Do you want to learn about the best business software? Or do you want to know about some of the best software for small businesses? A lot of people don’t know what the best software is, or if it is even worth buying an expensive service or product.
Software plays a huge role in business, and tiny business software has allowed entrepreneurs to go global with small teams. But what is the best business software for you? This is the multi-billion dollar question. One of the main reasons I love writing here at Software Advice is because of the great content they produce – 100% unbiased – giving us a great resource to learn about the best software based on feedback from real users.
Sales
Sales is often a stressful task that is critical to maintain your cash flow, and these technologies can make life much easier for your sales team:
- Spiro – your personal sales assistant. This management tool helps you stay in touch with sales prospects and close more sales.
- Square – making commerce easy. This simple POS systems for small businesses features tools for every type of business.
- Shoeboxed – organizes sales documents and receipts and turn them into data. This online tool helps you digitize your physical sales docs.
Accounting & Finance
As a small business, it’s important to have an efficient system to track sales transactions and employee payroll. Here’s a few online tools that can help your small business:
- Gusto – an online payroll and benefits platform designed for modern businesses. Gusto makes payroll for your small business simple and affordable. Try 2 months free.
- Wave – a great resource for fast and easy online accounting for your small business. It’s made for entrepreneurs and small businesses with less than 9 employees.
- Xero – the online accounting software alternative to Quickbooks. It features lots of time saving tools you need to grow your small business.
Customer Support
Pleasing your customers is one of the most important roles as a small business. Here are a few online tools that can help you provide excellent customer service support:
- Desk – customer support software that makes customers happy. Features business tools that grow with you including multi-channel support and productivity tips.
- Nextiva – business phone solutions for small business owners. Nextiva boasts enterprise-class technology on a small business budget.
- Olark – give your customers the answers they need, before they leave. Olark allows small businesses to chat with visitors on their site, solving problems and making sales.
Design
Design elements are crucial to draw in customers through marketing efforts. Here are some online tools that can help you create effective and compelling designs:
- Canva – easily create beautiful and professional looking designs for your marketing strategy. Canva’s suite of online design tools are perfect for small businesses.
- Pablo – social media images made simple. Easily format images and annotate your message to create easily shareable graphics for your social media presence.
- Pixlr – online suite of image editing tools. Pixlr’s online tools are great for small businesses and allows you to create professional graphics easily and affordably.
Legal
Owning and operating a small business is a lot of work, and these online resources will help you make sure you are following all laws and regulations:
- Docracy – the web’s only open collection of legal contracts and the best way to negotiate and sign documents online. These online tools will help you operate legally and effectively.
- Rocket Lawyer – online legal documents and advice. These online tools can help you incorporate your business or stay in compliance.
- SuretyBonds.com – the nation’s leading resource for surety bond information that helps small business owners get their business license.
Marketing
Marketing efforts are key to making sure your business’s content is seen by users. Here are some marketing hacks to help get you noticed and generate leads:
- MOZ Tools – the best tools for online marketing and local small business marketing. Stay ahead of your competition with MOZ’s online tools for SEO and local marketing.
- Buzzsumo – online content research tool. Buzzsumo allows you to research what’s popular online and how that content can relate to your business.
- Optimizely – website testing tool to optimize experiences for your customers. Create the best experience for your visitors using Optimizely’s online testing tools.
Operations
These operations tools will help your small business increase performance efficiency and productivity:
- Bplans – starting a business made easy. Check out Bplans’ complete guide to business planning to outline your growth plan.
- Zoho – the operating system for business. Zoho’s online tools for managing your business.
- Google Apps – best online productivity tools for small businesses. Google’s suite of apps for small business are perfect for collaborating and operating efficiently.
Jira
When a new product is being created, tested, and launched, management is key. What are the statistics, which model is the most popular, and what bugs need to be worked out? All of these questions are easily trackable with Jira, a development process tool. Build your new product, track its progress, and gain feedback from outside sources to improve your model. As you continue along in the production process, you can keep editing your workflow list, visible to all of the applicable team members. Completed products can continuously be updated through consumer reviews and feedback, via a simple sharing button. Capturing data has never been easier.
Evernote
Tired of searching through the mountain of papers on your desk for that postit with your meeting date? Try Evernote, an information organizational tool. Evernote works with three basic functions: capture, access, and find. Capture all of your information, from doctor appointments to business meetings, access it from a host of different sources like your computer, smart phone, or tablet, and find everything in mere moments. With all of your information stored in one clearly marked space, you’ll save time and energy best spent elsewhere, like your growing company! Best of all, Evernote is a free application, so you can test out their organizational method and see if it is the right fit for you, without breaking the bank.
LastPass
How many hours have you wasted, trying to remember your password for that hardly ever used site that contains the one message you need to access? With all of the information we’re constantly keeping track of, it’s easy for the smaller things to get forgotten. That’s what makes LastPass so valuable. By removing the need for numerous passwords, LastPass creates a stress-free Internet experience, while ensuring total password security. Users can create a free LastPass username and password. Then, sync up all of your commonly used websites, email accounts, social media servers, and so on. These linked accounts will then become available through your single LastPass login information. By streamlining dozens of login sites into one effortless checkpoint, you can speed past those roadblocks and access your sites in a faster and effortless manner.
WordPress
The age of blogging is upon us and with it comes the tough decision of which platform to use. Some templates favor image based sites, while others create a magazine worthy look. WordPress has established itself as a leader among blogging platforms, particularly those that include written content. It features two versions, the free WordPress.com and the self hosted WordPress.org. For businesses that plan to aggressively utilize their blog as their primary website, or as an important marketing tool, it may be worth a bit of time and money into the self-hosting version. Users can search from millions of different templates and have options of personalized plugins, and just more visual flexibility. For companies using their blog as an addition to their site, or those that just don’t have the time commitment to dedicate to this service right away, the WordPress.com version is the ideal choice. With a large selection of free or premium templates, the WordPress.com blogs come equipped with a clear and simple to use support system, making navigating the blog world an easy task.
The importance of blogging has been proven by the vast number of blogging success stories, virility of online posts, and the sheer number of individuals reached via this method. For a new company trying to spread the word about their concept, blogging is definitely a marketing route to consider.
Conclusion
If you’re an entrepreneur or run a small business chances are you are always on the lookout for good business software to help you manage your tasks, time, and projects. There are many great softwares available, but sometimes it can be confusing to wade through them all.