If you own a business, it can be hard to separate high-quality products and services from useless add-ons. Hundreds of businesses will market their products to you, but many of them are simply not worth the cost. More often than not, you can manage your business without all the fancy bells and whistles and do just fine.
That said, there are some tools that are well worth the price of admission. By finding the best tools for your business, you can increase efficiency, enhance your branding, and ultimately improve your revenue. The key is simply to find the right tools and implement them in a cost-effective way. So, let’s take a look at 5 useful tools for business owners!
Market Research Tools
For many entrepreneurs, market research is one of the hardest aspects of running a business. You may have a general idea of the people who will become patrons of your business, but targeted marketing and advertising can ensure that your business is put in front of the right people. But without proper market research, you won’t have a demographic to focus on. Fortunately, businesses like Research America make it easy and affordable to find the people who are looking for businesses just like yours.
Accounting Tools
Unless you happen to be great with numbers, you probably don’t want to spend your free time balancing the budget. In fact, trying to make sense of your accounts can be extremely time-consuming and frustrating. That’s why it’s best to leave the number-crunching to software like You Need A Budget. For just a small investment, you can have simple, easy-to-use accounting software for your personal and business accounts, or you could just use one of the accounting companies Birmingham.
Scheduling Tools
Even if your day isn’t consumed with meetings and phone calls, you still need to have a schedule. You may have goals that require specific timelines or shipments that need to go out by a particular date. Either way, you need to be sure that your time is organized. Fortunately, there are a number of high-quality free calendar tools for businesses. For example, Google Calendar is widely available and completely free to use.
Email Tools
Using a personal email account for your business can get confusing. You might try to send an email to your relatives and accidentally forward it to your clients. Therefore, it’s best to keep your personal accounts and business accounts separate — even when it comes to email. Much like calendar tools, email tools are pretty easy to come by. Many are free, but if you require a more robust email service, you should consider investing in something like MailChimp.
Cloud Storage Tools
If you’ve been in business for more than a few months, you’ve probably collected a lot of data in the form of invoices, tax returns, receipts, and other important documents. You definitely won’t want to throw these away, so you’ll need to find a way to store everything. Cloud storage offers an easy way for businesses to store thousands, even millions of documents and files in a virtual space. If you’re looking for an affordable cloud service, consider investing in an iCloud or Microsoft OneDrive subscription.