My favourite tools I use to run my wellness business
When I first qualified as a reflexologist, I had no clue how to set myself up for business.
Sure, during training they lightly mention you need to get insured, set up a clinic space and get online. But nobody tells you about ALL the other hats you have to wear like social media content maker, bookkeeper, website builder, email marketer, just to mention a few!
I know tech can feel daunting but learning to embrace it has honestly made running my business a lot smoother and look professional to boot.
So after 5 years of trial and error, i’ve made a list of all the trusted tools & platforms that I now rely on.
Disclaimer: Some are affiliate links, so if you purchase via them we’ll both get rewarded. Rest assured, l only ever promote products I genuinely love and use.
1. Squarespace
The easiest website building platform out there - with premade sections ready for you to plug and edit, it’s honestly impossible to make an ugly website on Squarespace, plus now with it’s AI-powered SEO tools it makes writing your content a doddle while making it sound authentic and aligned with your brand.
There are different plans depending on the level of functionality your website needs
Scheduling
Email Campaigns
Commerce
Courses & Memberships
2. Thrivecart
If you’re at a stage of wanting to expand your offerings into selling retreats, digital products or courses then Thrivecart does it all in one.
“But Chrissy, you already have Squarespace - surely that does everything?” Technically yes it does but let me explain…
Squarespace is a monthly/annual subscription plus anything beyond just website hosting is a paid extra on top (such as checkout & courses) which can end up being costly in the long term.
Thrivecart is a one-off single payment with lifetime access - no brainer cost-wise, so be sure to lock this in whilst the single payment offer lasts as this may change in future!
3. Flodesk
Yonks ago, I started email marketing with a free Machimp account and hated it. I then settled for a free Mailerlite plan which I happily used up until a year ago and as with most free things, Mailerlite felt a little ugly but it had all the functions I needed such as automations and embeddable forms. However, after being forced to join their new version of the platform, suddenly some functions were no longer available on the free plan and so I realised I needed to pay to up my email marketing game.
So I trialled Squarespace’s Email Campaigns (the idea of website + emails being under one roof appealed to me) although it felt really cohesive with the ability to pull individual blog posts & products into an email with ease (very cool) but soon realised it had quite a few limitations with automations and felt expensive long term.
I then saw a lot of people shouting about Flodesk and after trialling it at 50% off (thanks to someone else’s affiliate code) I quickly saw why! It’s clean interface felt fun and intuitive - much easier to use and the ready-made templates were really aesthetically pleasing.
Workflows (aka automations) are a doddle as are Forms (for capturing email addresses) which can be a link or embedded anywhere. They even have a survey block which I found super handy and im hoping they will release a quiz block soon.
And to make it your own, you can upload custom fonts & set up your brand colours so that your emails feel just like being on your website.
You can trial *Flodesk for a year at 50% off using this link!
4. Acuity Scheduling
This is the one tool that saves me the most time (once you have everything set up which is of course the most time-consuming bit).
Now, if you love admin and a paper diary kind of girl then feel free to skip this one but gosh I couldn’t do it.
With Acuity my clients can view my availability at my different locations and schedule & cancel appointments themselves - this avoids the endless to-and-fro of email chains, missed calls and garbled voicemails.
I use the buffer function on my appointments so I have built-in time for writing notes & refreshing towels and the intake forms allow me to capture a new client’s information ahead of time - this way I get a good understanding of someone’s health before they arrive and therefore give them my full attention on the day and focus solely on their treatment. Ever gone to see a new GP who spends the whole 15mins staring at a screen? No one enjoys that.
I love that I can type notes directly inside a client’s Acuity profile for each visit (visible only to me) I’m on the Growing plan which allows me to send automated email and text reminders (i’ve only had one no-show in 5 years!), plus automated follow-up emails for each appointment type which encourages retention and makes clients feel looked after.
I also use Acuity to sell Gift Vouchers, Packages (courses of treatments) & most recently Memberships where monthly payments are taken automatically and clients can see how many treatments they have left to redeem without having to ask me.
I even figured out how to customise the scheduling page with my brand colours so it all looks cohesive on my website page.
If tech scares you, then I strongly recommend using a VA (virtual assistant) to do all the set-up for you. The cost of a VA will pay for itself within a month and ask them to give you a tour of the backend so you understand at least the basics of how to amend things yourself.
No affiliate link, but you can see how i’ve set mine up here.
5. Canva Pro
Honestly what did we do for graphics for social media, flyers & business cards before Canva? It’s been the best thing for us non-creative small business owners!
The free plan has plenty of templates to get started but with the Pro plan you get a ton more prettier options and can even build different brand kits (if you have multiple businesses) plus the ability to download transparent png files.
The only time I wouldn’t suggest Canva is for proper branding and logos - for this I would strongly recommend hiring a professional graphic or brand designer as this should be made bespoke to your business with copyright and will differentiate you from your competition.
Try your *free 30 days trial of Canva Pro here.
6. The Contract Shop
The boring but essential part of every business. It’s very tempting to sweep the legal / GDPR side of your wellbeing business under the rug but please don’t! Protect your business and your website visitors’ data with iron-clad, lawyer-prepared legal templates that you can easily customise to your business. Buy your Website Privacy Policy & Terms & Conditions bundle here*.
7. MOYO Studio
Before I invested in professional photography, I resorted to stock images but found a lot of them were so generic and dry! Then found MOYO Studio who sell packs of stunning yet affordable photos and templates for the more creative holistic therapist. Show off your offerings with imagery that truly aligns with your wellness brand. Get 50 free premium photos when you sign up to their mailing list*.
Enjoy and let me know how you get on!
Has any of this resonated with you? I hope this post has helped give you insights into more holistic ways of looking after your health.
