5 Key Tools a Small Business Needs

Starting and managing a small business is no easy task and most entrepreneurs are hamstrung by a shortage of a key resource – employees. In a small organization, most staff juggle multiple roles as the need arises. There are some great tools out there which can help boost efficiency and productivity for any small business.

Trello for Task Management

Whether you have 2 employees or 20, task management is vital. You need to know who has been assigned a particular task, how far it has progressed, due dates and deadlines and so on. Trello is a great to-do app that uses boards, lists and cards to prioritize tasks and collaborate with team members. Never miss a deadline again with Trello.

Dropbox for File Sharing

Most of us juggle multiple devices during the day – desktops at work, laptops on the go, phones and tablets to name a few. Dropbox helps you stay organized with all your documents. Any file you put into the Dropbox folder on one device is automatically uploaded to the cloud and available on all your other devices. With built-in document sharing and collaboration features, there’s no easier way to keep everyone on the same page.

Hootsuite for Managing Social Media

Social media is an important part of doing business nowadays. As a small business you have to manage your brand presence on various social media outlets such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, twitter and so on. Hootsuite can help you schedule posts and content to various platforms well in advance. This way you always have content ready, even if everyone is busy with other tasks at the same time.

MailChimp for Email Newsletters

Email might seem old-fashioned compared to social media but it is still an important tool you should use for marketing. Mailchimp helps you design attractive newsletters and send to subscribers of your website or blog. Inform your customers about your latest products or services and keep them updated on special sales or other offers. Using Mailchimp can drive more traffic to your website or your online presence on other platforms.

VoIPstudio for Voice Calling

Phone calls are still an integral part of business communication. While many customers are now contacting companies through social media or email, phone calls remain the most popular option. Voice communication is even more important if your clients are mainly businesses rather than individual consumers. However the PSTN technology that we have been using for decades is not very flexible and hard to adapt for the digital age.

VoIP is an amazing technology that brings phone calls into the 21st century and many small businesses opt for hosted services from VoIPstudio. Using phone services from VoIPstudio offers many advantages but perhaps the most compelling incentive is that it can save you a lot of money compared to traditional carrier plans.

You don’t have to purchase expensive equipment to use VoIP. Calls between employees are free even if the offices are on opposite sides of the country. Local and international calls are much cheaper than that offered by phone operators. Your company only pays for the resources that you use during the month. Don’t need the 4 extra lines? Remove them and stop paying for unused capacity.

Certain enterprise phone system functions like auto attendant and IVR are often too expensive for small businesses to purchase. With VoIPstudio, even the most basic plan has those features built-in. Use these features to present a professional image to callers and compete effectively with bigger companies.

Managing traditional PBX boxes was not easy and often required technicians to make the necessary changes. VoIPstudio offers an online dashboard which lets you change settings and configure the system exactly to your specifications. Enable or disable features for an individual user or entire groups at a time. There is no need to wait for the phone company to send someone out to your office.

Apart from the competitive prices and the constant addition of new features, VoIPstudio is backed by experts who have worked in the telephony field for decades. The people behind VoIPstudio have years of experience in delivering phone services over the Internet. VoIPstudio is not some traditional application or product that has been retrofitted to work in the cloud. It was built from the ground up to make use of the latest technology and deliver the best service for users.

With world class data centers located across the world, your business will get quality and reliable service no matter what happens. You don’t have to worry about disaster recovery or backup, automatic failover takes care of everything. Should any disaster befall your office, your employees can move to a new location and continue working.

So what are you waiting for? Try out these tools can see what a difference they can make for your business.