Are you wearing many hats simultaneously and trying to run your business successfully without using software programs? If yes, you are not alone.
To run a profitable business, using the right software programs can make a massive difference in your company’s performance.
As a business owner, you know that several activities are always going on simultaneously.
To avoid chaos and overlooked opportunities and streamline daily operations, entrepreneurs and business owners can benefit from using software programs designed to help.
With the right tools, the many hats you must wear will fit better than before.
What are Business Software Programs?
Business software is a system of tools or applications that help improve, support, and automate company processes.
When aligned and matched well with your company’s needs, business software programs will assist in:
- Completing tasks and project
- Minimizing errors
- Increasing overall effectiveness.
The proper tools can improve numerous business functions and make them more efficient.
In this article, we will provide details on our choice of the best business software programs for each type below.
- Project management
- Accounting software
- Time management
- CRM Systems
- Collaboration and document sharing
This article will provide information about our choice of the best software program in each category above.
Trello Project Management
Trello is our favorite project management tool because of its simplicity, flexibility, and visual approach to project management.
This is why Trello uses a Kanban-style board for tracking tasks. It makes it easier for companies to manage ongoing workflows and projects.
What Does Trello Do?
Trello is ideal for visual learners and is intuitive and easy-to-use. Organize and prioritize projects with boards, lists, and cards.
You can also add comments, attachments, images, links, due dates, and checklists on all tasks and projects.
A Trello board is a series of lists that have cards attached to it. It is easy to drag and drop cards from one list to another as part of any workflow.
Getting started is simple. Either use a blank board or customize a categorized template created by other users.
Another powerful feature is Trello’s ability to integrate with other popular platforms such a Dropbox, Slack, and Google Drive.
What is the best part of using Trello? Its free version is robust and comes with:
- Unlimited personal boards, cards, and lists
- Ten team boards
- One third-party integration or Power-Up per board
The free version does have a limit of 10MG per file attachment. Try Trello for free and see if it meets all your needs.
If you need additional features, check out the upgrades available.
If you are looking for a simple project management tool that is easy to share with outside collaborators, Trello is the platform for you.
Wave Apps Accounting Software
With Wave’s powerful and free accounting software, you can connect bank accounts, balance your books, sync your expenses, and get ready for tax season.
Wave was designed with small business owners in mind as an intuitive and easy-to-use accounting software program.
Automated Features
Other automated features of Wave enable users to:
- Track everything including expenses and income
- Connect to other Wave products such as payments, payroll, and invoicing
- Easily create and send branded professional invoices
- Save time by using the software to run your payroll
- Set up automatic credit card payments and recurring invoices
- Generate necessary reports to prepare your business tax returns
- Email invoices to your Wave account
- Scan receipts offline that will sync to your account the next time you are online
- Access online or via a mobile app
In addition, there are no billing or transactions limits for an unlimited number of users. Wave’s accounting program is free to use.
It also offers upgraded paid services such as the ability to accept bank payments and credit cards and setting up payroll for contractors and employees.
Small businesses might find accounting programs to be cost-prohibitive. However, it doesn’t have to be.
Wave’s free web-based software gives users access to their accounts from anywhere there is an Internet connection.
Time Doctor Time Management Software
Tracking how your employees or teams spend their work time increases productivity.
Time Doctor is a simple tool that enables employers to see how much time each person spends on tasks, monitor chat services, and see web browsing usage.
Customizable Features
You can assign custom setting for each user as needed, such as:
- Getting time tracking breakdown by task, client, team members, and projects. This results in the abiity to Identify time wasted and inefficiencies.
- Tracking activity with automated screenshots of employee monitors when they are working and using the Time Doctor app.
- Receiving pop-up alerts if employees or team members are idle or stray to a website not related to work.
- Giving clients access to a white-labeled branded restricted version of Time Doctor to see screenshots and reports of tasks you are working on for them.
- Monitoring chats to identify if too much time is spent on unnecessary meetings where productivity is lost.
- Generating daily and weekly reports that show hours spent, app and website usage, and client and task breakdown. Use this data to identify weaknesses in productivity so you can make improvements.
