Anyone who’s gotten a small business of the ground knows that it’s one of the toughest challenges you can take on. From planning to execution and likely risking your financial future, starting a business isn’t for the faint of heart. Once you’re operational, however, there are some things you can do to make it easier on yourself. You may not be able to afford a large staff to handle the business for you, but you don’t need to take out a pencil and notebook to do the books either. These are some of the best software solutions available in 2020 to help run a small business.
Quickbooks Pro
Intuit’s Quickbooks Pro is great for all your financial needs, and recent editions have started paying special attention to small businesses. This software offers templates for inventory tracking, timesheets, invoices, accounts payable, and more. Not all of its services are included in the basic edition, but they offer many plans so you can find the best one for your needs. There’s even a feature that will do your payroll for you, though it costs extra.
Turbotax
There are plenty of programs and websites out there that compete for your attention when tax season rolls around, but Turbotax consistently receives great reviews and seems to be the most popular choice. There’s even a free download for the software that can completely handle som tax returns, though you may need to upgrade for certain forms. There are even features that can help you keep track of potential deductions throughout the year.
Bright Pattern
Good customer support is vital to any business, and this is especially true of small businesses. Your customer service could be the factor that converts a customer who was considering a more well-known competitor. As your business expands, you’ll naturally attract more customers, and you’ll have a great need for a reliable contact center to handle customer concerns. It’s a good idea to equip yourself with enterprise call center software from Bright Pattern to offer the best possible experience.
Their cloud-based solution is able to eliminate downtime that could occur from a single point of failure in other systems, and it also scales with your business to add more functionality as you need it. You can greatly improve the customer experience with a combination of AI and intelligent routing. Customers calling with simple questions can be quickly assisted by chatbots, while customers with more complex concerns can be automatically routed to the most qualified agent. Customers can even connect with agents through any supported communication channel whether that’s voice, webchat, text, email, and more.
HubSpot
If you’re looking to generate more leads, HubSpot is a great, free solution powered by CRM (customer relationship management). Whenever you get contact information for a lead, you’ll be able to monitor when they visit your site or check your prices, so you can follow up with a personalized email right away. You can also see which of your web pages are visited most frequently and see which of your ads generate the most traffic, so you can tweak your marketing plans. This can also help with your on-page SEO efforts, which can lead to more conversions in the future.
Asset Panda
It’s undeniable that software makes it easier to run your business, but the more assets you have, the better you’ll need to keep track of them. That’s why you or your IT team should use software for managing IT assets. This software keeps track of all your IT assets on one convenient platform making it easy to manage and support them. Effortlessly keep track of model and serial numbers, and import data from other programs. You’ll have on-demand access to all relevant information, and you can manage all IT support calls from the same location.
Running and expanding a small business is no easy feat, but having the right tools can give you an edge in a competitive market.
