15 basic tools that you will need for your business
The drawback that many entrepreneurs find is that given the large number of tools, they do not know which one can best adapt to the needs of their company. And they waste a lot of time testing and researching.
But don't worry, I've also gone crazy trying tools. I have discarded those that do not add value to me and those that have not been useful to me. For this reason, I have created a list of tools, divided into different areas, so that you know the ones that have made my life easier when managing my company.
Keep in mind that each business has its peculiarities and needs, but in general all these can be perfectly adapted to any project, whether in one sector or another.
List of the 15 best tools for entrepreneurs
Next, I am going to name some tools and resources that have helped me optimize my time and improve my work performance (and that of my employees).
These are some areas that I have focused on to classify all these tools: business productivity, project management, presentations, communication between teams and email marketing.
Tools to improve productivity in your company
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These three tools are essential to be more efficient in your work:
- Google Calendar : you can see your calendar at a glance to check your calendar, create an event and schedule a meeting. You can choose different ways to view the calendar, according to your preferences.
- Lastpass : a tool to securely manage all the passwords of all the online programs you use, thus improving productivity on the computer.
- Google Drive : the best tool for syncing files online, where two or more people on the team can make changes to a file in real time. Everything is stored in the cloud and you can access it from any device. And it has 15 Gb for free!
Tools to manage projects
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How many of you are to write down in a document, on paper or online, the pending tasks to be done? And not only yours, but also those of your employees ... Many of these tasks fall into oblivion, which prevents you from reaching your goals.
For this reason, I recommend these online task managers, ideal for working collaboratively through intuitive dashboards. These are structured in columns and each one represents different states: assigned to someone, pending, in process, completed. The cards go through the different columns until they are completed.
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One of my favorites is Ora , a task management tool that is especially relevant when there are several departments in a company and the members of each have to communicate to carry out certain actions. Other similar tools are Asana and Trello .
Tools for creating presentations
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A good entrepreneur will also need to have basic design notions. Although the normal thing is to delegate this task to a designer, sometimes you need to create something quickly, be it for networks or email marketing , and you need to get out of trouble.
To do this, there are three tools that you should know and that will save you on more than one occasion:
- Canva : with more than 8 thousand free templates, it is considered one of the most complete for creating visual content, be it posts for social networks, presentations, covers, flyers , business cards, posters, etc. In addition, it gives you the option to create your creations from scratch and add your images, text, icons, etc.
- Prezi : If Power Point gets you a little crazy, Prezi is the best alternative to create, schedule and share dynamic and professional presentations for any important event or meeting. You can add videos, add sound, narration, add a predesigned template, and use the zoom feature to highlight something.
- Powtoon : Another option for creating presentations, but it stands out for the functions it offers to create animated videos. Some functions that it integrates are text effects, character animations, varied icons, transitions or backgrounds.
Tools to maintain good communication with your employees
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Communication between teams is key so that you all go in the same direction and meet the established objectives. For this, I recommend that you know:
- Zoom : both to speak with my team and to speak with my clients or other collaborators of my company I use Zoom . With the paid plan you can hold group meetings of up to 500 participants. Other features that I like are shared screen and the option to record your meetings.
- Chanty - A chat tool that I use to improve communication and productivity between teams. You can use mentions, create private groups, bookmark your most important channels, and use emojis and gifs.
- Slack : Another tool that I have already tried is Slack, a messaging service that allows the entire team to be in communication in real time. And what I like the most is that it integrates other tools such as Dropbox , Google Drive or MailChimp .
Email marketing tools
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Undeniably, one of the most effective ways to communicate with your customers is still email marketing . Email, although many of you deny it, is still a powerful communication channel with which you can maintain a medium and long-term relationship with your customers.
So choosing a good email marketing software to correctly manage your emails will be key to your strategy. To choose one or the other, you must take into account aspects such as: quality-price, customer service and that it complies with data protection regulations.
My favorite is Mailrelay for all the features it offers and especially because it has a free version with many advantages. With the free version you can reach 15 thousand contacts, sending 75 thousand emails per month for free. There is no limit of shipments per day and you have support included.
To start this software is great. Afterwards, you can contract another paid version if you need it. It offers you tutorials, autoresponders, easy scheduling to make your shipments, statistics system, advanced subscriber management and A / B tests for your campaigns.
Other programs you can analyze
- Mailchimp : its free version allows you to reach 2,000 contacts per month. And the support is free for 30 days.
- Getresponse : this does not include a free plan, although it lets you try the tool for 30 days. The basic plan costs $ 15 a month, reaching a thousand subscribers. If the size of your list is larger, you can select it from the basic plan, for a higher price.
I hope that all these online tools for entrepreneurs are useful to you and that you can get the most out of your project with them
