The Top 5 Tools Entrepreneurs Should Use to Stay Productive

When starting up your own business, there are heaps to stay on top of: hiring new employees, managing project deadlines, increasing return on investment, and so much more. Luckily, there are various tools and software out there that can streamline your workflow so you can thrive as an entrepreneur.

The question is: with so much on the table, which ones should you use to stay productive? Which ones are the most beneficial? Let’s discuss the tools we recommend for the following five business areas.

Tools to improve productivity in a small business

A Task and Project Management Tool

Every business needs a system to effectively manage internal operations and produce external work. Without a strong foundation internally, achieving success externally becomes quite a challenge. A task and project management platform allows employees to collaborate, assign tasks, and upload work efficiently. Here are the top project management tools to consider:

• Monday.com: Offers a centralised dashboard for all team members to review projects and integration options for third-party platforms.
• Asana: Features dashboard, list, and calendar views for members to manage projects, tag each other, and assign tasks. It also allows communication via a text box below each task.
• Trello: Organises projects from a long-term to-do list to a specific campaign. Users can colour-code tasks, create checklists, set deadlines, and integrate with other platforms.
• Teamwork: Helps organise projects with recurring tasks and due dates. It can be shared externally with clients so they can see projects and review tasks they need to work on.
• Google Tasks: Embedded in Gmail, this tool allows members to create tasks and to-do lists as emails are opened. It’s easy to add dates and times to the Gmail calendar to stay on top of deadlines.

A Team Communications Tool

Say someone can’t get into a meeting room or has an appointment to leave early and needs a place to message team members? While email is always an option, nowadays, many companies implement a team communication tool that uses casual messaging. It’s used to constantly communicate on assistance, late arrivals, company-wide announcements, and more.

• Slack: Has dominated the team collaboration space for a long time, allowing messaging between individuals and creating channels for different teams or groups to communicate.
• WhatsApp: Using phone numbers, WhatsApp helps people communicate individually or in groups worldwide.
• Microsoft Teams: Integrated into the Microsoft Office suite, Teams is a collaboration tool that provides chat functionality, video calls, file sharing, and integrations with other Microsoft apps to help teams work together.

An Automation and Integration Tool

Imagine manually filling out interest forms, sending calendar links, and uploading podcasts—that’s a lot of extra work that can be simplified. With automation apps, you can integrate one app with another.

One of the most popular apps is Zapier, where you can create ‘Zaps’ that connect apps. For example, you can link your Typeform surveys with your customer database, automatically streamlining the survey data to one place rather than writing it out yourself. There are many other competitors, such as Workato, MuleSoft, and Celigo.

An Analytics Tool

As a growing business, tracking your performance and seeing where there is room for improvement is critical. This helps entrepreneurs gain insights into customer searches, monitor website visitors, and develop a long-term SEO strategy.

Platforms like Google Analytics are ideal, as they are free and provide valuable data on how your website is performing on search engine results pages (SERP). There are others out there, such as StatCounter and Clicky.

A Customer Relationship Management Tool

‘CRM’ is a common buzzword in the business world. It stands for Customer Relationship Management. It’s a tool that keeps your customer data, such as names, phone numbers, emails, addresses, and more all in one place. Many CRM tools are used to contact customers through monthly newsletters, reminder texts, or event invites so they remain engaged and active in your company community.

Below are some of the top CRMs:

• HubSpot: An all-in-one CRM that helps manage sales, marketing, and customer service with features like contact management and pipeline tracking.
• Zoho: A comprehensive CRM focused on sales, marketing, and customer support, with features like lead management, automation, and analytics.
• Mailchimp: An email marketing platform with CRM features, including audience segmentation, email automation, and campaign tracking. Ideal for small businesses.
• ActiveCampaign: A marketing automation platform that combines email marketing, automation, and CRM tools, focusing on lead nurturing and personalised customer communication.

Grow your business with the top tools

Implementing just one of these tools can make all the difference in your business. Over time, as you grow and evolve, you can add more tools to keep your business moving forward. Productivity and collaboration will both increase, bettering your business internally and externally.

If you’re looking for a place to run your business, Melbourne Connect Co-working offers everything you need to thrive. From flexible workspaces to collaborative environments, take your business to the next level with us.

Check out our memberships and see how we can support your growth. Contact us today.