Business is made up of a bunch of different parts, many of them you can’t handle alone. Save time and increase efficiency by incorporating business tools into your daily tasks. This will empower your employees and encourage them to focus on what’s important. Outsource when possible and consolidate software. You’ll also come to find that many tasks can be automated.
Here are 10 services that will change the way you do business:
Buffer
Manually posting on social media is a hassle, especially when you’re doing it for a business. With Buffer, you can schedule your posts months in advance, allowing you to prioritize other tasks. Setting up your business accounts for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+ only takes a few minutes.
What’s great about Buffer is the platform allows you to manage multiple social media accounts on a single dashboard. And they even have their own mobile app! You can create teams to collaborate by creating drafts for your preset schedule, posting as much or as little as your business needs. Engagement and analytics are tracked on their dashboard, so you can see how well certain posts do in comparison to others.
Mailchimp
Email marketing is still one of the most effective ways of reaching your audience and potential customers. MailChimp makes creating email campaigns easy and painless. Unlike many of their competitors, they offer a free plan that has all the tools you need for a small business. However, business plans are also available according to your list of subscribers and the number of emails you’ll be sending per month.
Not a designer? Not a problem. Mailchimp has a variety of email design templates for you to choose from. You’ll be able to create professional level campaigns that you can send right away, schedule for the future, or be set as an automated email. Target your emails based on audience segmentation. Built-in analytics tools break down data so you can optimize campaigns based on open rate, click through, and other factors.
Stripe
Having an online business means you’ll be receiving online payments. Stripe is a software that allows you to do just that. It only takes a few minutes to set up, but will save you hours of financial headache. It’s automatically PCI compliant, so a breach of your servers won’t result in any stolen credit card data.
Stripe charges a flat rate of 2.9% + 30¢ per charge, under $1 million in volume per year. They also accept international cards for an additional 1%, giving your business the flexibility it needs to grow.
Gusto
Handle payroll without the headache. Gusto automates and simplifies payroll for you and your business. Payroll can be synced with accounting and time-tracking software, workers’ comp, benefits, and HR. They also pay and file your payroll taxes, so you have one less task to worry about.
It’s full-service and flexible. Your employees will receive fun emails every pay cycle with links to their pay stubs. Funds are automatically debited from your company’s account. Your employees will be able to access their pay history and W-2s on Gusto’s cloud-based payroll software platform anytime. Gusto makes payroll clear and straight to the point, reducing the number of questions you’ll have to answer and minmizing paperwork for you to file.
Slack
Communicating with multiple team members is a breeze with Slack. You can do away with sending hundreds of internal emails every day. With integrations like bots, analytics, marketing, finance, developer tools, and even fun apps, your business’s productivity will increase.
Message your coworkers no matter where you are. Slack is great for remote team communication. Channels can be set by topic, such as “team trip planning” or “content marketing”. In those channels, you can invite appropriate team members to discuss details of each project or topic without disturbing those who are not involved.
Trello
Organizing information can take longer than you would like, but with Trello you’ll be able to organize all essential information in one place. Their boards allow you to view your projects as a big picture, or you can fully explore the details. If you’re an avid user of organizing through Post-It notes, you’ll enjoy Trello.
Teams can collaborate on any project. They know the status of each Trello card as it’s happening. If you want to notify a team member about a project, simply tag them in the comments. You can even integrate apps that you already use directly into your workflow. Find your own unique way of using Trello to optimize on efficiency.
SE Ranking
Deciphering analytics can get complicated and confusing. SE Ranking is SEO software that provides data that is easy to understand, making your job a little easier. Track keywords in real-time in any country, region, or city whenever you want. You can even compare how you are doing in comparison to your competitors.
Whether you personally do SEO for your business, or have a team member handle the responsibility, SE Ranking will greatly improve the campaign planning process. The software provides many useful SEO tools like social media auto-posting and analytics, backlink checker, keyword suggestion, and more.
Hubspot
If you’re looking for an all-in-one marketing software, Hubspot is made for you. The software has two separate platforms, one for marketing and one for sales. The inbound marketing and sales software helps your business attract your target market and converts them into customers. And if you don’t understand inbound marketing, they’ll provide the resources you need to be successful.
Hubspot also allows you to create content that is optimized for search engines and shareable social media posts. You can directly engage with prospects through landing pages, personalized websites, and email. Hubspot’s plethora of marketing tools provide everything you need to create a successful campaign, including SEO, blogging, marketing automation, and analytics.
Invision
If you need to present designs to clients, Invision will impress and close the deal. This prototyping tool allows you to create interactive mockups that you can share. It’s a great stand-alone design presentation tool where you, your team, and clients are able to collaborate on the progress of a project from start to finish.
Your team can even collaborate with developers, streamlining the process. With prototypes that you can click like an active website/app and the ability to comment, your clients and stakeholders will surely be impressed. You also have the ability to turn prototypes into stylesheets, pixel-perfect comps, and real code so your development team can start building as soon as it is approved.
Hunter
Have you ever wanted to contact a specific company, but didn’t know their email? Hunter solves that problem. Hunter helps find email addresses in a matter of seconds. Not only that, they also have an email verifier that does a complete check, so you know the email you’re getting is legit.
All you have to do is type in a company’s domain name and Hunter will provide a list of all the email results it finds. It scours the web to find the emails you need so you can make the connections that matter for your business. With their free plan, you can perform up to 100 searches every month. And to make things even easier, you can export your results to a CSV file.
