Choosing The Basic Software You Need

Keeping your business organized and structured is key to managing your most valuable asset – time. Selecting a few basic software packages that can do this work for you can save you tons of time and effort. This software is easily available via the internet and often has free or very low cost options for small businesses.

“Keeping your business organized and structured is key to managing your most valuable asset – time.” 

Software You Need

Here is our recommendations on the software to get you started. Keep in mind you don’t need all of these to start. See the section called “Tools” for more detail on these solutions.

• Accounting. A basic accounting package that can help you create and keep track of bills to pay vendors, invoices to bill and collect from customers, bank accounts and cash balances and that are a single place to house all of your money-related business activity. Examples include Quickbooks, Xero, Wave and Freshbooks. See the “Tools” section under Financial Management for an overview of the top small business accounting software packages.
• Task Management. With so many tasks coming across your desk every day, it is easy to get lost in the details. Having a basic task management tool that allows you to keep track of all to dos and then to prioritize them by date and priority, as well as to assign them to other team members, can be incredibly helpful.
• Project Management. While task management tools are helpful for specific tasks, it is often necessary for you to drive series of tasks toward a particular initiative. For example, when you are launching your web site, you could certainly create this as a series of tasks in a task management tool, but in a project like that with many moving parts, it might be more helpful to use a project management tool that allows you to create projects, create tasks, assign tasks, see where you are on track or falling behind and keep track on a more holistic level.
• Document Management. Documents and files created by you and other team members are hard to keep track of. Having a single place in the cloud (i.e., via the internet) that allows you and multiple team members to access documents is a very efficient way to stay organized. And if you organize these tools correctly – such as having a folder for marketing and sales and product, \you can actually create some nice structure to keep you and your resources organized and on the same page.
• Virtual Receptionist or Answering Service. A virtual receptionist service takes the place of a traditional receptionist and provides an automated answering service. Virtual receptionists have grown increasingly popular because they can handle a higher call volume and answer phones 24/7. They can also cost substantially less than hiring someone to do the same job in person.
• Online Meeting And Web Conferencing Tools. In a world where we now communicate and collaborate mainly via the Internet, it’s important to have the right tool available. Not only do you need something that is dependable and works properly, but you also want a tool that is easy for all of your collaborators to use.

As we mentioned, you don’t need all of these day one but in light of the fact that many of them are free or low cost, we think you will find starting sooner rather than later will really help you be more efficient.