Harness the Power of Tools To Skyrocket Your Side Hustle
Entrepreneurs need good business ideas. Successful entrepreneurs take those ideas, scale them by using the right tools and their organizational skills, and build a brand.
Raven Gibson’s journey is the perfect example of this. She took her passion for graphic design and her love of her natural hair to create Legendary Rootz, a fashion and accessories brand dedicated to empowering and uplifting Black women. Legendary Rootz started as Raven’s side hustle while she was still a college student. Despite never having previously run a business, her designs can now be found at Target.
To grow her business, Raven uses a set of tools to capture her creativity and provide a great shopping experience for her customers.
3 tools and tips to help you run your business
When it comes to staying organized so she can bring her ideas to life, Raven relies on specific tools:
1. Bulk import on Numbers
With so many different touchpoints for her brand, Raven uses bulk import to track data. “You can export and import your CSVs, filter by tags, collection, and visibility,” Raven says.
She uses bulk import on her Numbers spreadsheet to visualize all of her orders and customer profiles at once. This helps her ensure everything is in order on the back end of her website and aligns with the customer’s order.
2. Zendesk
For customer service management Raven recommends Zendesk. “With Zendesk I can pull up an email, the customer’s information, their orders, and shipping information all at once,” she says. Having this information in one place helps the team quickly fulfill orders, or solve problems when they arise. “It’s helped us streamline the process so we can help customers faster.”.
3. Notion
When it comes to keeping track of creative ideas, Raven relies on Notion to stay organized. “Ideas spark, and instead of rushing into it, I take note of it in Notion. I have a database where I keep track of all my ideas, who I envision the design on, and how I want to market it.”
Notion allows Raven to conceptualize the roadmap for each product before rushing into production or prematurely marketing a design. Having tools to organize your creative process allows you to follow the muse when it hits, without worrying you’ll lose any of your great ideas.
To learn more about how Raven organizes her business, and to discover her tips for staying positive during stressful times, tune in to the full Shopify Masters episode.