Best Software for Small Businesses and How to Use Them
If I’ve figured out one thing from being a small business owner it’s this: you just can’t do it all alone. It quickly becomes overwhelming when you try to grow your business! I have relied on some great tools from the start that have allowed me to grow quickly and have systems in place as I scaled. Having a framework built from the start makes growing a business as an entrepreneur a little less painstaking. So I’ve rounded up my favorites - the programs that have given me back some of my time and sanity and provided me with solutions that worked for my business. We’ve tried a lot of different programs out there over the last five years and these are the tried and true success stories that we would recommend to any business owner, solopreneur, and growing company.
17hats - Create business systems
Who It’s For: Perfect for solopreneurs and growing companies
This is the program that has allowed us to go from messy and a disjointed lead and invoice process to automated, covering every corner, and playing offense in our inbox. We utilize this program to streamline our booking process for clients and be sure every touchpoint is covered from the first point of contact to project planning, delivery, and billing. Nothing goes forgotten because when you set up a workflow in 17Hats, it keeps you on task by reminding you what is due next and keeping track of your communication with clients along the way. This is great for business owners just getting started to give a really professional first impression, or for growing businesses who are working with multiple team members to manage projects.
Cost: 7 day free trial, then $17-$45 per month, depending on your plan.
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Canva - Graphic design made simple
Who It’s For: Anyone who wants to make quick graphics for social media, print, or marketing
Canva is one of the first tools we started using in our business and it has stood the test of time. When you need to add text on a photo or create a simple yet eye-catching graphic for a social media post, Canva is one of the quickest ways to do it and one of the easiest tools to learn. You can utilize templates that are optimized to the best size for different social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest) or for email headers, blog graphics, flyers - just about anything! Plus, you can access free stock photos for your use, or upload your own, add your logo to brand your graphic for marketing, and even animate your designs to create quick videos. All your designs are stored online and you can go back and edit them at anytime, then download for your use when you’re ready.
Cost: $0.00 for the free plan or get access to more features with a Pro plan for $12.95/month
Lightroom - Adobe Photo Editing Software
Who It’s For: Businesses using photography in their marketing
Lightroom is an Adobe photo editing desktop computer program. As a marketer, this is one of the most valuable and important tools we use in our business. Whether it’s photos of you, bull/female photos, lifestyle images, etc., having great quality images that are edited well to use on your website or social media is important. Figuring out the software can take some time, so don’t expect to be pumping out beautiful photos instantly, but luckily there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube to help you find the instructions you need. Like most things, it gets easier the more you use it and you’ll find settings you like and can return to often for your photos. Lightroom also has a mobile app, perfect for editing beautiful images for Instagram on the go!
Cost: $9.99 per month, or at a discounted rate when you bundle multiple Adobe software apps together.
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Zoom - Online Video Conferencing and Meetings
Who It’s For: Anyone who needs to meet virtually with one or more person
We’ve been using Zoom to bring our remote based team together online for meetings for years now, but the value of this tool has become even more pronounced during the pandemic. With Covid sometimes preventing us from meeting in person with clients, we can use Zoom meetings to plan out events and projects, share an update on a website or logo design, or get feedback on a sale catalog. Communication is incredibly important throughout our entire process for our clients, so having the ability to see them face to face and have nothing lost in translation is invaluable to us.
Cost: Free to host group meetings up to 40 minutes in length and unlimited 1:1 meetings, or $149.90 per year for a small team plan, upgrades available.
Slack - Team communication - but better than sorting through emails and texts
Who It’s For: Teams, small or large who need to organize communication channels
We just started using Slack in 2020 and boy has it made a difference in our effectiveness, communication, and productivity! There are lots of ways to use this tool to communicate with the people you work with. One of our favorites is to create channels that are specifically for a certain topic - say an upcoming bull sale. In that channel we can put important details that team members need to know, share files to get group feedback on, and keep track of where everyone is at as the project comes together. This makes it easy to find information again later, without sorting through email threads, text messages, and trying to remember where the most recent version of a file is saved.
Cost: $0.00 for the free plan, or $6.67-$12.50 per month for added features
Google Drive - File storage and collaboration
Who It’s For: Teams and individuals working together on documents
Another tool we have used from the beginning - Google Drive. It’s kind of like Microsoft Word, but without having to install the software on your computer. You can login to your Google Drive from anywhere and access your documents. Sharing documents is quick and easy and allows multiple people to edit a document together in real-time. We like to use this for meeting agendas, to save files of any content we create, and to brainstorm copy!
Cost: 5 GB of storage is free with a personal Google email address. Upgrade to a business email address for $6 per month through Google Workspace (previously called G Suite) and get 30 GB of storage. Additional storage is available for purchase as well.
LastPass - Secure password vault and sharing
Who It’s For: Business owners that need to keep track of passwords and give access to employees without getting hacked
Anymore, the number of logins you need for all these services and software programs is crazy! It’s hard to keep track of, and really not a good idea to keep them all in a spreadsheet- imagine if someone got access and was able to hack every account you have! What a headache! Lastpass creates a password vault for you where you can store your passwords. The extension for your web browser even remembers the passwords for you! That in itself is a great tool to have, but it also creates safer passwords for you and allows you to share access to your accounts without telling people your passwords, keeping your digital life safe.
Cost: Free or $3 per month to allow sharing passwords with multiple people, or $4 per month for a family plan
DropBox - Cloud storage for files, photos, and videos
Who It’s For: Individuals and teams who need to store and share digital assets
When it comes to storing your business files, DropBox is our favorite! The large amount of storage that comes at an affordable price, a mobile app, desktop integration, and ability to access your files anywhere make this a great fit for any small business owner. We especially like to store photos in DropBox because the file sizes are kept at their original dimensions so you don’t have to worry about the integrity and quality being compromised. We’ve found that many other storage sites reduce file sizes to free up more storage - not good if you need the original copy!
Cost: $12.50 per month for 5TB of storage or $20 per month for as much space as you need and team access.
ActiveCampaign - Email marketing
Who It’s For: Business owners communicating with their customers
They say your business only grows as fast as your email list - and we agree! ActiveCampaign is an email marketing service that allows you to store your email list, design emails to send to your lists, and create automations so when someone signs up for something on your website, you can automatically deliver it to them in an email without having to do anything! We especially love the ability to segment contacts in your email list based on their actions. For example, if one of your contacts opens a specific email, you can send them another with more information on the same topic!