The Best Small Business Tools For EOFY

If you’re anything like the team at SponsoredLinX, the end of another financial year gives you a little bit of a thrill. It’s a time of looking back, reflecting, and planning for the year ahead, and boy do we love planning! However, running a small business is hard. There are a lot of things you need to consider, particularly around a time as intense and overwhelming as EOFY. That’s where small business tools and software can really help. As the Brisbane digital marketing experts, we’ve compiled a long list of essential tools to help small businesses across Queensland get themselves in the best possible position to hit the ground running in the new financial year. So, without further ado, here are a few business tools to start adding to your arsenal. 

Communication Tools

There are a wide range of communication tools to help your employees stay in touch with one another and with your customers. So, here are a few of our favourite tools for small businesses!

• Flock. If you’re looking for a communication tool that revolutionises work conversations and manages your workplace communication channels, Flock is ideal. Your team can chat one-on-one, hold group meetings, video conferences, and make notes so anyone can review the important points of the conversation. Plus, Flock integrates seamlessly with tools like Zoom, Asana, and Google Calendar. You won’t have to worry about switching between programs. 
• Titan. If you’re looking for a cutting-edge alternative to G Suite, Titan may just be the software you’ve been waiting for. Titan gives users the tools to build better customer connections via email. You can access email templates, scheduled sending, follow-up reminders to keep on top of important emails, and a custom signature builder. Oh, and the best part? Titan works with Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail. So, integrate Titan today!
• Slack. Used by some of the world’s most prominent organisations, Slack brings communication and productivity management together in one program. Our favourite part about Slack is how versatile it can be; no matter what your team or business specialise in, you’ll be able to tailor Slack to meet your unique needs. 

Collaboration Tools

Whether your business employs only a handful of people or you work with dozens of employees, collaboration is integral to a successful business. Here are a few tools that make collaboration throughout your business streamlined and easy. 

• Trello. As an innovative and cheaper alternative to Asana, Trello allows small businesses to work collaboratively with boards, lists, and cards to organise and prioritise team projects visually. It’s an entirely customisable platform, and it integrates with Google Drive, DropBox, Microsoft Teams, and Slack, so everything you need to stay connected with your team is at your fingertips. 
• DropBox. Speaking of DropBox, that’s the next tool we have on our list of essential tools all small businesses should have. If you want your shared drive to have fast sync speeds and the best user experience on the market, you’ll love DropBox. For anyone looking for an alternative to Google Drive, DropBox is your go-to collaborative file sharing solution. 
• Todoist. Your team will never have to worry about forgetting an important task again with a collaborative online to-do list like Todoist. It’s easy to use, incredibly affordable, and helps you keep on top of everything you need to do in a day. 
• Evernote. With Evernote, you can take notes, save web pages, bookmark articles, and clip PDFs to create dynamic, comprehensive notes. You can also access pre-made templates for developing business plans, to-do lists, or research reports. So, take your notes and work to the next level with Evernote. 

Productivity Tools

Some organisations like everything tool they use to be housed under the one app, and we don’t blame them! When everything is easy to find and simple to use, workplace productivity improves! So here are a few handy tools to add to your wishlist. 

• Station. This excellent app is the first open-source browser and a single place to keep all your web applications. The program manages and organises your tabs with a smart dock, allows you to multitask by switching apps and pages with ease, removes distractions with customisable notification blockers, and sets unused apps and tools to auto-sleep, so your browser runs at the highest speeds possible. 
• RescueTime. If you feel that you have no control over how you spend your workday, you’re not alone. Some people find themselves getting so lost in their emails and in fiddly tasks that the day just gets away from them. That’s where RescueTime comes in. It tracks how you spend your workday, allowing you to see a clear breakdown of where time is being wasted. RescueTime has so many incredible features, such as guidance and reminders while you work to help you meet focus goals, distraction blockers, and support in creating better work habits.  
• Automate.io. Why waste time on simple, repetitive tasks when you could be integrating automation software? Automate.io is a user-friendly solution for integrating cloud apps and services to create everything from simple one-on-one integrations to complex workflows. Automate.io currently supports all major apps for CRM, marketing, e-commerce, helpdesks, payments, web forms, and collaboration. 
• Doodle. Scheduling can be time-consuming, especially if you’re sending back-and-forth emails trying to align schedules with fellow employees or clients outside your business. Doodle helps small businesses book meetings faster and takes the guesswork around availability out of the equation. It’s never been easier to stay in control of your calendar. 

Marketing Tools

The team at SponsoredLinX can definitely help you get the ball rolling with cutting edge, innovative marketing solutions. We can also point you in the direction of some brilliant tools you can use to give your business the best possible reach. 

