BUSINESS TOOLS TO MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER ONLINE

We’re growing faster, smarter, and more efficient thanks to new technology. Learning new technology isn’t always easy, but sometimes it’s too hard to pass it up. This is especially true when you’re running an online business. There are some business tools that are worth learning here because they really will improve your life as a business owner.

Simplify Your Communication and Meetings

Communicating with others and attending meetings is a vital part of your business. It doesn’t matter where you’re at you want to make sure this is easy to do. Fortunately, that’s possible thanks to apps like:

• Google Hangouts is an easy way to host free conference calls when you can’t be there in person. This is because you can share your screen when offering training.

• UberConference is another way to make sure that your web conference calls are more effective.

• Boomerang for Gmail is a great way to schedule your email replies for a future date and time. This makes your inbox more manageable because your emails will literally disappear until you’re ready to deal with them.

Make Organization and Storage Easier

Another important part of your business occurs when you travel to meet with clients or network to better your business. When you’re traveling you obviously can’t carry all your paperwork and files with you. However, this doesn’t mean you won’t need access to them or that you can’t access them while traveling. Instead, you simply need to start using apps like:

• Trello is a project management system that’s great if you’re visually inclined. It shows you how you’re progressing through a project. In fact, your entire team can access this, making notes so everyone always knows where they’re at. This is a great way of laying out what needs to be accomplished on a weekly basis then watching as it’s accomplished.

• Evernote is a great way to maintain your notes, especially if you’re using several different devices. This is because once you download it on all of your devices the app will sync so that everything is always up-to-date. Regardless of where you access these notes from you can easily search through them to find what you’re looking for. According to B Plans, many small businesses swear by this app.

• Box is a cloud-based storage system. Through it you can securely share, store, and manage all of your company’s files. This means that you and your team will then have access to them from anywhere. It’s also reassuring to know that any changes made to these files are securely backed up. In this way you can think of it as a step above DropBox.

• Google Drive isn’t as easy to use as Box but it is free and easier to set up.

• Carbonite is an online tool for backing up your computer. This is something you’ll want to do so you never experience a computer crash in which you lose all of your files – something that unfortunately happens all too often. Carbonite backs up your files daily so you can easily restore them if this happens to you.

Marketing Business Tools That Make Your Efforts Painless

Marketing is the third point on this list but in reality, it’s your business’ lifeblood. This is so true that you could honestly spend a lot of time in this endeavor, turning this into another full-time job for you. However, your marketing doesn’t have to be so time-consuming thanks to apps like:

• Moz Local quickly pushes all of your contact information to the major data aggregators so the search engines and your customers can find you more easily. These results occur almost instantly and will have a dramatic, positive influence on your website so it’s worth the money.

• Weebly is a great backend technology for your website. It doesn’t need any custom coding to create a mobile-enabled website in this way. Many people find this as easy to use as Powerpoint. You can even get a free “starter” site but it doesn’t come with your own URL.

• Brand Genie automates branding for small businesses. The software quickly identifies your colors, fonts, images, and brand personality. You can then use it to create a logo, business cards, and a website on the Weebly platform. This is a process that in the past would take months of time and cost thousands of dollars, but it now happens almost instantaneously for a very small monetary investment.

• Canva is one of the easiest design programs available for use today. While you may not be a web design pro, the pre-loaded graphics, and tools that are available for use here make design simple for everyone. As such, you can have designs that you create for free and that look as good as what a professional would design. Even if you pay the minimal fee for using certain graphics you’ll still come out “ahead of the game” here.

• Facebook Scheduler is similar to Hootsuite or Buffer. This scheduling tool is for use only with Facebook though. It doesn’t say “posted by (Buffer)” either – something that NGN Enterprises says will lower your results in terms of likes and shares. Nevertheless, you can write a week’s worth of Facebook posts in advance and this tool will post them when you want so you don’t have to be glued to your desk.

• Google Keyword Tool helps you know what your audience is searching for so you can create relevant content.

Managing your business is definitely a juggling act. This is especially true if you’re a small business owner or an entrepreneur. You don’t always have employees who are specialists in the tasks you need to accomplish. Instead, you have to do these things yourself. Fortunately, there are a lot of online business tools that can help you here. Taking the time to learn them will actually make you more productive so you have more time available later. Since this is something you can do without impacting your budget, there’s no reason not to start doing this today.

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