Top 20 Tools You Should Use in 2021 to Run a Small Business

 The future is now! No company or organization can work appropriately without useful online applications and computer programs. They help us stay in touch, share valuable information, schedule our tasks, create content, study, and more. To keep your small business afloat in 2021, you should arm yourself with a pack of useful tools. And we have the top 20 tested ones to suggest.

Tools for team management and communication 

Google Docs (and other Google’s services)

We have no doubt that all of you know and use Google's services, but we decided to start our overview with these stellar business helpers. To tell the truth, it is impossible to omit them when discussing business-related tools. Google Docs helps you and your colleagues share files, edit them collectively, and collaborate on projects in real-time. Google Sheets and Slides will help you store and share more files in various formats.

With the help of the mighty Google pack, you and your colleagues won't have to deal with those endless chains of emails – if the file needs editing more than once, you won't have to send each version separately – just do the edits in Google Docs. Another great moment – no more lost files and no need to search for them in your inbox for hours.

Proofhub

Proofhub is a tool for project management and team communication, especially efficient for small groups. The software includes numerous features for various business purposes that optimize the workflow and ensure efficient collaboration. For instance, here, you will find tools for file sharing, task management, time tracking, and reporting. Most of the processes can be automatized with the help of Proofhub.

OnceHub

OnceHub has two products to offer – ScheduleBox and ChatBot. As you can understand from their names, these solutions are for scheduling and chatting. ScheduleBox reduces administrative work for all entrepreneurs that work in the service industry. For instance, the app locates a calendar on your website, and customers can easily choose the available dates and hours to get your services. As such, you save your time and avoid clashes in your schedule.

The ChatBot tool meets your clients on the website and solves their most common problems. The bot will consult visitors regarding work hours, prices, discounts, delivery, and other basic things about your business. Instead of manually responding to standard frequently-asked questions, you can always entrust this routine task to a tool.

Join.Me

The events of 2020, namely – the global pandemics – forced us to stay home and work remotely for months. During this time, we realized that the days of conference calls are not gone yet! Even beyond the quarantine, we still need them in our daily business practice to communicate with a group of colleagues when some of us are outside the office. Join.Me is a simple conference tool that allows multiple co-workers, partners, or customers to arrange group conversations.

Tools for efficient emailing

MixMax

Keeping your emails in order is not the most inspiring thing to do. If you are not a fan of tracking and grouping your messages, try MixMax. This browser-app will help you keep an eye on your inbox, schedule emails, and receive reminders. The free version of the app allows you to process up to 100 messages per month - consider getting a free version if you communicate more.

MailChimp

Email marketing is still efficient, so if you want to optimize your mail-outs, you should consider using MailChimp. This tool allows you to stay in touch with customers and partners, especially if you would like to send regular newsletters to them. The program includes numerous templates for business and promotional letters, as well as a tracker that informs you if your messages were read/clicked.

Mail Genius

Mail Genius will help you test your messages for spam words and expressions. The tool analyzes your text and highlights possible triggers that can bring your message to the spam box. This one is also great for email marketing – you can check your messages' deliverability before sending them to someone's inbox. As such, chances that your message will be seen and opened grow significantly.

Tools to boost the performance of your team and optimize processes

Wrike

Wrike is a spreadsheet tool to organize and analyze the performance of our team. With its help, your spreadsheets won't be clunky anymore. Wrike allows you to customize everything according to your needs, automate the dashboard, edit information in real-time, comment, review tasks and projects, evaluate progress, and more. The tool is compliable with Slack, SalesForce, GitHub, and other apps.

Zapier

Zapier is an automation tool that optimizes your workflow. The tool supports 3000+ applications, including Slack, Google services, Trello, Shopify, and more. The program sets automated workflows and unites the applications you use every day. Using this program, you can create schedules, share files, respond to customers’ messages, and more – all in one. With Zapier, your professional efficiency has all chances to double.

Sellsy

Sellsy is a simple tool to automate your accounting. It is a CRM software that automates emailing, tracks leads, forecasts revenue, and deals with invoices (quote creation, online signatures, payment tracking, etc.). Most of your accounting routine tasks will become faster and easier with automated instruments for expenses management, accounting export, and other opportunities ensured by Sellsy.

