Essential Tools for Growing your Business Online - for African entrepreneurs and project owners

In an era more and more dominated by digital advancements, growing your business online can be a transformative opportunity for us the African community in the Western world. It provides you the freedom to work anywhere, and to have an impact in Africa without having to spend time there 100%. However, to ensure your venture's success, it's crucial to leverage the right tools that can streamline processes, enhance productivity, and help you stay competitive in this online marketplace.

Here's a comprehensive guide to essential tools you need and that I have also personally used and vetted, to keep me effective in my business coaching practice, and for the clients I coach too:

1. Your digital real estate space - Kajabi: when you want to find new clients from all over the world, you first think social media right? If you operate mainly with African clients too, do you think WhatsApp only also? But let me tell you, having a personal website will differentiate you from the masses of competitors in your industry, and allow you to keep and protect your clientele base for you and from being closed by social media platforms. I have worked with business owners in France who neglected this and then got their social media shot down by the SM that has less protection on accounts, Facebook. Not you! I use Kajabi to host my website and email newsletter. It comprehends a space for your website, shopping site, and all the tools you need for email marketing. It costs 150 bucks per month for the basic version, but it is so worth it! It gives you all the tools to grow an engaged and paid base of clients!
2. Your payment processing platform - Stripe: Using Paypal only as a payment option will cause you headaches and important delays in receiving your payments. I use Stripe, which allows for 3 days only of processing payments, compared to Paypal, which uses like 21+ days. Stripe charge you a small percentage on each client transaction for the service.
3. Your Social Media Planner - Sendible: for those like you publishing on many platforms, and who like to plan your posts in advance, Sendible is my preferred platform and trust me I have tried like 5 social media planners. I loved so much Sendible, that I no longer even remember the other social media platforms - cost 200 bucks only for 6 months.
4. Your design assistant - Canva: Again, I have used many design platforms out there, including Adobe Spark. Canva is straight out the best, it's effective, allows you to produce PDFs, word-docs, and dope social media posts and videos! 15 bucks per month. 

You know what your current needs are. Have you got questions on any other tool you need to make you effective? Tell me in the comment section below and I'll add it for you.