I've been broke for a LONG TIME

When I first started my business, I’d just left a salaried job and had little savings so I knew I didn’t have a lot of money to spend on tools for my work

Especially as a neurodivergent being in a productivity space that was built for and by neurotypical tech bros

I needed to find tools that were mostly free so I could test them out for a long enough time to figure out if my brain loved enough

As you can imagine, that trial and error took a looooong time 🫠

But in the year of our liege Beyoncé, I’ve finally settled on a tech stack that works for my brain. It doesn’t cost more than $500 a year, and is robust enough to support my changing business without being overwhelming

This list is not exhaustive because a lot of my tools work in the background or don’t require my intervention beyond setup 👀

Also this post has affiliate links so clicking and signing up for any of these tools is gonna make me some $$

Notion

what I use it for

• general organization
• CRM/people directory
• all kindsa notes
• project management + tracking
• email + blog post writing
• task management
• recording my finances (which came in handy when I hired an accountant recently)

how much I pay for it

$0.00

why I love it

What really sold me when I first got into Notion was how flexible it was. It didn’t pigeonhole me into a particular way of doing things as a neurodivergent person

I also really loved the tinkering aspect because I’m always trying to figure out how stuff works 🤣

Being able to switch up my setup when my workflows changed continues to be the best part of Notion for me. As a neurodivergent babe, especially from a country outside of the US and UK, my workflows just never fit into the average tools

why I would pay for it

For $12 a month, you’ll get access to unlimited charts, unlimited file uploads, custom forms and up to 100 guest seats. This is great for anyone working with smaller teams, or even clients.

For $24 a month, you’ll get everything in the Plus plan plus Notion’s AI (which I have been having SO MUCH FUN playing with!), pages auto-synced for offline, and conditional logic for Notion forms.

>>get Notion<<

Payhip

what I use it for

• hosting my website
• hosting my blog
• (previously) online store

how much I pay for it

$0.00

5% transaction fee (or if you have an online store)

why I love it

It makes pretty good-looking sites for the cost! The builder is a touch dated, especially for the blog writing, but Payhip makes a great looking website.

The store is made specifically for digital products, so it’s super easy to set up and sell. The store also connects to PayPal and Stripe!

Aaannnd if you’re doing email marketing, Payhip connects natively to popular email marketing tools like MailerLite, Kit and Flodesk. That means you can save your zaps for something else 😜

One thing about Payhip that I love love love is the help docs and customer service. They don’t have an AI chatbot, so you get to talk to real people who are responsive and super helpful

>>build your website on Payhip<<

Tally

what I use it for

Forms that aren’t ugly 🤣

If you’re tired of Google Forms, Jotform or whatever other form you’re using, Tally is the one for you!

how much I pay for it

$0.00

why I love it

It integrates with Notion natively!

So that means when someone sends in their application form, I get it directly into Notion, and I can get their profile up in my People Directory without having to manually do it!

There are quite a few customization options to make it blend seamlessly with your website including font options, custom colours, and banners.

I mean, look at how lovely my custom Notion build inquiry form looks!

These forms also have conditional logic on the free plan (unlike Notion 👀) so your forms can get prettyyyyy complicated!

Another thing that’s minor is that Tally’s links aren’t pretty but they’re short enough that they could be easy to remember if you tried. Versus a Jotform link that you have to run through a link shortener 😅

why I’d pay for it

Honestly it’s not something I would pay for with the $29/month Pro plan and the $89/month Business plan.

The free plan is plenty generous for the average person, but if you’re not the average person:

• Pro plan – $29 a month
• custom domains for your forms
• advanced customization including CSS
• form analytics including drop offs, visit duration and traffic sources
• unlimited file uploads
• tailored emails to yourself and respondents
• Business plan – $89 a month
• everything in Pro
• version history up to 90 days
• respondent email verification

Again, the average person probably won’t need to pay for Tally, but the Pro plan might be worth it for folks who have a larger team

But the free plan is plenty generous for solopreneurs!

>>try Tally free<<

Fathom

what I use it for

Fathom might be my fave tool in this whole list! It’s like fighting for first place with Notion at this point LOL

Fathom records all my meetings, creates AI summaries and a transcript. Unlimited recorded hours, unlimited transcribing, with one summary type. FOR FREE.

how much I pay for it

$180 a year and that’s only because I wanted to rename my notetaker and have custom AI summaries 😂

It’s one of those tools that I’d HAPPILY pay for because it’s just TOO GOOD!!

why I love it

If you take a lot of meetings for work, it can be really frustrating to take notes while trying to listen to your client talking. Especially if you’re neurodivergent, you wanna make sure you’re getting all the important stuff down while trying to pay attention 😵‍💫

With Fathom I can literally sit back and relax and be more present in meetings!

It records any Google Meet, Zoom or Teams meeting that you have – even stuff that isn’t on your schedule! You can even send a link to meeting participants afterwards for their records.

To make the most out of my subscription, I even use it to record audio when I need to brain dump and process my thoughts. I also use it in place of Loom for screen recordings 👀

why I recommend paying for it (but you don’t have to)

You don’t have to of course, but if you can spare it, I’d definitely recommend spending the doubloons because:

• you can add a zap to send your meeting notes over to Notion (or whatever other tool you’re using)
• you get access to more AI summary types, and custom summaries
• AI generated action items (so you don’t have to take em yourself)

>>record with Fathom<<

If you’ve been jury rigging your business, these tools should give you back some time and calm without having to worry about your business spending. Give these tools a try and let me know how they work for you!

And if you’re thinking of switching to any of these tools and unsure about it, book a sit-down with the Oracle to get more information on how to decide which tools are right for you!



There are actually more tools I wanna share but this post got too long 😂 check out part 2 of my tech stack over here → part 2