When you’re just starting your life coaching business, it can be overwhelming to figure out what pieces of tech to use and exactly what you need.

Let’s face it, there is a LOT of tech out there, and sifting through it all to find what will work best with your coaching business can be time-consuming.

Here are the 5 types of tech you need to start your coaching business and the software I recommend for those just starting out.

(A little note: some of the links are affiliate links, I will mark them with an *. I only recommend and apply to be an affiliate with the tools I use and love.)

1. Basic Branding

At the very least, you should have a color palette picked out, a basic logo (even if it’s just your name), and two fonts chosen to work with. Then, stick to these with everything you create.

Part of your branding is also defining your niche and understanding who you are talking to and the problem you help them solve.

Recommended Tech:

• Design & Branding: Canva–the free version is awesome to start, then as you grow, the Pro version is totally worth the $13/month.

2. An Online Presence

Every business should have a basic website where people can learn more about you and your services, get on your email list, schedule a consultation with you, and sign up for your program or course.

Your online presence should also include a professional email address using your domain–an address like april@aprilhiatt.com. 

This shows people you have a legitimate business, and it promotes your website, so anyone getting an email from you will automatically know your website address.

Having a social media presence is a good start, but you want a place where you have ALL your information, you can easily send people to, and connects all the pieces together. That is your website.

I recommend WordPress for your website as it is the most versatile and can do just about anything you need it to.  

Recommended Tech:

• Website hosting: Siteground*. I LOVE Siteground because their servers almost NEVER go down, so your website is always live, they install WordPress for you, include a free SSL certificate with every plan and a free CDN which helps your site load faster. Siteground also updates your WordPress and PHP versions automatically and gives you a free domain email address so you can have yourname@yourdomain.com. Hosting plans are on sale right now for about $3-$4 a month.
• Website Drag & Drop Builder: Elementor*. Elementor is a free drag and drop page builder plugin you add to a WordPress website for easier page building. They even have free templates you can import and use. There is a FREE version you can just install from WordPress, or I highly recommend the Pro version so you can add forms, pop-ups, and integrate your site with Stripe & PayPal and your email service provider as well as style your blog posts. The Pro version is $59/year.
• Website Privacy Policy Generator: Every website needs a Privacy Policy. This is a free generator* where you enter your information, and it creates it for you! I use it on every website I build and used it for my own site!

3. An Email Service Provider

And Email Service Provider (often called ESP) is a system that collects the emails when someone signs up for your “freebie” or “newsletter” and then delivers it automatically. Your email list is GOLD, you should be growing it every day!

Recommended Tech:

• Email Service Provider (to automate your emails): Mailerlite*. I love Mailerlite because it’s easy to use and understand, easy to set up automations, and FREE for your first 1000 subscribers.

4. A Way to Collect Payments

As a coach or service business, you need a way for people to pay you. You want to set up a business account with a payment processor like PayPal or Stripe so you can send invoices, create products and links for payments, and put payment buttons on your website. 

You definitely don’t want to use your personal accounts for business payments. I show you how to use several options in “How to get paid in your coaching business.”

Recommended Tech:

• Payment Gateway: Stripe or PayPal. Once you set up a business account with them, you can send invoices, create links for people to pay you, and even add buttons to your website for payment. Having an account is free and you only pay for the credit card processing (fee is about 3% of each transaction). Both also allow one-time payments and subscriptions, and even a “trial period”.
• Checkout page (for selling your course or coaching program) and Upsells (this will connect to your Stripe account for credit card payments): ThriveCart*. Hands down, I LOVE ThriveCart for setting up a checkout page. They include a way to add “upsells” and you can create specific coupon codes for specific products. ThriveCart also links to your email service provider–so for example, if you have Mailerlite you can connect your checkout page to Mailerlite so your customers also get your email welcome sequence. The BEST part about ThriveCart is that it’s a ONE TIME fee (at least right now) for a LIFETIME!!! No monthly fees like you have with LeadPages or ClickFunnels. And, if you need to collect sales tax, it will figure it out for you and add it correctly to the person’s check-out.

5. A Scheduling Calendar Service

When someone is ready to schedule either a free consultation with you or a coaching call, you will want a place to send them easily. An online calendar that syncs to your personal calendar so you can block out times you are available and times you are not. 

Ideally, you want a calendar you can embed on your website and that will accept payments for you (most will connect with your Stripe account).

Recommended Tech:

• Online Scheduling Calendar: OnceHub. They have so many great things you can do–all with a FREE account! Calendly is great if you only have 1 thing people can sign up for, but if you have several options and want to collect payment when people sign up, the free version of OnceHub is perfect! And, you can embed the calendar right on your website! Here is what my calendar looks like for people to schedule with me (https://www.aprilhiatt.com/schedule/), all built with the free version of OnceHub!

Finally, as your business grows, here are some of my other favorite tech tools for those starting a coaching or service-based business.

• Course Hosting: ThriveCart*. Also included in the lifetime ThriveCart account is a place to set up your course, sell your course, and have everything connected together. You create the course, then put it on ThriveCart, set up the check-out page–and when people purchase it, ThriveCart does the rest! I love that everything is on one place.
• Audio and Video Editing: Descript. What I love about Descript is that you just upload your audio or video files, and then it will transcribe the audio for you. Then, you can make edits from the transcription, have it automatically take out all the “ums” and shorten long silences, and improve your audio quality with “studio sound”. Plus, you can even record both audio and video right in Descript if you want and then share the video link to someone else. (I do this a lot for short trainings with clients). Their software is about $12 a month, but you can start with a free plan to check it out.
• Recording videos: There are actually a couple I use for this–I use Zoom to record how-to videos for my courses, I use Loom when I just want to make a short video to answer a question from someone, show them how to do something, and then send a link. And I also use Canva (even with just a free account) when I want to record a presentation using my slides. You can even use Canva recordings to create an entire course! 

There are so many online tools out there, it can be overwhelming trying to figure out what you need and what tech you should use to start your coaching business.

“Shiny object syndrome” is real. But, you don’t need every thing you see or every piece of tech people recommend.

Start with your five main tools, grow your business, and then add things as needed. This will save your sanity and get rid of overwhelm!

If you want someone to set up everything for you, create your website and link everything together, check out my Complete Website Packages done for you and the Done Right Website Academy where you can learn to DIY your website.