Technology Tools I Use in my Business – Part 2

I have mentioned Todoist before here on the blog. With the current number of to-do list apps on the market, it can be overwhelming to find the right one that will work for you. I have tried many before settling on Todoist. I like the clean, uncluttered interface Todoist has. It makes it easy to create and see my projects and tasks. I also like that you can add notes and attach files to any task.

Using Todoist, you can add tasks via email and create project templates. Creating templates will help you save time when you have repetitive projects. You can also set email and mobile reminders for upcoming tasks. Moreover, you can track your productivity rate.

Although Todoist is primarily a task management app, it can also be used as a project management tool. I use Todoist with my assistant and others who work on projects with me. All those involved with any project can see who is assigned to what task, as well as which tasks have been completed and which have not. All communication between people involved in any project occurs in Todoist saving you the hassle of searching for emails in your inbox.

Moreover, Todoist has automatic backups and it syncs to all your devices. Todoist has a free version, and their paid version is only $29/year.

20. LastPass

I don’t want to even guess how many passwords I have – dozens, maybe even over 100. With that many passwords, and how vulnerable one is when using weak passwords, I am grateful for LastPass. With LastPass, all you have to remember is one master password, which gives you access to all your passwords for your natural health business or therapy practice.

Many of the therapists and health professionals I talk to don’t use secure passwords, which is quite risky. Here is some interesting data for you on how long it takes for a computer to crack a password:

• 6 characters, all lowercase: 10 minutes
• 6 characters, all uppercase: 10 hours
• 7 characters, numbers and symbols: 4 years
• 8 characters, numbers and symbols: 463 years
• 9 characters, numbers and symbols: 44, 530 years!!

If that doesn’t encourage you to create strong passwords, nothing will!

Because you don’t have to remember your passwords when using LastPass, you can create complex and long passwords that are more secure. In fact, LastPass even creates secure passwords for you.

There is a free version that you can begin with. I use the $12/yr option and that suits my needs.

21. vCita

vCita is the online calendar that I currently use. It has a lot of advanced features that other online calendars don’t have. Since I work with people from many different countries, I like that when clients book their appointments they book in their own time zone but the time shown for me is my time zone.

Clients can set and reschedule appointments anytime from any device, and can even register for classes via vCita. vCita has a cool widget that you can place on the corner of your website, inviting clients to book an appointment. You can manage your clients and your communication with them through the vCita app. You can also share files with them.

Online payments are also possible. You can send invoices or receipts from vCita. Finally, vCita has a document sharing feature where you can share files with therapy clients.

vCita is HIPPA compliant providing privacy and security for those of you who are therapists.

Another calendar that I have heard good things about is Get timely. I don’t think it has as many features as vCita, but you might want to check it out as well.

 

22. Boomerang for Gmail 

Do you ever wish that you could schedule an email to be sent at a later date? Or wish you had a specific tool to remind you if you haven’t heard back from someone after you sent them an important email? I found the perfect tool that does both of these things. It is called Boomerang and it is an amazing tool that works with Gmail.

Boomerang gives you the freedom to schedule email messages to be sent at specific times. In addition, you can track important messages with its follow-up reminder feature. You can also set it to remind you if people do not reply to your emails so you can be sure that you won’t to forget to follow up with them.

Using Boomerang, you can attach a note to the message as you schedule it. When the message returns to your inbox at the time you specify, Boomerang will show you the private note you added to the message, giving you the context you need to take the next step.

Boomerang can be accessed using your desktop or mobile device. There is a free version and the paid version starts at $4.99 per month.

23. Grammarly

Grammarly is not really an organizational tool, but it is a great tool to help you with grammar and spelling when you are writing. When you write as much as I do for my blog, social media and for my clients it helps to have this tool to catch any writing mistakes.

Grammarly was created by the world’s leading authorities on linguistic technology. They claim that it “corrects over 250 types of grammatical mistakes while also catching contextual spelling errors and poor vocabulary usage.”

Grammarly eliminates errors and enhances clarity and meaning to your content by finding the perfect word with its context-optimized synonym suggestions.

One of my favorite features is that you can set Grammarly to check your mistakes when writing on the web – Gmail, WordPress, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and nearly anywhere else you write on the web.

