What tools and materials will you need to get started a business? Well, this question has been on the mind of many startup entrepreneurs. The idea of starting your own company is exciting, but it’s also overwhelming. When I started my business, I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of tools I needed to get started. I had no idea where to begin.
Starting a business for the first time can be extremely tough. This is because there are so many aspects you have to deal with. These aspects, for example, maybe the business planning, finding the right location for your office or store, buying furniture that will meet your requirements, finding an accountant who will help you do your tax filing.
Startups have a lot on their plate which is why it’s important for startups to have the necessary tools in place. These tools don’t just make things easier but can impact the overall trajectory of a company. In order to help out all those fellow startups, we have discussed some of the must-have tools that can help improve your overall performance as a startup.
Things you Need to Start a Small Business Online
- Determine if the type of business suits you.
- Use a break-even analysis to determine if your idea can make money.
- Write a business plan, including a profit/loss forecast and a cash flow analysis.
- Find sources of start-up financing. Business Financing, Loans & Capital
- Set up a basic marketing plan.
Conduct market research
Whatever your exciting new business prospect is, don’t get swayed by mere possibility. Evaluate your profit potential accurately. Here’s where to start:
First, consider the details of the business—esp. the cost. Ask yourself:
- What product or service will I be offering?
- What is the market demand for that product or service?
- What will it cost to produce and disseminate my product or service?
- What future does my product or service have, and can I easily adapt for a changing market?
- Who is my audience and how is it likely to change over the next 5-10 years?
- What overhead costs will I need to cover (office, transportation, employees, etc.)?
- What income do I need during early company growth (and possibly low or no profits)?
If you honestly answer these questions, you’ll know if a new company is worth your effort.
Second, look at your competitors (those selling similar products and services) and find out how they are performing. This will give you a sense of what is working and what isn’t, and how you can improve your product or differentiate it from competitors.
Here are some additional tools you can use to get secure data on your target industry:
Keep in mind that market research can cost $1,000s for accurate data, so be prepared to spend money upfront. While costly, know that this investment could be the difference between sinking in a year and soaring in a few years.
Write your business plan: Your business plan is a blueprint that will guide you throughout the life of your business. In a nutshell, it should discuss the purpose of your business, who your customers are, your long-term goals, and how you’ll finance your business.
Make your business official: There are clear-cut areas to have locked down for a solid business:
- Determine the structure of your business (LLC, corporation, or partnership).
- Give your business a name.
- Registering your business in your state and also federally.
- Obtain a state and federal tax ID.
- Acquire the proper permits and licenses.
- Open up a business bank account.
- Register for trademark, copyrights, or patents.
- Be sure to get legal advice where needed.
Pick a business location: Thanks to technology, it’s possible to start a business remotely right from your home. For brick-and-mortar business ideas you’ll want to think about demographics, accessibility, proximity to competitors, and the cost of rent and utilities.
Finance your business: How will you finance your business? There are numerous ways you can cover the economics of your new business including saving up the money and funding the business yourself. Many ask friends and family for help or obtain a grant or loan. Other options may be crowdfunding, trading equity, or working with Angel or Venture Capitalist investors.
Develop and improve your product or service: Seek frequent feedback from your target audience to determine what they like and what they don’t or won’t accept. Hire specialists who can help you turn your dream into a reality.
Top Business Tools for Startups
1. Google Docs
You can’t write about free online services without mentioning Google, so we’re going to start with the Internet giant everyone knows. This is a great tool when you need to collaborate on files.
When it comes to sharing files and collaborating on documents, Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides are the way to go. The files are stored in your Google Drive and are a wonderful way to avoid those endless back-and-forth emails when collaborating on various documents.
2. Hubspot CRM
A free CRM solution that promises to stay free forever and offers automation features that help track customer interactions. You can also create and follow sales-related tasks and get a good overview of your sales funnel at any given time.
