Small business owners and startups will want to consider Business.com as their source of up-to-the-minute tech tools and the best business software for small companies’ information. Learn how this easy site can help you find the licenses, plans, and tech tools your business needs to succeed. There’s also a section on small business management software discussions where you can exchange ideas with users of similar businesses. Best of all it’s completely free!
The latest collection of articles from our experts on small business management tools, free small business tools, and how to leverage technology for your small business. The best technology tools are promised here to take a look at!
ClickUp
ClickUp is a project management software that lets you create pipelines to monitor the progress of your team. Managing people and staying on top of the progress is so much easier with ClickUp. We’ve tried several other tools before but stayed with this one.
vMix
I use a program called vMix to improve my virtual presentations. If you’re making a pitch, you don’t want to look like just another lame Zoom call. vMix allows you to give your presentations bells and whistles that will make them stand out. It’s not very expensive and the company has tons of “how-to” videos.
Slack
From stand-ups to quick check-ins, to casual conversation, Slack is our go-to for all things internal communication. Slack makes coordinating with clients very efficient too. Many of our clients already have Slack set up or are happy to join. Toggling between Slack organizations is very easy, which makes coordinating client work very efficient. Lastly, there are many communities emerging on Slack that offer great networking opportunities for small businesses.
LastPass
LastPass is a tool we use to manage all our accounts without compromising security. Our employees can gain access to the accounts they need without the need to write down sensitive information in places that could be easily lost or stolen. It can be regularly accessed and updated, but only those within our organization can see the information. Small businesses can gain these same benefits by using LastPass for their social media accounts or websites.
HubSpot
HubSpot is truly a life-saver–and its CRM is free. It gives us a 360 view of our customers and suppliers and we can also see the whole team’s interactions on a real-time basis. We use it to track our leads and ongoing conversations. It means that we can operate transparently and it also saves us time. Without it, we would be significantly less organized.
If you’re running multiple campaigns across numerous marketing channels, not only is it a huge challenge to manage them all, but you also have to figure out exactly what’s working and where to make improvements.
HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing software solution that enables you to bring all your different marketing channels together, and optimize for more traffic, a higher conversion rate, and better ROI.
The tool includes optimized templates that are ideal for creating landing pages along with other features like live chat and user action events which ramp up your engagement and convert more visitors into customers.
Other features of HubSpot include:
- Content optimization tools
- Optimized landing pages
- Email templates
- Marketing automation
- Lead management
- Analytics
- Social media management
The full version of HubSpot has a hefty price tag but small businesses on lower budgets can get started with their free or basic package.
HubSpot has also made the switch from an inbound marketing tool to a complete CRM platform, now offering free and paid sales hubs, customer service hubs, and content management (on top of the free/paid marketing hub).
However, the complete content management platform is only available in paid versions.
Mailchimp
MailChimp was created in 2001 by web design agency owners Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius who wanted to create an affordable email marketing service for small businesses. It has grown into a full-fledged marketing platform offering landing pages, websites, postcards, and more. We chose it as the best email marketing software because it offers small businesses high-level email marketing with both free and affordable paid plans.
MailChimp’s free email software makes it easy for business owners new to email marketing to get started. The platform offers premade email templates, opt-in popups and signup forms, audience segmentation, and basic personalization. Users also get a mobile app that lets them view campaign performance and send emails with just a few clicks.
MailChimp’s drag-and-drop templates let users create professional, branded emails with no design skills. A built-in analytics tool also keeps track of open rates and clicks, and segments data to help show what’s working and what’s not. Users can automatically send out targeted emails based on user behaviors, like a welcome message for new signups or a related product recommendation for a recent buyer.
Most small businesses can get pretty far using MailChimp’s free plan. The paid plans add more subscribers and lists as well as more detailed automations:
Free Plan
- FREE
- 2,000 subscriber limit
- 10,000 emails per month
- Basic email templates
- Integrations with 250+ apps
- Landing pages and popup forms
- Google, Facebook, and Instagram retargeting ads
- Single-step automations
- Segmentation
- Basic reports
Essentials Plan
- $9.99 per month (based on the number of subscribers)*
- 500 subscriber limit
- 5,000 emails per month
- All Free Plan features
- Access to all email templates
- A/B testing
- Remove Mailchimp footer
- 24/7 email and chat support
Standard Plan
- $14.99 per month (based on the number of subscribers)*
- 500 subscriber limit
- 6,000 million emails per month
- All Essentials Plan features
- Behavior-based automations
- Multi-step automations
- Send time optimization
- Delivery by time zone
* Use the MailChimp calculator to determine the pricing based on the size of the email list.
Asana
Asana is by far my favorite technology at work! It is a project management software that is easy to use and highly customizable. My colleagues and I love this tool because it keeps all of us on track and keeps a record of every activity performed in-house. It also integrates with several other tools like a digital timesheet, which comes in handy for our HR department.
Zapier
We are a little obsessed with Zapier. We use Zapier to automate tens of thousands of tasks across departments, ranging from sales to marketing to admin work. This automation has helped us create higher leverage for each team member, which also means they grow in their careers and contributions. Other businesses can start by signing up for a free account. Automations can be complex, but it doesn’t have to be. Zapier has a bunch of tools to help you get started with simple ones like social media messaging.
Trello
My most indispensable small business technology tool is Trello. I work with several freelancers to run my business, and Trello makes it 10x easier to communicate with them. Once I started using it, I never looked back – it saved me significant time compared to emailing back and forth. Any business that works on medium- to large-size projects will benefit from Trello’s ability to streamline communication.
Google Drive
Google Drive and Google Docs are great! It allows us to collaborate more easily with our team as well as our clients, keep better documentation on everything from projects to HR. I have found it easy to create some basic letterhead that now permeates all our documents and gives us a consistent brand presentation with our proposals. It’s easy to share with other internal and external users and increases our overall communication.
Conclusion
Business technology and small business management software is the best way to keep your company data organized and make operations easier. The internet is full of information, but which sources should you trust? This article highlights top-rated online resources for starting and growing a small business, as well as great business software such as accounting software and project management tools.