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Are you a small business owner or heading multiple businesses? You probably know that this experience is unlike anything else. It could be a challenge to wear too many hats at once and not let work become chaotic.
From sales to marketing to operations, 24 hours is never enough time in a day. This is why it makes sense to work on business process improvement and make use of business management software to make your processes more efficient.
By having a clear picture of where your business stands operationally and financially at any time, will give you the ability to predict risks and improve overall efficiency. Business Management tools have come a long way and are continually adapting to attend the needs of the business community.
Here is a list of the best tools available for business management.
Accounting Solutions
Most of the software available has everything you will need to properly manage your finances.
Accounting software will let you email invoices and accept online payments (third party integration – Stripe, PayPal). On top of that, they offer full payroll functionality, automatic cloud backup, and audit trails. Depends on the version you can also access Receipt/invoice storage apps like Hubdoc for electronic copies.
CRMs
When it comes to CRMs (Customer Relationship Management), there are so many options from Stand Alone software to All in One Solution. A CRM is like a customer and prospect database so you can store all details of your customer's details and keep track of the interactions with them. Here are some ways you can use CRMs:
- Store client's contacts.
- Track customer interactions – Log calls, meeting, orders, emails, complaints, and so on.
- Onboard clients (Proposal, Quotes, Contract, Forms, appointments, etc).
- Tracking campaigns, sales, and quotes.
- Manage sales team.
- Communicate special offers.
How to choose the right CRM application comes down to the business industry, features, prices, scalability, integrations, customer support and cloud connectivity that meets your business needs.
Tasks & Project Management
Having tasks and project management app to help you manage your business (and your life!) is an excellent way to identify what tasks are a priority to achieve your business goals and the steps you need to take. The app will help you keep all information together so you can keep track and manage team progress. It is also a great tool to have SOPs available to members, so everyone knows how tasks should be done.
Communication
Communication is one of the most common issues for organisations of any size. Having a central and interactive place of communication (emails are great until they get lost in the inbox before they are shared with the team) can definitely reduce miscommunication issues and increase productivity as information will be available to the parties at all time. Most of the tools are easy to adopt, and you can even share files!
Make sure you choose your system wisely, setup and integrate it carefully into your business, teach your staff to use it and keep the information up to date.
There are greats tools to choose from, but keep in mind that the best choice depends on your business nature, size, industry and most importantly, to have a clear picture of your business processes and workflow and the current software. When working with clients, the first thing is to map out the process and review the existing tools before adding/replacing with new tools.
One last thing (and a critical one!) that is usually overlooked, make sure YOU are comfortable with the software. Most of them offer a free trial. No point of investing in a great tool to support your business if you are not comfortable with the layout or its functionality.
