10 Essential tools to Manage Small Businesses
Managing a business is not a “one-man show”. These days, however, we see a lot of people venturing into startups and handling all its operations single-handedly. For small and medium businesses, where the sole focus is on making the best impact with limited resources, it is often seen that managing day-to-day operations and keeping track of administrative tasks take a back seat or get completely neglected.
So, how do you ensure that each and every aspect of your business is well-integrated and functional, especially when you are too busy strategising and implementing your vision?
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Let’s take a look at the top 10 business management tools that can prove indispensable for building a solid foundation for your organisation and help your business thrive in the competitive market.
Touted as world’s best task management application/software, Producteev brings together day-to-day tasks, projects and collaborations, all at one place. It helps manage privacy, customise projects and get real-time updates. The fact that this tool smoothly integrates with all your Google Apps makes it user-friendly for businesses of all sizes and types.
Save money and work smarter—this is the motto of the all-in-one business management application BlueCamroo. One of the most efficient management platforms for small and medium businesses, this application unites CRM, social networking, email marketing, project management, expenses management, collection and collaboration together perfectly.
Once you start hiring personnel for your business, you’ll need an application or software that can manage HR tasks, schedule shifts, make announcements and add payroll integration. All this can be done with this easy-to-use tool at an expense of just $1per employee, per month. Now that’s a deal to keep!
Manage your business finances in just a few clicks with Intuit Quickbooks accounting software. This simple and easy-to-use online accounting software gives a complete insight into the financial blueprint of your business while monitoring your cash flows and revenues on a daily basis.
Absolutely free, indispensable and the most robust tracking tool of all time, Google Analytics is an all-rounder that lets you track online sales, customers and impressions on your paid advertisement. If your business has an online presence, this digital platform can help maximise your online efforts.
Cloud-based business management tool Zoho offers a wide range of online applications, including project management, CRM, messaging, web conferencing, invoicing, and collective document management apps. The application is free to use for up to one gigabyte of storage.
Acronym for If This Then That, IFTTT is a one-of-its-kind workflow management app where you create a chain of simple conditions, known as ‘recipes’, to connect your favourite apps, services and devices. In simple words, IFTTT is an automated aggregator between all internet connected services that your business uses.
GoSuite
The GoSuite app helps small and medium businesses manage social networks, customers and deals on their websites. If you can spare a few extra bucks, the paid version also allows you to include services like employee, inventory and vendor management.
A collective of 40 business management apps, Apptivo covers CRM, project management, timesheets, customers, inventory, vendors and more. It is most suitable for businesses with 50-200 employees.
The kind of functionality that SoHoos offers in its free version puts it in the first position in this list. It is built to address the needs of small and home based business, offering a simple, fully-integrated toolkit to manage a business.
A decade ago, any business, whether small or big, would have been forced to spend a huge chunk of money to buy and integrate such management tools in their work environment. Most of the free offerings would often end up consuming way too much time and energy without adding any subsequent value to the organisation. Fortunately, today there are many such free digital applications that are productive and legitimate. However, it is always better to have a healthy mix of both free and paid services to ensure you get the best of both worlds.
(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)
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