it’s super easy to fall down the rabbit hole of Googling which tools are best for which purpose, signing up for free trial after free trial, and getting lost in a sea of overwhelm when you notice that you’re 50 applications deep yet you only use about 2 or 3 semi-consistently.

So, to prevent you from going anywhere near that rabbit hole and save the time that you would otherwise be spending on trial and error, we’re going to break down our ultimate list of tools for new service-based businesses! We’ll be listing a few options for different categories so as to not overwhelm you. Some of these we currently use and some we’ve used in the past before our business grew and evolved.

Email can be such a game-changer for businesses that want to connect with their audience in a more personal way. When you compare your people scrolling upon a social media post versus getting valuable content delivered directly to their inbox, email is the way to go if you want to build authentic relationships.

Plus, email gives you an opportunity to share exclusive content with your list, making it even more valuable to your audience. Anyone can see your social media accounts and not follow you, but your subscribers have already signed up for the long haul and are ready to devour new content as it comes.

But email marketing is more than just creating a list and hoping people subscribe to it. It takes work to make sure people know about it, and even more work to make sure that they actually want to subscribe, which is where your opt-in comes in.

Since you’re reading this post, we’ll assume you already have an opt-in created (but if not, this is the post for you) and are looking for ways to market it. If so, you’ve come to the right place! Today, we’re going to share 5 successful strategies to market your opt-in, your freebie, your lead magnet - whatever you want to call it!

One of our favorite features of Dubsado are the forms. They’re easy to design and even easier to send off to clients or embed on your website. In fact, the design possibilities are endless, and with Dubsado’s drag-and-drop builder, you’ll have them created in no time!

You’re able to add text boxes, images, questions, drop-down menus, columns, and more to your forms, but one of the most versatile blocks in the code block. With it, you’re able to integrate third party applications directly into your proposals, questionnaires, and lead capture forms!

This means that you can completely take your forms to the next level and amp up your client experience. The possibilities for what you can embed are endless, but we’re here to give you 5 ideas for how to take your Dubsado forms to the next level using code blocks!

Listen, we’ve been around the block a few times when it comes to email marketing platforms. Over the years, we’ve migrated and re-migrated to a handful of different ones to find the best fit, yet we always ended up leaving. After our recent switch last year to Flodesk, we definitely aren’t planning to leave any time soon.

While we’re aware that moving over such a large email list with over 100k subscribers to a beta platform seems completely absurd and irrational, but honestly? It was absolutely the most no-brainer migration we’ve ever done, and here’s why.

Email is one of our most favorite things to talk about! In the 5 years we’ve been in business, we’ve seen 100k+ new subscribers come through our doors. It’s been an amazing outlet for us to provide exclusive value to our audience outside of your everyday Instagram post. With email, there’s a more personal connection you gain by being allowed space in someone’s inbox.

Since we’ve had our fair share of methods that worked (and didn’t) to grow our email list, we wanted to share with you our top 5 favorite ways to get people to sign up for your email list and increase conversions!

Sending a project proposal can be intimidating for a number of reasons. If you’re new to business and this is the first (or even the fourth or fifth) client you’re sending a proposal to, it can be mega nerve-wracking. You’re likely having a ton of negative and worrisome thoughts. What if they have an issue with something? What if they decide to go with someone else? Does it look okay?

These are all common thoughts to have, especially when this is such an important piece to wowing your potential clients and making it a no-brainer to work with you. After years of running as a service-based business and sending countless PDF proposals to clients, we’ve learned a thing or two about making it as less overwhelming as possible for you (and them)!

So, keep reading to find out how to send project proposals, plus what information to include!

There’s no denying that social media came into our lives and completely took over. For both personal and business use, 7 in 10 Americans are on some form of social media platform.

Businesses are turning to social media as their main source of traffic with most solely focusing their marketing efforts on platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram. But can you blame them? Just take a look at the numbers.

Facebook has 2.8 billion active users every month.

416 million people are using Pinterest each month.

1 billion people are active on Instagram every month.

That’s a LOT of people and a huge pond to swim in that will only continue to grow, but that just means nailing down your social media marketing game is as important as ever. We know how scary that sounds, which is why we want to give you our top 6 tips to boost your social media marketing game for 2021!

We’re very excited for this post today because we’ve been writing about Dubsado for a while, and we always find some way to sneak in workflows because they’re our absolutely favorite feature of the software. Finally, we’re here to dedicate a whole post just to workflows!

Workflows in Dubsado give you the opportunity to automate so many processes of your usual client workflow. In turn, this frees up so much space in your calendar for you to be able to focus on caring for your clients, completing their projects, and giving them the attention they need without worrying about the techy stuff that happens on the backend.

We’ve heard from many people that workflows allow Dubsado to serve as their VA of sorts because they can set and forget so many different things. So, keep reading to learn more about workflows, how they work, what you should do before creating them, and how you can be using them in your business right now!

We’re no stranger to Instagram Stories, and we’d venture to guess that you might not be either. Even if you aren’t utilizing Stories in the way that you could, they’ve been around for almost 5 years now, and over 500 million people use them each day. (source) Their popularity is only increasing, regardless of the new takeover by Reels. Stories are, you could say, a classic!

They’re the perfect way to connect with your followers on a more personal level than just a static feed post, or really even an IGTV video. Stories are more real-time, with photos and videos posted having usually been taken right there on the spot. The plus of also being able to see your face and mannerisms and hear your voice gives your audience the opportunity to see the face behind the brand, which can be so essential for small businesses.

They hold a great power for business owners to build relationships and trust with their followers. But sometimes, they almost seem like a strange artform that some have perfected and some haven’t, so that’s why we want to share with you 8 ways to use Stories to boost engagement for your business!