The processes involved in starting up and maintaining a business is often not as fun as the idea of owning one. When you’re funds are limited – which is often the case – hiring all the hands you need and putting them under a payroll could be too much load on your shoe-string budget.
You will be faced with numerous tasks that can easily tear you apart, which begs the use of extra hands. Staying in touch with your assistants and workforce also requires a set of tools. And your best bet will be going for tools that won’t burn a hole in your pocket.
For any start-up to thrive in the business world, there are a number of technologies that it should have. There are low-cost, and even free tools that can help you build a more efficient business model. By using these cost-effective tech solutions, your routine business needs will be taken care of and you can cut down on spending, and increase your start-up’s survival chances.
Here 5 tools that can help you get there.
1. Outsourcing tools
As a start-up, though small, you still can’t carry out every aspect of your business as efficiently as an expert. There’s also the issue of burn out. This is where outsourcing comes in. You can source out jobs to other experts related to whatever you’re working on, and without spending to much too.
Here are some great outsourcing tools to help:
- oDesk
- Upwork
- Guru
- Freelancer
- Indeed
2. Dropbox
Dropbox can help you stay up-to date with your team’s job progress anywhere in the world. It keeps your team updated with any file that they might need for work through its file sharing capabilities. With this, you can stay updated and work more efficiently. The service is free at first for 2gb of storage, then for more, you get to pay a token.
3. Enterprise Cloud hosting solution
Cloud storage and computing is growing vast among start-ups today. It is proving cost-effective too. You only have to pay for what you use, which makes it a great tool for small businesses. There are a number of affordable cloud solutions that you could get today for your storage purposes, back up and syncing.
4. Google docs
With Google Docs, you can be apprised of whatever your team is working on in real time. The document, spreadsheet and presentation softwares are part of the most powerful tools that Google Docs has to offer. You can make changes, upload new work, and your whole team can access it immediately and make changes too.
5. CRM tools
Managing your customer profiles on spreadsheets can turn out to be tiring at times. This can lead to wasting the time you’d have channeled to other business routines on working out rows and columns of particulars. Which can be error-prone too. But with a software dedicated for the purpose of customer management, this issue can disappear. There are lots of low-cost and even free CRMs that you could use. Some are free for a number of users, then after that, you get to pay as you advance. Here are some that you could find helpful:
- HubSpot CRM
- Insightly
- Zoho CRM
- Freshsales
Conclusion
Technology is making business processes is easy as they can get today. All you need is your business idea, strategy, purpose, and of course, your capital. The tools you require are all at your finger tips.
