Publication by Brett Farmiloe, SCORE

Tools to Help Your Business

There are so many innovative ways to use technology to help run a small business. 

As small businesses generally have limited financial and human capital, it is important for business owners to look for ways to use technology to utilize the resources they have. 

Unlike large corporations that are slow to make technological advances, small businesses can quickly and successfully switch to new tech in their day-to-day operations. Here are the top 10 tech tools that will help elevate your small business today.

ClickUp

ClickUp is a project management software that lets you create pipelines to monitor the progress of your team. Managing people and staying on top of the progress is so much easier with ClickUp. We’ve tried several other tools before but stayed with this one.
– Jakub Kliszczak,Channels

vMix

I use a program called vMix to improve my virtual presentations. If you’re making a pitch, you don’t want to look like just another lame Zoom call. vMix allows you to give your presentations bells and whistles that will make them stand out. It’s not very expensive, and the company has tons of “how-to” videos.
– Rick DeBruhl, Communication Consultant

Slack

From stand-ups to quick check-ins, to casual conversation, Slack is our go-to for all things internal communication. Slack makes coordinating with clients very efficient, too. Many of our clients already have Slack set up or are happy to join. Toggling between Slack organizations is very easy, which makes coordinating client work very efficient. Lastly, many communities are emerging on Slack that offer great networking opportunities for small businesses. 
– Husam Machlovi,With Pulp

LastPass

LastPass is a tool we use to manage all our accounts without compromising security. Our employees can gain access to the accounts they need without the need to write down sensitive information in places that could be easily lost or stolen. It can be regularly accessed and updated, but only those within our organization can see the information. Small businesses can gain these same benefits by using LastPass for their social media accounts or websites.
– Rex Murphy, American Pipeline Solutions

HubSpot

HubSpot is truly a life-saver–and its CRM is free. It gives us a 360 view of our customers and suppliers, and we can also see the whole team’s interactions on a real-time basis. We use it to track our leads and ongoing conversations. It means that we can operate transparently, and it also saves us time. Without it, we would be significantly less organized. 
– Francesca Yardley, Threads

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a lifesaver for small businesses. It makes email marketing so smooth and way less time-consuming than if a business was to do it without the software. It also supplies us with a large amount of analytics regarding our emailing campaigns, which then helps us improve down the road. For a small business that does not have a large staff, Mailchimp will feel like having another marketing employee on deck. 
– Peter Babichenko, Sahara Case 

Asana

Asana is by far my favorite technology at work. It is a project management software that is easy to use and highly customizable. My colleagues and I love this tool because it keeps all of us on track and keeps a record of every activity performed in-house. It also integrates with several other tools like a digital timesheet, which comes in handy for our HR department.
– Nikitha Lokareddy, Markitors

Zapier

We are a little obsessed with Zapier. We use Zapier to automate tens of thousands of tasks across departments, ranging from sales to marketing to admin work. This automation has helped us create higher leverage for each team member, which also means they grow in their careers and contributions. Other businesses can start by signing up for a free account. Automations can be complex, but it doesn’t have to be. Zapier has a bunch of tools to help you get started with simple ones like social media messaging.
– Michael Alexis,Teambuilding

Trello

My most indispensable small business technology tool is Trello. I work with several freelancers to run my business, and Trello makes it 10x easier to communicate with them. Once I started using it, I never looked back – it saved me significant time compared to emailing back and forth. Any business that works on medium- to large-size projects will benefit from Trello’s ability to streamline communication.
– Axel DeAngelis,NameBounce

Google Drive

Google Drive and Google Docs are great. It allows us to collaborate more easily with our team as well as our clients, and keep better documentation on everything from projects to HR. I have found it easy to create some basic letterhead that now permeates all our documents and gives us a consistent brand presentation with our proposals. It’s easy to share with other internal and external users and increases our overall communication.
– Peter Adams,Ping! Development

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