No software will solve all your business challenges— and let’s face it, if you’re a startup, you’ve probably got a lot of them. But what software tools can do is organize all those pesky to-dos, automate processes and allow you to collaborate easily with your team and clients. They help increase visibility and keep costs low— two factors that are crucial to any startup.
With any tool, keep in mind that each one you use should address your particular needs. Size of the business, development stage, industry, and OS compatibility are just a few of the factors you should consider when choosing the right tools for your business. Here are four must-have software tools that may help improve how you work in your startup:
Content Marketing: Ceros
If you’re a startup, chances are that you don’t have the luxury of hiring a web developer. Ceros is an online software that allows you to create rich marketing content for the web, tablet, and mobile without writing code. With Ceros, you can add animation, graphics and interactivity to your digital content. It also works beautifully with Photoshop and InDesign to take your creativity from the studio to the web.
Another plus: it’s one of the few cloud-based software tools available. You can collaborate real-time with team members in remote locations and publish on the web instantly. The result is a visually stunning set of content that instantly captivates the user.
Collaboration and Project Management: Trello
Trello is a great collaboration and project management software tool. While there are a number of project management tools out there, Trello has one of the more visually impressive user interfaces. Its organization is based on the concept of virtual “boards” which includes images, lists and general notes.
You can collaborate with your team, assign tasks and bring team members into a virtual working space if you need to work together on one specific task of a project. It syncs across all devices and real-time so everyone gets instance access to posted and updated information. Best of all— it’s free.
Virtual Meeting: join.me
Join.me offers all of the features you’d want in a virtual meeting place, yet still keeps things simple and easy. The free version allows up to ten participants, and you can share your screen as well as remote desktop control with other participants.
To schedule a meeting, you simply send an email invitation to join the meeting. It is compatible with iCal and Outlook and offers two low-priced plans that gives you additional features.
Sales and CRM: OnePageCRM
If your startup deals with sales processes that need organization and streamlining, you may want to invest in a CRM software. OnePageCRM is designed for sales tracking and data for small business owners. It focuses on decision-making and staying on top of sales relationships rather than extraneous data entries.
It’s not an all-encompassing tool by any means. However, for startups with a limited number of clients, it may be helpful to ease into a simple CRM like OnePageCRM.