Get your FREE 30-day trial.
Please complete all fields.
Building a business from the ground up is no easy task. Aside from finding start-up capital, capable employees, and customers to service, entrepreneurs have to consider how to best streamline their business and marketing efforts to work smarter.
Listed below are four tech tools that can help you streamline your business operations and increase productivity among your employees.
As a personal app, Evernote is a powerful tool that can help you organize a plethora of information. For a small business, it’s a life saver. Evernote Business helps business owners:
Evernote Business gives you access to all your information from any synced device you have – PC, tablet or smartphone – so you can stay on top of changes and updates in the system when you’re not in the office. Which brings us to tech platform number too.
Evernote Business for Salesforce. With the integration of these two powerful business platforms, companies can marry their personal records with their customer records. Users of both tools can leverage complete knowledge of customer purchases, their interactions with your sales representatives, and their demographic information to easily collaborate and plan new campaigns and strategies in Evernote.
In addition to winning new business, continuing to meet customer needs while trying to increase your audience is paramount to your business growth. With Service Cloud, you or other members of your team can immediately engage in customer support with all of that customer’s data at your fingertips. Use these tools to scale smartly without comprimising on support, service, or speed.
A VPN (Virtual Private Network) allows your employees to access your company’s networks while they’re away from the office. With the rise of telecommuting, as well as employees who have to travel for business development, having a secure VPN system has never been more important. Not only does VPN software protect a company’s IT assets, it allows your employees to access important documents through a secure firewall while on the road.
If you are frequently away from the office – or don’t have an office yet – be mindful about choosing an Internet service provider than can meet your bandwidth needs. Logging into to your VPN from home is a great way to access secure work files. However, it won’t be able to operate as quickly as if you were directly connected to your company’s network.
For any business (especially startups), marketing your brand and services is critical. While most have to adhere to strict budgets during their first years, social media marketing can be an inexpensive way to gain exposure for your company.
Social media was designed as a way for people to connect with one another. For businesses to use this to their advantage, they have to be active listeners in the conversation. But with so many platforms to follow and so many conversations going on, how can you do it all at once?
Platforms like Radian6 have made it easy to manage multiple social media platforms at once. Whether you’re in the office or on-the-go, you can measure audience engagement, respond to questions or complaints and post important news, events and promotions. You can also draft posts in advance – which can be especially helpful if you have a big campaign planned, but will be too busy with other functions to post information on social media.
Start-up culture is all about productivity and it has permeated the ranks of companies that have been around for decades. Whether you're part of a burgeoning start-up or established business, the tools mentioned above can help you streamline you processes and make the most out of your workday.
Alexis Caffrey is a freelance writer with a focus on technology, new media, and design. In a former life she was a graphic designer based out of New York, NY. She actively (some would say obsessively) follows entertainment news and pop culture. You can reach Alexis via alexiscaffrey.com
Learn even more small busines secrets for growth by downloading the free Salesforce e-book.
