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A guide for those new to the sole trader or freelance way of working
This article covers the foundational tools you'll need to get your service-based business up and running, from managing daily operations to delivering your services to clients.
I wrote it because I am acutely aware that when starting out, you just need to… well… start. However, decision paralysis, choice overwhelm and fear of making expensive mistakes can delay you getting stuck into delivering the products and services that will generate the income and experience you need to grow and refine your business.
You can start generating an income before your operational and admin setup is perfect and before the way you deliver your products and services is flawless too. In fact, to learn what resonates with your market, you need to start delivering as soon as possible.
These are the basics I wish someone had told me to get in place before I spent far too long not delivering but dithering on how to run my business.
I am going to take you through:
Step 1: Choosing your Domain (and what even is a domain) and Productivity Platform (google workspace, Microsoft 365, for example)
Step 2: Other Kep Operations and Admin tools to consider, those you can access via your productivity platform and other software I wouldn't be without
Step 3: The software you need to get started with delivering products and services.
Step 4: Other tools that come in handy
Step 5: A handy recap
There's a lot of info here so bookmark this page to come back to as and when you need it.
Let's get started....
Step 1: It Starts with a Domain and a Productivity Platform
With your unique domain name plus a productivity platform like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, you’ll be able to get up and running in no time.
Hosting Your Domain
What is a Domain? Your domain is your unique online address (like yourfabulousbusiness.com), where people find your website and recognise your business.
Why You Need It: Having a domain makes your business look professional, enables custom email addresses (like hello@yourfabulousbusiness.com), and — because you’ve clearly invested in who you are and what you do — builds trust with clients.
Considerations: You can spend a lot of time procrastinating on the right domain name, and that’s understandable: it feels integral to your brand. You are right; you do need a clear brand. But you also need to kick-start your business and get started on generating some income and getting a feel for what does and doesn't work for you and your clients.
If you aren’t sure of the perfect name for your business, go with your name or a combination of your name plus what you do. Focus on simplicity rather than personality for now. You can rebrand later if needed, and you can redirect to your new domain whenever you choose to switch. This means if people are still searching for your old domain, they’ll find you at your new ‘address.’
Paid or Free? Domains typically have a small annual fee. Services like GoDaddy, Wix, and IONOS offer affordable options for new businesses. Some even provide tools to help you choose a domain name that works for you.
Productivity Platform
What is a Productivity Platform? Productivity platforms include tools for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, calendars, contacts, emails, video conferencing, and secure storage. Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are common choices.
Why You Need It: A productivity platform helps you stay organised, communicate effectively, and collaborate easily. Not having a productivity platform would be like someone in the 1980s not having a pen, some paper, somewhere to sit, a Filofax, a Rolodex, a phone, a pager, a dictaphone and a secretarial pool — it’s essential.
If you opt for a lower-tier paid version (rather than free), your productivity platform will include much of the software, storage, and functionality you need to get started right now.
Considerations: If your target market includes larger, more traditional organisations, Microsoft might be the way to go. If you are more creative, collaborative, and agile, Google is intuitive and works well for working on docs with others. If in doubt, choose the one you are most comfortable with and can get started with quickly.
Paid or Free? Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 both offer affordable plans with essential features for small businesses. You will likely want to start with a paid plan, albeit at the more basic end so that you have a decent amount of storage and can utilise your new, shiny domain name, along with many of the other features below that you need if you want to get your business up and running ASAP.
Step 2: Other Key Op and Admin Tools I wouldn't be without when starting out
With your domain and productivity platform in place, you now have access to and the option to personalise many of the other tools you need to get started. Here's a quick list, for reference
Below is more detail on what these things are, which ones to choose and why you need them.
Email Services
What is an Email Service? An email service allows you to send, receive, and manage your emails professionally.
Why You Need It: Not wishing to teach you how to suck eggs, you need it in order to send and receive emails
ConsiderationsYour productivity platform likely includes an email service (Gmail, Outlook, etc.).
An email service isn’t the same as an email automation tool (for example, Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign), which is used to send newsletters or automated messages to subscribers. Assuming you don’t already have an email subscriber list, you will need an email automation tool soon, but not immediately.*
Paid or Free? Basic email services are included with Google Workspace or Microsoft Office. Go with an entry-level paid tier (not free) of either to benefit from linking your email to your custom domain and increased storage.
