Too much to do and not enough time to do it? You’re not alone. Entrepreneurs are so crunched for time and strapped for cash that often mundane yet crucial tasks end up taking a backseat – or worse, they simply fall through the cracks.
Fortunately, there’s a wide array of affordable tools and solutions available to startups at the flick of a switch. To make your startup journey a little easier, we’ve shortlisted some of most interesting plug-and-play solutions that will take some of the weight off your shoulders.
Email Marketing Platforms
Once pronounced dead, email marketing is now having a bit of a renaissance with the number of email users surging to over 3.7 billion in 2017.[1] This continued growth means personalisation and automation in marketing is more important than ever before – and there’s a plethora of tools to choose from. Amongst our favourites is MailChimp, an efficient and cost-effective marketing platform that’s user-friendly and intuitive, allowing organisations to track ROI and go deeper into customer analytics.
Organisation Platforms
Hiring is hard for startups, but organising your team and bringing them onto the same page can be even harder. In between brainstorming sessions, meetings, and deadlines, things can get messy or even lost. Trello is a great project management tool to help you stay on top of priorities and tasks. From personal to-do lists to work-in-progress boards, Trello allows you to structure your workflow according to your project’s needs. Besides keeping up with your own work, you can also assign tasks to other team members and create collaborative boards.
But our personal favourite feature is the drag-and-drop function that can be used across internal boards as well as external platforms like Slack and Google Docs.
Messaging Apps
There are two types of people: those that keep an empty email inbox and those with 1,538 unread emails. But their shared challenge is finding that piece of information that actually matters to them. While emails will remain important for any business, massaging platforms like Slack and Basecamp make internal communication more efficient, convenient, and lucid. For instance, Slack lets you message, comment, and send files to each team member individually, but allows group channels on whatever is relevant to your business – new clients, app development progress or lunch ideas. But it’s not all work and no play.
Using Giphy integration and custom emojis, you’ll be able to inject a bit of fun into the office!
Accounting software
While small businesses and startups are busy solving critical problems, it’s important not to lose sight of the more routine accounting tasks. A pile of unpaid bills can damage your credibility and eventually put you out of business. This doesn’t mean you have to go out and spend a fortune on an accounting firm. Instead, consider using a user-friendly accounting software platform such as Financio that’s specifically designed for business owners and non-accountants.
HR Management Tools
Running a business can sometimes be trial and error, calculating your taxes however can’t.
As the number of employees in your company grows, the amount of paperwork, including employee information, payslips, taxes and annual leaves forms, can easily get out of hand. Without a dedicated HR person in place, there’s bound to be errors and slip-ups. Investing in proficient HR management tools like Talenox will not only automate calculations and processes for your business but will give you an overview of your team at any given time.
Automating crucial internal processes not only makes your business more efficient and productive, but it also presents you as a progressive and forward-thinking firm, a key factor that your current and potential investors will look at when evaluating your startup.
