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Dubsado vs. HoneyBook - The Best CRM for Creatives

We’re back with the second (and final) post in this comparison game between the three top CRMs in the game: Dubsado, 17Hats, and HoneyBook! Last week, we compared Dubsado vs. 17Hats. If you want to find out who our personal winner was, head here to check out that blog post.

Today, we’ll be diving into Dubsado vs. HoneyBook, so you can make an informed decision about which platform would be the best CRM for your business. Let’s get started!

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Dubsado vs. 17Hats - Which CRM is the best for your business?

CRMs offer an easier and more streamlined approach to sending contracts, proposals, forms, invoices, and other documents, all the while maintaining a consistently branded and professional image.

The thing about CRMs is that there are a lot of them, and it can make choosing the right one a very difficult decision. Three of the main top dogs in the CRM game right now are Dubsado, 17Hats, and Honeybook. Even though we’re hardcore Dubsado lovers, we believe in fair game for all, so to help you decide if it’s the best CRM for your business, we’ll be comparing it to 17Hats today

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The Ultimate List of Tools for New Service-Based Businesses

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.

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Step by step Guide for Using Dubsado for Bookkeeping

Well, folks, Dubsado’s done it again. And by that, we mean completely blown us away with its functionality. On top of the bajillion other features it has, did you know it’s able to even handle basic bookkeeping? This is absolutely perfect for small businesses that need a start at keeping track of their finances, but that aren’t ready for a super robust software like Quickbooks.

There are tons of simple bookkeeping tools for you to stay up-to-date on your finances and track lead generation metrics right inside of Dubsado, which is what we’re going to go over today!

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5 Ways to Use Dubsado Forms to Run Your Business

We’ve said it a million times and we’ll say it again: One of our favorite features of Dubsado is their forms! Their form builder is beyond easy to use, and they’re even easier to send off to clients or embed in your website. Within minutes, you can have a beautiful form created thanks to their user-friendly layout.

Forms are so versatile and can serve many different purposes. Don’t let the categories fool you– whether it’s a proposal, questionnaire, or lead capture form, you can turn it into just about anything you need. In this post, we’re going to share different ways that you can use Dubsado forms to run your business!

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How to Use Dubsado Custom Mapped Fields

Do you ever wish there was a way that you could keep information on file for your clients in Dubsado aside from the default basic contact and project info? Say you’re a wedding planner and you want to easily keep track of guest count, or perhaps you’re someone who loves sending gifts to your clients on their birthday.

Whatever the case may be, you’re able to collect and keep track of this information using custom mapped fields. A custom mapped field is a place on a client profile or project to store information in the form of text or a date. You’re able to add fields that are relevant to your business, so you can always have it at a glance, or even use an integration with Zapier to add this info to other tools.

Today, we’re going to go over everything related to custom mapped fields in Dubsado and how to use them!

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How to Take Your Dubsado Forms to the Next Level Using Code Blocks

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!

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Everything You Need to Know About Dubsado Canned Emails

Do you ever find yourself writing the same email to clients multiple times? At this point, it’s just a part of your usual process. While we’re sure you’re probably not a stranger to canned responses in Gmail (They’ve been a lifesaver for us), what you may not be aware of is that you can create them in Dubsado.

You’re able to add canned emails to automated workflows or send them manually, and they’re an absolute time- and headache-saver. Instead of having to rewrite the same email multiple times in a different platform outside of your CRM, you can bring that function inside of it since Dubsado also connects with most email services to allow you to send and receive emails straight through the software.

In this blog post, we’re going to be breaking down canned emails from start to finish. Don’t worry, this won’t be a super long one. Canned emails are so simple to use, you can have yours up and running in as little as 10 minutes!

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Why We Moved Our 100k+ Email List to Flodesk

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.

