8 Tools To Utilize When Starting Your Small Business

This is a guest post written by Evelyn Lopez.

Working for someone may be an easier or even safer choice for many people. You have a boss who can decide what you have to do, you’re not responsible for crucial matters in the company, and you can sleep soundly at night because you have less overall work obligations. Yet, there are still numerous people out there who prefer starting their own business and being their own boss.

Here’s the thing: starting a small business is no walk in the park. You will be competing against 30.2 million small businesses and there is no guarantee that yours will succeed among the others.

Thankfully, there are tools to help you get started and headed in the right direction.

Anti-Virus Software

Cybersecurity is among the biggest threats faced by companies these days. Did you know that in America, only 38 percent of organizations are prepared for an impending cyber-attack?

Therefore, make sure you install anti-virus software on your computer to protect your business against hackers and malware. This way, you can protect precious data as well.

Microsoft Excel

Call it old school, but Excel is still one of the most reliable partners you can have as you manage your business. It offers basic financial accounting activities, is effective in scheduling work among your employees, helps you track product sales, is a reliable storage for contact information and much much more.

Here’s the best part: it is not difficult to learn Excel. In fact, you can find free online Excel training for beginners and discover the power of VLOOKUP and other such techniques which can be helpful in your daily business tasks. It will make managing your business easier and more convenient too.

You Need a Budget (YNAB)

No, this is not a tagline. In fact, it is actually the name of a tool that helps small business owners calculate their profitability.

Keep in mind that many small businesses fail within two years for a variety of reasons. Through YNAB, you will gain access to debt visualization and categorization techniques to accurately calculate not just the scalability but also the profitability of your product or service. This way, you can easily make adjustments to be able to weather critical phases in your business.

Shopify

E-commerce is continuously growing these days, with more startup companies preferring to launch themselves in the digital world. There is also an increasing percentage of mobile users and sales reported by different companies.

This is where Shopify comes in. This platform offers a fully customizable website, online storefront, and a blog where you can share information with your customers. Just make sure you have a proper marketing strategy in place so you can generate more traffic and awareness to your brand.

MouseFlow

Now that you have a website, thanks to Shopify, you need to know customer behaviors when they browse through your site. If you need a tool that will give you more insight on how customers are interacting, then MouseFlow is there to help.

Think of MouseFlow as a CCTV of your website. It tells you what features on your website were clicked or visited the most by the users. You can use the data gathered to help you either tweak your existing approach or keep moving along the same path.

Google Docs

Sadly, Gmail only allows you to send up to a 25MB file size. This could be problematic if you are transacting with a supplier or a potential customer where the exchange of documents is crucial in the business.

In that case, make sure you learn how to use Google Docs, which comes with your Gmail account. This will allow you to share lots of data that can be easily sent in just a few clicks.

HootSuite

In this digital age, social media is life. There are millions of people who can’t put their phone down just to make sure that their social media profiles are updated. If you are a business owner, you really want to tap into this market to showcase your product.

However, managing social media channels can be time-consuming. You also need to constantly update your pages and engage with your customers. HootSuite can help. Aside from this, you can manage multiple social media channels, schedule posts, and interact with your followers. This way, all of your social media efforts are managed under one roof.

Aweber

Never underestimate what email marketing can do for your business. Email marketing is still one of the most effective platforms in promoting your products or services.

One of the best email marketing platforms around is Aweber. Aweber allows you to set up customized email follow-up series and really automate the entire email marketing process. You can also update your subscriber base with one-time broadcast emails. Aweber provides detailed reporting and analytics within your account to help you understand your data better.

Now of course there are many other tools out there that will be useful as you start and manage your business. But in the meantime, make sure you check out out the tools listed above to get you moving in the right direction!