Best Tools For Your Nutrition Business

Running a nutrition business is certainly not easy. The willingness to work hard, roll up your sleeves and be resourceful are common hallmarks of our culinary nutrition experts who are successful in the field. Still, everyone needs a little help – and this is where the best key tools for your nutrition business enter the scene.

Selecting strategic tools to help you maximize your time, enhance what you have to offer to customers and clients and reach your ideal audience are very valuable in a small business. Here are some of our favourite tools for your nutrition business that will help you rock your biz.

Best Tools for Your Nutrition Business

Website Tools

Wordpress.com + Wordpress.org

It’s virtually impossible to avoid being online nowadays, especially if you own a business. Simple, attractive websites are easy to create and you don’t need fancy web design skills or a technical background.

WordPress is the best CMS (content management system) out there — plus, Google loves WP and favours WP sites in search results. If you’re just getting started, wordpress.com is the way to go. If you are getting someone to build your site and you are particular about what you want in terms of design and functionality, wordpress.org would be your option.

Easy Recipe

This is a recipe plugin that allows you to easily format recipes on your website or food blog so they are consistent, attractive, simple to read and printable. It’s what we use here on the ACN blog – you can check out some of our recipes if you’re curious what this plug-in can do.

Photography + Social

Instagram

We’ll bet you’re on Instagram already, but if you’re not it’s definitely something to consider as one the basic tools for your nutrition business. Instagram is an image and video-based social networking site that is very visually focused. It’s a fun way to engage with your audience, share beautiful food photos, film quick cooking demos or host live chats.

If you’re in the nutrition business, Instagram can help you chat directly with readers and viewers, share what you are cooking up in your kitchen, promote the exciting events you have coming up, reveal your personality, and more. Like any social media platform, the best practices are constantly shifting and evolving, but you can get a sense of what’s working on Instagram right now if you’re interested in using it to maximize your business.

Snapseed

Want to give your photos a little more oomph? Snapseed is a free photo editing software that is easy to use and allows you to jazz up your photos beyond the options you’ll find on Instagram. It’s available for iPhones and Android phones and can help you make your photos look great!

Graphics + Images

iStock

We eat with our eyes too, and beautiful food photography is an essential part of nutrition if you want to grow a food blog, social media following, write an e-book or cookbook, and make your recipes appealing to eat and share. This beginner’s guide to creating good food photography can help get you started, but if you don’t have the time (or desire) to devote to photography, a good photo stock service is immensely helpful.

We like using iStock because there are a massive amount of photos to choose from, the site is easily searchable, and there are a number of flexible payment plans where you can either buy credits or monthly subscription options.

Canva

If you don’t have the budget yet for a graphic designer, Canva can help you create a variety of beautifully designed items for your blog, website, e-newsletters, social media accounts, posters, e-books and more. There are tons of templates to choose from and it’s very user-friendly!

Payments

Paypal

If you’re going to have a nutrition business, you need a tool that will help your clients pay for your products or services. Paypal is a good option that makes it easy for you to invoice clients, collect payments (in multiple currencies) and integrate ‘add to cart’ buttons on your website. It also connects directly with your bank account for easy transfers.

Freshbooks

Freshbooks is a cloud-based accounting software, and it’s an awesome option for creating estimates and invoices (including recurring payments). It goes beyond Paypal in that it’s used for overall accounting, and can keep track of your clients’ payment history and export all your finances when it comes time for bookkeeping and taxes.

There are so many great tools out there and there is never one size fits all, for every person or every business. Use what we’ve shared as a reference point. If you have tools you use and love for your nutrition business, please share in the comments section.

Live Events

This Open Space

Looking for an awesome spot in which to hold your next cooking class? This Open Space allows you to search for unique spaces that can help your classes, talks, retreats and other events shine. Think of it as the Airbnb for event rentals.

Community Connecting

Mailchimp

We love the free social media tools, but remember it’s equally important to have a way to communicate with your audience or clients independently of them. If Facebook or Instagram were to shut down tomorrow, how would that affect your ability to talk to the people who are interested in what you have to offer? By building an email list through Mailchimp, you can have more control about what you say to your audience and when you say it – there are no algorithms to worry about (of course, open rates are another matter!).

On Mailchimp, you can get started for free and get building your list – and there are a bunch of beautiful and easy to use templates.

Everyday Tools

Calendly

This is a wonderful and free scheduling app so you can ensure your appointments with clients are organized and easy to keep track of.

Skype

In today’s virtual world, many culinary nutrition experts work with clients around the world. Skype, which you can download to almost any device, is super handy for video chats and meetings so you can see people in real time and face to face. And most of what you’ll need is totally free.

Google Forms

We like using Google Forms to create and organize client intake forms and surveys. This saves your clients from having to print and fill out their intakes, or from you having to create an editable PDF, and everything is all in one place.

That Clean Life Business

Meal prep, menu planning and recipe development are a joy for culinary nutrition experts but when you have a growing client roster, it’s a challenge to keep up with the demand for new recipes and meal plans. That Clean Life Business, created by culinary nutrition expert Abigail Hopkins, allows you to create menu plans for clients using recipe resources designed to help a variety of health conditions. The system is packed with high-quality recipes that are in line with today’s most popular diets, and are easily customizable based on your client needs. This one is a true time saver.