Top 5 Tools for Small Businesses
Operating a business is hard work. You have created wonderful products and services to sell to your customers, but as you know, keeping your customers happy is just part of the whole picture. There is a LOT of work you have to do behind the scenes in order to make the magic happen. Here are our top 5 tools that can make handling your business a little easier.
To Make a Great First Impression: Canva
In order to get your customers to read your blog, notice your social media post and engage with you in the conversation, you’ll need to get them to notice you. Just like in the realm of dating, first impressions are the most important! How do you do that when you cannot impress every potential customer in person? You start with a visual that captures their eye.
Canva is an easy-to-use graphic design tool that will help you design ads, banners, flyers, infographics, social media posts, and many different kinds of designs that will make your small business stand out. You can choose from many available templates or create your own from scratch. For graphics, you can upload your own photos, or use Canva’s free stock photos, add text, shapes, you name it.
The best part is, Canva is free for individuals and small groups, providing many incredible tools to construct your desired graphics. While the standard Canva has more than enough resources to assist with your needs, the Pro version gives you access to more templates and many more stock photos, and allows you to create a full brand identity for your company.
To Get Customers into Your Sales Pipeline: HubSpot Academy
Congratulations! You’ve successfully caught a potential customer’s eye and they’ve read your social media posting / visited your website / checked your Instagram page. Ummm… What next???
This is where HubSpot Academy comes in. HubSpot Academy is the ultimate source for everything you need to know about sales and marketing. You can watch hundreds of training videos on how to effectively turn your prospect into an actual customer, and even become certified in different sales and marketing topics.
And the best part is, courses on HubSpot Academy are also free. It may sound hard to believe, but it’s true–all the information you need for successful sales and marketing, for free! HubSpot gets their revenue from selling their CRM / Marketing / Sales tool, and no doubt they’re successful with it.
To Create an Online Presence: WordPress
Your business needs a website for your customers to find you. This is more critical today than ever before. Most customers visit the company website before making their purchasing decision, which is why a website is a 24/7 advertisement for your business: it tells them who you are, and what you do, as well as gives your customers confidence in the quality of your products and services. In other words, it makes their purchasing decision easier.
You can create a website in just a few steps using WordPress. I’ve outlined the high level steps in my blog. If you have a simple website, you can get it up and running in as few as a couple of days. For more complex web pages such as online stores, you’ll need to reserve at least a couple of weeks.
Using WordPress is free, but you should be prepared to pay for your domain name and your website hosting on an annual basis. Your costs can also add up quickly if you decide to use paid versions of WP templates, page builders or plugins.
To Operate Your Business: Airtable
Every business needs some tools to capture sales, manage HR, create marketing campaigns, manage projects, track time, etc. However, purchasing an app for each of your back office operations will cause the prices to quickly pile up.
Airtable is an app building platform, where you can create your own apps to support your own processes. There are plenty of templates to get started from, and creating an app of your own is super easy and efficient. Many companies, small and large, use this tool to automate their processes and to avoid separate records and emails.
Similar to Canva, HubSpot Academy, and WordPress, the basic version of Airtable is free. Amazing, free! Of course, if you find yourself wanting more, the paid version gives you the ability to create nice, clean forms, and integrate Airtable to other applications.
To Find a Specialist: Fiverr
There comes a time when every entrepreneur needs help. If you find yourself too busy, or battling with too complicated of a technical issue, Fiverr is your source for help. Fiverr is a marketplace for experts in different areas to offer their services. You can look for photographers, graphic designers, software engineers, social media marketers, you name it. There are reviews and portfolios available on each service provider’s page to help you make your decision between the providers in addition to affordable pricing.
Hope this gets you started. We would love to hear comments and recommendations on other tools that you have found useful for your business!