As a small business owner, you need to be a master of efficiency. With limited resources, your time and money are extremely precious. Any tool or service that helps streamline operations, maximize productivity, and cut costs is invaluable. To that end, here are a few affordable options worth investing in for your small business.
Project Management Platforms
Keeping you and your team organized and on schedule is critical when every hour counts. Project management tools allow you to map out tasks, assign responsibilities, set deadlines, upload files, and track progress – all in one centralized place.
Rather than juggling sticky notes or endless email threads, these platforms give everyone visibility into project priorities and prevent things from falling through the cracks. They are especially useful for remotely managing off-site employees, too. Best of all, lots of them have free starter plans, perfect for small teams.
Virtual Phone Services
While messaging and videoconferencing are rising in popularity, phones remain the lifeblood communication channel for most businesses. But paying for a full system with professional hardware can get pricey. That is where virtual phone services come in handy.
A cost-saving service is partnering with a live answering service like Apello to ensure your lines never go unanswered. For example, top plumbing answering services manage every call with a friendly live person 24/7 so that no customer calls get missed or lost in voicemail purgatory.
Digital Marketing Tools
In today’s crowded online world, small businesses must prioritize digital marketing to get discovered and build their brand presence. And you do not need an entire marketing team to get big results – just the right tools.
Services like Mailchimp and Constant Contact provide easy-to-use platforms for creating email marketing campaigns, growing your subscriber lists, and tracking engagement metrics. Social media management tools like Hootsuite, Buffer, and Sprout Social streamline content scheduling and analytics across all your social accounts from one dashboard.
Cloud Storage/File Sharing
With more teams working remotely, having a secure central place for storing and sharing important files is essential. Cloud storage solutions like Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, and Microsoft OneDrive allow you to:
- Keep files backed up and accessible across devices.
- Easily share large file collections with team members or clients.
- Control collaborative editing and version histories.
- Avoid the hassles and security risks of emailing large attachments.
These services are wildly affordable, with many offering free starter plans or per-user pricing models perfect for small businesses. Transitioning to the cloud keeps everyone on the same page without breaking the bank.
E-Commerce and Online Payment Tools
If your small business sells products or services online, prioritize easy-to-use e-commerce tools to streamline your sales processes. Website plugins like WooCommerce and Shopify integrate online stores seamlessly into your existing site with all the shopping cart, inventory tracking, and payment processing built in.
To complement that, affordable merchant services like Square and PayPal allow you to easily accept digital payments anywhere. You can send payment links, generate QR codes, and quickly access those funds without locking into long merchant account contracts.
Conclusion
Running a small business involves endless competing priorities and a constant juggling act with your finite hours and resources. But using affordable apps, services, and digital tools saves immense time and money compared to old-school manual methods or hiring dedicated staff.
Streamlining project collaboration, offsetting support tasks, prioritizing your marketing presence, modernizing operations like file sharing and payments, and eliminating time wasters means you can hyper-focus your efforts on core revenue-generating activities that spur growth. Strategically investing in the right productivity tools is a small expense that has a significant impact on your overall efficiency and bottom line.