*If you do have a decent email list but don’t have an automated email tool, drop me a line, and I can put you in touch with someone who can get you started on email marketing. This is a valuable asset that you need to be making the most of, and you can’t maximize it just via your usual Gmail or Outlook account.
Easy Scheduling
What is Scheduling Software? Scheduling tools let clients book time with you online and automatically add that time to calendars. They eliminate lengthy back-and-forth ‘I’m not free then’ type emails and WhatsApps.
Why You Need It: It simplifies booking processes and, with paid plans you can access additional funcitionality such as integrating payments for appointments.
Considerations: Paid plans on Google Workspace and Microsoft have scheduling tools that link to the calendar function included in the price, which you can get started with right away.
However, paid schediling software like Calendly and Acuity offers options for taking payments and also provides meeting polls to help you find a suitable time for a group of people to meet (think cohorts or supervision groups).
Paid or Free? Google Calendar and Microsoft Booking offer free options. If your products and services include paid time with you, I’d choose a paid account like Calendly from the outset.
Task Management
What is Task Management? Task management software helps you track and organise your work.
Why You Need It: Running a business involves moving forward with many ideas, operational and admin requirements, and product and service delivery plans. Staying on top of tasks is essential as your business grows, and post-its are not going to cut it.
Considerations:
Consideration 1: A task list is useless without blocking out time in your calendar to get stuff done. Make sure for every task, you know when you will be able to complete it and pop that time in your online calendar.
Consideration 2: When your business and team start to grow, there are some wonderful pieces of software to help you track tasks and larger projects collaboratively: Airtable, Trello, Asana, etc. For getting started, don’t worry about selecting one of these right now. Work with your basic task tracking tool in your productivity platform and note what enhanced features would help you for when you scope your platform upgrade.
Paid or Free? Basic task tracking is free within your productivity platform, and you can use this to get you started.
Payment Processing
What is Payment Processing? Payment processors handle client transactions, enabling you to accept online payments.
Why You Need It: Clients expect secure, convenient, user-friendly ways to pay for your services, especially for online bookings, products, and services. You want easy-to-share links to take payments and subscriptions, with a backend that lets you track missed payments and income and deposits those payments into your business bank account.
Considerations: Stripe and PayPal are beginner-friendly options that integrate easily with booking tools and online accounting platforms and banking.
Paid or Free? Most payment processors charge transaction fees only, with no upfront costs. Do check those transaction fees, though, and factor them into your product pricing.
Online Forms
What are online forms? Online forms are user-friendly ways to collect client information, feedback, or application details online.
Why You Need It: Forms are an effective way to gather the data you need to provide services (client enrollment and onboarding), the data you need to start building leads for marketing and sales (basic newsletter opt-ins), and to gather feedback. Good feedback is key in helping you refine existing products and services and design new ones. Feedback and permission to collect email addresses and add contanct to mail lists is something you want to start collating from the outset.
Considerations: There are some beautiful paid forms and survey tools that offer a satisfying user experience. However, the forms included in your productivity platform are also excellent and customisable. Google Forms links to Google Sheets, and Microsoft Forms links to Excel for easy, no-code ways to compile a database of responses received.
Paid or Free? Google and Outlook Forms are included in your chosen productivity platform, customisable, and link with other productivity tools such as Excel and Sheets. Stick with them when getting started.
Document Storage and Sharing
What is Document Storage? Document storage tools (e.g., Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox) securely store and share business files online.
Why You Need It: Centralised storage makes it easy to access and share documents with clients and collaborators and is designed to be safe, secure and easy to search.
Considerations: Set up organised folders and control sharing settings carefully to ensure data privacy. On documents where multiple people can collaborate or that you are likely to update frequently, remember to set up version control protocols.
Paid or Free? Basic storage options are included in productivity platform subscriptions. Get a lower-tier paid plan for enough storage to get you started.
Video Conferencing and Recordings
What is Video Conferencing? Video conferencing software allows real-time online meetings and collaboration.
Why You Need It: As a service provider, meeting clients and cohorts face-to-face virtually is likely important to your business. As a business owner, virtual catch ups with partners and providers are likely also coming your way!
