The Tools I Use Every Day

Below are the tools I’ve been using to work remotely in Africa since 2017. I started using many of these tools as a freelancer, and continue to depend on them now that I run a six-figure consulting business (still fully remote).

You may notice some of the tools listed include affiliate links (I’ll earn a small commission if you sign up to one). Don’t worry, I’ve only included tools I actually use and recommend to friends and clients.

AI, hiring

Every App I Stopped Using in 2024

Bandwidth throttling is a common occurrence in Africa, although no one will admit to it, I’m sure. 

Asana – Bandwidth throttling is a common occurrence in Africa, although no one will admit to it, I’m sure. 

Notion – Bandwidth throttling is a common occurrence in Africa, although no one will admit to it, I’m sure. 

Wise Business – Bandwidth throttling is a common occurrence in Africa, although no one will admit to it, I’m sure. 

Wise Personal –

Figma

Tinder, Feeld, Bumble –

Project Management & Operations

As a WFH veteran (doing this since 2018!), I’ve learned a few things about managing teams remotely. In 2021, I managed a 15-person team working on 8 websites for a company acquired for $149m. 

I’m not humble bragging. I did not get a cut of the $149m. 

But maybe I’ve convinced you I’m an expert on this stuff, and now you’ll take my advice. 😉 

So, here we go: the best tools for day-to-day operations at a fully remote African business – or any business, really.

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There are approximately a bajillion project management tools out there, and they all promise the same: 

To streamline and automate every single process in your business. 

Spoiler: no tool can do that. 

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Calendly saves you time by creating simple booking links connected to your professional and personal calendars. 

Anyone can pick a day and time to meet you, and it will automatically sync with other appointments, so you’re never double-booked. Many other features help you manage your time, communicate more efficiently, close more sales calls, and much more.

Without Calendly: Organizing a meeting requires at least two people sending emails and texts back and forth for days, canceling last-minute because someone is double-booked, and wasting so much time.

With Calendly: Booking a meeting with someone takes two minutes. Everyone’s happy. 

How I use Calendly every day:

• Book last-minute internal team meetings

• Book meetings with clients

• Manage my availability (i.e., clients can only book calls on specific days)

• Streamline discovery calls with consulting leads

• Book catch ups with my friends (yes, I send my friends Calendly links)

Read More:

Digital Nomad Packing List (Carry On Only) – Find out how I

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Calendar Checker Plus is a little-known Google Chrome extension that gives you access to all your Google Calendars from within your desktop browser. 

Instead of navigating to Google Calendar to check your schedule and availability or to create an appointment, you can open it up on any page and see your entire month instantly. You can add appointments or meetings to your calendar from the extension or navigate to Google Calendar for anything requiring more details. 

It’s a simple time-saver I use daily to ensure I don’t miss any meetings and social plans, or double-book myself. 

If you pay the one-time upgrade fee, you can sync multiple calendars into the extension.

How I use Calendar Checker Plus every day:

• Quickly view my daily meeting schedule
• Instantly add events and meetings to my calendar without opening a new tab
• Change dates or times of events/appointments/etc. without opening a new tab
• Automatically add events from Facebook and Instagram to my calendar

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Toggl Track is a time-tracking tool focused on helping remote businesses monitor their employees’ and contractors’ hours. 

Mercy, my VA, uses Toggl to track her hours and attaches a weekly report to every invoice. By doing so, she also helps me understand what areas of our business I’m spending the most (based on how she spends her time).

However, you can also use Toggl to track your hours. This is important for consultants and freelancers who charge per hour. But any business owner can benefit from getting an honest overview of how you’re spending your time. 

Think you’re working 40+ hours a week? You’re probably not. 

Don’t believe me? Turn on Toggl and find out. 

How I use Toggl every day:

• Tracking time on client projects
• Measuring my productivity each day
• Tracking time on “pre-revenue” side projects (also called “distractions”)
• My VA uses it for her timesheets

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Now that most of the hype and hysteria has died down, let’s talk about the practical uses of ChatGPT for your business. 

