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My Favorite Things: Business Edition
14 Plays1 year ago
In this week's podcast, I talk about the things that make life easier as a business owner. Here are a few of my favorite things:
Canva
FreshBooks
Amazon Prime
Mircosoft Office
Gusto
Book'd Planner
Fresh Start Money Planner
The Cosmetic Concept Planner
If you want to send me an email you can email me at [email protected]
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Transcript
Introduction to Eliana Nita Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Eliana Nita podcast, the podcast created to inform, challenge and empower you. Now let's get down to business.
00:00:23
Speaker
Hey guys, welcome to the Alien Beauty Podcast. I'm your host, Alion, and I would like to welcome all of my listeners that decided to join me. I am so excited to have you here this week. If you do not know me, my name is Alion, obviously, and I am a formulation chemist as well as a licensed esthetician. I formulate products
00:00:49
Speaker
for a summer everybody, and I also own my own facial studio.
Podcast Themes and Guest Features
00:00:56
Speaker
To my loyal listeners, welcome back. Thank you so much for joining me again this week. This podcast, we talk about everything, y'all. We talk about business tips. We talk about life. We talk about what's popping in the culture. We do everything, and I have a really great guest that join me to do it sometimes.
00:01:10
Speaker
So this week we are going to talk about some of my favorite things, business edition. So if you check back to like my podcast in 2020, I did some of my favorite things and this year, or this podcast rather, I am going to talk about some of my favorite things, business edition.
Unsponsored Business Tools Overview
00:01:32
Speaker
So I am not sponsored by any of these brands that I'm getting ready to list off. I just talk about this stuff because these are my things that I love that makes life easier for me as a business owner. So I'm just going to share some things with you all. Maybe you already know, maybe you already use these. I'm pretty sure you guys use a majority of this stuff or have used some of this stuff, or maybe you're going to learn something about these people or brands. But yeah, let's hop into it.
Favorite Business Tools
00:02:02
Speaker
So the first thing that I love, Business Edition, that makes my life easy, that's a favorite of mine, is FreshBooks. So if you don't know what FreshBooks is or who FreshBooks is, FreshBooks is a cloud accounting software that makes it crazy easy for me to keep my books as well as invoice my clients.
00:02:24
Speaker
It keeps me up to date with all of my invoices. It helps everything be organized. It helps me organize all of my clients and it helps me send my invoices and receive payment. I love FreshBooks because all I have to do is literally plug and chug and they do the rest and they make sure that my clients get all of my communication.
00:02:46
Speaker
as well as they make it very easy for my clients to click a link and pay their invoice. Don't y'all love that? We love hearing kaching when those invoices come through. So this is probably, I'm pretty sure you all have heard of like QuickBooks and things like that, but FreshBooks
00:03:07
Speaker
I actually heard from another podcaster. She had a discount code. I tried it. I loved it. And it has been my best friend ever since I signed up. So I love fresh books and they make sure you get your payments like super quick. You don't have to wait days and days and days and days for your payment to come through. Like literally your client can pay you at 11 o'clock at night. And then the very next day that money will be in your account waiting for you.
00:03:31
Speaker
I love fresh books for that. And I also love how easy they make everything itemized. And you can actually go in. So what I try to do is go in week by week to make sure that all of my things are going into the right category.
00:03:46
Speaker
so that when I print out my list of expenses and things like that for my tax attorney and submit that document over to her, it makes bookkeeping so much easier so that way she doesn't have to go through every one of my statements and count out everything so she knows exactly what's what.
00:04:03
Speaker
Love that. And also too, you can connect your bank accounts to FreshBooks and FreshBooks will, they kind of automatically do it where it kind of like categorizes based off how, or what, where you're spending and they'll like put it in the different categories. But if you need to go and recategorize, they make it very easy for you to do so, so that tax time will not be a headache at the end of the year. Love FreshBooks for that.
00:04:28
Speaker
The next thing I love is Canva. So I'm pretty sure you guys have used Canva. Canva has a free option where you can use it. I actually have a subscription to Canva. It makes coming up with graphics so easy.
00:04:47
Speaker
and you can use their app, you can use the desktop platform, you can schedule your posts to come out, so therefore you don't have to sit and come up with all of this stuff and then download it to your phone and then upload it to Instagram or Twitter or whatever. You can literally connect all of your social media accounts
00:05:07
Speaker
and send them out and click which account you wanted to go to, when and how. I scheduled a month worth of posts and it made my life a dream. So I love Canva for that. And they also make it easy for you to make quick memes or quick, I don't know, marketing messages or whatever you want to call them. They just make it very simple for you. You can put your branding colors in there.
00:05:34
Speaker
So you already have that loaded and they can adjust the graphic really quick to match your brand and you can use a plethora of their, their free stock in stock photos that makes it easy so that you don't have to have to, you know, necessarily have to go out and do photo shoots you can just canvas just super easy y'all.
00:05:55
Speaker
Get Canva. I love Canva. I recommend it. If you do not have a graphic designer or maybe you can't afford a graphic designer, Canva is your best friend. And to be honest, a lot of these graphic designers are using Canva. So why don't you? So if you try to get your social media game up in 2023, I recommend getting Canva. It makes it very easy for you.
