Running a small business is not an easy task. You need more hours in a day to manage routine operations. Drafting proposals, arranging meetings, keeping on top of emails, and administration tasks – manage all these things, and your day is over. So, it is normal to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Using some tech tools can help you to save time.Technology can solutionize every concern in the modern era and saves time also. Therefore, using tech tools that can streamline your business operations and increase efficiency is essential. But there are plenty of tools available in the market, so it becomes challenging to make the right choice. So, we have listed some of the essential tools for small businesses to automate different practices:
Wrike – Project Management tool
Wrike is a prominent tool that helps teams to stay focused on goals, projects, and daily tasks. It allows to schedule, discuss, and prioritize tasks. In addition, managers can keep track of work progress in real-time. Teams can collaborate and share resources so any critical information doesn’t get missed. The three-pane dashboard provides all needed information such as projects, teams, financials, assigned tasks, due dates, and ongoing subtasks.
It allows managers to share files, track time across projects, and access team member levels. The custom forms eliminate the tedious spreadsheet entries and make it easy for everyone involved in the process. Every field in the forms is customizable, and managers can even decide what pages the users will see after submitting a form.
Pros:
- Set automated workflows
- Real-time analytics
- Time and budget tracking features
Cons:
- Complexity in using certain functionalities (not suitable for beginners)
RingCentral – Communication tool
RingCentral is a popular tool among businesses that simplifies communication across different teams. Instant messaging, video conferences, phone calls, and group chats – are the basic features of its system. It also offers collaboration features, allowing users to share essential files and efficiently manage tasks. In addition, it can be well-integrated with various other tools, so users do not need to worry about the scattered information and resources across various platforms.
It centralizes all of your team’s communication into shared conversations, files, tasks, and calendars. Teams can create and collaborate in virtual rooms for important discussions and meetings. Every conversation in the app is end-to-end encrypted, and users can also secure it from others using passcodes.
Pros:
- Video meetings with up to 200 participants
- Audio conferencing with up to 1000 attendees
- Hot desking
Cons:
- Limited IVR options
EngageBay – Email Automation tool
EngageBay is a budget tool for small businesses to automate their campaigns. It helps to enhance the email marketing practices and craft effective emails to attract high-quality leads. It offers various features to attract web visitors, capture & engage leads, and nurture and convert them. A broad range of templates is available in every plan, and you can also customize the template according to the requirements.
Drag-and-drop options make it easy to create new engaging templates, and rich text formatting makes the emails more attractive. The web forms can be customized and personalized, and the behaviors can be tracked through the app. Therefore, it increases lead conversion rates by providing a tailored customer experience. The tool also helps in monitoring the performance of the campaign by showing open rates, click rates, and conversions.
Pros:
- Predictive lead scoring
- Customer segmentation
- A/B testing
Cons:
- Limited options for integration
factoTime – Employee Attendance Tracking tool
factoTime is one of the effective tools for small businesses to manage their attendance tracking process and enhance the overall process. Employees can mark their punches through their devices, and employers can easily track workforce attendance in real-time.
It automatically calculates the total work hours of individual workers and sends notifications to employees for punch marking. Once the employers add the salary rates and pay frequency (hourly, daily, and monthly), then salaries are calculated automatically according to the hours worked. Additionally, advanced methods for clock-in and out can be implemented, such as selfie punch and location, to get accurate attendance data. Employers can restrict the employee devices for marking punches to eliminate the chances of buddy punching. It also offers detailed attendance reports, so any information doesn’t get missed.
Pros:
- Shift management
- Working calendar and holiday calendar
- Keeps employee records
Cons:
- Not suitable for large enterprises
Later – Social Media Management tool
Later is a well-known tool streamlining businesses’ social media management process. Although the platform is Instagram-centric, it allows integration with Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. In addition, drag-and-drop options for images help you to schedule posts efficiently.
The Media library lets users craft engaging posts with attractive images, and existing images can also be stored in it. Scheduling posts for a week takes less than an hour, and scheduled items are synced to the calendar. The conversation tab lets you engage with people viewing your posts and keep up with comments. The analytics helps to keep track of the latest social media trends, and activities of the profile, such as followers count before and after publishing the post, story performance, and hashtag analytics.
Pros:
- Cross-posting on multiple social media platforms
- Feed preview features
- Image and video editor
Cons:
- Limited options for integration
Salesflare – Customer Relationship Management tool
Salesflare is an effective tool for small businesses to manage their CRM process. The platform helps to manage, nurture, and monitor leads in real-time, so the saved time can be allotted to focus on conversions.
Customers’ essential data can be obtained from social media profiles, e-signatures, and other public sources. In addition, all meetings and phone calls are automatically logged in, so the tedious data entries are eliminated. Email campaigns can be set on auto-mode, and emails can be personalized according to the users’ interests. It also shows the open rate, click rate, replies, bounces, and conversions. Additionally, reminders can be set to enter meeting notes, email follow-ups, and replies.
Pros:
- Contact management and information gathering
- Drag-and-drop sales pipelines
- Meetings and call recordings
Cons:
- It doesn’t offer the email builder for customizations.
Recruitee – Recruitment tool
Recruitee assists businesses in their hiring processes and gets the best candidates for every profile. It helps to post vacancies on multiple job boards and sites.
The small business tool not only posts the vacancies on the job board and recommends suitable job boards to the business for faster results. The app ensures the company gets international reach on every vacancy posted, and it supports multiple languages posting. Hiring professionals can create talent pools and save potential applicants so that they can be considered for future recruitment purposes. The dashboard helps the managers in getting an overview of potential applicants by looking for candidate ratings. They can also add tags and questions for a specific candidate profile to explore the particular person’s skills and expertise.
Pros:
- Team collaboration features for hiring teams
- Job promotion and sourcing
- Customizable Kanban-view recruiting pipeline
Cons:
- It lacks advanced reporting features
Wave – Accounting & Invoicing tool
Wave offers various features to small businesses to streamline their accounting and invoicing practices. You can easily manage multiple bank accounts and expenses with the app. The tool allows unlimited expense tracking, income tracking, multi-currency support, and double-entry accounting for accurate results.
It includes 12 financial reports and profit-loss statements so that every single penny can be tracked. In addition, the dashboard allows constant monitoring of cash balance and invoices status. Digital receipts for any transactions done can be simply uploaded to the system. Multiple customers and merchants can be managed, and reminders can be set for timely payments.
Pros:
- Customizable invoices
- Receipt scanning
- Calculation of tax and deduction
Cons:
- Lacks features for depreciation calculation
To Sum Up
These all are essential tools for small businesses. The choice of tools depends on the business’s maturity, industry, and budget. Though, the above-mentioned tools can drive effective results and provide the company with great value. We advise you to start slowly. As many of these tools provide a free plan or trial, try a few out and choose which ones work for your business.