First, stop thinking of it as “intelligence” – ChatGPT is not intelligent. It uses predictive models to come up with answers to questions you ask. For now, it can’t create or invent something new. 

Instead, think of it as a productivity and research tool. Using ChatGPT correctly, you can quickly speed up almost any business process. I use it in marketing, hiring, research, writing, web development, SEO, social media, etc. 

Whenever I need to learn something new or speed up a repetitive task, I turn to ChatGPT Plus. 

For example, the day I wrote this, I asked ChatGPT to create a Google Sheets formula that will drastically speed up a process that currently takes 20 hours a month. I gave it some vague instructions about my desired outcome, and it provided a perfect formula. 

How I use ChatGPT every day:

• Brainstorm content ideas
• Quickly research topics (pre-2021)
• Write bad first drafts of content
• Learn new business concepts
• Create draft proposals and project templates
• Summarize content from other sources
• Turn everything I write into a Dr. Seuss poem
• Writing basic job descriptions
• Share prompts and results with my VA for various assignments
• Do basic coding

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Communication

I work remotely from 3-4 countries a year in Africa and Europe. My VA is based in Nigeria. Our clients are located all over the world – including the West Coast of the USA (that’s a 10-hour time difference).

I don’t have a single work app on my phone. 

So, efficient, asynchronous communication is crucial to our operations. 

The tools below allow me to communicate with team members, contractors, clients, colleagues, randos, and business leads across the globe while reducing emails to almost zero.

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You know Slack. 

It’s the team communication tool we all love to hate. But hey, until someone invents something better, it’s the best we’ve got. 

If you’re not using Slack to manage communication within your business – I hope that’s because Google Chat and Spaces are sufficient. Please God, tell me you’re not using email?!?

If you don’t currently have a chat-based system for internal communication at your business, Slack is the best option to save you time, reduce meetings, and get emails to almost zero. 

How I use Slack every day:

• Manage general conversations with clients, contractors, and my VA
• Engage with content marketing communities like Superpath and Top of Funnel
• Significantly reduce the need for meetings and emails

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Ask anyone who’s worked with me for more than five minutes, “What does Conor love most in this world?” and they’ll probably reply:

Loom videos and GIFs.

Also, I’m excellent at both, btw. 

Anyway… Loom is a browser extension that allows you to make video and voice recordings of your computer or phone – screencasts, if you’re unfamiliar with the software. 

You can record yourself as you browse the internet, giving demonstrations, explaining concepts, providing feedback – whatever your business, team, or clients need. Videos can last one minute or more than 30. (Actually, on the paid plan, there’s no limit!)

I use Loom numerous times a day. Honestly, it might be the biggest time-saver on this list. It cuts down on emails, meetings, long text chains, written instructions, and (most importantly) miscommunications. 

In a world of a-synchronous communication across multiple time zones, Loom is your secret weapon. 

How I use Loom every day:

• Provide instructions for individual assignments
• Provide quick general feedback on assignments
• Audit client websites and explain the results
• Conduct basic UX testing on client websites
• Explain technical issues or glitches on websites, tools, software, etc., to contractors or customer support agents
• Introduce internal SOPs and tools to my VA, contractors, and freelancers

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Cybersecurity

Between 2018-2022, in my role as “ghostwriter for ethical hackers,” I helped expose data leaks affecting roughly 120 million people, ~1% of the world’s population. Most of this while living in various African countries.

So, yes. I know a few things about cybersecurity and data privacy (see above, no social media). 

With that in mind, here are my honest recommendations for cybersecurity tools in Africa based on my experience using them and not how much they pay us to recommend them. 

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I’ll spare you the blah blah blah about military-grade encryption, IPv6 leak protections, kill switches, and all the other cybersecurity jargon VPNs use to impress and confuse you. 

We all know why you want to use a VPN in Africa: to access US Netflix, bypass censorship and geo-restrictions, and stop your internet provider from throttling your connection constantly.*

I’ve spent countless hours testing and writing about VPNs while working in Africa, from Rwanda to South Africa, Sudan to Zambia. 

Based on my experience, ExpressVPN delivers the best combination of speed, security, usability, and access to content. It’s got … servers in 90 countries, including …. In Africa. 

