Building Your Back Office

E-Junkie Is the shopping cart I use to sell my e-books and services. It’s compatible with Paypal, Google Checkout, Clickbank and many others.

Paypal is a brillant way to make a receive payments over the web and pretty much the standard tool for payment processing.

Aweber is the system I use to manage and keep in touch with all our email subscribers. Aweber offers lots of flexibilty and has great customer service. As well as automatically emailing your subscribers when you have a new blog post, you can email them any time, for any reason. You can even build auto responders to deliver an email series or short course (like the Business Growth Workout).

Contactually is an amazing contact management system for keeping track of all your prospects, clients and contacts – so you know exactly what you said to who, when you said it and what you said.

Dropbox is a cloud based filestorage system which allows you to access your files from anywhere.

Livedrive is a cloud based (online) backup system. You seriously need to back up your files. I had a client who had to spend $1000 on a data recovery specialist to get his data back, which was a small price to pay to recover his 25,000 client files. If he hadn’t got it back he would have been out of business. Seriously get this sorted.

Grasshopper – run your business from your mobile phone using a virtual telephone number for unlimited extensions.

Productivity

Virtual Staff Finder – you can’t do everything yourself which is where Virtual Staff Finder comes in. Virtual Staff Finder takes the hassel out of finding highly affordable home based virtual assistants to take care of admin, video editing, transcription services social media or even search engine optimisation.

Moleskine note books I’ve used Moleskine note books for years. You never know when a good idea is going to come your way.  So make sure you have a notebook that you carry with you to capture those ideas. Not only are Moleskines very durable, they look cool too.

Evernote  I love Evernote. I use it everyday. It allows me to type notes, speak notes, or take photos of things I want to remember (like wine labels, receipts or client notes). You can tag your notes and find them using the search facility. Very cool. Best of all it’s free.

Mindmeister- when I’m not taking notes, I’m  planning. And one of the best brainstorming and mindmapping tools I’ve come across is Mindmeister. What’s really, really cool about it though is that it allows me to share the mind map in real time which is really great for coaching calls.

Recommended Reading

Books are a great way to learn quickly for low cost. But not everyone likes (or has the time) to read books – these are great alternatives to reading:

Audible is a great alternative to reading books – you can download audible books to listen to anywhere (Free Trial using this link)  – I highly recommend the Icarus Deception by Seth Godin.

Readitforme – another great alternative to reading books is Readitforme. Readitforme summarises the key points from the book in an engaging video with a workbook to note down your key actions and takeaways. This product helped me read over 70 books last year.

These are the only business books you’ll ever need to read, ever.

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing – by Al Ries and Jack Trout - this is a marketing classic and whilst there are always exceptions to every law understanding the “laws” will ensure your marketing campaign is more successful.

Book Yourself Solid illustrated - Michael Port  ( new and updated 2013 version) – when I first started my coaching business, I found this invaluable to building my business.

SPIN Selling – Neil Rackman - SPIN Selling has been described as a field guide for sales professionals.

The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated Edition - By Tim Ferriss – Do not be misled with the title. It is not about working four hours a week. This book introduced me to personal / small business outsourcing and is stuffed full of ideas you can use to be more productive and earn more money. Well worth reading.
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity – By David Allen – this is one of the most effective books on personal productivity I have ever read and it transformed my effectiveness many times over.

Rework – Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson – What I like about Rework is that it’s down to earth real world advice which says it like it is. There’s some unconventional business tips (like lessons from drug dealers – give free samples and get them hooked) which you can apply in your business.

E-myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It  –  Michael E. Gerber – although a few years old, this is a really good book for getting you to think about your business as a business, rather than a job. Highly recommended.

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t  – Jim Collins

Purple Cow, New Edition: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable – Seth Godin

How To Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie

The Iccarus Deception – Seth Godin

Disclosure

Please note The Big Red Tomato Company exists to make money. We make no secret about that. And you should also know that some of the links above are affiliate links, which means that at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase.  

Please understand that I have experience with all of these companies and products, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions I make if you decide to buy them.  

Please do not spend any money (or go into debt) on these products unless you feel you need them or that they will help you achieve your goals and take your business forward.