The TWO best tools for your business as a neurodivergent, disabled, and/or chronically ill solopreneur.
If there's one thing I want you to stop doing as you work on figuring out your backend systems for your business, it's this:
Stop searching for one tool to cover all your client management and collaboration needs.
As a systems expert, I'm here to tell you that "one stop" platforms that claim to do it all are a myth supported by companies' marketing budgets.
The truth is that while there are some great tools out there that will cover a lot of your needs in one platform, finding a tool that completely supports the unique needs of you and your clients is unlikely to happen.
BUT that doesn't mean you should give up on your dream of cohesive backend business systems that make client management and collaboration simple. It means you need to carefully curate your tech stack to create a powerful, effective backend setup that doesn't leave you thinking "this tool is great, but it's missing this specific function——I'd better keep researching to find a better one to switch to." Because that grass-is-greener-elsewhere mentality is going to drag out your systems set-up process for way longer than necessary.
As a systems OT (occupational therapist—like a systems strategist but with a more holistic focus!) who works with neurodivergent, disabled, and chronically ill solopreneurs, my top two tools I recommend for your client management and collaboration needs in your business are…
Dubsado and Kitchen.co
Note: this blog post contains affiliate links.
What's Dubsado?
Dubsado is a Client Relationship Management (CRM) software that's great for:
Sharing project proposals, taking client bookings, getting contracts signed.
Invoicing for your services (for both payment in full and payment plans) and sending payment reminders.
Having multiple schedulers for different appointment types, automating appointment reminders.
"Workflows"——a series of automated (and manual) steps that simplify your processes and take repetitive admin work off your plate——and automated personalisation in your forms, emails, contracts, and more.
Keeping all your different forms—enquiry, onboarding, feedback/offboarding——all in one place (and integrating your lovely branding, too!)
How can Dubsado help you as a neurodivergent, disabled, and/or chronically ill solopreneur?
Once you've got your Dubsado account set up, your processes can largely run on autopilot. The workflows, automated payment and appointment reminders, and having all your client management resources as templates in your account is great for those of us with busy brains, energy limitations, and a need for a business where client admin doesn't grind to a halt when we're sick or out of spoons.
Having template emails to share with your proposals and welcome packets that Dubsado automatically personalises to your clients' names and key info means no more accidentally sending "Hey NAME!" emails before you realise you forgot to remove bits of placeholder text (been there too many times 🫣)
You can send emails containing any client comms straight out of Dubsado——so all your emails and resources you share with clients are easy to locate without spending ages combing your email account (seriously, why is the search function so bad??) trying to find important info for your own reference or to resend to clients when needed.
What's Kitchen.co?
Kitchen.co is marketed as a "Client Portal software for creative agencies", but as someone who's used it as a solopreneur for over a year, I can confirm it works beautifully for single service providers working with clients.
Kitchen.co is great for:
Conversation channels for sending written and voice notes, replying in thread, sharing files—think Slack but without the 90 day limit on viewing your messaging history.
Project management boards—creating, assigning, and managing tasks, whether for your private tasks or in collaboration with clients.
Collecting client feedback and approvals, with clients able to directly comment with their feedback on files, or let you know "yep, this looks perfect!" in one click.
Embed links to other tools as a full page view—I've used this for collaborative Google Docs, YouTube videos, mindmapping software, and more.
How can Kitchen.co help you as a neurodivergent, disabled, and/or chronically ill solopreneur?
You know how in Lord of the Rings, The Ring is described as the "one ring to rule them all"? Kitchen.co is kinda like that (but significantly less creepy and evil). Instead of needing 50 tabs open across 5 different internet browser windows to access all your important resources, you can Embed them in Kitchen for easy access. I'm telling you, I spend SO much less time searching for random files in G Drive since creating a hub of all my key business and client resources in Kitchen.
The 'Conversation' channels in Kitchen aren't just for chatting with clients—you can also leave 'Notes' that are private to you as the business owner in response to messages. And those Notes can then be turned into Tasks. So when a client says "Hey, could you send me that link again when you get chance", you can add it to your To Do list in a couple of clicks, without losing your flow, getting distracted, or putting it on another Post-It note that gets misplaced or losing it in your notebook before you get chance to action it.
If you've tried Notion for your business but found it was too difficult or too much work to keep tidy, I think you'll love what Kitchen has to offer. It's still flexible enough to make it your own, but way easier to keep track of all your stuff with Folders you can nest everything inside.
Still uncertain about how Dubsado and Kitchen.co can work for you and your business as a neurodivergent, disabled, or chronically ill service provider? Book a Systems Diagnostic Session and let’s put together an easy-to-implement plan for where you want your systems to be.