00:06:19
Speaker
The next thing I love is Amazon Prime. Who does not love Amazon Prime? Y'all, when I found out that Amazon had a scientific section, I have been buying all my stuff from Amazon Prime. I promise you, like a lot of my vendors that I work with will charge you an arm and a leg and I could go find exactly what I'm looking for on Amazon and Amazon will have it to my house within like two to three days.
00:06:42
Speaker
Who doesn't love Amazon Prime? I feel like having the Amazon Prime subscription or yearly subscription is worth it. I made the investment for my business. I have the business version of it. And the business version y'all is bomb. Like they will make sure you have your stuff like same day. Like when I thought I had the regular version that one time and they was like, okay, two to three days.
00:07:04
Speaker
When I got business, they was like, y'all, you can get today. We'll send it to you today right now. Okay. Just be there. We'll, we'll get it to you. You know, so like Amazon prime really prioritizes businesses and I just recommend having the Amazon prime business account or Amazon prime account period so that you can get your stuff delivered to you on time, every time, whenever you need it.
00:07:29
Speaker
Another thing that I recommend that I love that makes my life easy is Microsoft Office. Now y'all, we all been using Microsoft Office. I hope you've been using Microsoft Office like basically your whole computer life, but I'm gonna tell you something. I used to hate on teams all the time. I was like, man, please, I'm getting a Zoom or I'm gonna do a Google video or whatever Google calls their thing.
00:07:52
Speaker
I was going to be on that, but let me tell you something. I got a hold of that teams. And when I tell you teams make life so much easier and then you could have conversations with your clients via teams, like you could have a video chat with them and then you could turn around and have like a chat, like an ongoing chat with them. And you can make a phone call out to them without having to use your personal phone number.
00:08:17
Speaker
All of this in one app where Google is like, Google voice, Google chat, Google this, Google that. I'm like, it's too many apps to have to jump through to get from here to there to there to here. When all I have to do is just log into my Microsoft office suite and I have everything I need. And now with Microsoft, they have a cloud where you can pull that, pull your documents out of your cloud. So if I'm working on
00:08:42
Speaker
something in you know in excel where i'm like you know working on a formula sheet for my client i can pull that down from my without having to pick up my laptop and open it up i can literally access it from my phone because they have the apps for your phone they have the apps for your computer they have it for your.
00:09:00
Speaker
iPad or whatever else you use. They make it incredibly easy for you to access all of your documents all at one time. So I recommend, I have a yearly subscription to Microsoft Office. I love it. It is everything. So I highly, highly recommend if you do not have a Microsoft Office subscription, get the entire suite. Teams are bomb, y'all. I know that we used to hate teams, but teams are really amazing. I love it. It's super easy to use.
00:09:25
Speaker
And you could keep everything organized all at once and zoom is crazy and zoom is zoom, but that's one less subscription. So if you're paying for a Microsoft Office suite subscription, why pay for zoom? You can literally shrink your expenses down to nothing.
00:09:44
Speaker
or less, you can shrink it down less without having to pay for a Zoom subscription and a Microsoft Office subscription and this and that. Microsoft Office offers you everything all at once. You can have your video chats with your clients. You can have an ongoing chat with them. You could keep all your documents there. It's amazing. Get Microsoft Office.
00:10:06
Speaker
I am a fan of anything that has a cloud. I love cloud stuff, y'all. Really, honestly, I'm a fan that the cloud has made my life immensely easy, where I can access it. So I have a cloud account. So with my Microsoft Office account, it gives you a terabyte of memory so you can pull anything out of that cloud.
00:10:30
Speaker
I also have a subscription with Apple. You can pull anything out of that cloud so you can access stuff. I love how Apple makes everything integration seamlessly. You can go from working on your phone to working on your computer to working on your MacBook to working on your iPad or any other Apple device very easily. You can pull this stuff out of the cloud, y'all. I love having a cloud. I love it. I love that they created that.
00:10:57
Speaker
because the cloud just makes life so much easier. And as a business owner, to be able to access anything at any time, you know, I had a client email me or text me yesterday, I was like, Hey, how much you think I should sell my product for? I'm like, wait, let me go pull up your cost analysis sheet. I did that cost analysis sheet on my MacBook, I was able to go into my cloud and open it up.
00:11:18
Speaker
and look at it on my phone and give her a quick message right back and she was pleased. I was so happy because the cloud makes your life easy y'all. It really does. It just makes it so much easy. So I suggest working with the cloud system because clouds make everything better.
00:11:35
Speaker
The next thing I love is Gusto. Gusto is a payroll and HR system. I love Gusto. If you have to hire a contractor, a new 1099, they make it easy for you to pay these people via Gusto. And it makes it
00:11:54
Speaker
It's easy for the person that's receiving the payment from you through gusto to receive it. I mean, it is seamless. I have gotten paid under a 1099 contract from a client and it was amazing. I mean, super amazing to get paid that easily through gusto.