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Empowering Managers: Harnessing AI for Effective Employee Development and Productive 1:1s

In today's fast-paced and technology-driven workplace, managers are constantly seeking innovative ways to support their employees' career development and maximize the impact of their 1:1 meetings. Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a powerful tool that can assist managers in achieving these goals. By leveraging AI-powered solutions, managers can gain valuable insights, facilitate personalized discussions, and provide tailored guidance to their team members. In this blog post, we will explore how managers can harness the potential of AI to develop their employees and have more effective 1:1s. We will also provide specific prompts that you can ask an AI language model like Chat GPT to enhance your 1:1 interactions and empower your employees' career growth.

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Roundup: 5 Must Have Templates to Help You Review Your Year in Business and Plan for 2023

The end of the year is possibly our most favorite season of business! It’s the time where you get to reflect on your year in business, assess your analytics and results, and plan for the year ahead. Because this is such a fun time for us, we love making sure our audience is equipped with the resources to help them make these things happen. In The Creative Template Shop, we drop so many helpful templates for reflection and new year planning.

With hundreds of templates to choose from, we wanted to do a quick round-up of our top 5 must-have templates to review your year in business and plan for 2023!

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9 Critical Questions for Building Lead Capture Forms

With everything we try in marketing our services, we do it with the goal of ensuring we’re speaking to our ideal clients and making it clear who the offer is for. This way, we’ll have as many qualified leads as possible that fill out our lead capture form. But something that often goes unchecked or doesn’t have much strategy put into it is what information you’re actually asking for on the form. If you want to repel unqualified leads while also making sure you’re gathering all of the information you need to make that initial “possible fit” decision, then this is definitely something you should put thought towards.

In this post we’ll be covering 9 critical questions that we recommend service providers include in your lead capture form! (These are questions aside from the usual spaces to collect contact information.)

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Grow, Dubsado, Systems & Automation Abagail Pumphrey Grow, Dubsado, Systems & Automation Abagail Pumphrey

The Ultimate Guide to Creating Dubsado Workflows

One of the ultimate ways to make Dubsado serve as your very own Virtual Assistant is to utilize Dubsado Workflows. Workflows are our absolute favorite feature of Dubsado because we’re able to automate so many aspects of our usual client process. In turn, this frees up so much time to allow us to give our clients and their projects the attention that they deserve without worrying about chasing down payments, sending off emails or forms, scheduling meetings, and so much more.

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!

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The Best Way to Streamline Your Client Projects as a Service Provider

Managing your client experience is one thing, but managing and streamlining your client projects is a whole other beast to tackle as a service provider. You might be wondering what the difference is, so when we talk about managing your client experience, we mean all of the communication, appointment scheduling, sending forms, proposals, contracts, getting paid, and all that jazz. (Dubsado’s our trusted CRM for that– here’s why.)

On the other hand, you also have to deal with the actual tasks that come with fulfilling a client project for both you and your team. For this, we recommend using a project management system like Asana. It’s robust enough to handle even the most complex projects, yet simple enough that if you don’t need to use all of the fancy-shmancy extras, you don’t have to.

Today we’ll be diving into the best way to streamline your client projects using Asana!

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Complete Guide to Dubsado’s New Form Builder 2022

As two self-dubbed Dubsado connoisseurs, we were over the moon when we first learned about the updates to Dubsado’s form builder. While it wasn’t terrible to use before, this upgrade that just rolled out for all accounts in July has increased our love for the platform times a thousand. Even though all of the blocks and options are basically the same, the form builder now has a whole new look that the majority of users will find more intuitive and easy to use.

We were part of the lucky group who were able to use the beta version of the new form builder for months, so we’ve already gotten used to the upgrade and have been sticking to it exclusively. Because of that, we knew we had to put out this unofficial guide to Dubsado’s new form builder!

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Welcome to My Blog

Hey, I’m Abagail Pumphrey!

You know when you are so deeply passionate about something you can’t help but share it? That’s how this blog has felt for the last decade. I’ve written about my latest strategies, tech how-tos, experience with scaling and so much more. I hope you find just what you’re looking for. We’re here to help!

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