When you think of “branding”, what comes to mind first? We’d venture to guess a popular logo popped up in your head, or a specific color palette. In all actuality, branding is much more than just the visuals that represent a company. It’s also the voice, personality, mission, and tone that make up a brand.

Even if the brand is run by multiple individuals, the brand as a whole should have its own personality that, well, personifies it! It should coax certain feelings from an audience and specifically target a certain group of people.

It all seems very confusing, but by following just a few steps, you’ll be able to intertwine your personality into elements of your branding and successfully convey that to your audience, whether you’re just starting out or in the midst of a rebrand!

As small businesses competing against larger or more well-known businesses, it isn’t as effective to just talk about what you do as a business. The key to standing out is the brand that you build. A recognizable and loved brand is one of the most valuable assets a business owns.

However, a brand is much more than just a name, tagline, logo, and other visuals. Even though these pieces do play a role in the bigger picture, there are other elements that bring it all together.

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.

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.

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!

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’ll gladly join the masses of people saying that they’re so glad that 2020 is over! And it isn’t so much that we expect the pandemic and all of the issues that come with it to just disappear with a new year, but more so that we’re now able to reflect on the year and kick everything in gear for 2021.

For us, 2020 was a whirlwind, but it was actually our best years ever. Of course we still dealt with setbacks just like everyone else, but we changed up the way we did things at the beginning of 2020, and it had a profound impact on how the year played out.

So what did we change? What actually happened for us in 2020? And what lessons did we learn that we’re carrying into 2021?

We all know that testimonials are a crucial part to a functioning business. Unfortunately, many of us are met with fear and anxiety just from the thought of having to ask clients for testimonials/feedback.

“What if I’m actually not doing a good enough job to warrant a great testimonial?”

Thinking of actually bringing it up to your clients almost makes you want to run away or barf (or both). It can even seem like a super awkward conversation, like you’re saying, “Hey, I know we’ve working together for a while, and I think I’ve been doing a great job, but can you just confirm that by writing a testimonial that will potentially be shared with thousands of people depending on how good it is?”

Okay, so you won’t actually say it that way, but it can seem like it! So today, we’re going to walk you through how you can put this task on autopilot so that you can avoid the testimonial-asking anxiety. Or if you’re just simply the worst at remembering to ask for them, these tips are also for you!