Here are some tools that will help you manage various aspects of your business whether you are in the start-up phase or are growing.
It's tempting to use your cell phone as your business number when you first start. But what happens when your business grows? You don't need a big fancy phone system to get the benefits. You can easily setup a virtual system within Grasshopper and allow your customers/clients to reach the right person quickly. Out of the office and need to make a call? No problem Grasshopper has a mobile app that allows you to make a call using the app with your business phone number. You can use their Voice Studio to get professionally recorded greetings for that extra touch. SMS text messaging is also available for your convenience.
With all of the communication options available today it's unlikely that you rely heavily on faxes. But in day to day operations there occasionally may be the need to send or receive a fax. It's not necessary to keep a dedicated machine in your office and if you are out of the office that won't help you either. There are a number of online "virtual" services to choose from. A couple of features of Rapidfax is that you can opt to keep the fax on the server rather than having it automatically emailed upon arrival if you handle sensitive information. You can also get a Toll Free phone number at no additional cost.
There are so many choices for e-email marketing. We love Active Campaign because it is so much more than that. It has features that many don't like dynamic content and can even function as a full featured CRM database. They are also very customer focused.
With the trend of services going online you will likely have multiple accounts with multiple vendors. There will be times where you would like to have data from one service in another and it can be time consuming to transfer and keep everything clean.
Zapier allows you to automate these tasks and never worry about them again. You can create multiple step formulas to develop complex tasks.
Managing social media accounts can be time consuming for the busy entrepreneur. Hootsuite lets you centralize the task and simplify and delegate as the business grows.
It is important to protect your identity and login credentials. Using a password manager should be a no-brainer. LastPass offers free and paid tears. You can do most things with a free account, but it's worth getting the extra features offered with a paid account. LastPass is a very secure option and has features to meet anyone's needs.
One of the intimidating aspects of being an entrepreneur is dealing with payroll and independent contractor reporting. Gusto takes a lot of the pain out of those tasks. Do yourself a favor and check out what they have to offer.
This cloud communications app will allow you to call text and meet all in one convenient place. It's so much more than a business phone system. It's easy to use and setup. It's very powerful and scalable. It's a great fit for any sized business.
When starting a business there are a lot of things to consider. Here is a resource for Missouri based businesses. There may be similar resources offered by other states.
The IRS offers webinars on various topics to help small businesses understand tax related issues.
This open-source password manager will help you manage your passwords and protect your personal information. It's perfect for individuals and businesses. It all starts with a personal account and the business passwords are separate. The free tier will be enough for most, but adding a paid plan will not only support an organization trying to do the right thing it will also allow you some additional features.
Get access to online courses from major universities for free. You can increase your knowledge to assist you in building your business.
If you want a professional image and want to avoid going to the Post Office to get stamps this is a great solution. It's easy to use interface makes it much more convenient than using a postage meter. It's not just postage, they also have relationships with other carriers. A perfect solution for packages and letters.