10 Favorite Business Tools of Entrepreneurs
Whether you have just started a business or have been doing it for years, one thing you always think about is how to streamline the operations and get the optimum results out of them.
In this digital era, technology helps in many ways to make everyday life easier and manage routine operations.
Technology has revolutionized almost every business sector and practice. Digital transformation tools help companies streamline particular processes, improve the outputs, and save time and money.
However, numerous automation tools are introduced every year; therefore, choosing one is a bit confusing.
So, we have mentioned a list of the 10 best tools for businesses that are analyzed and recommended by the experts.
1. Canva For Designing
Canva is an effective solution for creating documents and media that require image manipulation. It is widely used across the globe to make different projects, infographics, web designs, and logos.
The app has a wide range of images, templates, backgrounds, and fonts to craft engaging designs. Numerous items are free to use, while some require a premium plan to use.
Canva makes it easier to design various things professionally so that it can be useful for any industry/work. Additionally, the drag-and-drop options make it easy for non-coding people to create designs easily.
Pros:
- Social media integration
- Design grids
- Photo enhancer
Cons:
- Limited export settings
2. Skype For Communication
Skype is a well-known communication platform where various individuals and teams can collaborate and communicate.
One can share important files, images, videos, audio, etc. And even audio messages can be sent, and calls can be made to personal numbers or landlines.
The chats on Skype are end-to-end encrypted, so the users do not have to carry any security-related concerns for their confidential data. And the best part of the software is that it is compatible with any device, whether a PC, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Pros:
- Live conferencing and instant messaging
- SMS integration
- Third-party integrations
Cons:
- Lacks language translation services
3. Hootsuite For Social Media Management
Hootsuite is a trusted social media management tool for every business. The app is compatible with more than 20 social networking sites.
Its primary function is to schedule content and social media posts in advance. With Hootsuite, you can set posts on auto-publishing for a week or month.
In addition, the app is an accurate solution for social media analysis. It provides more than 200 metrics to analyze social media insights. Moreover, it can be integrated with other apps for a better user experience.
Pros:
- Multiple social media platforms integration and posts scheduling
- Posts analytics and monitoring of posts
Cons:
- Limited functionalities and access in the free version
4. factoTime For Attendance Management
factoTime is a prominent attendance tracking tool that helps managers in handling the employees’ attendance management and salary calculation process. It tracks and records employees’ in-out times, manages multiple shifts, and create holiday calendar.
In addition, the tool help businesses store employees’ information in a secure database, and monitor total work hours.
To make attendance more secure, factoTime provides advanced features like selfie punch with location and a QR code-based punch to eliminate the chances of buddy punching.
Pros:
- Detailed reporting
- QR code and selfie punches
- Automatic salary calculation
Cons:
- More suitable for small business and startups
5. Google Drive For Cloud Storage
Google Drive is the best solution for companies to store and organize various data types. It enables different features that let users create different files, edit them, and share them.
Therefore, it is helpful for collaborative projects/tasks. For example, team members can work on a document at the same time from their devices.
The link of documents can be shared with other people, and they can make changes to them based on the permissions defined by the owner.
It means the users can determine whether they want others to edit a particular document, comment on it, or just view it. In addition, images, videos, texts, and emails can be stored in Drive, and different folders can be created to segment the data.
Pros:
- Compatible with various devices
- Supports different file types
- SSL encryption
Cons:
- File size limits
6. Asana For Project Management
Asana is a SaaS tool focusing on collaboration and project workflows. It enables its separate calendar in the system where tasks can be scheduled and prioritized. In addition, it also offers customization options and project tracking.
The team page features can be used to communicate with the team. There is no limit for creating tasks and adding members to the team.
There are some customizable functionalities also where the manager can build custom rules and approval workflows.
Pros:
- Detailed reports
- Project/task roadmap and timeline
- Dashboards
Cons:
- Lacks time tracking of projects
7. UptimeRobot For Website Monitoring
UptimeRobot is a popular website monitoring platform that helps businesses to manage their digital presence. It offers both synthetic and real-user monitoring with 5 minutes intervals.
The app constantly checks the site status and provides alerts through integrated tools such as Slack, Pagerduty, Telegram, OpsGnie, and VictorOps.
With its paid plan, the users can automatically ping their website at 1-minute intervals, and if the system finds any error code, it performs certain checks and raises an alert.
Pros:
- Voice calls
- SMS alerts
- Keyword monitoring
Cons:
- Complicated UI
8. Freshbooks For Accounting
FreshBooks is a well-known tool that businesses and startups can use to improve their decision making and fulfill accounting needs and improve business decision making.
Not just accounting, but it also offers features for invoicing, bookkeeping, and payroll. The app mainly focuses on service-based businesses, so it streamlines the processes of sending proposals, time tracking of projects, and receiving payments.
The app lets you integrate the bank account, generate financial reports, process salaries, and generate payments. And you can also expand the functionalities by integrating CRM tools or customer service apps.
Pros:
- Personalized thank you notes
- Attach and send receipts
- Customizable invoices
Cons:
- It doesn’t have inventory management features
9. PipeDrive For CRM
PipeDrive is a prominent customer relationship management software that assists organizations in improving their sales performance. It provides you with excellent visibility of the sales cycle.
Sales reporting, timeline view, data import & export, and contact history are some of the significant functions of PipeDrive.
In addition, the app lets you manage all communications, leads & deals, send automated follow-ups and get customizable reports.
Pros:
- Segmentation features
- Goals setting and tracking
- Marketing tools integration
Cons:
- It doesn’t offer social media integration
10. Drip For Email Marketing
Drip is an efficient tool for marketers to help them automate their email campaigns and get the most out of them. Various triggers and actions let you set customizable campaign workflows to drive more excellent leads.
Numerous pre-made templates are available from which engaging emails can be crafted, and emails can also be customized through drag-and-drop elements. Moreover, its personalization features let you customize product recommendations, discounts, and price-drop notifications based on user data.
Pros:
- Integrations
- Reporting
- A/B testing
Cons:
- Expensive in comparison to similar tools
Summary
Handling any business process manually can be cumbersome and tedious, and it could also consume much time; therefore, businesses should consider the benefits of automated systems and tools.
As the digital transformation has reached its peak, almost every business process can be automated, and its efficiency can also be enhanced. Digital tools help to get the most out of every process and save the time of managers.
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