Resources, Tools & Recommendations

I've been with Bluehost for over 15 years if you can believe it! I've moved many a client there as well. They are one of the oldest, reliable and cost-effective host providers out there. It gives you great bang for your new start-up buck and gives you a little more for your base package than other companies. It's a reliable option to get your business started especially for my Canadian friends.

This is, by far, my favourite website building tool. It's a suite of products geared towards building your own theme, sales pages, tripwires, and banners, pop-ups, countdowns and more.. It even has its own course/membership builder that integrates with WooCommerce perfectly. It's THE best way to start off on the right foot and growing your website with strategy.

One of my essential plugins of my custom tech stack I install for all of my client websites as well as my own. The free version will be enough as you get started and you can be on step ahead of keeping your website safe from being hacked.

Thinking of opening a store? It's no surprise WooCommerce is a top choice. With some planning, this may be a way to get started to selling on your site. With the amount of integrations and variations, WooCommerce is an essential tool.

I love Dubsado. It's the best investment I've ever made in my business and I've never looked back. It gives you the essential scheduler, but also helps you build your contracts, invoices, onboarding forms easily, getting you from discovery call, to signing, to getting paid in one day. My clients love how easy it is. I really think you won't regret it and you can set up 3 clients for free. What are you waiting for!?

I've tried many email providers and worked with many with my clients, but ActiveCampaign, although a little higher on the price side, is still my favourite. It's robust and integrates well with Thrive Themes or any plug-in to connect with your WordPress site. The user experience is excellent and helps you build automations quickly. Out of all email host providers, this is one of the most user-friendly ones I know that you can grow with.

Who doesn't love Canva! I have to say, as a part-time graphics designer, I was very used to building in Photoshop, but Canva has definitely grown leaps and bounds to make it easy for anyone to get great graphics for websites and social media among many other things and a great way to collaborate with my team.

This saves me so much time — all of my tutorial videos are made with Loom. You can do clip editing as well as edit the auto-generated transcript. You can download your video & upload it to any other place to host your video, like YouTube. I also use it to show clients DIY tips & answering questions in between meetings.

Divi has come a long way and is one of the most popular themes and page builders out there. It's a solid alternative to Thrive Themes helping you build and highly customize your website to your brand. Take it for a spin through their live demo and see how you like it. Also great? It's a cost-effective option.

Many a web designer loves Elementor. The free version is for you to get your feet wet and lacks a lot of functionality. The Pro version will help you to build your own theme for a highly customized site. If you've given other options a test drive, try out Elementor. It might just be your cup of tea.

The super popular ConvertKit is a great email host provider to get started and grow your email list. It integrates quite well with WordPress and is one of the more robust without breaking your bank options out there to help you build pop-ups, automations and segmentation. ConvertKit might be your language!

MailChimp has come a long way over the years and may have built a bit of a bad rep if you've seen it from the ground up. But it has grown and changed a lot and as a start-up, is a good option to build with, get acquainted with email list building. The free version keeps it simple until you're ready go big.

This goes deeper into really building wealth — and what that means — into your life so that you can serve with clarity and get past the hang ups you might have about building a service-based business. Think you're not good enough? This one's for you.

I love me some clean and clear! Not the face wash, but in throwing out the unnecessary, the extraneous and the overthinking to always focus on the simple things in life and business. To keep your eye on the prize and not lose your way with just the essentials.

This is a great read with practical and real examples of business owners either starting new and revisiting their business idea or process after not seeing any increase in sales or growth. It's a fantastic read to get you thinking and seeing your business with some fresh eyes to build it your way.

I often suffer from imposter syndrome. But reading this book and doing the Strengthsfinder test really helped me to see that the things that I thought were weaknesses were actually strengths to capitalize on. It helped me throw away the 'Maybe I should do this job instead!' thoughts and gave me direction — and courage — to move forward.