Are you Starting that big business idea you have? I bet you are already thinking of startup business tools that will help you succeed in your quest.
According to Smart Asset, startup cost statistics puts payroll across the U.S at $300,500 for just five employees (Source:Embroker)
It’s 2021, and if there is one thing I have noticed this year, it’s the fact that the competition and struggles have become more demanding.
We cannot overlook the fact that COVID-19 has changed the world and affected businesses in many ways.
Perhaps you were already putting things together but got hit by Google’s algorithm.
It’s alright. It’s time to start afresh with the new information you are about to gain.
There is no doubt that there are a lot of business tools and plugins available for startups.
The problem is that some of them can’t help but fade out as newer and more powerful ones come up.
Since you are just starting, you might not have the financial capital to hire professionals to help you out.
We have listed out five tools that will ensure you are on the right track.
We even added one bonus tool to spice things up.
Ready to discover them? Let’s go!
5 Business tools for a successful startup
1.Website builder
Every business, especially the ones starting, needs to create an online presence.
What better way to do this than to build a website where you can showcase what your business is all about.
For this task, there are two website builders you can go with – Squarespace or WordPress.
Both are great Content Management Software (CMS) tools for setting up an awesome-looking website. But if you are starting, you will be better off with Squarespace.
Reason being that Squarespace has accessible drag-and-drop features that make it easy to set up a website in no time.
WordPress has more features that are still a bit simple but maybe too complicated for small business owners.
However, WordPress dominates 65.2 percent of the websites online, which amounts to 42.3 percent (Source:w2tech)
2.Social media tools
Being active on social media should be one of the top vital tools on your list.
Why? Because you need to gain popularity and potential customers.
Social media plays a significant role in reaching your target audience and marketing to them.
If 74 percent of consumers actually visit social media networks to reach a buying decision, it shows that more attention needs to be paid to this area (Source:Kinsta)
Additionally, an online store that has a social media presence has at least a 32 percent chance of making more sales (Source:BigCommerce)
You need to promote your brand on social media even before you launch your startup.
And there are various tools to help you achieve that. But you cannot make use of all the social media tools.
You can choose from some great tools for social media marketing: Social Rank, IFTTT, and Hootsuite.
3.Online store for e-commerce
This one is basically for entrepreneurs whose business relies heavily on selling things online.
But it’s not limited to those that sell online because people with physical stores also sell their products online.
Come 2040; it is projected that 95 percent of purchases made will be through e-commerce (Source:Nasdaq)
The popular choice for setting up an online store is to make use of Shopify.
Shopify is an e-commerce platform that easily integrates with Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Pinterest, Facebook, and other social media platforms.
But, if your product is more on the virtual side, you need a platform that will allow you to publish your work like e-courses, eBooks, etc.
You will need a software called Teachable. You get all that you need from start to finish for completing a sale and getting paid.
4.Payment solution
Regardless of whatever type of business you are into, you cannot deny that you already have competitors.
For that reason, you cannot afford to be careless in serving your customers. Any slip and your competitors will use it against you.
Therefore, you need a payment solution to stay on top of your game in satisfying your customers and increasing your chances of having them as repeated customers.
One business tool that will help you with that is Duo.
It’s a spineless payment solution that eliminated all the headaches of running a small or large startup.
5.SEO tools
As a startup, one major thing you should be concerned about is gaining attention and visibility online.
For this, you need to attract the attention of search engines.
This effort will positively affect the leads you gain and the sales you eventually make.
There are various SEO tools available that you can use to track and maintain your online presence.
Some popular ones include- Schema Creator, Ahrefs, and MozBar.
Aside from SEO tools, you should also consider content marketing as it aids your SEO efforts.
No wonder more B2B marketers always increase their content marketing allocation every year.
Content marketing tools like SEO tools are like the foundation on which every online business is built.
It is convenient if you need to create, distribute, or measure the effectiveness of your content strategy.
If you need ideas on good tools for that purpose, you can consider Alexa, Google Analytics, Moz, and SEMRush. They will help you customise your reports, provide you with essential data, global rankings, measure various online metrics and keep you on track with your SEO efforts.
Bonus tool
We have listed the five most important tools you need for a successful startup, but there is one more that you may want to consider:
Video conferencing device
The COVID-19 epidemic has brought the need for a video conferencing device to the forefront.
Video conferencing is no longer needed only when the CEO wants to speak to its managers in different parts of the world. Now, with many working from home, you can’t help but get a suitable device for such a purpose.
The most popular app for this is Zoom – it allows you to screen share, video chat, and set up conference calls with a considerable number of attendees.
Final thoughts!
Building a successful startup without help from other people can be very challenging. And because you are just starting, you may not have the budget to invest in employing the right people to help out.
But with the right tools, it can reduce or even eliminate the challenges you would have encountered.
These tools will help you keep your business up and running until you are ready to get more hands-on deck.
