Imagine you’re in the fast-paced video world of Mario Kart, giving everything you’ve got to take the lead. Then wham! You hit a turbo jump that sends you flying ahead. Sayonara, baby!
Now picture having that kind of momentum in your business. Freaking amazing, right?
Unfortunately, speed boosts belong strictly to Mario and his crew, but you can still supercharge your work and reclaim your time and energy with the right small-business tools. We’ve put together a list of some of the most popular tools used by businesses to help them tackle pain points and get ahead.
Our list includes general operations and customer relationship management (CRM) tools, communication and marketing tools, and project management tools for small-business needs. As you implement the ones you need most, you’ll finally have more margin for other important things, like:
- Aligning your team with your mission and vision
- Launching new strategies to scale your operations
- Investing in your leadership development
- Developing other leaders on your team
- Juggling less, accomplishing more, and focusing on what you love to grow your business
Let’s power ahead.
General Business Tools
From accounting and customer service to employee training and financial wellness, these solutions offer features to boost your overall business efficiency.
NetSuite is a cloud-based software that supports all stages of business to help you scale. Choose from a unified suite of product options to help you manage these areas of operation: accounting and finances, customer relationships, payroll, projects, inventory and fulfillment, and e-commerce.
This accounting software supports the financial side of your business. Think bookkeeping, payroll, financial reporting, tax preparation, inventory management, invoicing, payment processing, and bank reconciliation. QuickBooks also has industry-specific editions to simplify financial management even more.
A word of caution though: QuickBooks’ parent company is Intuit—known for selling credit products. Credit equals debt, and debt makes you a slave to the lender. So if you use QuickBooks, be strong, resist offers for loans and quick credit, and check out how to run your business debt-free.
At a certain point in business, the only way to keep growing is to replace scrappy processes with clear, easy-to-follow systems. Trainual is an HR tool for team-member onboarding and operations. It helps you put all your training processes and standard operating procedures into a digital, step-by-step training manual. You can also use Trainual to assign, update and track policy and procedure changes in a central spot.
With this electronic signature service, you and your clients can sign and manage documents online securely and legally from practically anywhere in the world. Docusign streamlines workflows by replacing physical paperwork and ensuring compliance with industry standards.
Need help managing customer support? This customer service software platform offers features like ticketing systems, live chat, help center portals and CRM integration to make serving customers easier and more personal. Zendesk also includes report features so you can analyze how your team interacts with the clients you serve.
Managing personal finances is a major struggle for a lot of team members. That might not seem like a work issue, but those money problems can lead to work distractions pretty fast.
SmartDollar is a financial wellness program that gives your team members practical tools for following a budget, getting out of debt, and saving for the future. When you build a stronger team, you’ll build a stronger business.
Communication Tools for Small Business
Clear, effective communication is critical to your business success. Like with any tool, only you can decide what fits your company culture and needs best. But these tools for voice messaging, organized chat, video conferencing and real-time collaboration can help your team connect and stay on track.
This messaging app has a web version but is more popular as a phone app for teams that prefer voice communication over texting. You can use it to send voice messages, text messages, photos and videos in real time—similar to a walkie-talkie—or for the receivers to respond to later. Other features include group chats and message playback.
Slack is a popular messaging platform that offers channels for organized discussions, direct messaging for one-on-one conversations, and the ability to share files, documents, and other media. Its features include threaded conversations, customizable notifications and search functionality to help you stay organized and productive.
Part of Microsoft 365, Teams is a collaboration platform worth calling out because it combines workplace chat, video meetings and file storage in a way many businesses love. You can use Teams to create channels for team-based communication, conduct audio and video calls, share files, and collaborate on documents in real time whether you and your team are working in the same office or remotely.
This video conferencing platform became a lifesaver for many during the 2020 pandemic. Zoom is used for virtual meetings, webinars and online events. Known for its ease of use and reliability with remote communication and collaboration, Zoom offers screen sharing, chat messaging and recording capabilities.
Ready to get time back on your side?
A business leader like you shouldn’t feel pulled apart by a dozen different priorities. Download the Ultimate Guide to Time Management to get your business week back under control.
Marketing Tools for Small Business
What business leader doesn’t want their target audience to be more excited about their brand? These marketing tools help you automate emails, understand your analytics, manage web content, and do more creative design work. Choose all you need to level up campaigns, understand customers better, and create content that earns trust—and boosts your business.
Manage your email campaigns and connect with your audience more effectively by using Mailchimp’s email automation, analytics and other tools. Mailchimp offers several packages based on how many emails you send each month.
This email marketing platform is designed specifically for e-commerce businesses. Create, automate and analyze email marketing campaigns tailored to your customers’ behaviors and preferences. Klaviyo also offers reporting and other features to help you improve email performance and drive sales.
Salesforce is a CRM software platform that allows you to organize and manage customer data in one place. It connects the dots between sales, marketing and analytics through a suite of products that help you create better customer relationships and more personalized email and phone communication.
Thousands of companies use this content management system to build their websites and support their blog content. Don’t know how to code? No problem. WordPress offers thousands of templates you can use to design your site and manage your content. You can even add features like contact forms, photo galleries and online stores using plug-ins.
