Ever wondered how some businesses churn out those eye-popping visuals, but don't seem to have a dedicated graphic designer on their team? Meet Canva—a saviour for solo entrepreneurs like you and me.

Why Canva?

Canva launched in 2013 and I’ve used it pretty much every day in my business for the past 7+ years.

Stopping the scroll and standing out from the crowd on social is a seemingly never ending challenge. Yes, the content you are sharing must be strategic and focused on YOUR audience, but with Canva in your toolkit you can create stunning graphics with ease — and without any design experience.

What Do I Use it For?

• Terms of business documents

• Social media strategies for clients

• Carousels

• Slide decks

• Presentations for Clients

• Training presentations

• Social media channel banners

• Logo creation

• Lead magnets

• Client brochures

• Flyers

  etc, etc, etc!

Ease of Use

Canva offers user-friendly drag-and-drop functionality allowing you to create the perfect design within minutes, not hours — and without the tears. And with the addition of your custom Brand Kit (ie your logos, colours and preferred fonts) every design will be on-brand, every time.

You can share instantly to social channels or you can export in whatever format you need, for example, PDFs for slick LinkedIn Carousels or MP4 videos for Instagram and beyond.

Out of the box are1000s of templates to inspire you and custom sizing for all placements are baked in. They also have integrated AI tools to further power your designs.

Collaboration

One of Canva's best features is its ability to allow multiple team members to collaborate on a single project. Even if you're a team of one, this feature can help you get feedback from peers or clients seamlessly.

Final Thoughts

In short, Canva isn't just a tool; it's a lifeline for small businesses and freelancers looking to step up their visual game. And the best part? It's incredibly affordable, making it a no-brainer for those of us on a budget.

My final tip?

Invest in Canva Pro, about £100 pa — well worth the money for the additional functionality and royalty-free imagery, video and audio.