remote resources
Geniusly remote-friendly apps to simplify your workflow
Made for solopreneurs, freelancers, remote teams, and remote organizations
virtual communication
Say it with a video. Loom has been a crucial part of my freelancing career and essential to working remotely. With Loom you can record a video of just you, you and your screen, or just your screen and send your client or team a link that’s stored on the web so it doesn’t clog up your computer. This is how I’ve presented all my work to my clients and given teammates status updates on collaborative projects.
The best part is that you can present your work without getting interrupted, plus you know when your client has viewed the video or not because Loom automatically sends you an email once it’s been viewed. I’ve also used loom in a means to send friends and family a video voicemail over a voice note. You can communicate so much more effectively with loom!
Loom
free trial
virtual communication
Life saving app I use again and again. Otter not only lets you record voice notes but TRANSCRIBES them. Have an interview coming up? Let otter.ai take your notes for you. Did a great idea just pop into your head? Hit record and otter will write it down for you.
On an 8 hour road trip through Utah I was able to write over 30 instagram captions just by talking to Otter in the car. You can have collaborative notes with a remote team or share them with anyone you want. Use my link and receive one month free of their premium service.
Otter
free trial
virtual communication
One button. No noise. Any device. Mute all background noise in any communication app. Working from home and your dog starts barking? Working in a noisy cafe? You could even simply walk the Parisian streets and take a call with this handy app and no one would ever know.
Speak without noise and listen without noise on any device and over 800 apps. It’s a remote workers lifesafer, so you can make sure your calls are crystal clear whatever the hiccup in the background could be.
Krisp
free trial
virtual communication
The slack alternative for teams that want to prioritize clarity. While Slack is useful, Twist has found a way to take real time messaging and organize it into effective workflows for remote teams. With Twist you can replace 100% of your internal emails and group chats instead of having long email chains with lost information, and cluttered chats. Conversations are organized into threads in a very
simple layout and accessible in one single place so no information goes missing and no employee feels out of the loop. You can follow conversations from start to finish and invite the right people to join in them. Grow a centralized, searchable source of team knowledge that builds itself. And focus on the work you actually want and need to do without worrying about missing something important.
Twist
free trial
The all-in-one workplace for your notes, tasks, wikis, and databases. Unlike the others, with Notion you can keep all your copywriting in one place and share them with your remote team. You can’t store big files in Notion like the others but you can integrate Notion with Google Drive, Evernote, Trello, and Asana.
notion.so
With box all your documents are encrypted and you can grant and revoke user permissions at your discretion. A single place to manage, secure, share and govern all the content for your internal and external collaboration process with your remote team from anywhere in the world.
box
Best for storing, sharing, and accessing large creative files. Easy to use and can be stored on your computer as well as in the cloud. Enable auto-sync to migrate files while you sleep. Remote teams can stay organized, focused, and always be in sync with each other.
dropbox
Share documents, presentations, and spreadsheets across multiple team members on multiple devices. Sync it to your desktop and store your creative files as well as paper documents with a perfectly structured folder system that you can view without a browser.
Google drive
safe & sound
for keeping all of your files
For your contracts, invoicing, proposals, taxes, time tracking, and more
Bonsai
The all-in-one freelancing software that helps you get paid faster with brilliant automation. No really, Bonsai is a dream. I’m all about using less applications so I can keep everything in one place. Bonsai empowers you to run your business smoothly and not let adulting cause overwhelm or panic. Send client proposals, statement of work, contracts, invoices, expenses, time tracking, tasks, accounting, and even taxes in one place.
They have designed templates or add your own branding. Add single or multiple package options to your proposals for your clients to choose from and a great way to upsell. Get notified when your proposal is viewed and accepted from any device, anywhere in the world. Bonsai helps you get paid in over 180 currencies (whoa) which is essential for any remote worker, team, or company. All of this starting at $19/month which is ridiculously cheaper than any of its competitors that offer less than half of Bonsai’s features.
