Any business owner has two things that would like to have more of: money and time. Luckily, we live in an era where new business technologies can help to run a business for less money, but way more efficiently.
With all the platforms, tools, and different options for technology you want to use, you can grow your business almost in no time. Still, you need to establish your goals first and determine what you want to achieve. From there, you will be able to do your research successfully and opt for something that fits your business the best.
Task Management Tools
If you want to significantly reduce money and time spent working on something, you should definitely think about starting to use a task management tool. These tools represent a cost-efficient, but also a very easy way for you to deal with tasks and all the repetitive steps in your working process.
By doing this, you will save a ton of time in tracking your work and communicating with the employees. Tracking your tasks digitally rather than manually is always a better option. Some of the most popular tools are Trello and Asana, and both will do a great job for your calendars, project progress tracking, and to-do lists.
Automatic updates and reminders are a thing with these apps, so you don’t have to check every little thing by hand every single time. Additionally, these also represent a collaborative tool considering every member of the team can see what’s been done. If you’d like to learn more about task management software reviews you can do so at: Truely.com
Social and Email Marketing
Focusing on cerebral endeavors is much more valuable than spending your time on daily “busy work” tasks. This is why business owners are choosing automated marketing as a solution these days. For example, MailChimp and Aweber are great email marketing systems that will keep your subscribers up to date with everything that’s happening within your business but also do your promotions and important deals.
In addition, these systems will also save you time regarding your social media posts. The providers do this by pushing out your email newsletter to the social networks. This means that you will never have to post on your own again in the future.
Scheduling Tools
Connecting with your prospective customers and clients is of vital importance for your business. You need to use the power of social media in your advance if you want to succeed nowadays. However, spending your time on social media too often can be exhausting, but also unproductive in terms of time. It is very easy to go down the rabbit hole once you’re on social media, and this is where your scheduling tools can be very helpful.
For example, tools like HootSuite and Buffer allow users to schedule social media posts on the desired times and dates. Additionally, you can do this without even opening the social media app yourself ever. Avoiding this distraction can be of great use, especially for those who want to focus on more important things.
The best thing about these apps is that you can write up a month’s posts in advance. From there, all you need to do is to determine when do you want them published and leave the rest to the scheduling systems to do. Growing your business through social media without actually using it is a genius way to get recognized.
Meetings Schedulers
As you already know, setting up a meeting will require you and your prospect to exchange multiple emails until you finally agree on a specific time. If you want to avoid this, you can consider using a tool like Acuity or Calendly that can be very helpful if you want to automate this process.
The idea is very simple – you pick your desired dates and times, make a link, and send it to the other person to pick their desired dates and times. From there, things get pretty easy since you both know when you’re available. Therefore, you can make an agreement that fits both sides.
Retaining and Finding Clients
One of the most important parts of your business is customer relationship management. Without it, you are very likely to get lost in all the tasks, customers, clients, marketing strategies, and others. Insightly, Hubspot, and SalesForce are all very good platforms that will help you retain and gain clients, but also uncover hidden revenue.
Additionally, a CRM can be very helpful when you want to keep track of previous, current, and potential customers through your sales and marketing funnels. Tools that nurture those relationships are also available within these platforms, so you don’t have to look elsewhere.
Another benefit from these apps is that you will constantly be looking at actual data and make your business decisions from there. Some business owners make too many guesses, and you want to avoid doing that if you want to succeed. The platforms give you enough information to know exactly who you should target and where your marketing dollars are being spent.
Document Collaboration
If you’re working with a group of people, file-sharing systems like Dropbox and Google Drive are a must, no exemptions. You need to make sure that everyone in your team is working from the same document and the same version. Additionally, it prevents your employees’ inboxes from getting the same document over and over again.
These platforms can be used either at your leisure to see where you’re at with the current work, but also in real-time to check with each other and discuss potential changes. In addition, the tools can be used both internally and externally.
You can use it just to make your working process faster and easier for the whole team. However, you can use it with vendors and clients to keep track of what everyone needs and wants. Don’t leave anything to chance; always make sure that you have a clear picture of what is happening with your business.