3. IFTTT
“If this then that” is a simple but flexible automation system that integrates hundreds of apps and services to create automated processes for things. For example, you can create an IFTTT so that leads from your website turn into contacts in HubSpot.
4. Zapier
Similar to IFTTT, Zapier is a more business-oriented automation tool that integrates with significantly more apps and services than IFTTT. So before selecting one or the other, you should ensure it communicates flawlessly with the tools and services you currently use.
5. Xero
This New Zealand company allows you to monitor your cash flow in real-time. Send invoices (and see when they’ve been opened), create expense claims, and import and categorize all your latest bank transactions. There are dozens and dozens of more features that Xero offers and it also integrates with over 700 small business apps, like PayPal. Start a 30-day free trial and then choose from 3 plans: Early $9/month, Growing $30/month, or Established $60/month. Carefully review what each pricing plan includes as not each one is suitable for your business size and needs.
6. EmailAnalytics
EmailAnalytics is an app that visualizes your team’s email activity, enabling you to see essential productivity KPIs at a glance, such as emails sent, emails received, and average email response time. The app automatically integrates and performs all the calculations for you, and delivers you a convenient daily or weekly email report so you can effortlessly keep tabs on your team’s workload and efficiency.
Pricing starts at $15/user/mo, but they also offer bulk discounts for teams of 5+ users, with pricing going as low as $5/user/mo.
Free Business Tools for Startups
The primary concern of every aspiring entrepreneur is to keep their startup costs as low as possible. Although there are several unavoidable costs an online business has to pay for, you can minimize some operational costs with the assistance of the best tools.
Imagine if you could enhance your efficiency with just a few tools. What if you can get your hands on the best tools for startups? Fortunately, that’s exactly what I’m going to share with you today. Let’s take a look!
Project Management Tools for Startups
1. Trello
With remote working becoming more prominent, it is vital to ensure that you and your team are working on maintaining task clarity and focus. Trello is a useful tool when it comes to project management. In a single dashboard, you can get a complete overview of what your team is working on. You and your team can simply add in new tasks and also highlight to the team what is completed. You can also include a file attachments to share your finished work with your team quickly. The interface is straightforward and easy to use. You and your team can pick it up in no time!
Some of their best features:
- Apps integration
- Easy and straightforward dashboard
- Customizable
- Always in sync with your mobile and desktop
Pricing:
- Basic Plan – Free
- Business Plan – $9.99 per user/month
- Enterprise Plane – $20.83 per user/month
Find out more about Trello: https://trello.com/home
2. Asana
Another great project management tool – Asana. While Trello is a great and straightforward tool to get a good overview of what you and your teams are working on, respectively, Asana focuses on incorporating more features on team project collaboration. It allows you to plan the project agenda together as a team and assign roles. Create project timelines and to-dos lists to stay ahead of schedule and get things done more efficiently as a team.
Some of their best features:
- Customizable work templates
- Chat
- App integration
- Portfolios
Pricing:
- Basic – Free
- Premium – $10.99 per user/month
- Business – $24.99 per user/month
Find out about Asana: https://asana.com/
Communication and Meeting Tools for Statups
3. Slack
As the saying goes, communication is key. It is important to establish a good communication platform, especially when everyone is working from home. Having a transparent communication system ensures that everyone is in the loop and figures out what their main priorities are and, most importantly, to clarify doubts and gain clarification whenever possible. This is where Slack comes in. Slack is an online communication tool that is designed for collaboration in mind. It allows you to instantly communicate with your teammates and create channels according to the projects you are working on to drive productivity. Not to mention, the Slack interface is user-friendly as well!
Some of their best features:
- Channels
- Searchable history
- App integration
- High data security
Pricing:
- Small Team – Free
- Standard Plan – $6.67 per user/month (suitable for startup!)
