There are many ways we can grow our businesses, but business tools and systems are one of the quickest and easiest ways to grow your business, without too many tears.
“What do you mean by tools?” I hear you cry! Well, tools are anything that will help make your business processes easier and/or quicker.
It’s not just getting an extra pair of hands, (who you have to train to do the tasks), but systems and software can make a massive difference to your business, and your personal time working in the business.
How do you manage your customer or client details? Do you have them written in a little black book? Or on a spreadsheet? Would you like to be able to add notes to customer details so that you don’t need to remember conversations. The system does that for you. One system we really like, which is called a CRM system (Customer relationship management), is Capsule CRM. We’ve found it easy to use, it links with google mail, and mailchimp which were important for our clients. It can link to all sorts of other systems too if you want it to.
How do you manage your finances? Do you stuff all your receipts into a box & give them to your accountant or bookeeper at the end of the year? Or do you keep your spreadsheet or accounts system up to date every week? Whatever bookeeping system you use, this is a business tool.
Can you see? It doesn’t have to be something weird and wonderful to be a useful tool for your business!
There are tools for scheduling social media posts for your business, and scheduling appointments with customers, tools for creating beautiful images for your website or blog posts, tools for more efficient team working. In fact, there’s tools for all sorts of things to help you grow your business quickly and easily. There’s even tools to link the tools up if they’re not set up to talk to each other automatically – a tool called Zapier where you create Zaps to connect systems together.
There are so many tools to choose from, our advice to clients is try a few out and find what works for you. Just because we love Capsule CRM doesn’t mean you will too. You may find Zoho easier to navigate, or it looks better to you. Most business system tools have free trials, so use them. Put some time aside and try things out, and find the one/s that work for you.
One of the go to places where a lot of these whizzy tools are available, is AppSumo. They offer, often at the start of the growth phase for a business tool, special offers, or deals, which in turn helps the developer to improve the business tool. You can grab bargains for whatever area of work you’re wanting to improve.
However, AppSumo have put together a Briefcase full of business tools for entrepreneurs and business owners which covers most of the basics. These business tools are tried and tested, and you can get access to them all with one simple monthly payment. We really like this idea for small business owners – you know what you’re paying, and you know the systems work.
Tools we’re especially loving (as they’re new to us and we’re enjoying playing with them, plus getting so much benefit already), are GRUM (This is going to be in the Black Friday offer from AppSumo, so don’t miss out on lifetime access) – being able to schedule Instagram posts is fantastic for us. Yes, it’s important to be live on social media, but the fact you can create images on your laptop, then schedule them once in the knowledge that they’ll be sent out when you want, is perfect.
WEBSITE AUDITOR is a fabulous tool helping you to analyse your website, the traffic to it, and give you ideas of how to improve your site so it can be found more easily. You can even make the changes inside the website auditor software, making it simple to use, for everyone – even those with no technical skills. This is currently available with a massive discount for lifetime access, and we can highly recommend it.
We love business tools, and encourage our clients to make use of software and technology within their businesses to make life, and business, more straight forward.
If you’d like help with your business systems, or need help with setting business tools up, or linking them together so they talk to each other, get in touch. We can do this for you, and make the business tools you choose to use, even easier! We can even arrange training for you and your team, on site, or online, if you prefer to learn from another business owner how to make the best use of a business tool in your particular business.
What are your favourite business tools?
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