
   Our very first email marketing promotion (which literally took 10 minutes to send out) to 20 of our past photography clients generated over $1,000 in print sales. When so many people are focused on growing their social media following, this one experience opened our eyes to how valuable email communication is with past customers, or new people interested in your product or services.

   We will be the first to admit that we could be doing more in terms of our email list, and it is one of our goals to continue to foster this growing community here at Loft Creative. But, for now, as we learn, we love to share with you the value of this aspect of our work.
   
   From our experience, a lot of people starting new small businesses shy away from email list building (we did too for years!) because they a) don’t understand the importance of it, or 2) get hung up on how to design + send emails that align with their message and brand.
   
   Flodesk is the answer to all of these problems. We discovered Flodesk right when the company was starting out, and were drawn to it for a few reasons.

   1) They don’t punish you for growing your list. Most email marketing providers have tiered pricing that charges you more as your list size increases. Flodesk has done away with this structure and offers you one flat (and affordable) monthly subscription price. On top of that, you get 50% off your first year with Flodesk when you use our referral link.
   
   2) The second thing that attracted us to Flodesk was the ease of design. Not only is it already pre-loaded with some of the most beautiful email templates we’ve ever seen, it also provides so much ease in terms of designing emails from scratch. We seriously can’t get over how amazing this platform is for small business owners that don’t have experience or access to design tools like Photoshop or InDesign.
   

   3) Flodesk is continually rolling out new features. Being with Flodesk from “almost” the beginning, we’ve watched them roll out new features for the system frequently. We get the sense that they really listen to their customer base and are constantly working on improving their offerings to meet the needs of the creative small business owner.