In the past, starting a business meant having a strong business plan, capital, and a great idea. Now, it takes more than those three things to start a business – you also need tools to streamline your operation and prioritize which tasks to do first. This list explores the top 5 crucial tools one might need to start their own business.
- Trello
Starting a business will mean you have to take on different roles at any given time. You might have to be the accountant, HR manager, operations director, and manager. With all these titles to juggle, you need a tool that can organize all your tasks and help you brainstorm for new ideas.
Enter Trello. This content manager and calendar service will help you manage your day-to-day tasks and create and share ideas across many people. The tool acts more like a content planner. You can use it to plan out your schedule and develop notecards for tasks you need to do or those you assign to others. In each notecard, users can take notes, update the project’s status, and record instructions.
Trello is free for use, but a paid subscription unlocks other features.
- MailChimp
A popular email marketing tool, MailChimp, is well known for a few key features:
- email templates
- software integration
- site traffic tracking
- free service for small companies
This tool helps you to automate your emails and allows you to create campaigns very quickly. The tool is straightforward to use; although some of their marketing features are limited, it’s more than enough to handle a small fledgling company’s marketing needs.
- Canva
It’s mandatory now that any business startup needs to have at least some web presence semblance. And to achieve that, design skill is essential for creating ads, posters, announcements. This is where Canva comes into play.
This tool offers web design services for people and organizations. Their service is free, but paid subscription affords you more options in design and other great features. Canva is an excellent option for small startups who don’t necessarily have the budget to hire a graphic designer.
With Canva, creating shapes, charts, logos, graphics, and presentations is a breeze. It’s also possible to create custom fonts using the built-in design tools on the service.
- Crazy Egg
Another invaluable tool for any new business is Crazy Egg. This tool is commonly used for data collection to gain insights into your customers. The service offers a range of tools and features, including:
- heat maps
- click reports
- A/B testing tools
- scroll maps
All these tools can help startups see into how customers interact with your site, what they are looking for, for how long, and which areas of the website need a little revamping. Crazy Egg is a beneficial tool in improving the usability of your site and optimizing it for better conversion.
- Slack
And last on this list of essential tools for small businesses is Slack. Famous for its collaborative messaging service, Slack is perfect for small teams who need to brainstorm new product ideas or plan video marketing for small businesses. Its ‘channels’ features allow you to separate topics, so important conversation threads about the company aren’t buried underneath other less essential discussions.
Slack groups are great for sharing content as well as for networking with essential figures within your industry. It’s been a favorite messaging tool within the professional environment because it is easy to use.
