M&M’s Business “Can’t Live Withouts”
At Moss & Meadow Creative Co., we believe that sharing insights and favorites is essential to fostering a vibrant community. In the following sections, we will reveal some of our most cherished business tools, practices, and strategies that help us thrive. Whether you are a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting your journey, these favorites are curated to inspire and enhance your own business endeavors. Let’s dive in and explore what makes our process unique and effective.
DUBSADO
First up - our favorite CRM, Dubsado! We have been using Dubsado for a couple of years now and honestly can’t imagine running our business without it. From it’s automations (replies, reminders, etc), beautiful client portals, task and calendar management, professional (and pretty!) invoices and onboarding proposals, and more, it’s an all around simple, user friendly, client management system.
Get 20% off of your first month or year using our affiliate code mossandmeadow20
Full disclosure, I earn a commission when you make a purchase through my link, but I truly love and use it and want you to experience the Dubsado difference, too!
FLODESK
Let’s be honest, email marketing can be overwhelming. With Flodesk, they make it SO simple. You can import your email lists, and get started right away with their beautiful email templates. Whether you’re sending out a monthly email blast to your subscribers, or just want to send a beautiful email to one or a few of your clients, it’s all doable quickly & easily within Flodesk. You can even create forms, collect information, and more.
If you’re like me and tried every email marketing platform out there just to end up frustrated, this is for you. I finally tried Flodesk and love the way my newsletters look.
Use my link below to grab 50% off your first year and get their link in bio feature completely free.
SQUARESPACE
Website design can be daunting but Squarespace makes it a breeze and is super customizable! In my experience, it’s the most user friendly, and so easy to create a beautiful, professional website! They also offer email marketing, scheduling, and more.
QUICKBOOKS
Taxes, accounting, keeping track of transactions and organizing, categorizing and alllll that comes with all of that can be STRESSFUL. Quickbooks takes the stress out and basically does it all for you. I keep it connected to our business bank account and once a month, I go in and review all of my transactions, make sure they are categorized correctly, and upload receipts and DONE. Every quarter it tells me how much my estimated quarterly tax payment is, and I can even pay through Quickbooks. At the end of the year, you can send the whole file to your tax preparer and make everyone’s life a million times easier.
CANVA
Canva is a lifesaver when it comes to social media graphics, creating reels, stories and more! I’ve used it for so much, even for website graphics that I can plug right into a page on Squarespace if SS is a bit more limited in the design features.
BACKBLAZE
I’m sure every single creative has found themselves in the dreaded situation of a computer shutting down unexpectedly, crashing, losing all of their work that took hours upon hours. Or no, just me? 😅 It’s a worst nightmare that I don’t wish on anyone. Luckily we live in an age where things can be backed up constantly or at least periodically enough that we don’t have to worry about losing ALL of our work. While I back up on external hard drives and never remove a catalog from my desktop until it is delivered, the peace of mind that comes with Backblaze running in the background, frequently backing up my work, is a lifesaver. For real. If you’re a creative, working hard on someone’s precious photos or videos, I HIGHLY recommend having some sort of cloud back up system. Backblaze is effortless, easy and not super costly either!
You can try out Backblaze with a month free at this link: ONE MONTH FREE
And a few, non-subscription type things that make our business run smoothly
(and more fun!)
Basically, all the things that make working comfortable and fun! The obvious, a computer. We love a good big external monitor, especially for culling. Coffee & editing snacks are a MUST at Kelly’s desk. A cozy workspace is SUPER important. I (Kelly) created mine in a little tiny nook in the corner of our bedroom, so it is it’s own space and so inviting filled with candles and plants. I do, however, probably 60-70% of the time end up working from the couch or bed with a comfort show that I’ve seen a million times (Grey’s, Gilmore Girls or Gossip Girl) in the background.
We’re each a bit different when it comes to podcast or playlist - Kelly totally depends on mood, but if she’s working at the desk it’s almost always a running or nutrition related podcast, and if she’s listening to music it is either Noah Kahan or Taylor Swift. Sometimes if she’s feeling super energetic she’ll put on some early 2000’s hip hop or r&b. Chris loves his political podcasts and his vinyl records. James likes to listen to high energy music he can sing along to, like Chris’s solo project “K-9 Cat”. Kate prefers silence, music, or a tv show in Russian language so she doesn’t have to think about translations. And Felix, while he also prefers silence, if he’s in the zone he sometimes enjoys official game soundtracks or a more chill Twitch stream.
What are some things, subscriptions or otherwise that you can’t live without in your business?