When you start or run a small business, you know just how many hurdles there are to jump over at any given time. Having the right tools for your disposal is a must, so we’re outlining seven of the most important things to incorporate in your business.
What Types of Tools Help in Running a Business?
With countless categories and an even longer list of tools available at your fingertips, it can be tough to know what will actually benefit your small business. Since small business owners tend to have more limited resources, particularly when first starting out, cost is certainly a factor. You can also take the industry and type of business into account, as well as whether you have any employees (and if so, how many).
The right tools for your business will help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of everyday operations. They will also support your growth goals and make it easier to remain competitive in your market.
Some of the main categories of technology tools for small businesses include:
- Customer relationship management (CRM)
- Marketing
- Project management
- HR and time management
- Communication (internal and external)
- Web development
- Data and analytics
- Inventory management
- Collaboration
- Payment and invoicing
7 Must-Have Tools for Any Small Business
Take a look at seven of the must-have tools for a small business owner and how they’ll help you better manage your everyday processes.
Customer relationship management: HubSpot
Manage and grow customer relationships with HubSpot, a cloud-based platform that includes features to support companies as they organize, communicate with, and track customers and prospects. The system includes company and contact management, marketing and communication automation, and lead capture and tracking. You can also access it on the go with the handy mobile app.
Marketing: Canva
Canva is a highly useful graphic design tool that simplifies the process of creating visually appealing elements. Unlike the Adobe suite, which has a steep learning curve and a high price tag, Canva is a simpler option for beginners to the graphic design world. You can utilize existing templates or start from scratch to produce banners, graphics, posters, social media posts, and much more.
Project management: Asana
If you’re the only employee, a handwritten to-do list might work just fine to manage tasks and projects. But as your team expands, you’ll need a way to collaborate on the work everyone is doing to keep the business successful. Enter Asana, a highly rated project management tool that’s easy to use and budget-friendly. Smaller teams can even get started for free.
Use Asana to build to-do lists, monitor the progress being made on various tasks, make comments, and send items for review. All the information will stay on the platform, even after a project is complete, for easy access in the future. Automated workflows also keep people moving and productive.
HR and time management: WorkforceHub
Managing people is one of the biggest challenges of running a small business. But with WorkforceHub, it doesn’t have to be so complicated. This all-in-one tool is built for time and labor tracking, but is also available with features that support hiring and onboarding, HR management, and accruals. Best of all, it’s built (and priced) for small businesses.
With WorkforceHub, you can easily get new employees up and running. Tracking hours worked is as easy as punching on a physical clock, web clock, or mobile device, and employees and supervisors can review timecards before payroll is processed. Integrations with many of the top payroll solutions are seamless. Plus, you can try it for free.
Communication: Slack
Instant messaging is more convenient than sending an email, especially if your team is like most professionals – feeling overloaded by their inboxes. Since most email inboxes are flooded with marketing messages, outreach and spam, it can be tough to filter out what’s actually important. Using Slack allows team members to communicate in real time, as well as share files and collaborate. Plus, integrations are available with project management tools and other solutions to streamline everyday tasks and keep projects moving.
Data and analytics: Hotjar
Hotjar is a highly useful tool for assessing the behavior of visitors to your website. Take a closer look at how far people are moving down the different pages and adjust the content and design accordingly. You can also use this tool to collect feedback and track the funnel of conversions. Whether your business relies on e-commerce or sales reps to complete transactions, you need to know whether the website meets the needs of the target audience.
Web development and hosting: HostGator
Whether you need to develop a new website, host your site or do a combination of both, HostGator is a budget-friendly way to accomplish it all. It’s user-friendly, making it a good choice for a beginner. And the starting price point is very affordable, so it fits within any small business budget. Unlimited bandwidth is available on email accounts, disk space, and FTP, and the domain name you choose will be free for the first year.
If you need to build a site, check out the handy built-in tool that’s designed for that. And with five different hosting options (shared, dedicated, cloud, VPS, and WordPress), you can get what you need to get your site out of your head and onto the internet.
With these seven tools, you can better manage the everyday aspects of running a small business. And as you get these elements of business management under control, you can free up time to focus on tasks that support your growth and success goals.