Competitors
Contracts and Invoicing : Dubsado, Honeybook, 17hats, Contractista, Invoicera
Time-tracking: Connecteam, Toggl, Timely, Proofhub, RescueTime, Harvest
Accounting: Quickbooks, Freshbooks, FreeAgent, Xero, Wave Financial, Nutcache
For keeping all your tasks, deadlines, and brilliant ideas in one place
Asana
Out of all the project management services out there in the market, Asana comes on top to organize, track, and manage work––all in their free version. Suitable for all, it helps store creative brain dumping, deadlines, research, progress, and workflows. While the app offers a variety of templates (list, board, timeline, calendar, progress, forms, and more) I suggest starting with a clean slate and organizing information that works for you.
There is SO much flexibility inside Asana that I wasn’t aware of for almost a year and felt that I was stuck to their templates which can be a bit of a learning curve. Treat it like a well oiled task manager machine or notebook of to-do lists and virtual sticky notes. Like my drag and drop weekly calendar (daily tasks just aren’t my thing), the same board view organized by category and task, and brian dumping of ideas in a list. Of course if you’re managing a remote team, Asana makes it easy to keep track of approaching deadlines, assign work to employees, and have conversations directly inside each task. Asana also has over 100 integrations so you can have everything in one.
Competitors
Monday
Trello
FunctionFox
Workzone
Airtable, Basecamp, Hubstaff Tasks
For all your calendar scheduling needs on any time zone
Acuity
Your virtual assistant working 24/7 to fill your schedule with paying clients. With Acuity you can book more clients, get paid on time, and have it all automated. Clients and team members can quickly view your real-time availability and self-book their own appointments. Whether you're a freelancer, coach, or business owner of a remote company Acuity comes on top as the best professional and easy to use calendar scheduling app.
Acuity auto adjusts for time zones and lets clients easily cancel and reschedule themselves and automatically sends you an update and reminder (via text or email, your choice). Upon booking you have the option to have them fill out an intake form when scheduling and keep information in one place. Acuity is completely customizable so you can send branded and professional confirmations, reminders, follow ups, membership subscriptions, and even pay online with one click (via Stripe, Square, or Paypal). This beautiful automated-booking-calendar has integrations with Zapier, Convertkit, Zoom, Google Sheets and many more to make workflows seamless. Perfect for the remote worker, they offer free monthly plans up to powerhouse players depending on the size of your business needs. Oh, did I mention you can embed Acuity Scheduling directly onto your website?
Competitors
Calandly
Zen Planner
Bookafy
SimplyBook.me Honeybook
For complete workflow automation and give time back
Zapier
Create workflows called “Zaps” by integrating over 2,000 apps in one place. Zaps connect your apps to automate repetitive tasks so you can focus on other work. Connect any apps related to your business, watch the automation happen right before your eyes and save you loads of time. You choose a trigger by picking an event in an app that starts your Zap like receiving a new lead or an email. Then choose an action: Zapier will pull the information from that lead (say from Facebook) and enter the information into your chosen app (like any email platform) on your behalf. It’s like having a virtual assistant where you just have to connect the dots and automation you want between all the applications you’re already using. You can have Zapier enter your new lead into your email database, a spreadsheet, asana board, google drive, and even create follow up emails and tasks. The skies the limit with getting back your time and creating insanely effective workflows.
Competitors
Integromat
Automate
Microsoft Flow
Workato
project management & time tracking
productivity &
Organization
Scheduling &
calendar booking
Workflow
automation
project
management
organization
& storage
scheduling
& booking
contracts
& invoicing
adobe creative cloud
Full collective suite of leading creative software for the advanced creatives from photo editing in LightRoom to creating beautiful Ebooks in Indesign
Invision
App
Create your website, wireframe, mock-up, or prototype, keep it stored all in one place and share it with teams.
canva
A drag and drop graphic design best used for digital marketing and social media content and sharing with teams (need to resubmit to get affiliate once site is live)
figma
Primarily web based vector graphic editor and prototyping tool. Build better products as a team and gather feedback all in one place.
Premier
rush
A beginners mobile app to video editing. Edit your video on your app or on desktop with simple video editing features that won’t leave you overwhelmed
My Spotify playlists that are always on repeat
listening!
tune in
Stuck scrolling for the perfect song? I have a list for every #mood. Empower your workflow, road trip tunes, self-care zen, and weekend grooves.
happy
Workflow magic
road trip tunes
self-care zen
weekend groove
Stuck scrolling for the perfect song?
