One big challenge for entrepreneurs is staying organized, but these tools for entrepreneurs starting their own business will help you to succeed.
If you are an entrepreneur and want to boost your efficiency and success, this list of tools for entrepreneurs starting their business will be most helpful.
Most entrepreneurs have many responsibilities and tasks on their plate from daily operations to thinking about the future of their business. From day one, entrepreneurs must wear many hats. Everything from product development to hiring new employees to analyzing finances and marketing their brand falls under the list of to-dos for an entrepreneur.
Juggling so many different tasks can be both intimidating and fun at different stages of the new business. You must respond to emails, organize teams and projects, avoid distractions online, and manage your family and personal life. An inability to focus on one thing at a time can lead to a lot of stress especially if some tasks are not automated and tools are implemented to get tasks done more efficiently.
You’ve likely read, watched, or received in some way small business advice from people who are successful entrepreneurs. Most will tell you to focus and build on your strengths and implement people or tools that will improve on your weaknesses. This advice is true. Tools for entrepreneurs starting their business are vast and implementing the right ones could be the difference between success and failure of your entrepreneurial endeavors.
Tools for Entrepreneurs Starting their Business
These resources were created by people who know what it is like to have multiple tasks on hand and who want to be productive, efficient, and successful. Look at the list of the best entrepreneurial and business startup tools below to help you start, manage, and grow your business:
Collaborate with your team through SLACK
Slack is a brilliant chat app that allows for communication in real-time between teams. You can create multiple channels on Slack for different teams or for different discussions. Users can share files, receive notifications, and easily find messages within the app. With the mobile version, everything gets synced automatically with other apps you are connected to such as Skype and WordPress. Entrepreneur business ideas can easily be shared with peers and team members and a searchable history of conversations is kept within the system. Employees at Airbnb to Harvard use Slack to simplify their communication.
Stay in line with the law through LEGALZOOM
While setting up your business can be a challenge, you don’t have to go through it alone. Through LegalZoom, you can establish the legal structure of your business anywhere in the United States. Its guided applications and forms will help you file all of the necessary paperwork and keep you updated throughout the process. Once the paperwork is filed, your business will receive a tax employer identification number (EIN) upon approval by the state. Don’t have a lawyer yet? No problem. LegalZoom will allow you to talk to lawyers about your specific business and offers tons of free legal documents and templates to follow.
Keep every project on track with MONDAY.COM
Monday.com is one of the simplest project management tools ever to be put on the market. It has a very easy board creation feature that allows you to create tasks by project or by department, assign team members to each board, and track progress by assigning deadlines and timelines to projects. You can assign tasks to people on your team, upload files, add images and emoticons, create checklists, and make and view updates through the system. Even if most of the people who are on your team are freelancers, shared boards will allow them to see projects they need to see while preventing them from seeing projects that are not relevant to their specific tasks.
Never forget a password again with LASTPASS
If you are a new entrepreneur it is likely you have taken several subscriptions to different tools or systems to manage your workload. Lastpass stores passwords into a single tool so you can trash that Notepad file where you’ve been storing all of the passwords for years. Its browser extensions fill in your username and password on any website with just one single click. It does the same with your credit card. Need to purchase something but don’t have your wallet on hand? No problem. Storing your updated credit card information in Last Pass will allow you to purchase with a single click. Additionally, you can share passwords with your team without allowing them to see the password itself.
Manage the financial books quickly with QUICKBOOKS
Quickbooks for business is an intuitive accounting tool for entrepreneurs and their small businesses. The interface is very easy to understand allowing users to keep track of their income and expenses as well as send invoices to suppliers and vendors and pay invoices received. Common everyday expenses can also be automated. Business transactions are easy to monitor and are kept secure within the Quickbooks system. Further, when you hire an accountant or need to do your taxes, you can easily transmit access or auto-fill parts of your taxes with the click of a few buttons.
Simplify the tax filing process with TURBOTAX
Thinking of taxes, TurboTax for Small Business is the easiest tool to use to ensure taxes are done right. TurboTax offers a guided online tool that will walk you through the entire process from start to finish on filing your taxes. Using Quickbooks, it will import income and expenses into the tool, help you find the best rates, taxes, and deductions specific to your small business status, and once the form is submitted, will send you status updates to check on the acceptance and review of your tax forms. Run into a problem? TurboTax’s vast Q & A sheets and live assistants are available to help answer any questions you have.
Build your social presence with FACEBOOK BUSINESS MANAGER
Facebook Business Manager allows you to control your new business’s entire presence on Facebook. You can manage ad campaigns, boosted posts, pages, users, pixels, content, and user access from one simple platform. If you are delegating your social reach to a team member or freelancer, with Facebook Business Manager you can add users and even agencies to different roles on your Facebook page, ensuring that your Facebook presence is alive and that you have the time to focus on your core business value propositions.
Automate all social media management with HOOTSUITE
Managing content across various channels can be a challenge for a single person. Hootsuite helps you to manage all your social media pages in a single place. Since it is used by over 800 Fortune 1000 companies, it is certainly branded as an enterprise level tool. However, the plans for smaller companies are available too and are just as effective. It is a great tool for scheduling your social posts across different platforms, engaging wit fans and followers, and tracking the social presence of your competitors.
Never lose a file again with DROPBOX
There is email, text messaging, chat communication, and phone calls, but your business needs a single place where all your most critical files can be retrieved. With Dropbox, you can store hundreds of GB of data and files in the cloud so you never lose an important document again. Files and entire folders can be shared with employees and clients with just a few clicks and when no longer needed, you can unshare the files at any time. Your files will also be accessible from anywhere and on any device.
Interact with your customers through INTERCOM
Intercom logs the activity of visitors to your website from the moment they enter until they exit. The tool makes interacting with customers easy so you are completely prepared to answer questions your visitors have. For example, if you run an online retail store, customer might have questions about a particular product. Intercom will help you identify the track, understand user behaviors beforehand, and establish a searchable knowledge base and chat with customers in real-time. The data received from Intercom can be shared with other departments from marketing to customer service.
Simplify HR processes with ZENEFITS
Human resource functions can be difficult especially if it is not your core capability. Simplify human resource functions and benefits with Zenefits. The system will help you to handle everything related to human resources from onboarding, medical and health benefits, bonuses and incentives, paid time off, vacations, leaves, and terminations. With straightforward pricing, Zenefits will help you to establish the right setup for your company and ensure happy employees.
Collect payments for your hard work with PAYPAL
PayPal is a must-have for every small business that receives payments from customers. PayPal automatically brands your business as a trustworthy business due to its top fraud protection solutions for both consumers and businesses. It can be integrated into every type of website and platform, and its mobile reader allows you to turn your phone or tablet into a point of sale while on the go. Additionally, you can make payments from PayPal to vendors, employees, and suppliers, allowing you to keep your business and personal transactions separate.
These 12 tools for entrepreneurs starting their business are must-haves in your arsenal for success. In my own experience with several startup companies, tools for productivity is critical. I’ve used most of these tools at one point or another and they have never failed to improve my processes and workflow. This is enough small business help to get well on your way to success. Implementing these tools can add major value to you and your employees and help to grow your business in amazing ways.
