Those of you who have been following this blog for a while already know that I’m a huge fan of using business tools to improve your client experience, to keep yourself organized on the backend, and to make your and your team’s job easier!

If you’ve already done research on the tools you could be implementing in your business, you’ve probably come across articles that list 10, 15, or even 20+ platforms. And if you’re anything like me when I see these types of lists, you can leave feeling more overwhelmed and confused than before.

So, for the sake of simplicity and to save you from decision overload, I gathered my 4 favorite tools for wedding, event, and creative professionals that you should use in 2022!

Planning Pod

If you’re a venue or planner, and you haven’t signed up for Planning Pod yet, you need to drop everything you’re doing right now and sign up!

Planning Pod is an online event management system where wedding and event managers and planners can organize their planning process in one, centralized place. It takes care of everything from budgets to checklists to itineraries to appointments and more.

And for venues and facilities? Planning Pod offers a whole suite of useful tools you’ll need to streamline your business better including a customer relationship management (CRM) manager, client portal, email communication, online contracts, invoicing, and more.

I love automation, but I also love having everything in one spot and it’s rare that you find an all-in-one automated system. For years, I searched around for the best management system that could host my entire process, but I’ve never found one as comprehensive as Planning Pod.

Honeybook

All other professionals who aren’t in the wedding or events industry — don’t worry, I didn’t forget about you! Honeybook is another all-in-one client management software that includes all these amazing features you need to streamline your client experience, as well as your backend tasks.

All plans include tools such as project tracking, invoice management, proposal and contract automations, scheduling tools, online payment options, a client portal software, payment reminders, and so much more — all in one, organized place. What does that translate to? Less missed appointments, fewer late payments, and way less migraines.

P.S. If you click that link up above, you can get 50% off your first year!

The Legal Paige

I’ve said it dozens of times already, but I’ll keep repeating it: being legally legit is so important! Even if you feel like you’re following all the best practices, you need legally sound contracts in place before you take on even your first client. This helps protect everyone involved in the transaction process and sets clear expectations for deliverables, payments, and processes.

When you started your business, you probably had a vague idea of all the other roles you have to take on — marketing strategist, accountant, photo editor, copy master, designer, etc. But one role most of us significantly struggle with is the role of being a lawyer.

The Legal Paige was created by a lawyer turned business owner who writes nearly every contract under the sun for service-based businesses to make it easy to take that role off your shoulders. When you click that link and enter the code ‘brandee’ at checkout, you can get 10% off your purchase on contracts and templates!

Tailwind

One of the most time-consuming tasks as an entrepreneur is uploading posts on social media. In fact, I would say it’s up there in the top reasons why business owners don’t post on social media that often. In theory, it sounds super simple, especially when you already have content made and a caption ready to go. But there are always more urgent tasks to get to, and before you know it, the day is already over and you haven’t taken the time to actually upload the content you’ve worked so hard to create.

Stress no more because Tailwind is to the rescue! Tailwind is scheduling software that helps you with your Pinterest and Instagram marketing strategy by automatically posting your content for you. All you have to do is upload your content and caption, schedule it, and you’re done! You don’t even have to think twice about your posts once they’re scheduled, which means you can get back to crushing your to-do list.

They have a free plan that’s quite robust, and it may be all you need, especially if you have a small team or just one business. If you need to upload to more than one account to Pinterest and Instagram, though, you’ll need to pay for one of their plans. When you click this link here, you can get 1 month free!

Final thoughts

Nice and succinct, like I promised! Truth be told, there are so many useful tools out there and it still may take some trial-and-error. However, if you’re not automating right now or the tools you’re using right now aren’t meeting your needs, start here and then assess how much your productivity and organization have increased a few weeks down the road! Happy automating!