Magnolia is another content management option that helps companies create and manage their online content and connect with their audiences. And it’s flexible enough to grow with your company.
Google is the most widely used tool for finding information on the internet. And Google Analytics is the web analytics service that tracks and reports your website traffic. Understanding how to use it isn’t for the faint of heart, but once you do, you can track how the people coming to your site interact with it, how they get to your site to begin with, and who actually uses your web information purchase your products and services. You can use these insights to improve your website performance and make data-driven decisions.
Ever wonder how the people who come to your site interact with your pages? Hotjar is a website behavior analytics tool that helps you understand what users click and how far they scroll down each webpage. You get features like heatmaps, visitor recordings and surveys to help you visualize user behavior. Then you can see where to improve the page so your guests get a better experience and your sales increase.
With Canva, you don’t have to be a hard-core graphic designer to create a wide range of visual content. This design platform can help you build better presentations, social media graphics, posters, flyers and more. It provides a drag-and-drop interface along with a library of templates, images, fonts and design elements so you can design quickly and easily.
This is more of an optional tool, but if you have team members who work better by sketching out rough visuals, this collaborative whiteboarding tool could help. FigJam allows teams to brainstorm and collaborate in real time on virtual whiteboards, which simplifies visual communication and idea sharing. FigJam is used most by design teams, product managers and other collaborative groups to streamline the creative process and encourage teamwork.
Project Management Tools for Small Business
Let’s be honest, bad project management feels like a circus where everyone’s juggling but no one knows which balls are theirs. Not fun. These project management tool options help organize the chaos so you can track progress in real time and collaborate better. Finding what fits your needs is pretty personal, so we’ve included lots of options for you to consider.
This project management tool offers features for planning, tracking and managing projects that move through lots of phases and in and out of the hands of multiple team members. Jira allows teams to create and prioritize tasks, track progress, and collaborate on projects through workflows, boards and reporting tools.
Similar to Jira but more simplified, Trello is a web-based project management tool that lets you create boards for different projects and lists within boards to represent stages of work. You and your team can collaborate by assigning tasks, adding comments, attaching files, and setting due dates on cards.
Yep, here’s another web and mobile application designed to help teams organize, track and manage projects and stay aligned in meeting their goals. Asana offers features like task lists, boards, timelines and calendars to simplify project planning, collaboration and execution. Assign tasks, set deadlines, communicate within tasks, and track progress in real time.
One more option for project management and team collaboration is also known for its simplicity. Basecamp is a user-friendly tool that focuses on keeping communication transparent, organized and on track. Features include to-do lists, file sharing, messaging, scheduling and document collaboration.
If you’re looking for a project management tool that blends traditional spreadsheets with database features, check out Airtable. It can help you organize your workflow, data and to-dos in a flexible and visually appealing way without the need for any coding.
Top Small-Business Tools and People Services
No doubt about it, having the right digital tools makes it easier to get stuff done. But sometimes you also need more people to do the things you’re not good at or don’t have time to do. If you’re looking for ways to delegate work but aren’t ready to hire someone, here’s a list of some common small-business contracted services.
These tax professionals are vetted and trusted by Ramsey Solutions for their expertise, integrity and commitment to providing high-quality tax services. All you have to do is click the small business option on the RamseyTrusted Tax Pros webpage, and you’ll be connected to a list of professionals who can help you with tax preparation, planning and other services.
This full-service payroll company offers services you can customize based on your company’s size and needs. The Payority team handles everything—payroll, direct deposits, deductions, reimbursements, tax forms, financial reporting. They’re also available to collaborate on payroll decisions as new challenges arise.
If you’re bogged down trying to manage your emails, itineraries and calendar and can’t focus on other important work, you might need to wave a flag of surrender and get some extra help. Belay provides virtual assistants and bookkeepers who work remotely on your administrative details, process improvement and financial records upkeep. They also offer social media managers who will help you save precious time by keeping up with your social media posts.
Related article: Productivity Tips for Small-Business Owners
Our Best Small Business Platform
Plain and simple, EntreLeadership Elite will help you accelerate your business growth. You get a combination of digital tools and people resources that help you save time, communicate better, and lead your team. Elite resources include:
- Team-empowering tools and templates: Just three of our most popular tools are the Desired Future Dashboard for strategic planning, 1-on-1 Meetings for setting meeting agendas and taking notes, and Weekly Reports for communication on how your team members are doing.
- Leadership training and coaching: Grow your leadership skills by using a combination of short, on-demand courses and live training sessions. For additional mastermind-style coaching, you can upgrade your Elite membership to include an Advisory Group. There’s also an option to upgrade to one-on-one Executive Coaching.
- Like-minded community: Connect with like-minded small-business owners who’ll encourage you and keep you accountable through Advisory Groups or by joining our EntreLeadership Facebook group.
Next Steps: Get the Tools to Unlock Your Business Potential
Check out EntreLeadership Elite to discover how to streamline your operations, empower your team, and focus on strategic growth.
Want to learn more about EntreLeadership? Read the real-life success stories of four EntreLeadership customers.
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