Best Online Business Tools For Entrepreneurs

47+ Best Online Business Tools To Use For Entrepreneurs Who Sell Their Expertise

Hundreds of hours.

That amount of time I would have saved for myself if I had known these tools when I started my business online.

Productivity is good, but simplicity is even more important for me.

I tried out many tools and spent way too much money on them to find out what works, and what’s completely unnecessary or just a bunch of neatly packaged crap with great marketing.

Here you can find my recommendations of the best business tools I think an entrepreneur should use in 2024 to grow their business.

It’s categorized, but not sorted in any meaningful way.

And the list is based upon real recommendations, not on how much affiliate revenue they pay if you consider trying some of them out…

Enjoy!

Best Online Business Tools For Operations

1. A Personal Brand

Your personal brand defines how you are seen in the digital world.

If you’re online, you have a personal brand, whether you want it or not. It’s your professional identity.

Your brand’s main goal is to change how other people’s behavior towards you.

This is the only “non-tangible” tool on this list.

2. Carrd

Carrd is a simple, free, fully responsive one-page site builder that’s perfect for creating clean, concise profiles or landing pages for your personal brand or projects.

Don’t let its simplicity fool you. For a small business, it’s more than enough.

Let’s take one of my mentors, Nicolas Cole’s example. With his business partner Dickie they built up Ship 30 for 30 to well over a million dollars in revenue in the first 2 years. Only using Carrd.

3. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is the standard go-to tool for tracking website performance.

You’ll get insights into your audience’s behavior, which can help tailor your operations to what your customers need most.

Free, robust, can anonymize IP addresses to comply with privacy laws. If you have a website, you just need it.

4. G Suite: Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets

G Suite - Instead of Dropbox, Word and Excel

Free version of Word, Excel, and other pricey services.

G Suite covers a suite of tools that facilitate collaboration and data storage.

Google Drive is your cloud-based locker, Google Docs lets you create and share documents, and Google Sheets is ideal for managing and analyzing data sets.

With the cheap business subscription, you can easily have your custom domain email address and manage it right from your Gmail account.

5. Google Meet

When distance is an issue, Google Meet offers reliable video conferencing to keep you connected with your team, clients, and partners.

Simple to use and it works well even for bigger teams. As a small business owner, you don’t need more.

6. Namecheap

My number-one choice for all domain stuff.

Registration or management, Namecheap makes the process simple and affordable, so you can secure the ideal URL for your brand’s website.

As a bonus: I have yet to see any service that updated the domain DNS records faster than them.

7. Notion

Notion is my second brain. I use it for all my information storing needs.

It’s an all-in-one workspace where you can write, plan, and get organized. Highly customizable and can replace multiple other tools you might be using for documentation and project management.

8. Notion Calendar

Notion Calendar

The Notion Calendar function within Notion gives you a visual overview of your timelines, and deadlines, and can track the progress of various projects.

You can integrate your Google and Apple calendars too, so you can see all of your tasks in one place. It handles your call bookings too. Phenomenal tool!

It has a mobile app as well.

9. Google Search Console

Use Google Search Console to measure your site’s search traffic and performance, fix issues, and make your site shine in Google Search results.

It’s among the online business tools all entrepreneurs should use when have a website they hope to get found in search engines.

10. Tally

Creating forms becomes hassle-free with Tally, a tool to build forms for all purposes without knowing how to code, which integrates easily with various platforms.

And why not Typeform?

Most of Tally’s features are free. This makes it a quite helpful tool if you just started.

Show your middle-finger appreciation for other tools’ “10 responses per month” freemium model.

11. Groove Suite

Groove.cm offers a collection of business tools for entrepreneurs ranging from websites and funnel builders to sales systems, all designed to help you drive traffic and convert leads.

It has its own online payment gateway, features like email marketing automation, and lots of other stuff. It’s a complete marketing platform in itself.

12. Stripe

Stripe

Stripe is a payment processing platform that enables you to receive payments online.

I love it for its ease of use.

Let it be an online course, some e-commerce product, membership access or service, in each case you need to receive money. Use this tool and you won’t regret it.

13. Skool

Skool combines courses, community, and coaching to help you build a learning environment around your brand.

It’s like Facebook Group, but it’s good and usable. Easy to set up, has its own payment gateway, and even Alex Hormozi invested in it.

If your business has any community aspect, then you’ll need this tool.

Marketing Tools For Research

14. Google Trends

Explore what the world is searching with Google Trends.

It allows you to see the relative search popularity of topics across different regions and languages.

Especially handy when you’re trying to gauge interest in a product or topic over time.

At Ahrefs Nick Churick wrote an excellent article about how you can use it for keyword research.

