Small business tools can be great money-savers, while also providing more time to work on the things that are most important to your business. List of Small Business Tools For example, one of the most popular small business tools around is accounting software. This software not only keeps track of sales, purchases, expenses, sales tax—even inventory management—but it also prints checks. Need to find new customers? Business address labels are a useful tool for marketing your business, since you can make them with your name and number. Professional looking labels show potential customers that you are serious about your business. Plus, small business owners have
Got a small business? Find out more about different type of business tools online. Discover free resources available to your small business.
Graphic Design
These days, anyone can be a graphic designer as long as they have the right tools.
With just a bit of know-how in font pairing and alignment, you can create… well, just about anything:
- Social media content that engages with your audience (e.g. Instagram stories)
- Concept visuals to break down complex strategies and ideas (e.g. infographics, graphs, charts)
- Lead magnets and sales enablement content to attract leads and sales (e.g. checklists, case studies)
Whether you’re looking to design a proposal for a dream client or edit a screenshot for a how-to blog post, these popular graphic design software have you covered.
PhotoScape X: A free photo editor for Mac and Windows 10 users. Photoscape X is a great tool for basic editing needs: Cropping, resizing, and adding filters and effects.
Crello: A drag-and-drop graphic design editor loaded with 30,000 pre-made templates in 50+ formats.
Crello is an extremely intuitive tool, which makes it ideal for beginners. With just a few clicks, you can whip up a design that looks like it’s created by a pro.
You can even add animations.
Crello also offers instant access to 100 million HD stock photos and free access to 500,000+ premium images. That’s right, you no longer need to pay for expensive stock photos when you’re a Crello user!
Get the Crello lifetime deal on AppSumo today for $49.
Social Media
There’s so much more to social media than viral memes.
Platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are playgrounds of business opportunities. With the right approach, there’s no reason why you can’t use them to drum up the hype around your business.
It can be a pain to frequently post on and manage these multiple social media channels. Luckily, these social media scheduling tools make it easy-peasy.
Buffer: A popular social media scheduling tool that automatically posts on different channels at your preferred times. Use it with Pablo by Buffer to create simple images (e.g. quotes over a background).
For complex images — say, you want to insert icons in pictures — stick to Crello. Then upload on Buffer and schedule it.
HootSuite: A social media marketing dashboard that does more than scheduling content to your favorite channels. It also offers extensive team management features, making it a great fit if you have multiple marketers maintaining your social media channels.
Tip: What else can you post on social media besides blog posts and behind-the-scenes of your work? Two words: Customer testimonials.
These customer reviews are so effective that they can generate approximately 62% more revenue per site visitor.
If you’re just getting started in collecting customer testimonials, check out VideoPeel. It’s a platform that collects, manages, and shares video reviews from satisfied customers.
All you have to do is send customers a link to record their video testimonials and sit back and wait for their glowing reviews.
There’s nothing more powerful than a customer sharing about the ROI of your work. You can even use these videos in your social media marketing campaign to boost conversions.
Just be sure to ask for their permission in your policies and agreements — which VideoPeel conveniently provides.
Email Marketing
Don’t let the spam emails in your inbox fool you — email is still very much one of the most used and cost-effective marketing channels.
In fact, email marketers who swear by it, get an ROI of approximately $44 for every $1 spent.
The benefits of email marketing roll on. With the right email autoresponder, you can:
- Nurture email subscribers with valuable emails on autopilot
- Promote your latest content and attract more views (e.g. blog post, podcast appearance)
- Attract sales for an upcoming service (e.g. announce limited spots for a six-week online workshop)
What email marketing business tools should you use to amp up your email game? Let’s explore your options:
MailChimp: An email autoresponder turned marketing tool. With MailChimp, you can easily send automated emails and integrate with over 200 tools. MailChimp is an excellent choice if you’re looking for a broader range of integrations in an all-in-one marketing platform.
Flodesk: This email marketing tool is an upcoming favorite thanks to its user interface and stunning templates. Flodesk is best for creating beautifully designed emails if you have limited design skills.
SendFox: A simple, zero-fuss, and beginner-friendly email platform that sends unlimited scheduled emails quickly.
Whether it’s sending a welcome sequence or lead magnet emails, SendFox will help you quickly get it done.
Get the SendFox lifetime deal on AppSumo today for $49.
Tip: Want more subscribers? Include an email field in your website contact form or promote your email newsletter in your email signature. Here are 59 more ways to 2X your email list.
Customer Support
33% of Americans will consider switching companies if they have a poor experience.
Ouch, just this stat alone tells us that we should never neglect customer service.
Besides setting up a customer support team from scratch and providing them the necessary training, you’ll also want to invest in the right customer support tools. That way, you’ll be able to eliminate repetitive tasks and streamline all conversations from one place.
Here are some suggestions.
Freshdesk: An omnichannel, bots, and self-service customer service tool that streamlines all customer conversations (e.g. email, live chat) in one place.
8×8 Video Interaction (formerly Wavecell): A no-download mobile-friendly tool that lets customers start a live video chat with support agents. Go with this if you’re looking to provide clients a virtual walk-through of complex project briefs.
Re:plain: A no-download live chat software that receives and sends messages directly to WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Telegram.
With Re:plain, you can even host live face-to-face video calls for customers requiring visual demonstration.
Get the Re:plain lifetime deal on AppSumo today for $49.
Website
Your website is more than a digital web home. It’s also a lead machine that attracts great clients.
Take it from Michal Eisikowitz. The freelance copywriter consistently books new projects three months in advance thanks to her brilliant website.
True, you can set up an agency or your freelance business without a website (sometimes social media is enough to get the ball rolling), but a website boasts advantages that you can’t ignore:
- It boosts credibility and shows you’re a pro. Imagine you’re comparing two agencies. Both boast the same track record and rates. But one has a website, the other only a Facebook Page. Which agency will paint a credible image?
- It raises your online presence. When you optimize your website for a high-intent keyword, your site shows up on the first page of Google and attracts more eyeballs to your work.
Don’t know which website builders to pick? Here are our top recommendations.
Strikingly: A website builder for beginners that comes with pre-made templates. No coding skill is required. Strikingly is best for freelancers and agencies that want to build websites quickly.
Shopify: Shopify is one of the most popular ecommerce platforms out there with more than one million active stores today. If you run an online store and need a solution to quickly add and manage the various SKUs in your inventory list, then Shopify is a good solution to go with.
Shopify is popular for its library of apps that you can easily plug in to meet your various business needs (here’s how you pick the best ones). There are apps to power up your marketing campaign, handle shipping, track accounts, capture backups, handle customer support, and so on. This makes it one of the easier tools for businesses of all sizes.
WordPress: A powerful website builder with an equally powerful content management system. If you’re looking to build complex, professional websites, and you know your way around basic coding, this is it.
WordPress also offers a vast collection of plugins to beef up security, optimize SEO, and more. Whatever you need, they got it.
Conclusion
The right tools and resources can make running a small business easier. From accounting and payroll software to business credit cards and business credit scores, we’ve got what you need to manage everyday tasks. Learn about free tools for small business owners, and see other examples of small business tools.