The Digital Ops Starter Kit
Busy, tired, and doing it all yourself?
You started your business to do the thing you're good at — not to drown in admin. Here's the short, honest list of tools that take the busywork off your plate, from someone who builds these systems for a living.
I'm Peter Liu.
I build operational systems (mostly in Airtable) for small businesses and nonprofits. These are the exact tools I recommend to clients and use myself — no filler, no twelve-app stack. A few links below are affiliate links: if you sign up through them it supports this page at no cost to you, and I only list things I'd recommend anyway.
Free checklist: the 12 automations every small business should set up
Most founders are doing work a system should be doing. This checklist gives you the exact 12 automations worth setting up first — the ones that get you paid faster, stop leads from going cold, and pull busywork off your plate. Plain language, no jargon, pick the few that fit you.
No spam — just the occasional honest tip on tools and systems worth your time.
The stack
Every small business has the same short list of needs. Match one tool to each, ignore the rest. Here's exactly where I'd start.
Get found — your website
Carrd — The fastest way to put up a clean, professional one-page site without touching code or paying much. It's what this very page is built on — perfect for a landing page, a link-in-bio, or a simple business site. Start free; upgrade to a few dollars a year when you want a custom domain.
Your foundation — email, docs, calendar
Google Workspace — The everyday backbone: professional email on your own domain, plus Docs, Sheets, Calendar, and Drive. It's where most businesses already live, and nearly everything else plugs into it. The simplest, safest place to begin.
Proton — The privacy-first alternative: encrypted email, calendar, and drive. The honest tradeoff is usability — it's less seamless than Google and a few integrations won't be there — but if data privacy matters to you or your clients, it's the one I'd point to.
Reach them on purpose — email
Kit (formerly ConvertKit) — Built for people selling something or growing an audience. Strong automation, clean signup forms, and a free tier to start. It's what I use myself.
Mailchimp — The familiar all-rounder: templates, automation, and landing pages in one place. A fine starting point if you'd rather have everything bundled.
YAMM (Yet Another Mail Merge) — The lowest-friction way to send real campaigns if your contacts already live in a Google Sheet — it sends straight from Gmail, no new platform to learn. The easiest on-ramp before you graduate to a full email tool.
Stay visible — social scheduling
Buffer — The simplest way to stay consistent on social without living in the apps. Batch a week of posts in one sitting; clean, beginner-friendly, free plan to start.
Get paid & manage the money — payments + banking
Found — Business banking built for the self-employed, with bookkeeping, invoicing, and tax set-asides baked right in. It connects how you get paid to how you track it, so the numbers keep themselves instead of piling up for April. It's what I use.
Stripe — The backbone behind most online checkout. Powerful, reliable, and the automation hooks are excellent — a single payment can trigger your whole onboarding flow.
Square — The easiest path if you sell in person: a free card reader, point-of-sale, and online store that all sync together.
Run without you — automation
Zapier — The easiest way to connect apps that don't natively talk. "When this happens, do that," no code, with the biggest catalog of integrations.
Make — More visual and more powerful than Zapier for multi-step, branching automations, and cheaper at scale. A steeper learning curve, but worth it as you grow.
Protect your time — the quiet essentials
Calendly — Kills the "what time works for you?" email chain. People pick a slot, it lands in your calendar. The free tier covers most solo needs.
1Password — Removes dozens of tiny daily frictions and the "which password was that?" anxiety. Cheap insurance for your whole operation.
Notion — A flexible home for notes, docs, and internal SOPs — the "how we do things" library that keeps the business out of your head.
A separate business phone line — One of the cheapest, highest-impact boundary tools there is: the business gets its own number, so you can let it close after hours without missing personal calls. Any of these work — pick on price and the features you need.
All-in-one — if you'd rather not assemble it yourself
Bonsai — Bundles proposals, contracts, invoicing, time tracking, and client management into one suite built for freelancers. It can replace a handful of separate tools if you'd rather have one login than wire things together.
Moxie — Another all-in-one for freelancers — proposals, contracts, invoicing, and project/client management in one place. Worth comparing head-to-head with Bonsai to see which fits how you work.
Why trust this list?
I'm not a marketer who reviewed these tools for a weekend. I build these systems for a living — for small businesses, agencies, and nonprofits — and these are the picks I stake my own work on. Most people can set all of this up themselves, and I'd rather tell you that than sell you something you don't need.