Considerations: Your productivity platform includes access to video conferencing. If you are more use to zoom though and you can get started more confidently on that, a financial investment in a paid zoom account could be worth the outlay.
Paid or Free? Free options are available through your productivity platform. Zoom does have a free option. However, if your core offer is online 121 client meetings and delivering training to cohorts and you are familiar with zoom, a paid for zoom plan could be worth the investment.
What is LinkedIn? OK, you are probably familiar with the concept of LinkedIn but to make sure we are all on the same page here, LinkedIn is a professional social media platform ideal for networking and showcasing your expertise.
As well as a personal personal profile page, you can - amongst other things - set up a business page, set up events, set up groups, create articles and run paid ads.
Why You Need it: Potential clients are likely to want to check you out and searching social media is one of the way that they will do this. A complete, professional personal profile on LinkedIn helps build credibility, allowing clients to find you easily and view your background and skills.
Considerations: The business page, a social media content plan and any paid ads strategy can wait until you have a clearer idea on your brand (and indeed should - you can waste a lot of time and money if you dive in without a targeted social media strategy). Do invest a moment in getting a personal URL (rather than the auto generated one LinkedIn provides) and do set aside 10 minutes a day to start connecting and engaging on the platform.
Paid or Free? LinkedIn is free. Paid options include advanced profile features, but they aren’t necessary to get started.
Basic Website
What is a Website? Erm. Well. You likely know what a website is but ever a stickler for consistency, your website is a one-stop shop for clients to learn about your services, contact you, and maybe even book sessions and buy products.
Why You Need It: Potential clients want to know they can trust you and that you have authority on the services you provide. They will likely google you if they are referred your way. When starting out, your professional linkedin profile plus a simple, one-page website with your services, contact details, a bit about you, a testimonial or two and a booking link can add this credibility without overwhelming you.
Considerations: You can expand to a multi-page site with SEO features and a miriad of other tools as your business grows. For now, get started with a one pager. Carrd is a great, user friendly tool for a beginner to use. Wix and Squarespace also have easy to use templates to help you create one page websites.
These platforms often have AI tools to help you choose a theme, colours and fonts. Increasingly, they are integrating with AI to help you create your web copy. I personally think you still can't beat a professional copywriter, designed and brand expert but remember, we are just trying to get you started for now.
If you find getting this one page website up is becoming a time zap, an energy zap or just something you have no interest in doing yourself, get on fiverr or upwork and put out a call for help. Be clear on specs and budget. For now, don’t invest in more than a simple one pager unless you are very clear on your brand.*
Paid or Free? One-page sites can be free with services like Wix but I’d recommend going paid so you can link to that domain name of yours and remove Carrd, Wix or Squarespace branding from your site.. If website set up is delaying you delivering, find a budget to outsource the initial set up.
*If you are ready for a more sophisticated website now, ask the designer to start with a landing page so there is something live while the rest of the site is built: don’t let webdesign stop you from starting to deliver your products and services.
Content Creation and Branding Tools
What is Canva? Canva is an easy-to-use design tool for creating on-brand graphics and marketing materials.
Why You Need It: Having consistent branding makes you look polished, even without a design background.
Considerations: Use Canva’s templates to create social media posts, presentations, and basic business cards. As you grow, you can explore more customisation options.
Paid or Free? Canva offers a free tier. I don’t regret investing in the Pro version from outset for its features like brand kits and team sharing and access to premium stock images and visuals.
A Basic CRM
What is a CRM? A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool helps you track client interactions, follow-ups, and key details to keep your relationships organised and productive. For a beginner, a simple CRM can be built with the other tools we are mentioning in this article.
Why You Need It: A CRM ensures you don’t miss follow-ups, track notes from client interactions, and keep everything in one place. Starting with a simple system also helps you identify what’s important when you’re ready for scoping advanced CRM software.
Considerations: While full-scale CRMs have advanced features, this setup covers the basics for managing client data. It might lack automation, but it gives you a starting point for capturing essential client details and actions.
Paid or Free: You can set up your basic CRM using the other tools in this article while you scope and set up a more comprehensive tool that will let your business scale. Here's how:
Client Database with Google Sheets: Set up a Google Sheet with columns for name, email, contact date, status, and notes. This helps track contact details and key interactions.
