What is the one tool or app you can't run your business without?

[rtfulk]

What's the one tool or app you absolutely can't run your business without? Whether it's for sales, scheduling, content, or keeping your sanity... drop your must-have in the comments!  I'm always curious what keeps everyone running smoothly!

I'll start, mine is actually 2 apps that keeps  me from going insane putting up products.

Photoroom: I use photoroom daily for background removal of our product items, it is fast and does a great job removing backgrounds. It gives you more control, editing flexibility, and access to your entire file system. It's perfect for sellers who post on multiple platforms and want branded, polished photos.

side note: I like PhotoStudio, but it is limited, I does a good job removing backgrounds but it stops there. I store my photos in specific folders and PhotoStudio only gives you access to the photo library. 

ChatGPT: This has been a timesaver for me, with so many items we put up, I use to find myself just staring at the description section trying to figure out how to describe an item. ChatGPT takes that away. Every description sounds polished and friendly, It will add keyword content to help with SEO.

It remembers my preferences so I don't have to remember them for myself, for instance: ChatGPT knows if I include shorts in my description it will automatically put in the Key Features shorts have Elastic pull-up waist or if I include romper it knows to include snaps on the bottom for easy diaper changing.

It takes a little while to setup your preferences, but when you do life is much easier and you can add or change preferences at anytime.

So what app or apps help you make it through the day?

[MudFire_Dex]

Google Doc / Spreadsheets for accessibility for the team, but Slack is used the most daily other than our Square stuff. We have dedicated channels for communication, social, specific team tasks, dms for questions. 

[Minion]

Google Noes has to be my number one.  If I don't jot things down or leave myself some type of a reminder then I end up getting sidetracked.  Syncing between 3 of my devices makes it my most used app.  

ChatGPT is a top used one for me.  Like yourself I find myself drawing blanks when it comes to posting a Bedliner I just finished.  I mean you can only say the same thing so many times  So that has been a breathe of fresh air creating some more descriptive posts for myself as well 

[rtfulk]

What did we do before ChatGPT? Chat GPT keeps all our descriptions similar in wording, but it doesn't sound repetitive.

[Minion]

---

@rtfulk wrote:

What did we do before ChatGPT? Chat GPT keeps all our descriptions similar in wording, but it doesn't sound repetitive.

---

Yeah , its clear when I use that compared to my own, but it is better than saying hey check out this Bedliner" as if I didn't say that a million times.  But being able to change the tone of Chat does help a bit as well with that.  I don't use it often, more so wen I'm planning posts weeks out.

[Hailey]

Love to see you utilizing AI, @Minion @rtfulk  @DinaLRosenberg @Donnie-M  I think its a great tool for brainstorming like this. Its like having a copyeditor on staff. You might not always agree with their every word but it gets the creativity flowing. 

And @JTPets we know you are an AI master for using it to support your business. Its the way of the future - jump on or get left in the dust. 

[JTPets]

Believe it or not I am still an amateur with Ai - maybe an average level user - the things people are doing with AI is crazy. My spicy brain makes it a little easier to get fixated on this particular topic right now 🙂 but actually applying most of my knowledge is the difficult part lol

[Donnie-M]

@rtfulk

1. I use a software program called Jolt for lists and temp management.

2. Musthavemenus.com  My go to for my menus and everything I have to have!

3.  AI Overlord.  Shhhh...don't tell anyone.

4.  Bluestacks - I emulate android on my PC so I can use square services in other places.

#AIOverlordApproved #SquareEverywhere #MenusMadeMighty #LumberjackStackAndImOkay 🌲🪓  #HatorBust

[DinaLRosenberg]

I am a huge chat GPT person... we. use it to help write marketing descriptions, instagram reel captions, tikTok captions, etc.

Also we like CapCUT to make reels/TikToks- especially fun Memes

[rtfulk]

We like capcut also, but lately it seems like something is missing I can't put my finger on it. Maybe it's just me. It use to be easy to go into edit and reposition a video, now when I do it, it just goes back to the original position.

[Candlestore]

@rtfulk ;

My big one is Excel's Power Query.   I download my csv's from Square, click refresh in Excel and Power query connects to where I placed the downloaded csv file to update the csv data.  Once this is done it will show my newly updated report as a CSV, Pivot Table etc.  Then I can use the csv file to update my accounting software.  Once the Accounting data is updated, I can get reports from my accounting software, which has inventory, locations, sales data all different kinds of reports.  

[JTPets]

Square

ChatGPT

Google Sheets

[MudFire_Dex]

How are y'all reconciling our addiction to making these easier regardless of the cost though - I struggle with apps - and my own footprint digitally daily. Water use and the ChatGPT/AI bot industry is so high AI chatbots guzzle enormous amounts of water, study finds | The Standard We are in a similar situation with lithium carbonate (an ingredient in glazes that Trump is pressuring Ukraine about mining there so I have discontinued our glazes using the material because of ethical mining concerns and don't want to be part of that pressure system). I know we can't do that with everything we use and consume and realizing that many of our efforts like recycling tax the system more. We use graywater reclamation here to reduce water use generally - is anyone here taking additional measures or precautions to use less in other ways? It has been suggested by many that a contributing factor to water use in California is server cooling and that if we can reduce non-urgent ChatGPT/AI Chat tasks that it can help. As business owners and consumers how do y'all feel about that?

[HC_Charlie]

Love @MudFire_Dex commitment to all of these. As a visual artist (but more digital at this point in my career) I haven't given much thought to component ingredients and environmental/social effects. Very eye opening, thank you for posting. A lot of great considerations for all businesses to do some deeper diving into materials, processes, supply chains, and how it's all connected to our operations.

[TCSlaguna]

It used to be remove.bg

But Photoroom does higher resolution photos than remove.bg for free. Thanks @rtfulk!

Gmail and Google Drive. Couldn’t live without it. 
Apple Passwords has been a big one for us recently. 
Canva for event flyers

Whatsapp to communicate with the team. 

I know, that’s more than one. But we love all our tools equally. 

[HC_Charlie]

As a digital artist my most used tool is some applications in the Adobe Creative Suite. I use Photoshop and InDesign daily, and some others several times a week. I'd also say Square has been essential since I started taking in-person payments early in my business, and now as I sell primarily online with a Square website.

[CareyJo]

Quickbooks.  My CPA would kill me if I stop using it!

I also use a service called Dext that used to be named Receipt Bank.  I only keep paper receipts for one year.  When the new tax season rolls around, I shred the previous year.  I pay for this service and all of my receipts are stored there, so I can access them anytime.  I keep the paper for a year just in case... I've had to go back to them a few times.

I also pay for a back up service so that I don't have to save backups of my system.  It is highly rated and I don't have to worry if my computer ever goes down, I just upload all my files.  It's called CrashPlan.