00:12:11
Speaker
And for me, as I am hiring, it makes it very easy to do your HR, your payroll and your benefits with just a few clicks. Like guys, it took me nothing to sign my business up and get all of the information in to get payroll going and make it work for my company. So I love Gusto. It's a couple of other options out there like ADP, but Gusto is super affordable, really, really easy to use. You can talk to anybody.
00:12:38
Speaker
their customer service is just like second to none like they're just amazing like I love gusto highly highly recommend you use gusto for your payroll and HR needs and finally coming down to my last thing that I love my favorite things business edition is my planners y'all I got three planners and I'm gonna tell you why because I love all my planners
Personal Planning Strategies
00:13:02
Speaker
But not because I love my planners, but my planners really helped me keep my life organized. So my first planner that I have recommended and talked about and hyped and harped and jumped up and down and screamed and rolled and spit about.
00:13:18
Speaker
is my fresh start planner. Guys, the fresh start planner is absolutely amazing. It is super detailed. I went on a huge budget like tangent last year. I was on top of my money like I have never been on top of my money before.
00:13:38
Speaker
This budget planner is amazing. It helps me sit down, look at my money, look at how much is coming in, look at what my bills are due, look at what's coming in, what's coming out, what am I spending money on the most. It challenged me. It made me confront myself in ways that I never have before financially.
00:13:55
Speaker
I have been able to really take a hard look at my money and really not only just look at my money, but really accomplish my money goals, the things that I want to do with my life and with my money. And this planner really took me to the next level. I love Fresh Start. It is the bomb planner and I recommend it. I actually did a giveaway and I gave away this planner
00:14:21
Speaker
to someone because I really believe in this planner and I absolutely love it. I highly recommend that you get this budget planner and they actually have a digital version where you can keep the planner in your pocket y'all like that's how bomb it is so amazing.
00:14:39
Speaker
My next planner is the book planner. This plans my entire life. This has everything in it. I love it because I can go day to day. I can talk about what I want to accomplish for the day. It helps me to slow down, think out what my goals are, what my accomplishments were, what I got done, what I need to continue to get done. It made me look at my entire year and say I'm going on vacation.
00:15:03
Speaker
four times this year, this year, to sit down and do whatever I need to do. I love, love, love this planner. It is so detailed, so thought out, will, will, will organize. And finally, my last planner, because yes, I have three planners, is the cosmetic concept, a planner for product development. So guys, as you know, I am a formulation chemist.
00:15:29
Speaker
I am always developing products, always. I am literally always somewhere formulating something for someone and so I have to keep in order what I'm formulating, who I'm formulating for, how do I keep all of my things in contact,
00:15:47
Speaker
Am I following the protocols? Which manufacturer I need to talk to? All of these things. This planner is phenomenal for anybody that is developing a product. Guys, you need to make the investment to purchase this planner. If you are a beauty entrepreneur, you are in the beauty industry, you are looking for something that's going to help you be detailed, organized,
00:16:11
Speaker
stay on track with your chemist, stay on track with making sure that you are labeling your products correctly, your release dates, what's dropping when. I mean, this is, y'all, I can't talk enough about this planner. This planner is so amazing. Like Cynthia really took her time to really design this planner out for anybody that's developing a product or looking to develop a product. It goes through marketing. It talks about
00:16:39
Speaker
Product testing it talks about I mean, it's just oh my goodness I can go on and on and on about this product and I ain't like you'll see me in my Instagram feed talk about it often But I really want to recommend if you are a beauty entrepreneur and you're needing a planner you need to stay organized you're trying to release a product you have released a product whatever you need this and
00:17:02
Speaker
You need, you need, you need this planner. And this is one of my favorite business things because it helps everybody stay organized, including myself. So I think, yeah, this is the end of my list. These are my favorite things, y'all. This is all of the things that I love and I enjoy that makes my life easier as an entrepreneur. I'm pretty sure I got some more favorite things that I just haven't listed. Audible is another favorite thing that helps me
00:17:27
Speaker
stay on top of my feet and learn as I am in my lab working. It helps me to think through some things as I'm doing what I'm doing. So I love having Audible and having the Audible subscription. Obviously podcasts, any podcasts, apps. I use the Apple phone, so Apple Podcast is always amazing. Spotify, wherever you find your podcasts are amazing. Yeah, I think that's it, y'all.
00:17:54
Speaker
Yeah, I think this is it. I think we come to the end of my favorite things. So if I have anything else, I'll let y'all know. But yeah, these are my favorite things that makes my life easier as a business owner.
Audience Engagement and Contact Info
00:18:08
Speaker
So I will link everything that I mentioned and talked about in my show descriptions. Please click these links. They will take you directly to where you can actually sign up for these things if you're interested in any of the things that I listed.
00:18:23
Speaker
And yeah, guys, that's that for this podcast. So I hope you all enjoy it. I hope you learned something. And if you're interested in learning more or you have any questions for me, you can always email me at a Leon, I need a show at gmail.com. I am your fav chemist on all of the social media platforms. So it's very easy for you to find me. And as always, y'all be blessed.