Tools to automate your business | business management tools

As a modern-day online entrepreneur, getting those weekly tasks done consistently well and on time can become challenging.

Selecting the best business management tools for your small business becomes super-complex when you add in one factor: integration. You see, management tools are supposed to automate tasks and save you time however, making your mix of solutions work together can suck that time right back up and turn all your effort into a wash.

Picks of the best business management tools for small businesses.

Freshbooks.

Thankfully with a tool like FreshBooks you can make your job a lot easier. This has been around for well over a decade and their SaaS product is phenomenal. It’ll cut down on missing invoices and help you organize your expenses come tax time.

ScheduleOnce

Meeting and appointment scheduling software that helps you save time, increase customer satisfaction and be more competitive. Free, integrated, online appointment scheduling tool. Syncs with Google Calendar & you can block off certain times each week as available for meetings. Premium features start at $5 per month & include multiple calendar options & meeting reminder emails.

Hootsuite

Every brand should have its own social account on all the major networks. With a tool like Hootsuite you can manage all of your social accounts from one dashboard. This may not be necessary if you only use social for personal reasons. But if you brand your design work under an agency then you should absolutely be using social accounts for promotion.

Hootsuite allows you to schedule social media posts in advance, so you don’t have to remind yourself to log on during peak sharing hours.
It provides reports on the best times to share, too—so that the maximum number of people will see each post.
The platform cuts down on the time you’d spend switching between platforms by putting all social media accounts in one place.
It allows you to pre-write and schedule posts, so you don’t have to log on throughout the day.
It helps you track mentions (to see how your content is performing on social) and measure conversions by tracking a customer’s journey through social media and Google Analytics.

Cloudflare

Behind every great website is a CDN. In our modern fast-paced era it’s an absolute must to host your static assets on a CDN because they drastically increase load times. Cloudflare is one of the best on the market and it comes with a bunch of great tools for webmasters. Their CDN service can actually be used for free if you’re willing to try. Their global network is massive and they run a competitive CDN business regardless of how much content you need to cache. But their other products can include SSL security, load balancing, and even protection against DDoS attacks.

Google Analytics

This should be a no brainer because web analytics are crucial to understanding your audience. Almost every website uses the Google Analytics tracking code because it’s free, easy to setup, and ultimately very reliable.

Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a sales tool for small teams with big ambitions. This tool is great not only for salespeople, but also for anyone wanting to get super organized and close deals in less time. Pipedrive has been designed and built to make your life easier, to promote continuous and effective contact with your prospects at every stage of the sales process, and to boost your sales close rate. In short, we’ve designed and built Pipedrive with your business in mind.

Teamwork

Accelerate your team’s performance by assigning tasks, communicating, and tracking progress in one place. It enables you to work together so you can track every detail without leaving your Teamwork.com application. Start a conversation through Teamwork Desk or create a task from Teamwork Chat. Use the Teamwork Timer to stay on top of your work. Teamwork Projects is a powerful project management application that enables teams to collaborate in real-time.

Slack

Good business communication is key for efficient business decision making and the running of everyday processes.

Slack is where you access the messages, the files, the decisions, the key moments in the life of your business. It’s where work happens. Slack makes communication among team members not only easier, but better.

Slack communications happen all in one place and can be segmented by creating Channels for various topics. You can assign your users to as many (or as few) channels as you need in order to keep topics visible to the team members you want to see any individual topic.
Slack makes it dead simple to find that link that someone posted 3 weeks ago that you just now want to go have a look at. Not only is the search super fast and friendly, but it’s also filterable.
Slack makes it simple to share these files quickly with the entire team and also has Dropbox integration for more in-depth file access.
Slack has mobile apps available too.

Milanote

Milanote is a tool for organizing creative projects into beautiful visual boards.
By design, it feels a lot like working on the wall in a creative studio – visual, tactile, and sometimes a bit messy – Milanote is a great fit for designers who work in teams remotely.

Key Features:
– Write notes & to-do lists, upload images & files and save things you find on the web
– Organize visually using the flexible drag and drop interface.
– Boards by default are a private place to think, but with a single click you can create a shared workspace for collaboration with your team
– Milanote is filled with hundreds of built-in templates to help you get started with a variety of different projects, from creating a mood board to writing that perfect creative brief.

Pricing:
– Free version available with no time limit. – PRO version $9.99 per month (monthly and annual plans)