This post may contain affiliate links for products or services that I have personally used and recommend. If you choose to sign up or purchase products or services mentioned, I may receive a commission (at no extra cost to you). Thank you for your support in keeping this blog going.

"The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer." – Nolan Bushnell, Entrepreneur

You know that thing you found that changed everything for you? You know... that thing that you want to tell all of your friends and associates about?

You’re so excited at how it’s helped you that, in trying to describe it, you don’t know where to start and end up tripping all over your words?

What that “thing” is for you, I don’t know. But I’m sure you can think of at least one, maybe several things.

For me, well, I’m going to tell you about one of my “thing-that-changed-everything” things.

Because if you have an online business, or perhaps you’re just starting to build one, well, you definitely need to hear this.

With an Online Business, Where Do I Start With the Tech?!?

The corporate world was in my rearview mirror.

I’d developed some success with my new business.

But now I faced some decisions that I had no experience with…

What tools and funnel marketing software do I need in order to support the business I’m building… ONLINE? How do I make my small business startup more efficient and my life easier?

I don’t know tech, so how do I DO tech?!?

5 Key Tools for a Successful Online Business

My business had gone through its initial growing stage. I was ready to move from doing things manually to building some online support. I was ready to explore sales funnels and funnel marketing.

After lots of research and studying the various options, it became clear that there are 5 key tools needed to support an efficient online business:

1. Customer Relationship Manager (CRM)

As your customer base grows, you must have a secure place to store all of their information. Doing this correctly is HUGE since it allows you to:

• Understand and know your customers,

• Abide by privacy laws by collecting, recording and utilizing the permissions your customers have granted,

• Respond to their requests for more (or for less) information and contact, and

• Build campaigns and KNOW who you may include in those campaigns.

Your customer is the heart of your business.

2. Booking Calendar

Managing your time, with your team or with your customers, is one of the most difficult, ongoing tasks of any business.

If you had the ability to:

• Set your times of availability – for yourself and for your team,

• Attach forms and payments to calendar appointments with customers, and

• Customize reminders for appointments

… you’d address an often-overlooked element of running your business, without running yourself ragged.

3.Funnel and Web Builder

This. ☝🏻

This is typically what people think about when building their business online. And yes, this is definitely a piece of the puzzle. But it is just that – a piece. Granted, a very important piece.

This is the face of your online business. It is the opportunity to organize various domains, various funnels, to showcase what you have to offer your customers. It supports your marketing, sales and delivery processes.

A fairly recent development with various builders, is the ability to utilize drag and drop features. This allows even the tech-challenged among us 🙋‍♀️ the opportunity to build a beautiful web presence.

4.Membership Area

If your online business could benefit from any form of members’ area, this is an important tool.

Consider how you’ll share course material with students or detailed plans with consulting clients.

A Membership Area where you can upload PDFs, embed videos or share text lessons, will offer your clients a branded, efficient, seamless experience. It will be one place where they can go to find everything they need.

5.Customer Messaging

Emails? Texts? Phone calls? Voicemails? Messages and DMs? Never lose a lead by ensuring that the tool you use can manage multiple channels of communication with your customers.

It’s a noisy world. A good customer messaging setup will make sure that you get through to your customers, the way they prefer to hear from you.

And once you've identified how you'll source these 5 key tools, the 6th tool addresses exactly how you'll introduce automations to tie everything together.

Support for Your Online Business Tech Can Take Many Forms

Let’s face it. Not every one of us is tech savvy. Heck, I know that I wasn’t! And, I’d say I’m still not. But it’s the support that has made all the difference.

As online business owners, we do have several different options… that is, if the beauty of computer code is not the stuff of our dreams. 💤

• We could dig in and figure it all out as we go.

I’ll be honest – this is where I started. I didn’t have the cash flow to do it any other way. Actually, I did, but at the time, I was pricing out the various options individually and hadn’t found a cost-saving, all-in-one solution. Little did I know!

