There are so many useful tools available for your business these days. They can help your business become more efficient and make it appear professional. For this blog I wanted to highlight some of my favourite apps that are out there that can really help your business. The best part is that these tools are reasonably priced and typically have free options for smaller companies. To start, let us look at improving your web presence. Wix is very easy tool that will let you build a professional website with ease. It provides attractive templates for a wide variety of business applications that you can start with and customize. Like with any website you’ll still need attractive photos and good content in place to really make your site pop. One drawback with using Wix is that you lose flexibility that you would get with using other content management systems like Wordpress or having a developer code the site from scratch.
To continue boosting your online presence you can create digital promotional material using Canva. This great tool lets your create attractive email, facebook and Instagram images easily without the need of an experienced graphic designer. It uses click and drag functionality with premade templates that make designing a breeze. As with Wix, photos and content does matter so those decisions are left up to you. So choose wisely and you’ll have beautiful ads that will be getting your customers’ attention in no time.
If you’re like me and have a tough time of getting your accounting game in check I highly recommend that you look at Wave Accounting. It’s a simple to use online accounting app that allows you to digitally invoice your customers, keep track of who still needs to pay you and those you need to pay, and process your company’s payroll plus other key features. It even has a mobile app that allows you to execute certain tasks while on the fly which I found very helpful. Most features were free but a few features like online payment processing and payroll did cost money to use. Although I really do like this app I would recommend discussing this solution with your accountant to make sure it works for them as well.
Another app that I would recommend is Insightly. I first discovered this great tool through one of our Go Global graduates that uses it daily. Its’ easy to use interface allows for intuitive workflow and tracking as new prospective customers moves through your sales funnel and transition into a new customer. It has additional features that enable you to assign tasks and schedule meetings that really add value to the software. Plus it has a mobile application that makes on the go access a breeze.
I hope you find some of these online business tools useful. From my experience, when you come across a digital tool that changes your workflow for the better it really makes a big difference. If you know of any online tools that could really help another business out please let me know in the comment section below. Also, this month’s Third Tuesday is all about sharing your favourite online business tools. If you’re free this Tuesday @ 5 pm (Oct. 16th) please join us at The Foundry for a good discussion around more great tools that are surely able to help your business become more effective.