Since small firms often have limited financial and human capital, owners must explore methods to use technology to maximize the resources they have.
In comparison to large corporations, small businesses are able to quickly and effectively use new technology in their day-to-day operations because they operate on a smaller scale.
10 Tech Tools You Need For Your Small Business
Here are the top ten tech tools to help you grow your small company today!
1. Project Management Tools - Trello
By using project management tools, you can manage a number of tasks at the same time. Basically, these tools allow you to keep track of your tasks, meetings, and due dates online rather than by hand.
You can easily set notes for upcoming meetings and jobs by using these tools. In addition, these tools can send similar messages to other team members, ensuring that everyone knows exactly what they need to do and when they need to do it.
Pricing
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Free: $0 per user per month
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Standard: $5 per user per month if billed annually ($6 billed monthly)
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Premium: $10 per user per month if billed annually ($12.50 billed monthly)
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Enterprise: $17.50 per user per month - billed annually ($210.00 annual price per user)
Pros:
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Transparent pricing with a version for creating boards, cards, and lists.
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Compatible across all devices, including smartphones.
Cons:
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Limited to sending 10 MB files per attachment for free users.
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Data backup risks: Data recovery in Trello is not possible but mitigated by using Rewind Backups for Trello Power-Up.
2. E-signatures tools - DocuSign
Electronic signature tools are useful for signing contracts and deals with others. You only need to post your files and add the email addresses of those who need to sign them. After the documents are signed, they will be emailed to their inboxes.
Reminders will notify those who have yet to sign if they have yet to sign by their due date. Documents can be signed electronically without using paper, which is more eco-friendly. Additionally, they help workplaces that are physically spread out and far apart.
Pricing:
Personal Plan: $10 per month
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DocuSign's envelopes per month, reusable templates, and unlimited storage (10MB/file).
Standard Plan: $25 per user per month
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Includes everything in the Personal plan, plus unlimited boards, advanced checklists, and custom fields.
Business Pro Plan: $40 per user per month
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Includes everything in the Standard plan, plus views such as Calendar, Timeline, Table, Dashboard, and Map, workspace views such as Table and Calendar, unlimited workspace command runs, admin and security features, workspace-level templates, collections, observers, and simple data export.
Enterprise Plan: Pricing is available upon request.
Pros:
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Features an administrator setup to oversee tasks and document signing activities.
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Provides signature groups tailored for various job roles.
Cons:
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Relatively expensive, particularly with Adobe offering a free signature tool.
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Slow response time and complex setup for larger groups.
3. Email Marketing - Mailchimp
Digital email marketing systems make it simple to keep readers informed about new products, sales, and special deals in your business. Several of these tools allow you to automate the process of sending regular emails to your social networks.
Pricing:
Free Plan: $0 per month
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Includes up to 2,000 contacts and 10,000 email sends per month.
Essentials Plan: $13 per month
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Includes up to 50,000 contacts and unlimited email sends per month.
Standard Plan: $20 per month
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Includes up to 100,000 contacts and unlimited email sends per month.
Premium Plan: $350 per month
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Includes up to 200,000 contacts and unlimited email sends per month.
Pros:
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Enables A/B testing and highly focused user segments.
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Offers detailed analytics and data reports for campaigns.
Cons:
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Issues with Gmail users not receiving emails or emails being directed to spam folders.
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Costs escalate significantly as the user base grows.
4. Customer Relationship Management Software - Hubspot
CRM software is necessary for small businesses to run smoothly. Your interactions with customers are tracked, controlled, and measured in one place. The software can tell you who visits your website or gets your emails, opens them, and reads them.
Also, you may notice that you last spoke with a valuable client quite some time ago. With CRM tools, you can get regular "temperature checks" on your connection and suggestions on the next steps.
Pricing:
Marketing Hub
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Starter: $50 per month
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Professional: $890 per month
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Enterprise: $3,200 per month
Sales Hub
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Starter: $50 per month
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Professional: $500 per month
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Enterprise: $1,200 per month
Service Hub
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Starter: $50 per month
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Professional: $400 per month
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Enterprise: $1,200 per month
Pros:
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Enables close monitoring of customer behaviors and preferences.
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Offers excellent customer service.
Cons:
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Limited video options in email.
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The interface appears dull, with limited color options.
5. Human Resource Management Software : GoCo
Small businesses often need help to afford to hire full-time or part-time managers. Using HR management software, you can handle tasks such as payroll, shift scheduling, and sending important business news to your employees.
Pricing:
Personal Plan: $5 per employee per month
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Includes hiring, onboarding, employee self-service, and MagicDocs.
Pros:
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Ideal for small businesses needing payroll tools with basic HR support.
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Quick and friendly customer service.
Cons:
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Relatively high fees.
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Lacks a mobile app.
