Running your own business can be a challenge. There are a variety of expenses you have to pay for. You have plenty of customer and client relationships to maintain. There’s also the fact that you have to continue crafting new innovative ideas that serve your company well into the future.
Thankfully, there’s an abundance of tools that can make your everyday life as a business owner easier. Check out these applications below before you start up the next day.
1. Keep it in the cloud
You’ve got important documents to keep track of. When your employees need to access a report, manual or file to complete a task, you shouldn’t have to scramble around your computer to find it. Allowing particular team members to access documents in the cloud allows you to free up your own time. They’ll also help you keep your files safe in case anything happens to you or one of your employee’s devices. Services like Dropbox, Google Drive, Box and OneDrive are tools that you can use.
2. Social media management
It doesn’t take much to see that social media platforms are becoming a place where businesses take their promotions and marketing efforts to the next level. Social media users are active on a variety of platforms that update them with the latest and greatest product or service that they can’t wait to use. As a small business owner, it can be hard to keep up with updates when you have daily obligations. Using tools like Buffer, Hootsuite and Edgar allows you to schedule your social media updates for the week ahead.
3. Email marketing
Your customers and clients want to hear from you. Throughout your small business ownership, you’ll be doing marketing campaigns that push your products and services. Email marketing is a great way to entice potential customers to buy from your company and spread the word about what you’re doing. Make things easy on yourself and set up a series of email marketing messages before you launch your product. With tools like Aweber, Mailchimp and Constant Contact, you can perfect your marketing messages and schedule them to send out whenever you want.
4. Financial management
As a small business owner, you’re the one who’s responsible for your company. Through the ups and downs, you deal with the challenges and successes that come with owning a business. However, financial concerns can be some of the toughest for small business owners. Having financial stability is important. That’s why using services like Business Credit and Capital can help you get the money you need for your company to keep running. Mint, a financial management tool, can show you where your money is going and help you plan for the future.
5. Stay on top of projects
You don’t have any time to waste. You need to know when and what is happening with your company’s projects at a moment’s notice. To know who’s doing what, you want to have a project management tool that allows you to keep up with your employees in an efficient way. Using tools like Wrike and Trello will allow you to keep up with the tasks at hand. This way you’ll know what to expect from your employees each day.
Taking the time out of your day to find great resources that make your life as a business owner easier is well worth it. Find ways to simplify each day and you’ll have more time to devote to the tasks and responsibilities that truly matter.