There are several types of software, tools, and apps that simplify tasks and speed up projects for small business owners and their employees. However, the problem of finding the ideal tools can be a bit challenging for even the tech-savviest entrepreneurs. So, in this article, we will take a look at essential tools for a successful small business. I divided it into different categories, but all aimed towards making the business experience less complicated.
Project Management
Every new business (particularly one with a remote workforce, or one that requires collaboration across various teams) needs some assistance in keeping track of its several projects and tasks. This is especially true if your business has a remote workforce that needs some means of collaboration across the board. Using traditional email service is not the optimal solution for this, as it is too isolated. Plus, some members can easily be left out of the mailing list and may lose important updates.
Project management platforms such as https://setapp.com/how-to/apps-to-brainstorm-more-effectively make available several essential project tools that cover coding, writing, drawing, as well as other tools needed for taking on projects successfully. There are also cloud-based tools that give complete and transparent access to projects. They indicate project status, its lifecycle, and also allows every authorized user to trace the progress of such projects from start to completion.
Website performance monitoring
A company’s website is the online soul of the company. Not only should it offer visitors every information they need to know about the company, but it should be used as an advertising platform to attract potential clients and drive sales. No matter how attractive or impressive your website is, you should be able to know how people are using it, not using it, or have the potential to use it. This information will help you create adjustments with the sole purpose of influencing potential clients to make the decisions you want. Website monitoring tools such as Google Analytics helps to track all visitors to your website. It shows you whether they are leaving immediately or staying longer as well as the kind of pages they are visiting on your website. It also offers insight into what kind of data you can use to increase performance, create traffic, and boost sales.
Customer Relationship Management
No matter what kind of business you are engaged in, you cannot ignore the role digital marketing plays in the success or otherwise of a company. And one of the most important tools of digital marketing (and indeed, marketing in general) is customer relationship management (CRM). The days of operating your customer relationships on the fly are no longer here. Most of the time, this system has led to forgotten or lost leads, and in some instances, turned repeat clients into ghosts.
A customer relationship management (CRM) tool offers an opportunity to track almost every aspect of the client relationship you are able to build. It makes it possible to know how often a company follows up with loyal clients. It also gives an indication of which users and how many are visiting the company’s website. Also, a company will be able to track essential information like how many site visitors are filling out online forms but not completing purchases. There are several types of customer relationship management software to choose from. All these are designed to help you keep your company organized internally while ensuring a healthy relationship with your clients.
Social Media Management
Almost every successful business is aware of the role social media plays in the success of businesses. With the constant rise in the number of social media users worldwide, there is a pool of potential customers in the billions that are waiting to be reached. Popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn offer businesses the chance to reach a wider number of audiences within a short period of time.
One of the best ways a company can maximize the potential that social media offers are by linking the platforms to the company’s website. Doing this will help to direct traffic to the website with the help of effective marketing campaigns. This means that the company has to regularly update all social media platforms with engaging content that will draw comments and interactions. This will give the company the opportunity to respond to questions from both clients and potential customers. Another great thing about social media platforms is the fact that most of them come with optimization tools that allow users to monitor feed, view analysis, and even create and schedule relevant posts.
Accounting Software
Crunching numbers is one thing that most new business owners are not too excited about. In fact, some new business owners feel that the accounting aspect of their businesses is too boring to require proper attention until they start receiving surprise visits from the Internal Revenue Service for audits. Thankfully, you do not need to be an accounting guru to be able to handle the accounts of your new company, expertly.
With the presence of several online accounting software to choose from, you can easily handle the accounting rudiments of your new company. Online accounting software takes on the work of both accounting and bookkeeping. It does so by tracking both profits as well as expenses, creating expense claims, sending invoices, reconciling debts, and handling basically anything else that will keep the Internal Revenue Service off your door. If you are a beginner in this arena, and you’d like to simply keep track of your income and expenses, file and pay your taxes, try Taxumo. Although it’s not an accounting software but a tax service software, it’s something that you can use especially when you are just starting a business.
Email Marketing
One of the most slept-on online tools for new businesses is email marketing. Email marketing offers one of the most effective and popular digital marketing strategies – newsletters. And just like most of the tools already touched on, email marketing tools also come in different types to choose from. Most of the email marketing platforms will help businesses to easily design and send out and review the results of the company’s newsletters. It also helps businesses to respond to questions from customers as well as receive important feedback. Using email marketing will mean that your company will have a mailing list to communicate regularly. Some platforms come with features that allow you to monitor which recipients opened the newsletter, which pages they visited most, and who should receive follow-up emails.
Other Essential Tools For A Successful Small Business
There are other tools that you can use for other things in your business. From SEO to Graphic design — the list can go on and on. There are also a lot of tools online for Search Engine Optimization. When you want to rank on the first few pages of Google, it’s beneficial to do a website audit, see where you stand when it comes to certain keywords, etc. To know more about SEO, we discussed it in an interview with Sean Si, one of the experts here in the Philippines.
For Graphic design, I use Canva. How about you? What other essential tools for a successful small business do you use and you can recommend? Share with us using the comments section below.
