Setting Up Online Tools to Run Your Business
As the world continues its digital journey, more and more businesses are turning to online applications and services to streamline their operations, improve communication and increase efficiency.
These tools offer a level of convenience, flexibility and scalability that traditional methods simply can’t match, enabling businesses to stay competitive and agile in an increasingly fast-paced environment.
The options are vast, which means choosing the right tools for your business can feel overwhelming. To help you with this, read about the five key ways you can leverage online tools to run your business more effectively and stay ahead of the curve.
1: Stay Organized
This is key to running an efficient and successful business. With so many moving parts, such as appointments, tasks, deadlines, meetings, and client communications, it’s easy for things to slip through the cracks. Fortunately, there are a variety of online tools that can help you stay on top of everything and keep your operations running smoothly:
- Google Calendar has a highly usable interface and is able to pull pictures and profiles of people you’re meeting from LinkedIn.
- Zoho can help you manage and view your documents online and create online surveys. It makes it easy to access your files from anywhere and share them securely with your team. In addition to document management, Zoho also allows you to create and distribute online surveys, which can be incredibly useful for gathering feedback from clients, customers or employees.
Those are just two examples. There are many more, and they will help keep your business organized, minimize the risk of missing important tasks and create a more productive and efficient workflow.
2: Set Up a Mobile Office
If you’re unable to meet your employees physically then you can use software to create a mobile office. Some of the key tasks to move this part of your business online include:
- Staying organized with Evernote Teams for note taking and uploading information to the cloud, while being synced to your staff members’ devices.
- Managing projects with Trello Premium or Wrike to break a project into tasks, assign tasks to other staff and store all documents and conversations in one place.
- Communicate whether by standard phone call, text, or online video calling with Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Skype Business or Zoom, which are only a few of many options.
- Track expenses to save time, capture receipts and make sure your finances stay in order with.
Leverage tools like these, and you’ll keep your business running smoothly and efficiently, no matter where you or your team are located.
3: Managing Customers
If you can no longer meet customers in person, then you can share a version of your project management software. Often you can set them up with a guest login so they only see what’s relevant to them. The other option is to use specific software. Some examples include:
- Capsule, which will help you keep track of the people and companies you do business with, communication, opportunities in the pipeline and what needs to be done and when.
- Zendesk, which is a customer service platform.
- Exsalerate is a complete online CRM solution allowing you to view reports and CRM information regarding your customers.
When you bring tools like these on board, you can effectively manage customer relationships, streamline communication, and make sure that your customers stay engaged, even when in-person meetings are not possible.
4: Back Up Your Documents
Prevent the potential loss of important documents by employing the services of a secure document storage app. Examples include:
- Box for collaborative tools and file privacy control.
- Google Drive which is quick and easy to set up and get going.
- Dropbox is another popular cloud storage app, predominantly due to its ease of use on both iOS and Android devices.
- Microsoft OneDrive which also connects your Microsoft files.
- If you’re with Apple use their iCloud storage service.
Each of these services allows you to keep all your business documents in one place.
5: Marketing From a Distance
As you restart your business, attracting new customers may be a top priority. While you can’t meet with potential clients in person, there are still effective ways to reach out. Try the following:
- Zendesk allows you to stream your contacts and sales into a mobile workflow.
- Hubspot, Mailchimp and Active Campaign are a few examples of marketing automation software to track and nurture leads.
- Apptivo keeps track of each contact with potential customers and set reminders if necessary. Apptivo synchs with the cloud to provide real time information.
- Google Analytics measure sales traffic and conversions.
Don’t forget how useful Facebook, X, LinkedIn and Instagram can be for getting the word out.
Next Steps
- Assess your current business operations and identify areas where online tools can improve efficiency and organization.
- Explore the recommended tools for staying organized, setting up a mobile office, and managing customer relationships to find the best fit for your business needs.
- Prioritize securing and backing up important business documents using reliable cloud storage services to prevent data loss.
- Implement marketing and financial management software to streamline customer engagement, track leads and manage your finances more effectively.
There is a wide range of online tools and apps that will help you run your business online. The trick is deciding which ones. Talk to other business owners and any industry contacts to find out which apps are the most relevant to your business. You can also reach out to Diamond’s business service’s team for more guidance.