Kiwi Startup Tools Cheat Sheet

Need legal help, website tracking, a payment platform etc? Here's a bunch of services we recommend.
Character illustration of people looking through useful tools and resources for startups

Legal & Accounting Resources:

Even if you don't have much money when you start out, there are cost-effective solutions to getting your accounting and legal positions right from the beginning, saving you time and reducing stress in the long run.

Getting these sorted can make a big difference to your state of mind, and can help improve your chances of success.

Mum's Garage tip: do your own homework, and make a decision based on your own individual requirements.

Free Resources:

  • Accounting software: Wave Accounting - free accounting & invoicing software. Great for budding entrepreneurs and small businesses. Unlike Xero, Wave doesn't yet have the functionality to produce an IR3 statement for NZ tax purposes. All this means is that you'll have to do it yourself, or get an accountant to do it for you.
  • Legal: Hudson Gavin Martin - offers a free one-hour chat to the MG community. Get in touch, and tell them we sent you. HGM hold Drop-In Clinics around Auckland. We recommend contacting HGM directly for details.
  • Legal: Simmonds Stewart templates and guides - a library of free legal templates and guides, and a free half-hour chat in both Auckland and Wellington.
  • Intellectual Property: Innovation Liberation Front - offers a free first chat to the Mum's Garage community. Just get in touch with Simon via the ILF website and tell him we sent you.

Affordable Resources:

  • Accountants: Beany - New Zealand owned, online, fixed-price accountants starting at $45/month, which includes unlimited accounting advice and support, tax returns and financial statements. If you tell them we sent you, we'll get a $50 kick back, which is nice (we use Beany).
  • Accounting software: Xero (costs $60/month). Xero is more comprehensive than Wave Accounting (although also more complicated), accountants all know how to use it, and it's built for NZ businesses (so it will spit out your tax return without requiring much additional work). MYOB is a cheaper cloud-based accounting software suitable for NZ businesses, starting from $5 per month for startups.
  • Legal: Hudson Gavin Martin - Ready Set Go Package (contact them directly for details)

“Ignorance is voluntary misfortune.” — Nicholas Ling

Building Your Business Online:

  • Website platforms: In our opinion, Squarespace is the easiest way to very quickly create, then maintain, a simple and good looking website. Comes with 1 month free trial then starts at US$12/month. WordPress is also a good choice and offers more layout and functionality options, though you'll need a designer to help out if you're not design-savvy. And if your slightly more tech savvy, check out Webflow as an alternative to these.
  • eCommerce - Shopify is the site for building e-commerce businesses. Comes with 14 day free trial then starts at US$29/month + 2% transaction fee.
  • Domains - we like for Onlydomains for NZ domains and Namecheap for everything else. Also, iwantmyname (NZ company). Before buying a domain name, check the Global Brand Database to see what trademarks already exist to avoid any issues down the track.
  • Website optimisation - Google Analytics and Hotjar are our favorite tools. Google Analytics is free, Hotjar is free for its basic packages. We like Hotjar because of its recording feature, and think GA is something every website should be utilising.
  • Free stock images -  favourite sites are Unsplash and Pexels.
  • Payments platforms - Braintree or Stripe. While Stripe probably has the edge on features, we've heard nothing but good things about Braintree's customer support.
  • Landing pages and A/B testing - we like Leadpages because it's simple, beautiful and the cheaper option. Other people also like ClickFunnels.

Managing Your Customers:     

  • Newsetters/CRM - Mailchimp, because it's simple, free and makes preparing beautiful newsletters easy. If you need more functionality than what Mailchimp offers, check out Active Campaign and Campaign Monitor.
  • Sales funnel/CRM - Pipedrive is our favourite as it's simple and intuitive to use, without too many unnecessary features. Free one month trial, then starts at US$10/month per user.
  • Document signing - Hellosign which is free for up to 3 documents per month.
  • Sales document analytics (B2B) - DocSend. Great for figuring out how to improve your sales documents. One to keep in the back pocket for when you have some money to invest in improving your sales process.

“Software is the magic thing whose importance only goes up over time” — Bill Gates

Productivity

  • Workflow management - Post-it notes often just don't cut it, especially if your team is dispersed. Trello, Asana, Todoist or Jira. They all have varying levels of capability, and also the effectiveness of a workflow management tool is very dependant on the type of person using it. Check them all out and figure out one which suits you best.
  • Time tracker - Check out Toggl.
  • Team communication - Slack is unparalleled.

Other useful products and services:

  • IntegrationsZapier is an app for integrating other apps. It lets your SaaS products connect with each other.
  • Job descriptions - Workable offers free job description templates. Great for helping to define each team members key deliverables.
  • Website page speed - use Google PageSpeed to find out how you can make your website run faster. Note that if you're using a DIY platform like Squarespace to build your website, you're more limited as to what you can change.
  • Link shortening/tracking: bitly or goo.gl
  • Finding what people are searching for - use Google KeywordPlanner and Google Trends to find keywords to use on your website and in content.
  • Outsourcing Work/Specialist Services - Fiverr is great for small jobs. Upwork connects you with freelancers from all over the world. Ohuddle is a New Zealand company which connects you with specialists.
  • Design - Quickly create web resources with Canva (a lot of the elements are free). PicMonkey is a great editor which costs, but is actually worth the price.
  • Co-Founder Equity Split: Read, this and this (including links at the bottom of the linked article).