Helpful Programs and Software All Small Businesses Need
We get it. Running a business is no easy feat. From taking care of your employees to making sure your bills get paid and everything in between, most of it falls on you. Good news: you’re not alone. A lot of people are alongside of you experiencing the same pain points and gaps on a daily basis. Lucky for you, we’ve talked to a few business owners to see what tools they use to make life a little easier.
Gusto
Gusto makes it easy to onboard, pay, insure and support your team. Whether you’re sending an offer letter, gathering paperwork for a new hire or doing payroll, Gusto makes it simple and concise all while making you look good. With Gusto, you can choose a plan that works according to your needs. If you’re looking for a little bit of help or someone to take care of all of it, Gusto is your new best friend.
Why people love it: Simple is an understatement when it comes to Gusto. Everything is extremely user-friendly; making big tasks quick to-dos that can be done in very little time. Since Gusto takes care of all of the big pieces of HR, it frees you up to focus on celebrating your employees – which Gusto reminds you to do as well!
Slack
We all know how hard internal communication can be, but not anymore. Slack replaces email within your company and brings all of your communication in one place. Through the avenue of channels, Slack allows you to keep different parts of your business separate and organized. Teams of all sizes use Slack to collaborate (both inside and outside of your company), share files and archive conversations. Whether you have a team of 5 or 50, you won’t regret implementing Slack.
Why people love it: Finally a place that can store everything! Slack makes it easy to track projects, conversations and deadlines without having to go anywhere else. It eliminates chain emails and allows you to choose who needs to be involved in certain conversations. On top of that, Slack works with hundreds of integrations so you can connect all of your tools in the same place. Salesforce, Google Drive, Trello, Dropbox, and so many more all work with Slack so that you can spend less time juggling tabs and more time focusing on your work.
Hootsuite
These days social media is everything for a small business, but it takes up a lot of time. Hootsuite makes it easy to plan out your posts, manage them all on one platform, schedule them to post ahead of time and track your metrics. With Hootsuite, you can be active on social media 24/7. You can plan out when you want to post and let Hootsuite take care of the rest. Hootsuite allows you to focus on what’s important without wasting your time executing it.
Why people love it: Hootsuite is the best tool for compiling all your social media efforts into one dashboard and will knock hours off your work week. You’ll gain so much time to work on other things because of how well Hootsuite is set up. Every single social media platform, link, picture, video, scheduling, managing, and tracking can all be done in Hootsuite.
Asana
With small businesses, it’s hard to keep track of the many projects you’ve got going on. Introducing Asana – the work management platform teams use to stay focused on goals, projects and daily tasks that grow business. In a customizable and simple way, Asana helps you organize tasks, create deadlines and map your overall plan to the completion of each project.
Why people love it: With one platform, Asana increases team efficiency, communication and revenue. You can manage your personal work, your team’s work, projects and tasks all in one place while ensuring that you’re staying on track. Assign tasks to certain teammates for clear communication, set reminders for your team and communicate with clients all in the same place. You won’t regret adding this app to your systems and processes!
On top of all of these helpful tools, being plugged into a community of people who are doing the same thing as you is extremely beneficial. Whether you join a co-working space or start attending networking events in your area, you’ll quickly be reminded that you’re in good company. Get plugged in, ask for help, establish community with those around you, implement systems that do some of the work for you and see just how much things improve. We’re cheering you on!