The tools I actually use to run my solo business.
Published June 2, 2026
I want to share what’s actually on my computer.
I’m always a little suspicious of those “12 must-have tools for solopreneurs!” posts that read like the writer is trying to fill a word count. So this one is the opposite — the small, specific, sometimes-boring list of software I actually open in a normal week running a sticker business and a small software company at the same time.
Some of these are paid. Some are free. Some are tools I built myself because nothing existed that fit. None of them are sponsored. None of them are affiliate links. (Except Maryn, which I obviously made.)
If you’re piecing together your own setup, take what’s useful and leave the rest.
For the actual creative work
Canva Pro — for sticker designs, social media graphics, blog post images, and basically every visual thing I make. I’ve tried Adobe Illustrator. I’ve tried Affinity Designer. Canva is the one I actually open. The Pro features I use most: brand kit, background remover, and the ability to resize a design for ten platforms in one click. It earns its keep.
For running the business side
Maryn — yes, I made it. I use it every day for income tracking, expenses, mileage, my daily task list, my journal, and my calendar. If you’re curious, it’s at maryn.app.
My accountant, who is a real human person — I want to put this on the list because most “tools” posts forget to mention that the most valuable thing in your back office is probably a relationship, not software. Mine is local. We meet once a year. She makes my taxes painless.
For selling things
Etsy — where my stickers actually sell. Not a tool I love, exactly. A tool I use because that’s where my customers are. I don’t fight Etsy. I just work with it.
Payhip — where Maryn sells. I picked Payhip after researching about a dozen options for selling digital downloads. They handle taxes (huge), refunds, affiliate tracking, and license keys. They take a cut of each sale, but it’s a simple flat percentage of the transaction, not a confusing tiered subscription. I’ve been very happy.
For getting things in front of people
Pinterest — the platform that does the most for both my businesses, by a mile. Slow content that keeps working months after you post it. I have pins from a year ago still driving traffic to my Etsy shop today. The opposite of Instagram.
Instagram — used reluctantly. I post when I have something to say, not on a schedule. The algorithm hates this. My nervous system loves it.
Tailwind — for scheduling Pinterest pins. Honestly though, I’m probably not renewing it in the fall. Canva Pro now schedules to Pinterest directly, and that’s been working just fine. One less subscription.
MailerLite — for my email list. I researched a few options before picking it and have no complaints. The free tier is generous, the interface is clean, and I’m not paying for an enterprise feature set I don’t need.
For writing
Microsoft Word — for everything. I don’t love it, but I’ve used it for so long that my hands know it. The blog posts on this site, my product notes, my random drafts — all of it lives in Word documents. Sometimes the boring tool is the right tool because it’s the one you’ll actually open.
For the technical side
Cloudflare — DNS, email routing, hosting (via Cloudflare Pages), and a security layer I mostly don’t think about. Almost everything is free at the small-business scale. I cannot say enough good things about Cloudflare for indie creators.
GitHub — where the code for Maryn and my sales page lives. Free private repos. Even if you don’t write code, GitHub is a quietly excellent place to keep version history of any project that matters.
For my brain
A Hobonichi planner — this is my personal journal. I have thirty minutes a day, guarded, where I sit down with it and write honestly about how I’m doing. Not work tasks. Not business goals. Just my actual well-being. It’s the most important thirty minutes of my day, and I’m fierce about protecting them.
Apple Notes — for the quick stuff. Boring, free, syncs everywhere, and quietly the best note-taking app I’ve ever used.
Reminders (Apple) — for the absolutely essential, time-bound things. Not for tasks (those go in Maryn). For “don’t forget to take the dog to the vet at 2pm.”
What’s NOT on this list
It’s worth noting what I deliberately don’t use:
- A separate sales-pipeline or contact tracker (I’m one person, my customers come to me through Etsy and Payhip)
- A separate project management tool (Maryn is my project management tool)
- A separate budgeting app (Maryn handles money)
- A separate journaling app (Maryn handles work-side journaling, my Hobonichi handles personal)
- A “second brain” or “digital garden” system
- A Notion or Obsidian setup (I tried. Both made me feel worse than I started.)
- QuickBooks or a fancy bookkeeping platform
Most “productivity tool” articles include all of these. I deliberately don’t, because I think the thing most solopreneurs need isn’t more tools. It’s fewer tools, used more deliberately.
The principle behind the list
If you scroll back up and look at the patterns, you’ll see what I’m actually optimizing for:
- Tools that work offline. Canva, Maryn, Word, Apple Notes. If my internet goes out, I can still work.
- Tools that don’t lock my data hostage. Most of these export plain text or images. None of them hold my work behind a subscription paywall I can’t escape.
- Tools that don’t try to be everything. Maryn does business records. Canva does design. Pinterest does discovery. None of them try to also do the other ones’ jobs.
- One-time purchases when possible. Maryn, obviously. My Hobonichi is a once-a-year purchase. Word came with my computer. The fewer recurring charges, the better.
This isn’t a flex about being a minimalist. It’s just that every additional tool is another thing to maintain, another login, another monthly charge to forget about, another place your data could disappear from.
Run lean. Use the tools that earn it. Cut the rest.
If you want to add one more to the list — Maryn’s at maryn.app. Quietly running in the background of my Tuesday, every Tuesday, on my own computer. Pay once. Yours forever.
— Jen