Unless you’ve spent most of your career in IT, knowing which technologies are right for supporting your growth can be a huge challenge. According to one study, “understanding changing technology needs and what products and services to use” was the top cited technology challenge among business owners.
So, our list of 10 technologies for growing your business will give you an overview of which essential apps and tools to support growth and help you grow.
Here are 10 kinds of tools which will become the backbone to your company’s growth.
1. Website
Clearly, no serious business today can launch without a website. And nowadays you don’t need to be a web designer to build a half-decent online presence for your company. Platforms like the ever-popular WordPress or Wix provide you with simple building blocks and templates to create a functioning website in no time at all.
2. Content storage
You and your teams will, over time, build up a lot of documents, files and folders. Storing them on your desktop is risky in case it malfunctions, and a server in the corner of your office is expensive. So, we’d recommend cloud-based storage like Dropbox, Box, Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive.
3. Accounting software
Consistent and professional bookkeeping will save you a lot of time when it comes to paying your taxes at the end of the year, and can be a lot cheaper than hiring an accountant. Tools like Xero and QuickBooks are especially popular.
Read our intro to bookkeeping for small business.
4. Email management
When you want to send emails to your mailing list, a plain old message sent from your company Outlook or Gmail account isn’t going to catch anyone’s eye. Modern email management tools let you send thousands of emails without being considered spam, they let you build eye-catching, image-heavy messages and they provide tracking features for you to monitor the success of your campaigns. MailChimp is the king here, but check out alternatives like Get Response too.
5. Team task management
You need to be able to delegate tasks to your colleagues as you grow, and so tools like Asana (read our recent review), Trello or Basecamp allow you to share work on projects and ensure tasks don’t get delayed.
6. Collaborative communications
Email is still the most popular way for teams to work together, yet there’s a range of new tools coming onto the market which facilitate more collaborative communications. Check out Slack or Microsoft Teams which let employees across the company chat from any device and collaborate on documents in real time.
7. Essential office tools
Few businesses can survive without email, word processing and spreadsheets. Microsoft’s Office and Outlook remain the market leaders by a long shot, although Google’s Docs and Gmail are very popular among start-ups.
8. Analytics
For the sake of marketing, you need decent analytics for your website, but also for your social media and other platforms. Google Analytics is the undisputed leader for website analytics, while tools like Audiense are great for social media analytics and Mailchimp has great internal analytics.
9. Collaborative notebooks
Paper is so 1990. Today there are countess powerful, cloud-based note-taking tools which allow you to take notes on any device, as well as photos and screengrabs. Tools like Evernote and OneNote mean you’ll never lose an important idea again!
10. Social media management
The world is more social than ever, so tools like HootSuite or Buffer help you manage your social media marketing more effectively by timing when you’ll send updates and facilitating interaction with your audience.