Asana

Asana is a tool to ensure stable and fast communication between your team members. This is a task manager that covers most workflow problems, big and small. Asana looks like a shared digital space where you can create projects, assign tasks, track them, and leave comments. The program is excellent for planning – you can prioritize tasks, set deadlines, and create to-do lists. The timeline management tools allow you and colleagues to deal with overlapping tasks, manage depending ones, and detect unscheduled parts of the project. Boards help your team members focus on tasks quickly and define each stage of work to do.

Moz

Moz is a simple all-in-one SEO package. You will deal with SEO audits, backlinks tracking, rank tracking, and keyword research with its help. The tool helps you find and resolve most SEO issues you have at the moment to boost your website performance. You can access metrics of any site in a couple of seconds, discover thousands of niche-relevant trending keywords, and analyze your competitors' websites. Also, the company presents various educational materials on their resource, like SEO learning center, beginners guide, and a blog.

Loyverse

Loyverse is great for shop owners, even if you have more than one spot. This app is compatible with mobile devices, so you can manage the shop right from your smartphone or tablet. With Loyverse, you can manage the sales process, control your employees, and do the audit. Also, the tool includes features that allow you to arrange dealings with your clients – you may apply discounts, accept returns, print checks, etc. The tracking feature allows you to be aware of the goods in stock – whenever you run out of a specific position, the app will inform you about that.

Tools for graphics and content creation

Picmonkey

Picmonkey is a super-simple solution for a small business with a restricted budget. This is a graphic tool and an image editor that allows you to create pictures, logos, and designs. Initially, this tool was created for social networks – there are templates, cover photos, and graphics strictly for Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. To establish a bright and memorable online presence quickly, you should try Picmonkey for sure.

Canva

Canva is another image editor that can replace a designer in your team. If your company cannot boast of a vast budget yet and you cannot allow a full team of colleagues at the moment, this tool will help you create numerous professionally-looking pictures for all purposes. It includes a huge library of free templates for social media banners, flyers, presentations, letters, events, reports, and more. With Canva, you just need to pick the desired template, add text, and enjoy amazing results in a couple of seconds. 

Evernote

All people related to the business are obsessed with the idea of productivity and ways to increase it. Evernote is a real magic wand when it comes to making your daily work more efficient. This tool works like a "second brain" – this is a cross-device note-taking software that allows you to record, store, share, and synchronize your notes in the cloud. Whenever a brilliant idea comes to your mind, you may save it in Evernote. Also, the program includes reminders, voice records, sharing functions, and files attachments.

Tools for communication with customers

Gumroad

Gumroad is a great tool for stand-alone entrepreneurs and small aspiring teams looking for the best way to enter the market and monetize their offers. The tool enables users to sell goods directly to people who want them. The platform allows you to release your product to the world without hardships with website creation, online store establishment, and additional software expenses for online trading. With Gumroad, most of your profits belong to you, not the intermediary platform.

Hubspot

Hubspot is another powerful CRM solution that automates your communication with customers and helps you with numerous business tasks, like marketing, sales, content management, and support. Also, Hubspot allows you to track the results of your campaigns, analyze customer interactions, and overview the sales funnel. The platform offers several products for all of these purposes – each of them can be used as a stand-alone solution, but they work perfectly together.

Tools for self-education and entertainment

Meetup

Meetup is an application that helps you and colleagues find relevant events that might interest you and help you grow, meet new partners, and get new ideas. Due to the search capacities of Meetup, you can find up-coming local meetings in your business niche.

Entrepreneurs on Fire

Entrepreneurs on Fire is an online podcast by John Lee Dumas. The host invites people from different professions daily and discusses their success, problems, failures, tactics, and more. This podcast can become a real source of your everyday motivation. Learning more about other people’s experiences and discovering the ways they deal with problems is very inspiring.

Conclusion

Digital tools are great for small businesses, no matter which type of business you own - a shop, manufactory, or service. With these twenty applications, you can polish your workflow from all sides and manage all of your business operations, including in-team communication, task management, email marketing, customer service, SEO, accounting, etc.

However, remember that programs are just supportive tools to help your business go smoothly. The better half of your success depends on your strategies and passion for experiments! Hopefully, these tools will come in handy and fill the gaps in your current business operations!

Author’s Bio:

Joan Baker is a professional writer and blogger interested in IT and technology. Currently, Joan studies themes relevant to AI, IoT, and smart cities. She works a www.buyessayfriend.com and consults students regarding their assignments.