Recommended Tools

Nick Gausling
Jun 09, 2023
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Below are recommended tools for business leaders.

Every tool listed here is something I personally use. Some are affiliate links and are indicated as such. I only recommend products or services I actually believe in, regardless of affiliate status.

This list may be updated from time to time.

COMMUNICATION TOOLS

  • EFANI (secure phone service)

    • What it does: Replaces your existing cell plan with a much more secure line. No contract required and comes with top tier, white glove customer service.

    • Why use it: Your phone number is a major gateway into your business and can be used to access most of your other accounts. It’s also remarkably easy to hack through a technique called SIM Swapping. Security features you may enable with your current phone plan are helpful, but largely insufficient.

    • Get Efani (affiliate): Sign up here and get one month free.

  • MULLVAD (VPN)

    • What it does: Encrypts and obscures your internet connection, providing substantial security and privacy benefits. Available for most devices.

    • Why use it: To help protect your data from hackers, competitors, and more. Useful all the time but especially when working remotely or using public WiFi. Consistent, low-cost pricing.

    • Get Mullvad: Sign up here.

  • SIGNAL (secure call and text app)

    • What it does: A secure communication platform for encrypted calls, video, and text messages. Available for most devices.

    • Why use it: Signal is the gold standard for secure communication and a fantastic way to help ensure your private business discussions stay private.

    • Get Signal: Download for free.

  • THUNDERBIRD (e-mail client)

    • What it does: A lightweight desktop program for managing all your e-mail across multiple accounts in one place.

    • Why use it: It’s much easier to use, more secure, and less resource-intensive than Outlook. Best for those who don’t use Microsoft Exchange.

    • Get Thunderbird: Download for free.

PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS

  • MORGEN (unified calendar)

    • What it does: A unified interface to manage all of your calendars in one place and a scheduling tool that checks for conflicts across all your accounts.

    • Why use it: So you don’t need to juggle between multiple business and personal calendars. Easy to use and very affordable.

    • Get Morgen (affiliate): Sign up here and use code XUDHJ20 for 20% off

  • BRAVE BROWSER (secure web browser)

    • What it does: A highly-secure and private web browser. Replaces or can be used alongside your current web browser (e.g., Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari).

    • Why use it: Your browser is probably one of your most-used business tools. Brave gives you an easy, fast, highly-secure browser that is vastly superior to anything else on the market.

    • Get Brave Browser: Download for free.

  • BRAVE SEARCH (private search engine)

    • What it does: A private, secure search engine that doesn’t depend on the major tech companies and provides high quality, independent results. It can be used with or without the Brave Browser.

    • Why use it: To help protect your business research and privacy, and also find information that may be more difficult to find on legacy search engines.

    • Get Brave Search: Use for free.

  • TRESORIT (secure cloud storage)

    • What it does: Secure, private backup and storage of your important business files, synced across all your devices.

    • Why use it: Backing up your business files is one of your best defenses against data loss. Many other cloud providers, including most mainline solutions, are not as secure or private.

    • Get Tresorit: Sign up here.

OTHER TOOLS

  • DELETEME (executive privacy service)

    • What it is: A white glove service that removes your personal information from various data broker databases. These databases commonly show up when people search your name and provide vast sums of your personal information to anyone willing to pay for it.

    • Why use it: To improve SEO (especially important if you are a public representative of your company) and make it a lot more difficult for scammers to target your business or impersonate you. Processing these removals yourself is extremely tedious and time-consuming, especially since many data broker companies engage in highly-unethical and fraudulent practices.

    • Get DeleteMe (affiliate): Sign up here and get 20% off.

  • BUNNY CDN (content delivery network)

    • What it is: A CDN automatically copies and serves up your site’s data from servers closer to your visitors rather than directly from your web host.

    • Why use it: To make your site run faster, cleaner, and more securely. This improves SEO for better search engine ranking and provides a better customer experience. Easy to implement and has a very affordable pricing model. The Bunny Optimizer add-on is also highly recommended.

    • Get Bunny CDN (affiliate): Sign up here.