Tools and Apps Every Expat Micro-Entrepreneur Should Know

After navigating the Parisian business landscape for over a decade (following my own London chapter), I've assembled quite the digital toolkit.

Because, let's be honest – running a business as a micro-entrepreneur comes with unique challenges that our French counterparts simply don't face. The micro-entrepreneur status has its advantages (simplicity, mainly), but also its limitations that require clever digital solutions to maximize efficiency.

What works for a French business doesn't always translate for Anglo expats juggling international clients and French administration. So here are some tools that I use, that are available in English, which should ease up your quotidien as an expat entreprenher.

Essential Admin & Finance Tools and Apps for Micro-Entrepreneurs

The backbone of your French-based micro-entrepreneur business starts with these administrative lifesavers:

• Stripe – Essential for handling payments from international clients without the ridiculous bank fees. And if you want to go fully European, Mollie is the service to go for.
• Adobe Scan – No need to go home to scan documents anymore. A couple of clicks and that piece of paper is digitise in .pdf (or .jpg) and iis stored away in seconds.
• Google Workspace – Because, let's face it, it is the couteau suisse of digital tools every entrepreneur needs, expat or not. With cloud storage, good tools and video calls all included in the basis pack, it's a winner.
• macompanyinfrance.urssaf.fr – The official simulator for calculating your charges sociales and understanding your obligations. And in English s'il vous plait.

Communication & Client Management

Working with international clients whilst based in Paris requires seamless communication tools:

• Zcal – Set your availability in Paris time but display it in your clients' time zones. No more confusion about whether you're meeting at 2pm GMT or CET! And bonus, it offers more meeting options for free than its competitor, Calendly.
• Zoom Pro – Still the gold standard for video calls, especially with the automatic recording feature for those moments when your French internet decides to go on strike (looking at you, Free).
• Ghost - Having a website plays a big part of being successful in business. But it doesn't have to be rocket science. This specific website and newsletter is powered by Ghost.org, which I discovered as an alternative to Wordpress. It's SEO friendly which we love, open-source (meaning you are the owner of your content), and super easy to use. Perfect for the minimalist me.

Project Management & Productivity

The right project tools make the difference between feeling overwhelmed and feeling in control:

• Notion – It's the tool I use with all my clients work as well as my digital brain. I am very fond of their table/kanban tool allowing me to switch from one view to the other when working on projects.
• Opal App – Because scrolling through Instagram while sitting at Café de Flore won't help you finish that client proposal, will it? So I set a timer to refrain accessing time consuming apps from my phone during my most productive hours.

Language & Cultural Navigation

After a decade in Paris, you know the language dance well, but these tools still prove invaluable:

• DeepL – Far superior to Google Translate for business communications. It captures nuance in a way that won't make French recipients wince.
• Linguee – For those specific business terms that have you doubting yourself even after 10 years.
• Reverso Context – Shows how words are used in context, perfect for crafting emails to French administrative bodies that actually get responses.

The Social Media Suite for International Presence

For building your brand across borders:

• Canva Pro – Templates that work for both Anglo and French audiences, with the magic resize feature saving hours of design time.
• Poe - Because Chat GPT isn't the only AI available. Get almost all the AI tools you need under one membership. Its a creative block remover like no other that's well worth the monthly fee.
• Buffer – Schedule posts across platforms ahead of time. Perfect for your monthly content batching session. And we love the free version.

Finding Your French Balance

Remember why you stayed in France for a decade? Probably not to spend more time staring at screens.

• Citymapper – Because sometimes the most productive thing is knowing the quickest route to your next meeting across town. Available for Paris, Lille, Nantes, Lyon, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseille, Monaco and pretty much all across the big European cities.
• Velib - For those who want to ride a shared bicycle, Parisian style.

Bringing It All Together

The beauty of being an expat entrepreneur in France is creating a business that works with your dream lifestyle, not against it. The right digital tools don't just make your business more efficient – they free up time for those museum afternoons, impromptu wine tastings, and weekend trips to Normandy that make living in France so special.

Start by identifying your biggest pain points and implement one new tool at a time. And remember: "En France, on travaille pour vivre, on ne vit pas pour travailler" – in France, we work to live, we don't live to work.

Which tool will you try first? I'd love to hear which ones make the biggest difference to your French business journey.

À bientôt,
Charlotte