Tech, Fight, Fight!
(Fellow Red Raiders will get the title.)
When I was building In Your Pocket, I spent a fair amount of time outlining what I’d need to accomplish and the tech that could make it as simple as possible for me. I’m not saying that I have it all figured out, but here’s what I’ve found that works.
Gotta Get That Dough!
Anyone who knows me has probably heard me sigh and say, “Math is tacky.” It’s not that it’s tacky, per se; however, it’s not where my passion lies. A huge part of running a business, though, relies heavily on those numbers. When I was still freelancing, I stumbled across Invoice Simple, and it truly is simple. It’s got a good number of integrations and easily tracks invoices. They’ve also got an option for branding your invoices.
I Like to Do Drawings
^ that is a lie. It’s best to know your limits, and I know that I’m not a design pro. I can give the go-ahead and approve something that looks great, and I try at all costs to not say “make it pop” when giving art direction, but my skill set does not lie within the Adobe suite. While I’m married to a ridiculously talented designer, he has his own job, and I didn’t want to bug him with the day-to day minutiae (although props to him for IYP’s logo and font set!). I knew I needed a simple solution for social and blog graphics. Canva to the rescue! If you’re not familiar, Canva is a one-stop shop with loads of templates for various projects. You can also upload your own fonts and color palettes. I’m sure there’s even more functionality that I haven’t yet explored.
What is Internet?
I’m spending a lot of time in this post talking about where I don’t excel. Let’s turn that narrative around. I knew a website was crucial to In Your Pocket’s success, and Tabitha with A La Mode Media provided just that. I was able to explain to her exactly what I wanted. She took my requirements and, after just a few meetings, the website was good to go. Tabitha also took the time to record how-to videos for me so I could update content on my own. Honestly: Squarespace is great to use. It’s intuitive, it’s powerful, and it’s really not difficult. But like in most instances, it’s good to have a trusted navigator to help. And that’s Tabitha.
Word to Your Mother
Most people I know - me included - are savvy at Microsoft Office programs. After all, that was de rigueur in the workplace for ages. But if you’re able to embrace change and don’t want to pay ridiculous licensing fees, Google Workspace has absolutely everything you need (and, in my opinion, is more robust than Office). You’re able to export files in various formats, so if you’ve got a client who runs exclusively on Office, just export that bad boy as a .doc and you’re good to go.
Welcome to the Future
I tend to be overly verbose. What can I say? I love language. When I heard about Chat GPT, my first thought was “oh my gosh, I will NEVER use that.” Famous last words. While I don’t use it for creating content from scratch (hello, being verbose is apparently my therapy), if I’ve written something and it just isn’t landing, I’ll run it through Bard (or similar) just to see how it could be rewritten, and I’ll tell you: I welcome our new robot overlords.
This is not to say that this tech stack is perfect for everyone. Recognize where your strengths lie, admit where your challenges are, and use the platforms that make sense for you and your business. You don’t have to spend a fortune and you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. I’m curious to see how my thoughts and practices have evolved when I look back on this in a year!
What’s crucial to your tech stack?