• HubSpot. There’s no other customer relationship management (CRM) software quite like HubSpot. It’s been an industry favourite for years, and it’s no wonder why when you consider all the high-quality features that come along with it. HubSpot takes care of lead generation, analytics, and automation, as well as allowing you to run inbound marketing campaigns, share insights, and monitor revenue, traffic, and prospecting. One of our favourite things about HubSpot is that it’s free to use for small businesses, and you only need to start paying as you scale your business to adapt more customised, specific features. 
• Hootsuite. With so many different apps and platforms, social media marketing in Brisbane can be difficult for a small business to manage and maintain. Fortunately, all-in-one social media management tools like Hootsuite are here to help you stay on top of it all. Hootsuite drives deeper engagement by scheduling and sending social media posts, comments, and replies. You can set and forget with the knowledge that your business has an active social media presence. 
• MailChimp. There’s a reason why so many people rely on MailChimp for their email marketing campaigns; it has everything you need to run a successful marketing campaign! It’s an all-in-one platform designed to help you grow your business and reach your customers. MailChimp will help you target the right audiences, create top-quality marketing content, automate email marketing campaigns, and act on data insights. 
• Canva. You don’t need to be a senior graphic designer to create eye-catching, stunning visual content with Canva. Design novices can use a range of premade templates to turn content ideas into professional designs, and experienced designers can create brilliant pieces of content from the ground up, tailoring each to a specific audience and platform. So whether you’re creating an email newsletter, an Instagram post, a poster, or a banner, Canva will inspire you to push your designs to the next level. 

Accounting Tools

If you’re guilty of pushing your bookkeeping and accounting jobs to the side because you’re intimidated by them, you wouldn’t be alone. What you need are the right accounting tools to tackle the job in the background. So, you can focus on the things you want to focus on. 

• Intuit QuickBooks. There’s no simpler, more customisable accounting software for small businesses than Intuit QuickBooks. It’s an all-in-one cloud-based accounting platform designed to handle everything from money management, bill pay, and payroll functions. 
• Xero. If there’s one thing we love about Xero, it’s that this platform is built to scale. No matter how big or small your business is (or how fast it’s growing), Xero provides an accessible, user-friendly interface that just about anyone can use. Make sure you get paid with the customisable invoicing system and keep track of your cash flow in real-time. 
• Stripe. While we also love PayPal for making and receiving online payments, Stripe understands the unique needs of small businesses. They boast the world’s most powerful and easy-to-use APIs, so you can tailor everything to suit your business’s needs. 
• Intuit TurboTax. If you’ve already got Intuit QuickBooks, Intuit TurboTax could save you a ton of time and money. It will automatically import your QuickBooks income and expense accounts, classify them, and walk you through your deductible expenses. It’s the more straightforward way to prepare for tax time, so why not get ahead of the game and integrate TurboTax before EOFY. 

Operations Management Tools

One of the trickiest parts of running a small business is streamlining your operations management for efficiency. There are so many tools out there that will support your business and make your operations management strategies more straightforward. 

• Help Scout. Offering multi-channel support with email and chat, self-service tools that compile customer data, and a user-friendly interface, Help Scout is the all-in-one CRM platform designed to help small businesses support their customers. The platform will scale with your business. No matter how fast you’re growing, your CRM software can grow with you. 
• DocuSign. Gone are the days of printing off a document, signing it, and then scanning it back in. Instead, you can easily share documents to gather electronic signatures with software like DocuSign. So whether you’re approving a purchase, signing an agreement, or closing a sale, DocuSign has the paperwork covered. 
• 15Five. Any small business looking to get the very best from their employees will love using 15Five. 15Five does more than simply monitor how your employees are feeling on a day-to-day basis. It’ll also help foster transparency, accountability, and quality feedback, optimise work-from-home or remote teams, and guide your management team toward becoming more effective leaders. 
• LinkedIn Learning. Whatever you need your team to learn, there’s bound to be a course for it in LinkedIn Learning. You can pick and choose courses, doing as many as you want for one affordable monthly fee. Upskill your team and make sure you have a group of industry leaders pushing your business toward greatness for next financial year. 

Ready To Prepare Your Business For EOFY? Get In Touch With The Team At SponsoredLinX, Your Local Brisbane Digital Marketing And Google Ads Agency

The marketing experts at SponsoredLinX are passionate about seeing our clients succeed. We’ll do everything we can to help you get your business ready for EOFY so you can hit the ground running come July 1st. So, what are you waiting for? Get in touch with SponsoredLinX, your friendly Brisbane digital marketing professionals today!

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