15. ChatGPT

ChatGPT, my favorite digital intern…

A conversational AI who’s always happy to help you out, except for Open AI outages…

Use it to generate ideas, proofread content, use it as a coach to learn new things, and get creative with research techniques.

Versatile-enough tool that can help you think outside the box.

16. Perplexity

Perplexity is an AI-powered search engine that lets you ask questions and discover insights in various subjects.

I love it because it gives you detailed answers with citations of the used sources.

Awesome for finding statistics. For me, it replaced Google for just looking for some textual information.

17. Instapaper

I wouldn’t call it a must-have online business tool, but it definitely has its benefits…

With Instapaper, you can save articles, videos, and other content for later review. It’s a digital bookmarking tool that helps ensure you never lose track of valuable online resources.

It comes in handy when you build a streamlined research process for writing new and original content pieces on a regular basis.

18. Detailed SEO Extension

Detailed SEO extension

In my eyes, Glen Allsopp is the king of SEO. His main brand, Detailed, is my number one source for search engine optimization knowledge.

He created the Detailed SEO Extension, a free browser add-on that gives you a peek into the SEO aspects of any page at a glance.

Check important SEO details with ease, from heading structures to link status.

19. Ahrefs

Hands down one of the top online business tools that will help you to get reliable keyword- and backlink data for your content strategy.

Ahrefs is a powerful SEO tool where you can audit your website, explore competitors, research keywords, and much more. If you’re looking to rank higher in search engines, this is your go-to tool.

20. Answer The Public

Use Answer The Public to discover what questions people are asking about any topic.

It visualizes search questions and provides you with a wealth of ideas for content or product development.

Good use cases are getting ideas for social posts or adding frequently asked questions for a comprehensive article.

21. Facebook Ads Library

The Facebook Ads Library gives you an inside look at all ads currently running across Facebook’s platforms.

It’s a treasure trove if you’re researching how competitors are advertising or looking for ad inspiration.

And how to know which ads are profitable?

Simple: you can filter the ads and see only the active ones that are running for at least X months, like 3-5. If an ad runs that long, it’s likely profitable.

Tools You Need For Writing

A good advice for building a simple and great online business: write for free. You’re collecting data points and starting to see how to get your audience’s attention.

So use your head and your notepad. However, there are a huge number of other helpful tools that can aid your writing process.

And the keyword here is aid. Don’t rely on them too much.

22. ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid isn’t just your usual spell checker.

It’s a robust tool that examines your text for clarity, variety in sentence lengths, overused words, and much more.

Think of it as a personal writing coach.

23. Headline Analyzer

With Headline Analyzer, you can craft headlines that grab attention.

It scores your headlines based on factors like word balance, readability, and emotional resonance, helping you optimize for clicks.

24. Koala AI

Koala AI Writer

Koala AI offers you a quick way to automate some of your writing tasks.

It can help with generating content ideas or beefing up sparse articles. Just like the other AI writing tools, this also can’t write a full-fledged article for you.

But it saves a lot of valuable time with your writing process which is gold when you’re starting a business.

25. NeuronWriter

A good alternative to SurferSEO.

NeuronWriter takes the guesswork out of SEO.

It helps you structure your content to answer questions your audience is asking, integrating SEO without sacrificing readability.

You can still purchase a lifetime license at an affordable price from Appsumo.

26. Grammarly

Almost everyone’s heard of Grammarly, and for good reason.

It checks your grammar, sure, but it also provides real-time insights on tone and conciseness, which is perfect for keeping your business writing sharp.

27. Audiopen

Lastly, there’s Audiopen—ideal for when you’re multitasking.

Or when you just simply don’t feel like typing and want to speak instead.

It transcribes your voice into text, so you can draft your next blog post or email while on the go.

Also great for summarizing notes, especially if you’re multilingual.

Tools For Online Media

28. Canva

You can design almost anything with Canva, from social media graphics to presentations.

Its drag-and-drop interface makes it user-friendly, even if you’re not a design pro.

29. Figma

Figma shines for UI/UX design with real-time collaboration.

You can create designs, prototype interactions, and get feedback all in one platform.

Or just create expressive illustrations and simple logos.

30. Photopea

Photopea, the free browser-based Photoshop alternative

Need a web-based editor that feels like Photoshop?

Photopea is your go-to for editing images online, supporting various file formats at no cost.

31. Capcut

Edit videos on the go with Capcut, introducing an easy-to-use mobile platform equipped with robust editing features to polish your videos.

32. Screenflow / Camtasia

For creating professional screencasts and tutorials, software like Camtasia and Screenflow provide comprehensive tools for recording and editing high-quality video content.

Especially when you also need to record your screen.

