As a content creator and business educator, there’s a lot of software and apps I use to run my business. Pretty much everything in my business is online based at this point – between digital products, courses, and affiliate income. Today, I’m sharing 15 apps and programs I use almost everyday to run my business and brand! It sounds like a lot – I won’t be taking a deep dive into them all, but we have a lot of tutorials for them (and affiliate links, too if we have them!). Be sure to check all of the links out under each program. Let’s get started! 

#1: Honeybook

Honeybook is a client management software that allows you to send questionnaires, invoices, and contracts. While my client work has gone down in the last several months, I still love Honeybook for the work I DO still do. I loved it for years as a full-time photographer and I still find it useful. It’s super intuitive and keeps everything organized. Get 50% off your first year with this link! Honeybook allowed me to automate so much of my business thanks to it’s workflows and templates, so make sure to check it out. 

#2: Later

The second program we use around here is Later. If you’ve been around here for awhile, you probably know how much I love to use Later for scheduling Instagram accounts. I use it for my personal account (Stephanie Kase) and our educational account (Stephanie Kase Education). We have tutorials for this software HERE and HERE. THe software is free, so you can start using it today!

#3: Canva

The next program that we use every day is Canva! It’s another free software (sign up here!). I like to refer to Canva as a really easy version of Photoshop. If you hear the word “Photoshop” and get scared, definitely try using Canva if you need graphics. You can upload your own brand and fonts to make graphics, which makes it even easier. I love creating templates here and swapping them out regularly for new content. It’s super helpful and saves us so much time. 

#4: Flodesk 

I use Flodesk for my email marketing! This probably should have been my first program listed because I’m obsessed with it. I LOVE this software for our email marketing and it’s great for beginner brands. You can start using Flodesk for 50% off with my link here! There’s so many great options – including segments, tags, and workflows. Flodesk is really intuitive and easy to use. See our tutorial!

#5: Trello

Another free program we love is Trello. Trello is one of the best inventions ever, seriously. You can use it for business and your personal life! You can create to do lists within to do lists and organize them all. It’s amazing. Our team uses it a lot for our weekly planning, so we don’t forget anything we need to do. We also use it for content calendar planning and it helps us make sure our platforms are updated regularly! Our entire team can use Trello to stay updated on our workflows. Check out our content planning Trello templates here!

#6: Descript

This is a newer software to us, but I love Descript (see our tutorial here!). We use this for our video and podcast editing. You can upload a video or audio file, then it turns it into a text file transcription. From there, you can quickly remove words or gaps you need to edit out. Descript makes it super easy to remove those filler words and gaps with just a few clicks. Major time saver! When I’m done cleaning up the video, I can export it directly to Final Cut Pro and then finish editing. Seriously, it saves so so much time. 

#7: Showit 

Showit is our website platform. We LOVE it. It’s super easy because it’s drag and drop, which means that customization is quick and easy. The website will publish exactly as you see it on the backend and it just makes website updates stress-free. I use Elizabeth McCravy templates on Showit (12% off her templates here!) and then I also link to my WordPress blog. If you want to see more about website customizations, check out my tutorial here. Her templates help you get a high end custom website look quickly. They’re all so beautiful! Showit essentially hosts the website – get a FREE month here! 

#8: Epidemic Sound

If you’ve ever wanted or needed to use royalty-free music, check out Epidemic Sound. We use these sounds for YouTube and Reels (occasionally). But it’s so nice to be able to grab music that we know we can use. 

#9: Inshot

I use InShot to edit my short form videos on the go.I’ve been using InShot for several years now and I absolutely love it. You can use the free version or pay $35 for lifetime access (which gives you everything without restrictions). There’s so many great tools, so I recommend signing up and paying but you can use some of them for free! Check out our recent tutorial here. 

InShot for Apple / InShot for Android

#10: Kajabi

Now we’re getting into the software that deals with our online products and courses. I was given the recommendation of using Kajabi back in 2020 when I started with my online products. It’s always been SUPER helpful to use for my templates and products, so I’m glad I decided to use it early on for our shop. It’s really been a great fit and makes it easy for both us and our customers. Try a month free HERE. 

#11: Zapier

Zapier is such an interesting program because it helps connect software together. Basically, I like to think of it as a little employee that helps you link up software. It just alleviates having to do some of the things you need to do manually. For example, when someone signs up for our Reels Mini Course in Kajabi, Zapier helps notify Flodesk and puts someone on the segment for that product so they won’t receive sales emails about that product anymore and we can respect their invoice. We no longer have to spend our time adding them or removing them from those segments in Flodesk. It’s amazing! 

#12: Deadline Funnel

If you’ve ever heard me talk about automated sales funnels, this is what Deadline Funnel is used for. When someone gets an email with a product on sale for 24 hours (maybe they joined our email list!), Deadline Funnel creates that limited sale for you – without you having to set it manually every time. It makes it super easy to create sales funnels with limited sales. 

#13: Xero

Program #13 is Xero! I don’t actually personally use this often, but my bookkeeper does. I go in occasionally for my P&L statements. My bookkeeper Madison uses this software to organize our income and expenses, so this is more for them. But, I know it’s easy to use and gives us the reports we need. 

#14: Gusto

Now that I have a team, Gusto has been a lifesaver for payroll and HR documents for our employees. Gusto also works super well with Xero, which is amazing. It’s helped me, Madison, and Tori keep everything organized for our employees and makes collaborations between us super easy. 

#15: Slack

This is one of the most used programs for our team. We use Slack every single day. It’s a messenger system for all of us to communicate about what’s going on. All of our team members are in the software and then added to various different conversations (or channels) that are pertinent to them. It makes it super easy for us to chat about what’s going on. I love organizing all of the topics we’re working on for me and Maggie especially. It means we can focus on what we need when we need. 

Those are the 15 apps and programs we use to run the Stephanie Kase brand every day. We truly love these softwares and I hope that you’ll find them helpful. Remember to check out the links and tutorials above for each one. 

PS. We’ve started a podcast! If you haven’t checked it out yet, now is the time!

This has been such a fun project since maternity leave and I hope you’ll tune in. If you’re listening and you have ideas about what to talk about next, please send in your requests! I really do want to know what you want to hear about in future episodes. Email me at [email protected] with your questions!! I can’t wait to hear from you!