Accelerating growth isn’t possible without the right resources on your side, and small businesses have a wealth of options to consider here.
So what tools are both affordable and effective if you want your company to gain traction quickly? Here are just a handful of examples worth investing in.
Website builders
You don’t need to spend tens of thousands to get a professional website up and running these days, thanks to the variety of top-notch, template-based creation tools that are available.
Obviously, in the long term, you’ll want a totally bespoke site, but for a quick and cheap way to establish a web presence, one of the highest-rated building platforms will work wonders.
Project management solutions
Every business has projects to complete, and wrangling these can be a handful if you’re doing everything manually.
This is where having a dedicated project management tool comes into play. There are plenty of competing packages out there, from Asana and Monday to Wrike and beyond.
Even tasks like recruitment can benefit from being tackled using project management software, so it’s well worth exploring this avenue.
Second phone number apps
With a second phone number app, you don’t need to put your personal contact details out there for business purposes.
Better still, modern apps allow you to avoid needing to splash out on new hardware or an additional landline, while still being able to receive calls for business and personal use and keep these two worlds separated.
Virtual meeting services
Meeting up with people face to face is a costly business, whether you have to travel to attend a get-together or you invite people to the office.
Today, hosting meetings virtually is the norm, and is a money-conscious move as well as one which is more convenient for attendees and better for the environment too.
Services like Microsoft Teams and Zoom are perfect for organizing and executing remote meet-ups, and if you aren’t using them already then this should be a priority.
Accounting platforms
Look after your money, and it will look after you. This saying applies in business just as it does in terms of personal finances, and once again there’s software that can solve many of the issues smaller organizations face where balancing the books is concerned.
Accounting products from the likes of Sage, FreshBooks, Xero, and many more are vying for your attention right now, and starter packages can be had for just a few dollars a month.
Like many modern software solutions, the best accounting platforms are able to scale as your business grows, so you won’t be hamstrung by an entry-level package if you make a commitment early on.
Social media management services
Being on social media is just as essential for small businesses as it is for major corporations. The challenge comes when you have several different accounts to take care of simultaneously.
Luckily there are solutions like HootSuite which are made to streamline social media management across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and beyond.
As well as doing things like automating the publishing of posts, such services are also able to deliver in-depth analytics on social media interactions so that you can check up on engagement levels and improve your content based on hard evidence.
Wrapping up
Small businesses should not be afraid to spend money, especially as there are tools out there that will repay their costs many times over once they are put into action.
That said, you should also measure the impact of each tool you adopt to see whether it is really living up to expectations, or missing the mark.