Leanne Beesley on Getting Work Done Cheap without Skills - Nomad Summit 2017 Notes

As mentioned previously, I wanted to provide quick notes on some of the best talks of Nomad Summit 2017. I got to listen to Leanne Beesley, who created coworker.com about a year ago (essentially a TripAdvisor type platform for coworking spaces), and she’s bootstrapped the business and grown it ever since.

Leanne provided a lot of good hacks on how to get work done for the business you’re creating, without actually having the skills or a high budget to execute parts of it. I’m literally just going to list out all the tools she mentioned. Below are different hacks for getting work done cheap without skills – particularly for non-designers, app noobs, people who can’t code, and more.

Hacks for Non-Designers

Photoshop – Only $10/month through Adobe Creative Cloud. Once you get Photoshop, you can buy templates like the ones below from Graphic River and easily edit them.

Adobe Illustrator – $20/month – Along the same lines, Illustrator is quite affordable as well.

Graphicriver.net – templates

Example: 100 Facebook ad banner templates ($7)

Brochures
Flyers
Webinar slides
Packaging designs (for physical product space)
Infographics

Hacks for App Noobs

Codecanyon.net – Marketplace for developers. Use Code Canyon to buy mobile app templates

Example Recipe App Template ($25)

Hacks for People Who Can’t Code

Themeforest.net – Marketplace to buy website templates

Example Homepage Template ($18)

Hacks for Social Media Managers

Instagress ($10/month) – Instagram automation software.
- This app allows you to automate liking + following other Instagram users. I’m not completely sure if the use of this platform is allowed but the speaker said it was allowed.

Animated videos

Vidgeos – Add smart variables in the video (whatever information you need to drop into the video)
- Drag & drop editor (your text and images)

Experiment

In the end, you should just experiment with different platforms and learn from each one. She gave an example of an Amazon FBA product she pursued and how she learned so much about manufacturers & suppliers, negotiating & pricing, packaging, competitive research, and much more through just attempting this channel.

Conclusion

I thought Leanne gave a very useful, actionable presentation that a lot of newbies and business owners can benefit from. I’ve found that one of the most useful things to do with a business is to think smart and figure out what you can automate, especially when you’re not particularly skilled in certain areas that consume a lot of time. It’s impossible to be a master at all aspects of your starting business, let alone have the time to do everything at once. So it’s to your advantage to figure out different “hacks” and smart ways to get around doing things that are not your strengths. Through the resources Leanne mentioned, you can actually get a lot of design work and social media management done for a few dollars. I would definitely recommend the above hacks when creating your location independent business.