Small business owners often find themselves juggling multiple tasks to keep their operations running smoothly and their costs down. To make this possible, there are plenty of cloud-based tools available to streamline processes, enhance efficiency and boost productivity. I use lots of these digital myself to make my business processes more efficient.
This article will explore some of the most handy digital tools currently available for small business owners.
Cloud accounting
Managing finances is a crucial part of running a small business, albeit not the most enjoyable one. Thankfully, several digital tools can make this task a breeze.
QuickBooks is a comprehensive accounting software that allows small business owners to track income and expenses, create invoices and generate financial reports. It’s user-friendly and helps keep businesses organised.
Another excellent accounting tool offering features like bank reconciliation, expense tracking, and payroll management is New Zealand company Xero. It’s cloud-based, ensuring accessibility from anywhere.
Both of these are tailor-made for small to medium-sized businesses and empower you to handle your accounts independently.
There are many different cloud-based accounting software providers out there so find the one that suits your needs.
Project management
Efficient project management is a must when you’re juggling numerous tasks and projects. Top-notch digital tools can help you stay on top of deadlines and deliverables:
The Trello project management tool uses boards, lists, and cards to help teams organise and prioritise tasks. It’s perfect for small businesses with straightforward project management needs.
For more complex requirements, Asana provides advanced project management features, including task dependencies, timelines and goal tracking.
Depending on how you manage projects and workflows will inform your project management tool selection. They each work in slightly different ways and would have their own pros and cons, based on your needs.
These project management tools often come with cloud storage, allowing you to store files and documents in a secure and efficient way, so that remote team members can still access them.
Communication and messaging
If you work with a small team, contractors or multiple clients, your choice of communication tools can make all the difference.
Keeping everything in one place helps you stay organised, which is why many business owners favour Slack, a real-time messaging platform facilitating communication across different channels for various topics or teams. For remote meetings and video conferences, Zoom is a popular choice, offering features like screen sharing and recording, ideal for businesses with remote team members or clients.
Social media management
Maintaining a strong social media presence is crucial in today’s digital marketing landscape. There are plenty of tools to help you manage your social media effectively.
One of the most well-known social media managers, Hootsuite allows users to schedule posts, track social media engagement, and manage multiple social media accounts in one place. It’s a time-saving tool for small businesses looking to maintain a consistent online presence.
Other options to explore include Buffer, MeetEdgar, SocialPilot, Loomly, Sked, and many more, each offering slightly different benefits.
Personally, I don’t use social media for work nor does my business provide social media services. Apart from having minimal interest in social, I specialise in inbound marketing (SEO) and have set up my business and service offering to focus solely on this.
Customer relationship management
Building and nurturing strong customer relationships is vital for small businesses. Customer relationship management (CRM) tools can help you keep track of your interactions and customer data:
HubSpot CRM offers a free version with features like contact management, email tracking and lead scoring, making it an excellent choice for small businesses looking to expand their customer base.
Or consider Zoho, a great option for startups and small businesses due to its sales workflows and pay-as-you-go pricing, or Freshsales, which has a low learning curve without too many frills.
Email marketing
Email marketing remains a powerful tool for engaging with your audience. You’ll almost certainly want a digital tool to help create and send effective email campaigns.
Mailchimp is a popular and user-friendly platform offering email marketing, audience segmentation and automation, while Constant Contact provides email marketing, event management, and online survey tools, making it a good choice for small businesses using multiple channels.
In terms of email providers, Google’s GSuite is an excellent email host which also provides a whole range of cloud-based applications as well as excellent storage solutions.
Website design and development
A professional online presence is crucial for all businesses, and these days you don’t need coding knowledge to create a starter website.
WordPress is a widely-used content management system (CMS) that offers flexibility and ease of use for non-covers. It integrates with countless AI website developers, making it easy to create a functional and attractive website. Note: we are talking about WordPress.org here, not WordPress.com – find out the difference here.
Or try Squarespace, a user-friendly website builder offering stunning templates and a drag-and-drop editor. Both options are scalable and can grow with your needs.
Cloud web hosting is more and more common, offer you affordable and scalable hosting solutions.
Cybersecurity
Protecting your business and customer data is essential, so you’ll want cybersecurity tools to safeguard your digital assets:
Norton 360 is a comprehensive cybersecurity suite offering antivirus protection, a VPN, and identity theft protection. Pair that with LastPass, a password management tool that helps you create and store strong, unique passwords for all your online accounts.
Business internet
To make the most of these fantastic tools available to small businesses, you’ll need fast and reliable internet. Enterprise Ethernet is widely regarded as the best choice for internet connectivity. It uses the same fibre-optic cable technology as FTTP but is delivered over a dedicated network with a direct path, providing even faster, more secure and lower-latency connectivity. And because Enterprise Ethernet and FTTP deliver internet through completely separate connections, you can connect your business to both, ensuring business continuity.
Small business owners today have access to an amazing range of digital tools to streamline operations, enhance efficiency, and boost productivity. You would be wise to make the most of these digital tools to help you succeed in your business ventures.
Marshall Thurlow is the Director and Founder of Orion Marketing Pty Ltd. He is a digital marketer with expertise in SEO, website design, content marketing and project management. With over 15 years of experience spanning government, not-for-profit and the private sector, he is well equipped to lead teams to success.
