As a small business owner, you know that you need to use digital tools to help you manage your business. The ultimate goal is to help you free up some time so that you can focus on growing your business, not the day-to-day operations. If you want to propel your business forward and increase revenue and growth, check out these websites and software tools:
Slack
Many small businesses struggle to communicate because they don’t have the proper processes in place. If you find that every department seems to have some breakdown in communication, you might want to make talking to each other a little easier. Slack promotes better communication by acting as a messaging system for your business. You can set it up by department so that every employee has constant access to one another along with their managers.
This tool can be especially beneficial for remote employees or collaborative efforts, where multiple departments need to work together to complete a project.
Zoom
As a busy business owner, you won’t be able to see everyone you need to see every day, especially if you have to spend your time building relationships outside of the office. When you need to schedule meetings with your employees, partners, or anyone else, you can use a tool like Zoom. Instead of actually going to a physical location to talk to someone, you can have a digital face-to-face meeting, which can free up your time and keep you productive.
Gmail
Of course, every business and its employees should have emails. Gmail is the most popular email platform because it’s easy to use, and your employees likely already have personal Gmail accounts that they’ve been using for years.
Trello
Project management can be difficult for everyone in the workplace, especially if you aren’t organized. If you need to know who is working on what projects, you can use a project management tool like Trello. This tool can also act as a way for your employees to see which tasks take priority so that they can easily work their way down a list, making them more productive.
Google Drive
There’s no need to store files on your computer and risk losing them anymore. WIth a shared Google Drive, all of your employees can keep their work in the same place so that it won’t get lost. If someone accidentally deletes a file, you have 30 days to retrieve it, but you can also invest in cloud backup solutions that will store these files if you’re worried about losing data.
Google Drive allows all of your employees to collaborate with tools like Google Docs, Presentation, and Spreadsheets.
TimeDoctor
Increasingly important as more people are beginning to work remotely, time management solutions allow you to track employee productivity. Not only that, but you’ll be easily able to see what projects employees spend their time on. This can be important for companies who need to track their expenses on projects so that they know how much to bill a client each month or to ensure that they do not exceed their budgets.
TimeDoctor allows you to monitor your employees as often or as little as you’d like. It provides a screenshot option that takes screenshots of your employees’ computers, something that might benefit if you pay employees hourly and want to make sure that they’re doing their work without hovering over their shoulders.
Indeed
When it comes to hiring the right candidates for your business, there’s no easier website to navigate than Indeed. You don’t have to be an HR professional to find the best employees.
The features that Indeed offers go far beyond posting job listings and communicating with applicants. According to ShareAble for Hires, “In the event a job seeker clicks on your job listing, applicants can be directed straight to your company page, which is a great place to broadcast more about your company culture and mission statement—a message that can sometimes be forgotten or difficult for small businesses to communicate.”
Calendly
You and your employees are busy, which means that sometimes you’ll have to have meetings scheduled in advance. Calendly allows people to schedule meetings based on the times that you’re available so that you don’t have to go back and forth via email to determine the best time to meet.
You can also put a link to your Calendly schedule in your email signature so that clients, customers, and partners can easily find a way to get into contact with you when you’re swamped.
Buffer
If you invest in social media marketing, then you’ll definitely want to streamline all of your processes, especially if you manage multiple accounts. Buffer allows you to manage all of your accounts and social media ads in one place without toggling between pages on your desktop. With its scheduler tool, you can easily schedule posts for all of your business pages and even send the calendar to clients or partners for approval.
Campaign Monitor
Email marketing can help you stay in contact with your valuable customers, so it’s important that you choose a platform that can do everything you need it to do, from setting up automations and sequences to allowing you to design your own email blasts without the need for a designer and coder. Campaign Monitor can do all this and more while tracking the success of each of your campaigns.
WordPress
Every business needs a website, and WordPress can help you create one with themes that don’t require you to have any knowledge of coding. All you have to do is add your copy and your images, along with anything else you think is important, and your website is done!
Intuit ProSeries
Tax software can help you keep everything in-house. With the right tool, you can manage all of your expenses, as well as quarterly and annual taxes. This software can help you save thousands of dollars a year by finding deductions that you didn’t even know about.
Final Thoughts
Your small business doesn’t need to be hindered by the fact that you have fewer employees than your competition. Instead, you can use the tools mentioned in this article to help you grow your business, promote better communication among your employees, communicate with your customers, and market your business.
Author Bio
Matt Casadona has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with a concentration in Marketing and a minor in Psychology. He is currently a contributing editor for 365 Business Tips. Matt is passionate about marketing and business strategy and enjoys the San Diego life, traveling and music.
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