Time Doctor integrates with many popular tools used by entrepreneurs such as:
- Trello
- GitHub
- Basecamp
- Slack
- Salesforce
- Google Apps
- Teamwork
When you can see how much time your staff or teams spend on various activities, you are able to track their work and increase productivity.
HubSpot CRM
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a strategy that businesses use to track customer behavior and experiences from pre to post-sales.
The software that stores data on prospect and client interactions is called a CRM system.
HubSpot CRM is an excellent choice for companies that want a free-forever and no-frills CRM for unlimited users.
CRM software is more than just contact management. HubSpot’s free CRM has free tools to make all team members’ jobs easier.
Who Can Benefit from Using HubSpot CRM?
- Sales leaders can see detailed, up-to-date sales activity reports to track how their team is tracking towards a quota.
- Salespeople can add, sort, and organize deals in their pipeline, create tasks as reminders of deadlines, and track notes, emails, and meetings automatically.
- Customer service teams can connect with and support customers with free live chat, shared team email, and ticketing.
- Marketers can create professional and free landing pages, use free ad management tools to attract more visitors, and use free form tools to grow their database and convert more visitors into qualified leads.
- Operation managers can give their sales and marketing teams the tools they need to increase productivity, save time, and generate leads.
Business owners can track contacts and customers and send bulk emails.
Other benefits of HubSpot CRM for entrepreneurs include:
- Tracking every step and detail of business relationships all in one place.
- Managing each reps’ sales pipeline.
- Organizing and responding to customer support inquiries.
- Monitoring contacts’ website activity.
- Identifying new leads and prospects who visit your site.
HubSpot offers a whole slew of other innovative marketing technology solutions to help entrepreneurs manage their business processes, such as social media and marketing automation.
Wrike Project Collaboration
Hiring the right people to work for your business is an integral part of achieving success. However, it is not enough.
Providing the tools to enable them to work together seamlessly is necessary for business success.
Wrike is a web-based collaboration system to make workloads manageable, automate processes, and improve communication.
Because remote work environments are becoming more prevalent, companies need tools more than ever.
The right software programs empower employees to work together and stay productive.
Wrike creates a digital workplace and can bring teams together to collaborate from anywhere.
As a result, team members can store and organize everything they need and use in the cloud.
For example, users can store and share files, conversations, and project details to stay on track and get results.
Wrike creates a digital workplace where team members can store and organize everything they need.
Users work in the cloud and can share files, conversations, and project details.
Other Features Wrike Offers Entrepreneurs
- Customized workflows, reporting functions, and boards to visualize task progress
- Storage and organization of conversations, project details, and files in a digital workspace
- Easy collaboration amongst team members who can store and organize everything they need and use in the cloud. These include files, conversations, and project details. As a result, task management is clearer to everyone on the team.
- Reduced need for long email trails
- Real-time updates sharing.
- Customized dashboards to pin essential items
- Automatic sorting of tasks by progress and due dates
- Sharing workflows externally and internally
- Scheduling customized reports and getting responses by tagging other team members
Wrike is a flexible platform that allows users to prioritize, schedule, monitor, and discuss project processes in real-time.
It is an intuitive, easy-to-use interface with security features to improve business performance and control who can see what information.
There are several levels or tiers to choose from, including:
- Free for five users geared towards small teams
- Professional level for 5, 10, 15 users at $9.80/user/month
- Business for 5-200 users at $24.80/user/month
- Enterprise-level customized for unlimited users
Wrike is an excellent collaborative tool for businesses that want to hold all team members accountable.
By tracking each users’ progress, you can assess everyone’s contribution to the project or task at hand.
Why Use Software Programs?
Entrepreneurs can save time and increase productivity by using the right tools to automate some functions.
As a result, they can spend more time running their business.
In conclusion, the above software programs help entrepreneurs manage projects, time, accounting, customer relationships, and collaboration.
Therefore, you can free up some of your time by using software programs and instead, focus on increasing profits.
As a Visual Digital Marketing Specialist for New Horizons 123, Julie works to grow small businesses, increasing their online visibility by leveraging the latest in internet and video technologies. She specializes in creative camera-less animated video production, custom images, content writing, and SlideShare presentations. Julie also manages content, blog management, email marketing, marketing automation, and social media for her clients.
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