Running a small business might feel like a daunting undertaking for many entrepreneurs, with many wearing many hats at the beginning of their business’s lifecycle, but it need not be. There are many online tools and resources which small business owners can utilise to assist in four core areas of business.

Finance. 

Cash is king. It’s cashflow which is essentially the lifeforce of any business. It’s vital that you effectively and accurately manage your financial resources from the start. If you haven’t already done so, consider utilising tools such as Wave or Xero for your accounting needs at the beginning stage of your business. Free accounting software (or affordable in Xero’s case), will aid you in creating slick and professional invoices as well as help you accurately keep track of all transactions. In addition to this, you can also link Wave to your business bank account and obtain financial statements about your small business. Lastly, Wave also boasts a free mobile app for both Android and Apple users, allowing you to scan receipts while on the move. 

Business operations. 

Depending on the sector your business falls under, you will need a variety of tools to ensure your business operations run smoothly. To improve communication between your workforce, we recommend using Slack. 

Slack is an excellent tool as it helps in having the ability to have searchable conversations with each of your team members, as well as different channels for specific departments within your business.

For project management, which is essential to overall productivity within your business, we recommend either Trello or Asana to collaborate with various team members on different projects. With Trello, you’ll have the ability to create “boards” which clearly outline the multiple processes for different areas in your business. 

Perhaps you have staff on shift rotations, for this, we recommend When I Work. This application can be used via employee smartphones or at designated check-points at your office via the use of an iPad or computer. When I Work will help you maintain the scheduling of your employee shifts in a far more streamlined manner and can use for as many as 75 employees for free before you’re required to pay for the pro version.

Customer service.

The following area of business which is vital to your business’s growth and success is customer service. With no customers, quite simply, you won’t make any sales, and also you’d want to keep those customers happy by keeping accurate records of them.

We recommend Hubspot for this, as it is one of the most popular customer relationship management (CRM) tools available. Hubspot is a free tool which can be utilised to track, organise and foster better relationships with prospects and retain current ones with your clients. Furthermore, it also boasts an academy which has many informative courses on inbound marketing tactics. 

Perhaps you’ve found that you often receive queries on your website from clients who become irate when you or your team do not answer in a timeous fashion? We recommend researching chatbots. One such tool is Flow XO For Chat, which makes creating chatbots for your website and platforms a breeze. 

If you’re in the position where you’re making regular appointments with customers, then our recommendation would be Setmore. 

Setmore is a tool which helps you schedule appointments with your customers and also provides statistics on who your most valuable clients are. Lastly, with this tool, you’re also able to embed the booking page on your business website. 

Knowledge. 

In an effort to continue positioning yourself as a thought leader in your industry, you will need to keep up with the ever-evolving trends within your sector. We recommend Feedly for this, a free tool where business owners can find the latest information from industry publications. Feedly also provides useful keyword research related to most industries, and you’ll have the benefit of keeping abreast of what influencers are speaking about on their blogs. 

Conclusion:

These are just a handful of free resources you could opt for to aid in boosting your small business efforts from the early stages of running it. At the end of the day, staying flexible and on top of trends, providing fantastic customer service, running your operations smoothly and having sufficient cash flow will ensure that your remain agile in all aspects of your business journey.