Having a business in the digital age can be stressful. Not only are you up against more competition than ever, but they’re using the right tools and technology to help them beat out the competition, which means you need to invest in similar tools to ensure your business can keep up. Luckily, living in the digital age has its perks. You can improve your business’ performance on every level by investing in tools for your business. Here are the essential small business tools you should be using.
Everyone you know uses Google Workspace to some level. Google offers some of the most comprehensive tools online, making it easier for businesses to collaborate and improve productivity. Here are tools you can use:
Gmail
Google Drive
Docs
Sheets
Slides
Google Calendars
Google Workspace is an all-in-one tool that allows you to track projects, communicate, and even do all of your work online. Not only that but your documents are backed up and available for you online wherever you go. Not to mention, everything is automatically saved for you.
Trello
Trello is a simple project management app that can help you manage your daily tasks and larger projects. Using Trello is easier than some other project management tools because it offers a simple interface with virtually no learning curve. All you have to do to use Trello is create boards for different projects or departments and give all of your team members access so they can tell you how much progress they’ve made on a project.
Slack
Communication is a necessity in the digital world, which is why fewer and fewer businesses have cubicles that stop employees from talking to one another. Whether you have an in-office or remote team, slack can help your employees communicate better within their departments or with anyone in the business. For example, instead of standing up to go find someone an employee needs to immediately speak with, they can send them a quick, instant message and get an immediate response.
HR Software
There are many different brands of HR software out there, and it can be difficult to pick just one. However, HR software can help you recruit candidates, onboard new hires, and maintain employee relationships. To streamline these processes, businesses can leverage an HR management system software like Zelt, which integrates recruitment, onboarding, and employee management into a single, user-friendly platform. Not only that, but it also takes care of the boring administrative tasks HR typically deals with day-to-day. Not taking care of tasks that impact employee happiness could lead to unsatisfactory work and production. Therefore, having HR software frees up HR department professionals to focus more on employee engagement and find ways to boost productivity.
Sense HR software is one such solution for small and large companies that has modules from onboarding to payroll calculations to make the work of HR professionals more organized and automate repetitive tasks. Furthermore, Sense HR is a cloud-based HR system thus allowing for greater flexibility, accessibility, and scalability. With cloud-based HR systems, employee data can be easily accessible from anywhere and at any time, making it easier to manage a remote workforce.
Refersion for Amazon Affiliate Marketing
Refersion is an affiliate marketing platform that helps online shops keep track of sales driven by promoters, influencers, and affiliates. Refersion made it easier than ever to create, grow, and track your very own affiliate program. It is designed to help you swiftly produce and start your own promotion network.
Amazon Affiliate Marketing by Refersion helps eCommerce brands on Amazon that wants to connect with audiences outside of Amazon, drive conversions, increase ROI, and other essential elements, as well as track and view performance statistics in real-time
Invoice2go
Small businesses need a way to manage their money and send invoices without paying for robust accounting software they don’t need. Invoice2go is more than just an invoicing tool, though; you can use it for business banking and payroll.
MailChimp
MailChimp is one of the most popular email marketing tools because it’s easy to use and offers a simple interface. That being said, your creative team will still need to create the content you use in your emails, but it’s up to you to get people to sign up for your email list. Just about anyone can use MailChimp because it offers a drag-and-drop feature that allows you to build emails without knowing how to code HTML.
Canva
Canva is a great solution for graphic design when you have limited graphic design skills. You can use Canva to create anything from beautiful Facebook posts about Small Business Saturday to content that complements your blogs. The basic version of Canva is free, but the premium version offers more robust tools, such as a background remover to make graphic designing even easier.
Not only that, but Canva offers hundreds of templates to choose from based on the type of content you want to create. You can even create a slideshow solely using Canva.
Accounting Software
Running a small business means you have to wear a lot of hats, and one of the most important roles you’ll have is managing the company’s finances. Accounting software can help you keep track of your money so you know how much you’re bringing in and what your expenses are so you can make better business decisions. Not only that, but robust accounting software can help you prepare your taxes and integrate with HR software to ensure payroll taxes are accurately paid.
Google Analytics
If your company has a website, you need to know how many visitors you’re reaching before making changes and bringing more people to the site to convert. Whether you sell services or products, you need an effective website. Google Analytics is a free analytics solution that gives you insight into your website and its visitors. You can learn anything from which pages are the lowest-performing to how many visitors visit your website receives each day.
Zoom
If you’re working remotely or trying to save time by having online meetings, then your business needs Zoom. Zoom is available at the basic level for free, but you’ll only be able to have forty-minute sessions. If you upgrade, you can have as many long meetings as you want. If you don’t want to pay for your meetings, you can also use Google Meet, a great alternative for small businesses that are trying to pinch pennies.
Calendly
How much of your time is spent scheduling meetings. Scheduling calls can become time-consuming between finding the best times for everyone and sending an invite. Instead, you can let clients, partners, and customers schedule calls on their own with Calendly. When you sign up for Calendly, you’ll receive a link you can share in your email signature so people can schedule meetings without the need to email you ahead of time. Once a meeting is scheduled, it will send a notification to your calendar for you to accept.
Because Calendly is a self-serve option, make sure you remember to block out time on your calendar so the option to schedule a meeting isn’t available during that window. For example, make sure to block out time for your breaks and meal.
Tools for Small Businesses
When it comes to finding the right tools and software for your small business, make sure you do your research and shop around. Then, ask the managers within your company which tools they think will help their teams be more efficient and productive.
Matt Casadona
Matt Casadona has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with a concentration in Marketing and a minor in Psychology. Matt is passionate about marketing and business strategy and enjoys San Diego life, traveling, and music.