Lead Collection with Google Forms: Create a Google Form to capture leads (name, email, interest area) and link it to your Google Sheet. New leads will auto-populate in your database, saving you time.
Follow-Up Reminders with Google Calendar: Use Google Calendar for reminders and scheduling client calls, with recurring reminders for regular follow-ups. Integrate with your Google Sheet for easier tracking if needed.
This setup gives you the basics to manage client information and stay on top of follow-ups until you’re ready to invest in a more complex CRM solution.
Step 3: The Software Needed to Deliver Your Products and Services
As you grow your business, there are some great platforms you can use to host communities, paid memberships, cohort based virtual and hybrid programmes, elearning, events and resource libraries.
Choosing and setting up these platforms can take a little time and - while there are free to use options, you will likely need the paid for plans. Software that has a good rep for hosting these sort of things include Kajabi, Circle, Thinkific, Podia, Teachable, LearnWorlds, Karta and Mighty Networks. The paid for options are not an insignificant financial and time investment so you want to spend time scoping and setting a strategy .
You don’t want choosing and setting up your learning management / membership system to hold you back from getting started. While you get started, there are some simple ways to get to market, using the software discussed throughout this article. Here are some ideas.
1:1 Client Sessions
Calendly (with Stripe integration): Lets clients book and pay for sessions, adds to calendar, automates reminders
Google Calendar: Includes the agreed time, attendees and any video conferencing link.
Zoom or Google Meet: For virtual sessions with recording options.
Online Cohorts and Group Programs
Your website and LinkedIn profile: To announce cohort dates and pricing plus how to apply
Stripe: To take payment
Online form: To collect onboarding information and feedback and to create a database of attendees
Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams: Host virtual group sessions.
Google Calendar: Schedule and track attendance.
Slack: Share resources and manage ongoing group discussions.
Digital Downloads and E-learning
SendOwl: Ideal for selling digital downloads and e-learning content.
Gumroad: Another beginner-friendly option for managing digital products.
Stripe: Integrate stripe with either of the above to take payment
Step 4: Other tools I use pretty frequently
WeTransfer: a free (if you don’t use it too often) tool to send very large files like video downloads to others.
Docusign: a free (if you don’t use it too often) tool to formally sign contracts, memos of understanding and other docs. No need to print, hand sign, scan and send.
Banking and finance tools: I haven’t gone in too deep to banking and finance tools here as I’d recommend these conversations are guided by your bookeeprr/accountant/tax advisor. I would however be remiss if I didn’t make sure you knew the importance of having a dedicated business account where all your income and expenditure flows in and out from. Many business bank accounts include basic invoicing and bookkeep tools for a low price which when starting out can be useful.
ChatGPT. AI. Where to start. For now, my advice is to form your original ideas yourself then use chatgpt to add structure, spot themes, build on those ideas and turn it into repurposed content. I’d advise against sharing identifiable client data or financial info with chatgpt: I am not entirely sure how it works but I am entirely sure that the info you put in there is not deleted when you turn off the laptop. If the AI machine is machine learning, its learning from and retaining the data you are putting into it, not from ignoring and deleting it.
Step 5: The Recap
Phew. That's a lots of info. To help consolitate, hear's the recap:
Choose your domain name, get your custom domain and choose your productivity platform
On your productivity platform, you probably need a paid for tier. Here is a link to google workspace pricing If you are just starting out the Business Standard plan is likely for you. Here is a link to Microsoft 365 for your business. Basic or possibly Standard will probably meet your needs when starting out
Connect your custom domain to your email and your website
Assess which of your business needs can be met by the tools included in your productivity platform for now. You will be able to choose more sophisticated tools soon . Remember, we are just getting started.
Consider additional tools such as Stripe, Canva and the platforms you need to easily deliver your online products.
Make a note in your calendar of tools purchased and renewal dates so you have (a) the money in the bank for the renewal and (b) a natural prompt to review if you want to continue with that tool.
Customise your tools with brand colours, fonts and logos.
Test
Get started
You can now start to refine what you need in parallel to delivering products and services
Step 6: How to get started with getting started
Everything you need to get started is above. But, if you are just starting out this can still feel like a lot.
If you want me to get you started, I'd be happy to help. Book a free call and we can take things from there.