One tool to run your entire online business?

Read Time: 4 minutes

Welcome to BE THE EXPERT! In today’s issue:

• Is there one tool that could run your entire business?
• New co-working sessions
• Key 2024 Video Content Trends

One tool to rule them all?

Whether you have an online business or are planning one, your tech “stack” is critical to your success.

Making the wrong choices or getting bogged down and overwhelmed in the decision-making can completely stall your business.

In ​BTE44​ and in a masterclass in our ​Facebook group​, I demonstrated a robust process for making tool decisions.

In this issue, instead of being tool-agnostic, I’m going to show you how you can use ONE particular tool to build and run your entire online business.

That’s a big claim right? Most people have 5, 10, 20, or more tools – whether they remember them all or not 🙂

How do we get there? We start with the 9 Must-Have Systems for Online Business Success and we see if there is one tool or suite that meets all the major requirements.

What does a tech stack need to provide?

Here’s a simple example: If you sell courses, coaching, memberships, or digital products, you need funnels, a website, email, CRM, calendar, social media, content, ads, and so on.

Within each of those, there are several major requirements. As an example, in funnels, you may need lead magnet funnels, webinar funnels, and sales call funnels. Each of those brings additional requirements like video hosting, calendars, etc.

I created a spreadsheet with all the major systems and all the major requirements we’ve seen across my business and all of our clients.

Below is a summary to show how much can be done with ONE solution we use in my business and with our clients.

Every capability listed below is included in the suite and works together.

No messing around with Zapier and gluing together 15 different tools.

Website – Full website builder and hosting. Blog builder. (eliminates any need for WordPress, Squarespace, etc.)

Funnels – Full sales funnel builder supporting all major funnel types. (eliminates any need for Clickfunnels or similar)

Email Service Provider – Robust email marketing, campaigns, automations (eliminates any need for ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp, etc.)

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – Robust CRM for tracking and managing contacts, sales pipelines, and follow-ups. (eliminates the need for Keap, Hubspot, etc.)

Courses – Full learning management system (LMS) platform to build, host, and deliver digital courses. (eliminates the need for Kajabi, Teachable, etc.)

Memberships – Membership platform so you can create, sell, and manage membership programs. (eliminates the need for Searchie, Kartra, etc.)

Communities – The communities module lets you add discussion communities, gamification, and more to your courses and memberships. (eliminates the need for Skool or similar)

E-Commerce – If you want to sell digital or physical products in an online store / e-commerce checkout scenario, the suite supports that as well. (eliminates the need for Shopify)

Calendars – Includes a robust calendaring system for you and your team to allow free or paid appointments. (eliminates the need for Calendly, Acuity, etc.)

Contracts – Includes an invoicing, document, and e-signature capability (eliminates the need for Docusign, PandaDoc, etc.)

Client Portal – Includes a client portal where your customers can access all their resources, courses, and memberships. (eliminates the need for Dubsado)

Affiliate Management – Includes a robust affiliate platform so you can enable others to sell your programs for an affiliate commission. (eliminates the need for FirstPromoter or similar)

Ads Management – Create and manage ad campaigns.

Project Management – Define and track projects and tasks. (eliminates

the need for Trello or ClickUp)

Process Management – Define and manage processes and procedures. (eliminates the need for Process Street)

Content Management – Create, edit, repurpose, publish content across all channels (eliminates the need for editing tools and Buffer, Later, etc.)

Phew… That is a LOT of functionality for ONE suite and that really just scratches the surface.

If you total up trying to piece together the same functionality with the other tools mentioned, it would be over $3,000 dollars every month.

The solution we use is 1/10th of that…

One suite is all you need

So what is this mythical solution I hear you asking?

We call it the ACCELERATE suite.

It is comprised of HighLevel, Notion, and Descript. Not quite down to one tool, but only three, and we offer and support it as a single solution for your entire business.

Of the items above, HighLevel handles all but the last three. We add Notion for project and process management then Descript as our content editing and repurposing platform.

My entire agency business runs on this, as do our client’s businesses.

While you could invest in those individually, there are major benefits when you join my ​Solo to Virtual CEO (S2V) program​ which INCLUDES the full ACCELERATE suite.

ACCELERATE, unlike the tools by themselves, includes all of our pre-built funnels, automations, AI workflows, SOPs, and other capabilities that we have custom built for online expert businesses.

We add more to those every month.

S2V also includes all of the courses and tutorials I’ve created for each of the essential online business systems.

Finally, depending on which level of S2V one joins, there are weekly coaching and co-working calls where I and my team help you build and run your online business.

This is the fastest way to get everything you need up and running in your business with the coaching and support to get the most out of it.

Take Action

If you struggle with tech or if your tech is not working for you, REPLY to this email. I have a few spots available for a free tech strategy session. We’ll discuss your business and needs in detail and then determine what tech strategy and tools are best for you.

Yes, many times, it will be our ACCELERATE suite, but I also recommend other options when relevant once we discuss your specific needs.

If you want to learn more about the Solo to Virtual CEO program, ​click here​.

The co-working sessions we’ve just included have been very popular as we are sitting side by side with you to guide and support you as you build your online business.

Saturday Spotlight 💡

Content Spotlight:​

You can’t build an income and impact-generating online business if you’re missing even one of these systems because they all work together to enable growth.

If you’re not making at least six figures in revenue, it’s because you’re missing one or more of these systems.

Tool Spotlight:​

Expert Business ACCELERATE – This is the suite of tools we use to establish and run a content engine AND where members of our programs run theirs.

This week, the platform picked up improvements across communities, memberships, funnels, social media planner, and more!

The ​Start Your Content Engine​ program also INCLUDES the ACCELERATE Suite:

• Plan and Manage Your Content Engine
• Host a YouTube Channel, Podcast, and Blog
• Record and Edit All Of Your Content
• Repurpose Your Content Into All Formats
• Schedule and Publish All Of Your Social Media Posts
• Integrated Live Tech Support 24×7

News Spotlight:​

​New Report Highlights Key 2024 Video Content Trends ​– Social Media Today and Tubular

Tubular reports that there’s been a big increase in longer versions of short video clips, extending the boundaries of the short-form trend on both YouTube and TikTok.

On YouTube, shorter video uploads (under 30 seconds) increased by double digits in the first half of the year. But longer clips (over 30 seconds in length) are up 39%.