However, ExpressVPN is expensive – the first-year subscription costs X, jumping up to Y in year 2. 

If this is too much for you, here are my other top VPNs for remote working in Africa:

• Sufshark – Unlimited devices on a single plan, lots of servers in Africa and elsewhere, super cheap, and lots of built-in privacy tools (ad blocker, anti-tracking, malware detection, and more). 
• CyberGhost – A nice all-round option with a massive global server network. Beginner-friendly, too. However, it lacks some important advanced features like a stealth mode. 
• NordVPN – The most well-known VPN in the world, and one of the best. But it has almost no servers in Africa, making it incredibly slow on the continent. 
• Atlas VPN – If you absolutely have to use a free VPN (please don’t!), this is the only one I recommend. You’ll be incredibly limited, but at least you can try the tech out cost-free, and then move to a premium VPN. 

How I use ExpressVPN every day:

• Access local internet in various countries
• Block ads and tracking
• Peace of mind (a few layers of protection help)
• Faster downloads and file transfers because I bypass bandwidth throttling by internet providers

What is bandwidth throttling?

Bandwidth throttling is a common occurrence in Africa, although no one will admit to it, I’m sure. 

The phrase describes when your internet service provider (ISP) handicaps your internet connection because you’re doing something that requires a lot of data: streaming, downloading, gaming, video editing, Zoom calls, etc. 

Remember, ISPs can see everything you do online and only have a fixed amount of bandwidth and data to share between every customer (even if you’re on an unlimited data plan). Instead of upgrading their networks, it’s much easier to throttle your connection any time you open Netflix, Zoom, or your favorite torrenting site. 

A VPN hides your online activities from your ISP, so you never have to worry about being throttled. ExpressVPN is the best for this, but Surfshark and CyberGhost work too. 

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Dashlane is my favorite password manager for many reasons: 

1. It securely stores 200+ passwords for my work and personal accounts
2. Generating and saving new passwords is easy
3. The mobile app and desktop browser extension sync perfectly
4. It also has a built-in authenticator app for secure 2FA (so I depend less on SMS verification)
5. The free version is excellent, and the paid plan is great value

I’ve tested and reviewed all the top password managers, and Dashlane consistently wins for its combination of user-friendliness, airtight security, and value. 

Also, if you’re using LastPass – stop right now. 

It was successfully hacked in 2023 and did its best to cover up the severity of the stolen data. A password manager getting hacked is bad enough. Trying to cover it up and deceive your customers is unacceptable. 

How I use Dashlane every day:

• Store hundreds of work and personal passwords across every device
• Generate and store secure passwords instantly for new accounts
• Two-factor authentication for PayPal, Wise, and lots of other sensitive accounts
• Store and auto-fill address and other important info

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Payments & Accounting

Managing cash flow and expenses is the most important task in any business. 

But if, like me, you have no experience in accounting and business management, it’s also the most difficult. Especially when you’re a solo operator or running a small team. 

So, here are the money management tools I’ve found most useful in my journey from freelancer to small business owner based in Africa.

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In my experience, Zoho Books is the best accounting software for small businesses in Africa. 

It’s affordable (the free plan is good, too), easy to use, and has great automations without overwhelming accounting newbs. While it’s missing some integrations and other fancy add-ons you’ll find on Quickbooks, it’s much better value and way easier to use. 

When I started out as a freelancer and built my first website business, I made the mistake of sending PDF invoices and not monitoring or managing cash flow. Not only did I look completely unprofessional to clients, I had no idea how much I was spending – until it was too late. 

Don’t make the same mistake. Start using Zoho Books from day one of your business. Even if you’re just doing a bit of work for family friends. You won’t regret it. 

How I use Zoho every day:

• Sending invoices to clients in three different continents
• Automatically sending payment confirmations and thank you notes
• Automatically tracking Stripe payments
• Monitoring cash flow
• Monitoring expenses and cutting anything unnecessary or expensive

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Health & Productivity

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It’s Complicated

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Cold turkey

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Websites & Hosting

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SEO & Content Marketing

SEO is the most overlooked marketing channel in Africa. 

