Tools we Love for Small Businesses
Let’s be honest – when you’re kicking a business off the ground money can be tight. Finding the right tools is crucial for your budget, as well as your productivity. As a small business ourselves, we have some stellar tools that we use on a daily basis, and the best part is that they’re all low-cost. Several of them are actually free. Check ‘em out:
All-star accounting:
Billing, invoicing and keeping track of payments is every small business’ least favorite part of the ride. Additionally, it can be a confusing process. We’re a huge fan of Freshbooks, which is a tool that makes numbers a little less daunting. With a premium yearly plan at only $45 a month it’s affordable and works very well. Freshbooks covers all types of things you would need, such as invoicing, expense reporting, estimate billing and more.
Web and Analytics tools:
How is your business doing online? To make sure you’re on top of your web performance, Google Analytics is something that every business should have. Google also has an SEO tool for keywords called Keyword Planner. Moz Keyword Explorer is another tool we love to use to find the best keywords for business. If used correctly it can increase clicks and leads.
Do you ever find that you need a fun copy filler? Our web designer recommends this cute cat themed lorem ipsum generator that will definitely answer that need
Design:
Want to create amazing social images but have no idea how to use photoshop? Canva is a design tool that has preset layouts that will make this a super easy task. You have the option of selecting an existing dimension for your needs, or creating custom dimensions for a special project. Canva also has a selection of free images. If you can’t find exactly what you’re looking for, Pixabay is a great image resource for free photos.
Sometimes when you’re editing photos, it’s difficult to know exactly what colors you’re working with. Image Color Picker will help identify the hex code to fix that problem. In terms of typography, check out TypeWolf. They have the latest typography trend as well as site of the day featuring trendy typography
Managing multiple projects can get quickly get complicated. A tool we love for this whether solo, or on a team, is Trello. It is free for the basic package and then just $9.99 per month for a small team. This is a small price to pay for excellent, on-track communication. For social media management, there are several amazing tools out there, but we are definitely team Hootsuite.It’s free for up to three social accounts and then under $20 for 10 accounts per month. Hootsuite helps you visualize your entire social calendar and schedule posts pretty far in advance. Want to know which platform your customers are coming from? Use bitly to create unique links for each platform so you where your customers are.
These are only a few of the many tools we love for small businesses. Do you know of any we left out, or that you love? Share in the comments! We enjoy learning new things just as much as you do.