33. Zight

Instantly capture, edit, and share screen recordings, screenshots, and GIFs with your team and customers.

I love its simplicity.

I just hit the hotkey, take the screenshot, and I immediately can annotate it, then hitting save also uploads the annotated image and copies its public link to my clipboard.

34. YouTube (For Storing Videos)

Finally, YouTube is not only the leading platform for viewing videos but is also ideal for storing and sharing your video content, allowing for broad reach and engagement.

If you want to keep it private, just mark the uploaded video as unlisted and you’re good to go.

Tools For Social Media Marketing

35. Typeshare

Typeshare offers a sleek way to craft and schedule content across your social channels.

It’s about making your writing process more fluid, so you spend less time formatting and more time connecting with your followers.

My favorite part of it is the huge size of viral posts all templatized for you. It makes it really easy to come up with great social posts.

36. X (Twitter)

They argue whether all possible audiences are on X or not.

But we can agree that it’s one of the biggest social platforms out there where intelligent people are sharing their thoughts freely and casually.

You should be there too.

37. TweetHunter

Tweet Hunter

TweetHunter is the hype-man for your X account.

It not only schedules your tweets but also helps in recycling your top content to ensure it gains maximum visibility.

Plus, it assists in maintaining a consistent Twitter presence, even when you’re offline.

It’s not necessary to use it when you start, but later it becomes an invaluable tool to run your business.

38. LinkedIn

For a professional twist, LinkedIn as a platform is indispensable.

With features designed for business-focused networking, you can publish articles, share updates, and showcase your brand’s expertise directly to your industry peers and potential clients.

Business Tools To Streamline Email Marketing

39. ConvertKit

ConvertKit is uniquely designed for creators and online entrepreneurs.

With its intuitive interface, you can quickly build email sequences and tag subscribers based on their actions.

An ideal choice for running sophisticated email marketing campaigns or delivering Educational Email Courses.

40. MxToolbox

Need to verify an email domain’s health?

MxToolbox is your ally. Just enter a domain, and it digs out MX (and other DNS) records, detecting issues that could affect email delivery.

A clean bill of domain health from this tool is a good sign that emails won’t hit the dreaded spam folder.

41. Mail-Tester

Before hitting send on that campaign, check your spam score with Mail-Tester.com.

Simply send your email to the address provided by Mail-Tester.com, and it will assess your email against common spam filters.

It gives you a quick rundown of what’s hot and what’s not in your email setup.

Grow Your Online Business With Blogging

42. WordPress

More than 30% of today’s sites on the internet run on WordPress.

It’s the cornerstone of modern blogging—a robust, user-friendly content management system that powers a significant portion of the web.

This above seems like a really brave statement when you examine its code through modern software development lenses, but oh boy. It works.

With its extensive plugin ecosystem and theme selection, you’re able to customize your blog to your exact specifications.

Even as a complete beginner you’ll get used to its interface and publish your first post in no time.

43. Kadence

Kadence is a WordPress theme. It stands out for its emphasis on speed and accessibility.

The theme is not only lightweight but also highly customizable. That means you can design your blog without touching a single line of code.

Key features like mobile responsiveness and fast loading times can help retain visitors and reduce bounce rates.

44. RankMath

You want traffic from search engines, right?

Then you must optimize your site and content at least in some ways.

RankMath is a WordPress plugin designed to simplify SEO for bloggers.

It lets you optimize your content with targeted keywords, track your Google rankings, and identify any issues that might hold you back from climbing the SERP ranks.

Marketing Software Tools For Outreach

45. Apollo

Apollo.io sales intelligence tool

Apollo stands out as a dynamic sales intelligence and engagement platform.

It’s designed to help you find emails and enhance your sales strategy.

You’ll love its ability to integrate with your CRM and the advanced analytics it provides to refine your outreach campaigns.

My favorite feature is the enrichment: you upload a list of domain names and it looks up all the key employees and decision-makers for each of them.

46. Mixmax

Simple and powerful. It turns your inbox into a powerhouse.

It’s especially handy for scheduling meetings without the back-and-forth emails, tracking email opens, and setting up sequences that automate the follow-up process.

47. ContactOut

ContactOut grants you access to email addresses from various online profiles.

It’s a favorite among recruitment and sales professionals (for a good reason) for its ability to find hard-to-find contact information.

It works surprisingly well compared to other similar services. Plus, you can use it right inside your LinkedIn account. Neat!

That’s it.

My recommendation list for you if you want to start and build up your expertise-based business online in 2024.

I will constantly update this post as I explore and test new tools or gather more data points on using them.

Feel free to bookmark it and use it to your advantage!

Happy business building!

David

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