I have a list for every #mood. Empower your workflow, road trip tunes,
self-care zen, and weekend grooves.
Lyricless Brilliance
Pixie Dust
Simpler Times
Happy Car
8D Relaxation
Angel Wings
Mystic
Mental Instrumental
all the feels
Resting Heart
Feelings
gridpost
Cutstory
unfold
over
Make a visual impact with premium templates, tips, tricks, and design hacks to help you stand out from the crowd. This app is like photoshop in your hand with free stock and templates to use.
Upload your photos and turn your panoramas into a breathtaking carousel or stylish grids for your instagram page
Upload any length of video, trim the length, speed, add music, and then export it into the exact increments needed for social (15 seconds for instagram)
Create your own story with over 200 templates to choose from, add text, stickers, video, and edit with 15 filters and effects.
mojo
create stunning video stories by adding animated templates to your media and customize it to your liking with lots of animations and text to choose from
hyperlapse
Ever take a timelapse that’s just too fast? With hyperlapse you can control the speed of your video so you don’t make the audience (and yourself) dizzy
imgplay
Add your edited photos, live photos, bursts, or video into this app and output a stop motion video or your very own gif
Planoly
Manage, plan, schedule and auto post (even your first comment) the content you worked so hard on to instagram. Planoly is a trusted instagram partner so you know you’re in safe hands.
bluehost
First things first, you need to snag a domain and host for your new business. Bluehost makes it easy and quick to get a website up and running with their easy-to-use interface that’s ideal for beginners. I always recommend grabbing a few domain names cause you never know what the future of your brilliant business holds. Bluehost offers a domain free for the first year, free SSL certificate, 1-click wordpress instal and 24/7 support, plus detailed website analytics, marketing tools, security, and data backups all in one place.
podia
Turn your passion into income with this digital storefront from lead generation to a full online store. Start selling online courses, memberships, webinars, audio books, cheat sheets, checklists, video files, and more. You can upsell your customers in simple automation, live chat with them. They even have custom landing pages where you can publish your blog, about, contact, and make beautiful funneled sales pages. There’s endless possibilities with Podia–– and you can still have it under your own custom domain name.
convertkit
Hands down the most effective email marketing platform, trust me I’ve done the research. Although it may not be as pretty as some of the others in the marketplace, it’s best practice to send “white mail” to ensure you get your written email content into your audience’s inbox and not hit spam, or else what’s the point? The segmentation, tagging, A/B testing, automation, lead generation, and even landing pages can all be done in one platform. Having a full view of the analytics of your subscribers is worth it alone.
coschedule
The all-in-one drag and drop marketing calendar to make all your promotions automated and shared on every social channel. Plan projects, collaborate with your team, and keep your content calendar organized all within one single dashboard. Coschedule not only lets you automate content on your social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Tublr), but your blog as well. Schedule your blog article to Wordpress, and your collective creative marketing to each social platform simultaneously. One dashboard, and your entire marketing strategy on one single calendar. Genius. (will add referral after sign up)
tailwind
While you certainly can schedule your pins through other social media schedulers, Tailwind is worth having for Pinterest alone. Whatever your niche, Pinterest is an amazing platform to grab leads and Tailwind helps you schedule your pins, at the best time, and with the best hashtags. You can schedule an entire week of pins in just 20 minutes flat. Easily reshare pins to drive traffic, collaborate with others in your niche, maximize evergreen content, and get analytics on what your audience really wants through Pin testing. (will sign up after launch, it’s through shareasale)
awin
Get started with affiliate marketing through Awin, a global affiliate network that has over 6,000 publishers and growing. You’ll have to apply to each company’s affiliate program individually, but Awin makes it easy to search for your niche, write a message, and apply in a few simple steps. You then can create all your unique links right inside their platform. Make money with every click when you launch your brand.
hit the ground running
for entrepreneurs ready to
Launch your business with these 6 best resources and start making money