Why? 

Because SEO is complicated and takes long-term investments to deliver ROI. You might not get results for six months, and apparently, that’s too long these days.

So, startups and established companies would rather waste money on quick fixes – like ads, influencer marketing, and (dear god) billboards. 

Also, SEO tools appear expensive. Sign up for a few, and you’re quickly spending $100s a month. 

But SEO tools don’t have to be expensive. Especially when none of your competition in Africa even knows what SEO is. You can do a lot with free and cheap software. 

So, I’ll stop my rant here and introduce the free and cheap SEO tools we use every day to get clients ranking on Google, boost their inbound traffic, and convert that traffic into $$$. 

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Ubersuggest is an SEO keyword research tool with the best data in Africa. 

You can enter a search term like “dentists in Nairobi” and see how many monthly searches it gets, how competitive it is, and who’s ranking at the top of Google for that term, and anything similar (“dentists Nairobi,” “Nairobi best dentists,” etc.). 

This helps you determine what search terms to target and what kind of content to publish so your business reaches the top of organic search results. 

Alternatively, you can input competitor websites and see how they’re ranking, so you can steal their content take inspiration, and identify gaps in their content marketing where you can slip in. 

Ubersuggest has plenty more SEO tools: website audits, keyword tracking, deeper content analysis tools, and much more. It’s not as comprehensive as ahrefs or SEMRush (the two biggest players in this space), but it’s ~90% cheaper. 

A basic plan on Ubersuggest starts from $12 per month, with a $120 lifetime deal available. In comparison, ahrefs and SEMRush start at $83 and $108 per month, respectively. 

Considering the value Ubersuggest provides, $12 per month is a bargain. 

How I use Ubersuggest every day:

• Use keyword research to find new content ideas
• Use keyword research to validate business ideas
• Quickly audit new client websites to see how their content is performing and identify basic technical errors. 

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Ahrefs’ paid plan is probably the best all-in-one SEO tool in the world – but it’s also expensive. A basic subscription starts at $100 per month. 

However… ahrefs has a little-known free plan – ahrefs Webmaster – that provides excellent tools for auditing your website, identifying technical issues, and monitoring your search performance. I use it every day. Because I love it. 

I also share it with all my clients – breaking the #1 rule of an SEO agency (hiding your client’s data behind expensive monthly reports). And they love it, too. 

“🤯 Thank you so much for tracking this down. The analysis/output is so clear and insightful. I honestly feel like we’ve been living under a rock till now.” – A very happy e-commerce client in Kenya

If you’re a complete beginner to SEO and can’t tell a meta description from an alt tag*, ahrefs Webmaster doubles as an educational tool, explaining every technical term in its reports and providing tips on improving your results. 

How I use ahrefs Webmaster every day:

• Checking the health of my niche website and my client websites
• Identifying major errors and easy fixes in every website
• Tracking search performance and indexing of new content
• Identifying content opportunities we missed by on keyword data and related search terms

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Travel

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Social Media Management

I don’t use social media, in my business or personal life.* So I’m leaving this section blank for now. If you’re an expert in social media marketing in Africa and have some tools you recommend, please feel free to reach out, and we’ll give you a slot for a guest post. 

(*Okay, after six years, I recently rejoined Instagram. My account is private, and I have, ~80 followers. I don’t think that counts.) 

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Graphic Design

We only use one graphic design tool, because it has everything we need.

And that tool is…

Canva is the graphic design tool every small (and large) business owner loves. 

It makes creating beautiful, eye-catching designs easy, from social media posts and blog infographics to CVs and pitch decks. 

Canva is invaluable for small teams. You can quickly set up a brand dashboard for your business, add team members, and start designing. If you’re a solo business owner with zero experience in design, Canva is the only graphics tool you need. 

Canva is constantly innovating and adding new (easy-to-use) features. It also has 75 million stock images and photos for your designs or blog posts. 

How I use Canva every day:

• Accessing millions of excellent stock images
• Creating infographics and other visual assets
• Brainstorming basic design ideas
• Create visual assets for blogs, Linkedin, Facebook, and emails, and every other channel 

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