Back to figuring it out as I went – since I was also trying to build my business, I learned enough to do the specific thing I needed to do, in the moment. I didn’t necessarily learn it enough to continue to leverage that specific skill. Then, I was off to solve the next problem.

Sometimes, especially at the beginning, some of this is necessary. But since I didn’t know what I didn’t know (for instance the 5 Key Tools, shared above), many of my choices weren’t ideal in the long term.

You really want to make sure that if you are taking the time to build something, that you can SCALE it, as your business grows. Otherwise, you end up doing the job twice. Or three times...

• We could HIRE our tech support.

…Assuming we have enough cash flow, that is. When we’re ready to get serious with our online game, certainly bringing in someone from the outside to handle all of the tech is an option.

If this is the path you end up following, just be sure that you are educated enough on the tech to communicate your wishes, clearly and often.

You want to make sure that your brand comes through.

You also want to make sure that the logic you are after is baked into what is built. This way any future updates are easily handled – even if the person that built it is no longer supporting your organization.

• We could find the supplier(s) of the 5 Key Tools and rely on their support.

Many businesses have built their online presence by piecing together these 5 Key Tools from separate suppliers. Each individual supplier has their own varying level of support that they offer. The other option is to go with an all-in-one approach and then rely on their support.

Tech, in general, is not easy. Especially when you were not gifted with that super power. Sometimes, even knowing the right questions to ask is a mystery.

But if you can find the right tool(s) with the right support, this will cut out that learning curve and move you quickly through the stages of development to get your online business, well, online!

The Missing Piece - Design

In addition to being a tech novice, I also fell short on the design front.

I’m a numbers person.

Perhaps you’ve got design chops and a good eye? That creative bent alludes me a bit.

For this reason, I needed to find a solution that would turn the design elements into a no brainer.

Sure, some tools offer templates along with drag and drop capabilities. But I was still stuck on how to make a page that would create the impact I was looking for.

Heck, was there something out there that could even help me KNOW what impact I was looking for and how to turn that into a visual experience?

The answer is “YES!”

And this brings me to my “thing-that-changed-everything”...

THE All-In-One Solution to Grow Your Online Business

You could certainly invest in separate, targeted software solutions to address each individual component of the tech needed to support your business. Plenty of people do.

But, why would you?

In the past, there have been limited options to choose from when it comes to an all-in-one solution. In fact, several tools claimed to be, but then really fell short when put to the test.

But FG Funnels has changed all of that. FG Funnels is my “thing-that-changed-everything” and the thing that actually got my business online.

Quite simply, FG Funnels is one of the best (in my opinion, THE best) at this, since they deliver everything through a funnel (no pun intended 🤣) of:

Tools + Design + Support

It was this structure, this approach, that got me through the tech.

I was able to build the marketing funnels and sales funnels for my course and set up my Membership site to deliver it all.

More recently, I’ve built this blog and am slowly adjusting the look of it with ease. But from feedback I’ve received, this minimal look is just fine for now.👍🏻 Build it first, perfect it later. Am I right?

And many of the individuals I’ve met through working with FG Funnels have had similar success.

Several have even moved over to FG Funnels from other providers and have been blown away by the quality of the tools and the support from the team.

And while it certainly would have been easier to start here, they’re glad they moved NOW before they got even bigger and things got more complicated.

For those of you with an online presence already, FG Funnels has even made a move to them easier – by walking you through the steps it takes to do your move in an ordered and organized way.

The bottom line is this…

Make your tech easier. Help it to live in one place.

Consolidate it to one platform and get the ongoing tech and design support you need.

If you are at the point where you are ready to:

• Invest in tech to support your online business, or

• Jump ship from your current provider(s) so that you can have a comprehensive all-in-one solution that will grow with your business

… then FG Funnels is the answer you’re looking for.

You owe it to yourself to check it out and make your business life SO. MUCH. EASIER.

And then, you’ll have another “thing” to tell everyone about!