Boost Your Business’s Productivity with These 14 Tools

Running a small business is tough. Time is everything. Here are 14 small business productivity tools to help you manage your time and your business.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you already recognize how much time you spend simply managing your business. Communicating with employees, managing tasks, finding new talent, balancing finances, creating new designs–as imperative as these are to your company’s success, they’re also quite time-consuming. That’s why small business owners understand the value of a great productivity tool.

Here, we have incredibly helpful apps and software, all designed to make running–and growing–your business easier than ever. Here are 13 of the tools that all small business owners should consider using to increase productivity and, hopefully, your bottom line.

Asana–Project/Task Management

One of the more popular team project management tools, Asana makes tracking and meeting objectives easy.

The app allows users to create multiple Projects, each with a customizable team. You can send messaging within the platform, or attach messages to individual tasks. This makes communication about each task or project quick and convenient.

You can establish a unique set of tasks for each project. Or you can even create templates to use time and time again. This is great for standard projects or ongoing tasks. Not only useful as a to-do list for your team, Asana also makes it incredibly easy to create strategic calendars for tasks or even blog content.

Trello–Project/Task Management

Trello is a unique project management app, great for those who are very visual creatures. It allows for a quick view of where each project stands, as well as an easy “drag and drop” interface for moving, creating, and assigning tasks.

It also works with other systems, like Slack, Google Drive, GitHub, and Evernote, pulling all of your tools together in one place.

ProofHub–Project and Proof Management

If you’re looking for project and task management apps that allow you to easily share, view, and proof files, you need ProofHub.

Easily view workflow charts–even in a Gantt chart visual format–to see exactly where you stand at any time. You can track time within the app for client billing. You can also log tasks, chat amongst team members, and easily manage files within your team and even in collaboration with clients.

Slack–Communication

This communication app does away with long email chains, unnecessary notifications, and hours spent trying that one message you swore was in your inbox but can’t seem to find.

Slack connects all members of your company in various channels, allowing for instant communication. You can also create sub-channels for specific projects or teams. And Slack comes with the ability to share files and links. You can quickly search message threads to find exactly what you need, and even acknowledge receipt of a message or file with a “Like” or other emoji.

Flowdoc–Communication

This team chat program was designed to be the ultimate communication hub. Threading keeps conversations on-topic, and color-coded inboxes make it easy to track individual topics.

Not only can team members easily chat amongst themselves, but Flowdoc also interfaces with customer channels like Salesforce Desk, UserVoice, and SupportBee. This way, you can see what your client base is saying, respond to concerns, and stay on top of potential issues.

Calendly–Calendar/Meeting Management

Tired of the back-and-forth that’s often involved with trying to find the right meeting time for all parties? Calendly solves your problem with its easy meeting management software.

This program allows you to set your calendar, then send a link via email or your website to allow other parties to select times that also work for them. Once you’ve scheduled the meeting, Calendly also updates your other calendars automatically (Outlook, Google, iCloud, Office 365). It is even time-zone intelligent. It builds in buffers between meeting times and blocks others from scheduling last-minute meetings, so you’re never caught off-guard.

TasKeep–Calendar/Task Management

If you’re a visual person who enjoys seeing what your day/week/month look like in a calendar view, TasKeep is perfect for you.

This tool offers color-coded task management in a minimalist format. It lets you to see your upcoming meeting, tasks, and events in a comprehensive way. The focus mode helps you prioritize your day in the most impactful way. And you can easily create and track tasks that don’t yet have due dates.

Hello Focus–Improve Daily Productivity

If you’re looking to help yourself (or your team) focus on daily tasks in a more efficient manner, Hello Focus is a great tool.

The program helps users avoid multitasking, which is shown to decrease overall productivity. It not only tracks your tasks, but helps you prioritize them in the most efficient way possible. You can also quickly view where everyone on the team stands at any point, and track the day’s (week’s, or month’s) task productivity on one color-coded status screen.

Zoom–Conferencing

If you’re looking for an easier way to schedule conference calls between your team or with clients, look no further than Zoom. This highly-praised program is number one for a reason. It makes phone, web, and video conferencing more painless than ever.

You can screen-share, web conference, video conference, and even conduct webinars with Zoom. It makes file-sharing with clients simple. And you can even hold town halls or marketing meetings with ease. Meetings can be as simple as two members in a web conference or as involved as 10,000 viewers or 500 participants in a video chat.

Braavoo–Employee Engagement

Looking for a way to get feedback from your employees, boost company morale, and even bring your team together in a more productive way? Braavoo is worth a look.

The company says that only one in eight employees feels recognized for their hard work. This can lead to workplace unhappiness, decreased productivity, and even a loss of valuable employees. Braavoo seeks to eliminate this issue by providing a platform for your employees to speak up. Team members can send a “braavoo” to a colleague in a peer-to-peer recognition system that is the first of its kind. Management can also monitor these accolades. Then you can use them to recognize (and even reward) top team members.

G Suite–Branding and Domain Management

Offered by the Google cloud, G Suite is a one-stop-shop for managing your branded domain. It’s a collection of apps that help you with every aspect of your company, from buying a domain, to creating branding, to setting up an email client, to  advertising on your site, to tracking traffic analytics, and more.

GoCo–HR and Benefits

Handling your company’s HR can be a pain. Now you can manage that–plus payroll, employee benefits, and even team onboarding–with GoCo’s easy platform.

GoCo makes it easy to manage and onboard new hires, track employee benefits, automate tax withholdings, run payroll and ensure IRS compliance, track PTO, and even manage ACA compliance requirements. The app is easy to view and accessible from your mobile devices. It makes HR easier than ever.

Telzio–Cloud-Based Phone System

Setting up complex phone systems can be a struggle for any company. A cloud-based system like Telzio can make it easy, though.

This feature-rich interface allows you to set up a mobile system that doesn’t require any hardware or downloaded programs. You can have unlimited team members and extensions, making collaboration simple. Calls, conferencing, voicemail, hold music, paging and intercom, phone menus, and call recording are just a few of the features at your disposal. Plus, you can log in online to view your company’s services and call communications.

Zapier–Automation and Integration

Having all the best productivity tools is one thing. But integrating them can be another job entirely. Enter Zapier, the API connection tool that allows you to seamlessly integrate various web-based tools. This then allows you to automate certain common tasks, which saves you time.

For instance, you can use Zapier to integrate your Google Calendar with Asana. Each time you enter a new meeting on your calendar, Zapier can set up a task in Asana to remind you to prepare your meeting notes the day before. Or you can send yourself email notifications when an employee makes changes to an essential Google Drive document.

Zapier supports hundreds of other online tools. So it’s definitely worth checking out if you use multiple tools and want to integrate them more smoothly.

In this age of entrepreneurism–particularly remote small businesses–the availability of productivity tools is expanding everyday. Whether your issue is client management, sales, communication, advertising and marketing, or simply running payroll each month, you can easily find the perfect tool for your company.

Topics: productivity

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