Many inspired professionals decide on a bold leap forward and launch of a startup. Startups seem to be at a disadvantage, though: their small size, less funding, lack of resources and infrastructure makes them risky.
This continues to hold true to a degree, but today, successful entrepreneurs can take advantage of some excellent technological tools and resources to level the playing field.
Each startup has unique requirements and challenges, so there is not a catchall tech solution that is most beneficial in all situations. With advanced tools and resources at your disposal, you will need to explore the benefits of each option and select the ones that are a best-fit for your needs.
As you examine the options, consider how some of these leading productivity tools can benefit your organization.
1. Asana
Managing your time well is essential when you run a startup. Regardless of whether you are trying to manage your own personal tasks, or you need to manage a team’s tasks, Asana is an excellent resource to use. Its functionality lets you create projects and to break them into different phases, such as a planning or pre-work stage and milestones within the work stage.
Through the platform, you can assign tasks to different individuals, set deadlines, track progress and more. While this is a paid service, a free option is available with basic features that let up to 15 people collaborate. The paid subscription for larger teams and more robust needs is affordable.
2. Slack
Regardless of the size of your small business, communication between your team members is essential. Slack is one of the leading communication tools available because it compiles all of your chat messages, phone logs, email messages and more into one convenient platform. It is also compatible with many other apps you may already be familiar with, such as Trello, Dropbox, Asana and more.
Through this innovative communication tool, you can stay on top of communications and organize your notes and details with ease. Slack has a free basic service and affordable subscriptions available with more robust features and benefits.
3. Office 365
Many professionals already have experience with Office 365 as a leading collaboration and task management platform. However, the new features and applications that make it even more beneficial to you. With a desktop, tablet and smartphone applications, you can use it in a variety of situations.
You can share files with selected users, and you can even chat through the platform with the user while you make edits to the document. The application has new visual graphics capabilities and title functions in PowerPoint.
It also lets you invite people to join you through a website link and more.
Keep in mind that this suite includes:
- PowerPoint
- Outlook
- Access
- OneNote
- Word
- Visio
- and a few others
Because it is so inclusive, you may find it addresses almost all of your needs after you master all of its applications. In fact, this is such a robust and comprehensive resource that it makes sense to learn about its many applications as a first step before you begin adding new tools and resources to your arsenal.
4. G Suite
G Suite has many similar collaboration and task management tools to Office 365. In this suite, you will find Gmail, a Google calendar, a chat feature, cloud-based file sharing and a wide range of document creation and editing programs. In addition, there are user accessibility features, so you can manage your connections through G Suite.
While some of these features, such as Gmail, are available for free, the suite is available with different pricing structures. Each of the three pricing structures is affordable and gives you access to a different range of features and tools.
5. Streak
Another excellent resource to boost your small business startup efforts is Streak. Through this platform, you will have access to a robust CRM platform. This customer relationship management program is compatible with Gmail, and it is simple to get started with and even easier to use regularly.
It syncs with your Gmail account and helps you to track all of your contacts through your Gmail account. In this way, it can work with the G Suite subscription, but you can also use it with a basic free Gmail account. If you use this service to track up to 200 emails per month, the service is free to use. Otherwise, there is an affordable monthly subscription fee.
6. Zapier
Each of these resources and tools helps you to improve time management and even improve the efforts from different tasks sometimes. Zapier, however, is one of the most important applications to use to save time and improve efficiency. Through Zapier, you can integrate information from most of the various apps you use on a seamless platform.
This can prevent you from having to click on eight different apps every five minutes, and it can also help you avoid overlooking important factors or information. It is so powerful that it can connect information from over 1,000 different apps.
Some of these are:
- Gmail
- QuickBooks
- Google Sheets
- Trello
- Asana
- MailChimp
Entrepreneurs and small business owners must compete head-to-head with many companies that may be more well-established and have deeper pockets. They may already have proven infrastructure and processes in place. While this places your small business startup at a disadvantage, you can see that these incredible tools can even the playing field.
Through the use of the right combination of tools and resources, you might improve your chances of success.