Many small business owners find themselves juggling multiple tasks, which often makes it difficult for them to stay on top of everything. When running a small business, it is important to carefully review every critical decision your team makes to avoid incurring unnecessary expenses, and choosing a suitable tool for running your business is no different.
Fortunately, there are several digital tools out there, ranging from field service management software to productivity software to modern accounting and marketing software, that can help you get on top of your schedule and make the most of the time you have.
What Online Tools Are Essential For Running Small Businesses
1. Xero
All small businesses need to have an accounting solution that can help monitor cash flow and financial performance in real-time. Xero is a cloud-based solution specifically aimed at helping small businesses manage their finances and make sure their clients have healthy balance sheets. It also allows you to customize your financial reports in order to track specific financial KPIs and compare your business’s performance and management against selected periods.
With Xero, your business can easily accept online payments from providers such as PayPal and Stripe in various currencies. Additionally, Xero simplifies the creation and sending of invoices and automated payment reminders to clients with overdue invoices.
2. MailChimp
MailChimp is an affordable and flexible email marketing tool that lets users add features and capabilities as the needs of their business change. MailChimp has a great selection of features like custom templates, behavioral targeting, advanced segmentation, A/B testing, and many more that put targeted relationship building and marketing within reach of even the most inexperienced small business owner.
3. Field Pulse
Field Pulse is a field service management, cloud-based tool that helps business owners keep track of dispatching, job scheduling, and overall communication with teams in the field. Its unique features facilitate routing, billing, remote access, and work order management. Field Pulse also provides business owners access to project updates, customer information, and client notes.
With Field Pulse, you can not only supervise subtasks assigned to individual team members but also track their performance as they continue to work on their projects. As a bonus, it comes with a time tracking feature that will help you monitor the location of teams and the time they take to complete their tasks which are key for establishing employee accountability.
4. Trello
Trello is both a task management and collaboration tool that supports content development, data entry, marketing campaign, sales tracking, HR tracking, and customer support. Although it does not work for invoicing and budgeting projects, it allows you to attach these kinds of documents and files to each project management pipeline. Trello is an easy and convenient tool for tracking projects through card cover photos, a task commenting feature, due dates, labels, users, and more.
5. G-Suite
G-suite is a document management solution for productivity, collaboration, and cloud computing. It is ideal for small businesses since it offers a one-stop-shop for all its document management needs. Within G-suite, business owners and their employees can easily and quickly create and share presentations, spreadsheets, and documents. It also allows team members to secure data, hold video meetings, access email, and customize an email address in order to make it look more professional.
G-Suite provides a free cloud storage space of 15GB to make uploading and sharing of documents and large files within or outside of the business easier. Additionally, it gives document owners the ability to assign permissions that allow recipients to view or edit a file and define how recipients access each file. Apart from being easy to use, G-Suite is also secure and can be accessed across different devices.
6. Intercom
The lack of communication with customers is one of the most frustrating aspects of running a small business. Trying to educate and understand consumers is often a struggle that leads to a lack of awareness of desires and problems, complex user interface decisions, and poor user experience. Intercom is a customer relationship management tool that provides a suite of functionality to educate your web customers through a live chat, making it easier to communicate, interact, and engage your customers.
Ramp Up Your Productivity With Online Tools
To use technology to grow your small business, you do not have to become a software developer or a mobile phone expert. Whether it is a toy manufacturing business, a local grocery shop, or a plumbing service, setting up a few online tools will help you efficiently manage all your business operations.
However, since there are an endless variety of online tools, it is crucial to be strategic and informed on which ones are best for your business. By implementing a few online tools, you are guaranteed to succeed.
