Whether you work for an agency or firm or are a self-employed professional, you can benefit in your daily business activity by using a lot of the same business tools available to high-profile successful people.
In this article, we will cover five of the top business tools or resources. These tools can include simple apps, software programs or devices that help you stay organized and streamlined to carry out your daily activities despite how busy your schedule may be.
Due to the vast number of tools available, we tried to incorporate a variety of tools to cover various needs.
1. Freshbooks
Freshbooks is cloud-based accounting software that boasts the ability to help you put your business on auto-pilot. Let’s look at a few features.
Invoicing – you can create custom invoices that include, among other things, your logo and a personal “thank you” email.
Expenses – tracking business expenses can be a real challenge, but with Freshbooks, you get an at-a-glance view of where your money is going – and how profitable you are.
Time Tracking – if you are an independent consultant who charges clients by the hour, this feature will be valuable to you. It not only will tell you how much time you spending working with clients – it will help you generate an accurate invoice in the process.
Projects – get everyone on the same page, from contractors, partners or employees, by sharing documents and files they need for a project, all again from the same dashboard.
Payments – whether it’s deposits to move a project to beginning stages or getting your final payment on a finished project, Freshbooks makes it easy to set up and execute, and everything can be done right from the app.
2. Hootsuite
When it comes to social media, we all can become overwhelmed. With so many different ways to contact and engage people, especially customers, managing them all can be a chore.
With Hootsuite, you can connect with several social media networks and save time as you use them. Here’s how:
Management – regardless of the number of networks you are connected to, you can manage them and see what’s happening in all of them from one dashboard.
Quick reply – you can reply to any messages, comments and other details from the same single dashboard to any of your networks – even more than one at a time.
Scheduling – this is an effective tool to help you broadcast to your networks without actually being at your desk to post them. If you have a series of posts to gradually send out, you can set them up to post at a certain date and time, enabling you to attend to other important business matters.
Tracking – also known as “metrics” this data is important in determining how well your business is doing. It helps you evaluate what’s working in your networks and what isn’t. This helps you tweak in order to grow your audience.
Security – if the mention of your brand, trade secrets or anything other sensitive data must be shared through this app, you can rest assured that it is protected through two-step authentication.
3. WordPress Themes (feminine)
We all know that WordPress themes are among the best for websites. However, many of them cater to more manly or business backgrounds.
That might be okay if the theme fits what you are selling. But what if you sell arts and crafts or decorative items? Then you might want to try a site known as Restored316. They have 17 beautiful themes, all of which will appeal to women.
Keep in mind that these are premium themes, ranging from $39 to around $300. Most of them are available for $75. So if you have the budget, Restored316 is the place to find your feminine WordPress themes.
4. PRWeb
Every business, online or offline, needs press releases to introduce the business to the public, draw attention to a new development within the organization, introduce a new service or product to the masses or anything else that is newsworthy. Press releases can be a very powerful marketing tool when used correctly.
Finding a good place to submit your press releases can be a challenge. There are decent sites that will publish them for free or for a small fee. Others may charge more.
Whatever they charge, however, the main concern is that they get your press release out there and that it gets noticed, read and hopefully prompts a reader to contact you.
PRWeb is currently, and has remained, the best place to submit a press release. As a PR service, their visibility ranks right at the top. What sets them apart from others is that they do more than just publish your press release. They help you optimize it with good keywords and allow you to add images or videos to attract more attention.
5. GoToMeeting
If your team is spread out over several places, whether they work in distant offices or from home, holding a meeting with your team can be difficult.
Or, if you happen to be an internet marketer, and plan on publishing some instructive presentations for your subscriber list, then you may want to check out GoToMeeting.
This company’s service is very popular with internet marketers. Countless webinars and video coaching calls have taken place with this app.
GoToMeeting can easily be used for business meetings via video conferencing. They make it simple and through several ways to notify everyone who needs to attend the meeting. It can be as simple as emailing a link to everyone so they can access the video conference in a matter of seconds.
Summary
This is a list that no doubt could have grown with little effort. We also tried to offer a list of items that are not always out in the forefront but have acquired a healthy measure of attention, hinting at their usefulness.
We sincerely hope that you might find one or more of these tools or resources valuable in helping you streamline your business activity and keep you organized.
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