- Plus Plan – $12.50 per user/month
Find out more about Slack: www.slack.com
4. Zoom
Holding virtual meetings would be the new norm. I believe even when COVID-19 goes away, we cannot deny the rise of the gig economy. There will be more freelancers out there, and businesses would have to carry out virtual meetings more frequently than ever. Zoom is a great tool when it comes to virtual meetings. Simply schedule a meeting via zoom, the meeting URL will be generated, and you can just send the URL to the person that you are going to have meetings with, and you are done!
Some of their best features:
- Built-in collaboration tool (e.g., screen sharing)
- Streamlined calendaring
- Meeting recording and transcripts
Pricing:
- Basic Plan – Free
- Pro Plan – $14.99 per user/month
- Business or Enterprise Plan – $19.99 per user/month
Meeting Calendars & scheduling Tools for Startup
5. Calendly
With more virtual meetings, you might face challenges in keeping tabs on all your upcoming meetings, and this is where Calendly can help! In a way, Calendly works like your virtual PA. You can share your calendar URL with anyone you are meeting with and allow the person to fix a time with you in your calendar. Calendly will help you to keep track and avoid conflicting meetings and send you email reminders at your next meeting. Calendly is a great tool to help you stay organized!
Some of their best features:
- Calendar Integration
- Time zone intelligence
- Real-time notifications
Pricing:
- Basic – Free
- Premium – $8 per user/month
- Pro – $12 per user/month
Find out more about Calendly: https://calendly.com/
File Storage tools for Startups
6. Google Drive
Google Drive might be a familiar application for everyone. As long as you own a personal Google account, you will be introduced to a trove of useful applications such as Gmail, Hangout, Google Docs, and of course, Google Drive for free. Google Drive is a file storage and synchronization platform that allows you to upload all relevant documents and synchronize files across all devices. In drive, you can store, share, and collaborate your files with your team. Accessing files and download necessary work materials has never been this straightforward!
Some of their best features:
- Always in sync with your mobile and desktop
- Cloud-native collaboration apps (Google Docs, Sheets, Slides)
- Search technology
Pricing:
- Personal – Free
- G Suite Basic – $6 per user/month
- G Suite Business – $12 per user/month
- G Suite Enterprise – $25 per user/month
Find out more about Google Drive: https://www.google.com/drive/
Creatives
7. Canva
Canva is a digital graphic designing platform and is also my personal favorite. The main reason is that it allows people with no designing background to easily create and design marketing collaterals or any graphics like a pro. Its interfaces are user-friendly and well-organized. They have tons of design templates in different sizing to meet your startup needs. I guess there are no more excuses for not working on pleasing aesthetic collaterals without having a designer in your team.
Some of their best features:
- Tons of templates
- Millions of stock photos
- Enable team collaboration
Pricing:
- Canva Basic – Free
- Canva Pro – $9.87 per user/month
- Canva Enterprise – $28.23 per user/month
Find out more about Canva: https://www.canva.com/
Cuttles
Cuttles is a startup planning tool that you can use to level up your own and your team’s productivity in those critical early stages of your startup journey. Expect for doing your business plan, you can create budgets, do your pitch and build a roadmap so you always have a clear overview of the milestones ahead.
Squad Help
Squad Help assists you in finding an ideal name for your business. However, they do not limit their services to just business names. Instead, it also assists in finding the perfect name for your app, book, product or service, etc.
You can start a naming competition and engage thousands of experts as you’re guided through their agency-level naming process. You can also explore their hand-picked compilation of premium names that are available for immediate purchase.
Pricing: For as low as $199 per contest.
Conclusion
Starting a business is as much about what to learn as about making mistakes. And it is those mistakes that turn into learning opportunities. The good news is that there are also tools you can use to avoid these pitfalls and streamline your startup process.
You’re an entrepreneur, or want to be one. You have a great idea for a product or service that the world could use. This is exciting! It’s also daunting — especially if you’ve never done it before.
Starting a business is tough. These days, you have to stand out from the crowd in order to succeed. Luckily, there are plenty of tools that can help you grow your startup idea into a full-fledged company.