13 Tools to run a Six-Figure Web Design Business

If you want to take your web design business to 6 figures, then you’ve got some work ahead of you. You can make it happen, but you’ll need to get the right kind of tools to help you achieve success. Here are 13 tools to run a 6 figure web design business.

Invoicing with ZenBusiness Money

Do you need a quick and easy way to manage your business finances? ZenBusiness Money is an app that allows you to manage your finances on-the-go. See if it’s the right choice for you and compare ZenBusiness Money and QuickBooks.

Customer Relationship Management

If you want to take your web design business to six figures, you’ll need to have an effective tool to manage your leads and customers. A CRM system is imperative to any successful sales funnel system.

HubSpot

HubSpot offers a free CRM product. Their free product  supports their paid sales products, but the upsells are not excessive. They have inbound sales training for free to give you the skills to increase sales. You’ll also be able to track your contracts and customers.

Zoho

Zoho offers CRM products that are free for ten users and also provide domain hosting for your email. It has  basic sales lead management to keep track of where your customers are in the sales funnel process. You can know which customers need follow-up work now and in the future. Extra features and storage for more records will require a monthly paid plan.

Proposify Proposal Software

Many small businesses struggle to produce business proposals. Fortunately, there is a new tool that can help any business produce great business proposals that get accepted. Proposify is designed to help small businesses streamline their  proposal writing process. They provide the tools to make business proposals that have all the bases covered. The beautiful and complete proposals increase your deal closing rate. Best of all, it’s integrated with invoicing software like FreshBooks invoicing, CRMs like HubSpot, and project management software like Basecamp.

Small Business Phone Systems

Having a system that handles your phone calls is important. Gone are the days when all businesses have a landline. Most small businesses embrace cell phones or VOIP solutions. There are now systems that meld these two to create virtual phone systems that mimic the attributes of big businesses.

Grasshopper

Grasshopper is one of the most popular VOIP apps for small businesses. You can make phone trees that give your small business a major company feel. You can make extensions that can ring to the same phone or multiple different phones. With the built-in forwarding, you can run your business from any physical location with phone access. They call it the entrepreneur’s phone system for good reason.

Anveo

Another option for a VOIP small business phone system is Anveo. It’s an inexpensive phone system that offers phone numbers in multiple countries and multiple parts of the US. They provide both toll-free numbers and local numbers. You can use their tools to create phone trees and automated response phone trees. You’ll do more work than you would with Grasshopper to set it up, but you’ll create the same big business feel for your web design firm.

Email with GSuite

Google Apps is now called GSuite and is one of the best web-based email providers. Accounts cost $50 per year for each user but you’ll get access to the full suite of Google products for your domain including email for with your domain along with unlimited domain aliases. You’ll be able to participate in video chats and collaborate on documents in the Google Apps universe using your company email. This gives your business a professional look and feel. Storage space is generous and upgrading to GSuite Business gives you unlimited storage space.

Call Tracking with CallTrack

You can handle call tracking in any of the CRM systems that you choose to utilize, but if you want a stand-alone call tracking app, CallTrack for Android will automatically log all of your business calls directly to your Google Calendar so you can track them for business purposes. You’ll know how long you are spending on the call so you can properly bill your clients. It’s indispensable for tracking.

Project Management with Basecamp

There are multiple tools available for Project Management, but one popular project management tool for successful web designers is BaseCamp. It handles both collaboration and project management. It’s a paid product but its prices are affordable.

If you’ve ever worked on a large project with remote team members, then you know how hard it can be to keep track of everything and know the status of your project. Basecamp allows you to pull all the different parts of the project together in one place and be able to see how progress is developing in each area. This is very important as you work with multiple freelancers for different parts of your web design project.

Design Tools

You’re an expert in website design and you probably already have your web design tools ready to go. There are a couple of great tools though that you might not be aware of that can really take your web design business to the next level.

Unsplash

One of these tools is Unsplash. It’s a site with daily updated free images. These are images that you can use for free for any purpose. They can be very useful when doing your design work instead of needing to pay for expensive stock images.

Wufoo

Another design tool is Wufoo. It can help automate the process of making great looking forms. The tedious job of constructing great looking form can now be handled in just minutes with better results.

Social Media Management with Buffer

Between LinkedIn, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, social media management can be a difficult task. Buffer makes it easy to manage your social media presence. You’ll be able to keep everything up to date and put your social media to work for you in helping you build up fresh leads.

Networking with Slack

Slack is primarily known as a workplace collaboration tool and it excellent for this. Another growing use for Slack is using it as a networking tool. As you expand your web design business, it’s beneficial to network with other professionals as a way to build your client base. Interacting on Slack can be very beneficial for growing your business as well as keep track of emerging issues in web design.

These 13 tools can help take your business to 6 figures if you put them to work for you. You’ll find that you are improving your work efficiency, gettimg paid more quickly, and keeping better track of your business.