It is not a perfect tool as I find it is sometimes inaccurate, but it can certainly help ensure you make fewer writing mistakes and help you become a better writer. It has a free version and a more advanced premium version. I use the latter.

Website Membership Software

24. WishList Member

Wishlist Member is a popular tool for those who wish to add a membership site to their WordPress website. You can also use it to deliver online courses. Its features include having unlimited membership levels,  easy member management with individual member passwords, sequential content delivery, control viewed content, shopping cart integration and password protection for your content. Wishlist also integrates with most of the popular email delivery systems.

WishList has been around for many years now. You can find other similar tools out there, but I still find it meets my needs.

Audio and Video Tools

25. Screenflow

ScreenFlow  is the best screencasting and video editing software for Mac. I use it for screen recording when I record slide presentations or when I want to record myself talking on my webcam. Screenflow can also be used for editing videos. I have used it when editing some of the videos for The Ask Juliet & Clinton Show.

After you’re done with your screencast, you can export your video directly to Dropbox, Facebook, Google Drive, Vimeo, Wistia or YouTube.  For those of you who work on a PC, Camtasia  is a similar app, that now also has a version for Mac.

26.  Jing and Snagit

Jing and Snagit are both tools for capturing images and recording audios or videos of your screen. Jing is free and its features are limited, so I use Snagit – it cost me $49.95.

Snagit allows you to create longer videos than Jing and also allows you to edit them. Snagit has very good markup features so you can use things like arrows and text to demonstrate what you want to emphasize in your image. You can also capture a full web page even if it the entire page is not showing on the screen.

I use Snagit almost daily to share images with my clients when giving feedback on their websites, especially after I have written the copy on their websites and want to make sure their web designer formats it properly.

I also use Snagit to create video tutorials for tasks that I want my assistant to do. Moreover, I use it when communicating with my own web developer as it is faster and easier than writing down directions.

Snagit offers a free 30-day trial.

27. Vimeo 

Vimeo is a tool you can use to store/host the videos you take. It supports different kinds of file formats and it gives you tools so you can make your videos look great on the web.

You can always upload and share videos via YouTube, but your videos look better on Vimeo. You can set a thumbnail from the video to show a frame from your video or create a separate image to show before the video starts. Vimeo allows you to track the statistics of how many times your video has been played and has many other features.

I use Vimeo for hosting videos that I create for my courses. Vimeo has a basic, free version. I use the pro version which is $69/yr.

28. Call Recorder

Call recorder is a simple, yet wonderful tool for recording audio or video on Skype or Facetime. We use Call Recorder with the split video screen option when we record The Ask Juliet & Clinton Show. I also use it when audio recording episodes of the Businesses in Bloom Podcast. Call Recorder is only available for Mac.

29. AudioAcrobat

It seems like I have been using  AudioAcrobat forever. I used to use it when I recorded teleseminars, but I usually do webinars instead now. These days I use AudioAcrobat mostly to record client calls that are held on the phone. This allows my clients to listen to the recordings after the call so they can retain more information. I also use it when interviewing my copywriting clients so that I can listen to the recording if I need to before I begin to write their copy.

While I don’t use it for this purpose, you can also host your audios and videos on AudioAcrobat. It is always best to host audios and videos off of your website as they take up a lot of space and can slow your website down.

 30. Libysn

Libysn is a podcasting hosting service that I use for both of the podcasts I do. It is one of the most popular podcast hosting platforms. It provides everything your podcast needs including publishing tools, media hosting and delivery, RSS for iTunes, stats, apps for Apple, Android & Windows devices. I could host my podcasts on AudioAcrobat, but Libysn is better suited for podcasts.

 

 31. Auphonic

Auphonic is a podcasting production tool that allows you to automatically balance the audio levels between speakers, normalize loudness, reduce background noise and hums, etc. I don’t have the time to learn how to do all these things manually, nor the budget to hire experts to do them, so Auphonic makes it easy to improve the sound of my podcasts.

That about sums up the tools I use. There are a few more that I didn’t mention because I don’t use them often. I also didn’t include the plugins I use on my WordPress website. I will leave the latter for another article.

One can spend hours researching tools trying to figure out the best one for your business or therapy practice. I hope this 2-part review of the tools I use saves you some time in your search.