6. Bookkeeping Software - QuickBooks Online
Online bookkeeping software performs a significant portion of the work performed by an accountant or bookkeeper. It involves keeping track of your income and expenses, preparing invoices and expense claims, and filing the necessary tax returns.
Pricing:
Simple Start Plan: $15 per month
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Includes one user, unlimited invoices, estimates, and receipts, and tracks income and expenses.
Essentials Plan: $30 per month
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It includes up to three users, all Simple Start features, and tracks time, manages bills, and generates sales quotes.
Plus Plan: $35 per month
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Includes up to five users, all Essentials features, and tracks inventory, prepares 1099s, and manages project profitability.
Advanced Plan: $75 per month
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Includes up to 25 users, all Plus features, and provides advanced reporting, custom user permissions, and dedicated customer support.
Pros:
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User-friendly and straightforward.
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Seamlessly integrates with other applications.
Cons:
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Limited inventory management tools.
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The report generator in QuickBooks Online is less feature-rich compared to the desktop version.
7. Collaboration and File sharing - Microsoft Office 365
As your business grows, you need more than just email and phone calls to slow you down. It's possible to communicate instantly and share files with today's digital tools to work together and communicate.
Pricing:
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Microsoft 365 Personal: $6.99/month or $69.99/year
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Microsoft 365 Family: $9.99/month or $99.99/year
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Microsoft 365 Business Basic: $5.00/user/month
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Microsoft 365 Business Standard: $12.50/user/month
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Microsoft 365 Business Premium: $20.00/user/month
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Microsoft 365 Apps for Business: $8.25/user/month
Pros:
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Simplified identity management and program installation.
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Effortless scheduling with colleagues and a clean, organized email interface.
Cons:
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Microsoft doesn't provide user data backup in Office 365, necessitating third-party solutions for data safety.
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The absence of a third-party backup can lead to potential downtime, productivity loss, and compliance issues.
8. Password Management - LastPass
Password management tools can help you keep track of all your accounts. Using this method, people won't reuse easy-to-guess passwords or write them down.
When cyberattacks are on the rise, it’s crucial to take measures to protect your online security. Ad blockers can prevent malicious ads from infecting your device with malware and steal your passwords. Consider using a paid or free ad blocker to protect your device from malicious ads. Furthermore, password managers can help you generate strong passwords and store them securely.
Pricing:
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LastPass Free: No cost, but limited to one device type (computer or mobile) and 50 passwords1.
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LastPass Premium: Costs $3/month and provides access to unlimited passwords across all devices2.
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LastPass Families: Costs $4/month and provides access to unlimited passwords for up to 6 users
Pros:
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Offers numerous valuable free tools.
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Automatic synchronization across all devices.
Cons:
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More expensive compared to competitors.
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Occasional complaints about inadequate or unresponsive customer service.
9. Business Analytics - Google Analytics
Websites are like the front doors for your business. There's a lot of time and money you've spent on making your website look good and easy to use. However, you need to know how it is used and which parts are getting the most (and least) attention.
A website tracking tool gives you these details so that you can make the necessary changes and improvements.
Pricing
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Google Analytics 4: Free, but comes with limited data.
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Google Analytics 360: Costs $50,000 per year or $4,166 per month and provides access to advanced features such as cross-device tracking, unsampled reports, and more.
Pros:
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Enables tracking of traffic sources such as organic search, links, or direct traffic.
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Ecommerce conversion tracking offers comprehensive sales reporting and insights for optimizing checkout and cart processes.
Cons
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Frequent visits from spambots.
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Inability to accurately track returns or failed sales.
Relevant Blog: AI tool for SEO
10. Data backup - OneDrive
Data can easily be deleted or messed up in SaaS applications. The presence of bad players and software tensions can cause a lot of problems. Data is backed up by SaaS companies at the platform level, but you can't access that data to get back into your account.
Backup software gives you complete control over your important business info and instant access to it. It only takes a few clicks to get back your info if something goes wrong.
People who run businesses and are worried about losing important info like Rewind.
Pricing:
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OneDrive Basic: Free, but comes with only 5 GB of storage.
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OneDrive Standalone: Costs $1.99/month or $19.99/year and provides 100 GB of storage
Pros:
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Ideal for businesses seeking affordable solutions to back up, recover, and duplicate essential data.
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Supports backup and restoration for multiple platforms
Cons:
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Often considered by businesses only after significant data loss occurs.
Final Words
This list of business tools for small enterprises is not comprehensive. Investing in digital tools is naturally influenced by your business's size, maturity, industry, and budget.
However, the value you'll gain from these tools through their ability to automate much of the time and effort involved in mundane tasks cannot be understated. In a post-pandemic world, these tools can help you satisfy the need or desire for people to do their work and run their businesses remotely.
