According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), there are, more or less, 32.5 million small businesses in the United States alone. With this shocking number, one can only begin to imagine the competition between small businesses within the same industries.
With tight competition, each one is looking for a way to beat the other in terms of efficiency, product quality, service, or just about anything. As such, this also gave rise to the abundance of cloud-based apps that are growing in demand today.
If you are new to the industry or looking to get a headstart from competitors, it’s best to have any or all of these apps for small businesses.
1. Asana
Manage your business better with Asana. This cloud-based app is specifically-made for project management. Say, your small business requires several processes. With Asana, you can create pods that will focus on a particular line of business where specific task cards will be organized.
The progress of specific tasks is visible as each variable task is ticked off as completed. This type of virtual project management is essential for modern small businesses because it accounts for all the tasks from the beginning of business operations. It takes note of the project name, a short brief, and the people handling the account. It also stores all the uploaded documents that anyone can revisit and re-download.
2. POS Highway
Your customers and associates will thank you once you invest in a POS system for your small business.
A retail point of sales system is a computerized network that scans and records purchase transactions. We are all familiar with the POS systems we see at large grocery shops, but POS retail software systems play an integral role for small businesses as well.
POS Highway, in particular, offers an eCommerce integration solution where the system processes online transactions. It also connects with other eCommerce platforms, such as wooCommerce and Shopify.
As a central network for all transactions, POS systems also become responsible for your shop’s inventory. Once it processes a sales transaction, it automatically deducts the sold pieces from your current inventory data. Because of this, POS systems also work as a tool for inventory warehouse management for wholesale businesses.
3. Shopify
Managing a small business without an online platform is close to impossible nowadays. The market is now predominantly online. Sticking to offline and physical stores will hurt your audience reach and sales significantly.
A cloud-based app that will help you establish an online platform is Shopify. As mentioned earlier, Shopify is an eCommerce platform to help small businesses establish an online store. To be specific, it is a host or platform that lets you build and manage your online business without making a business website from scratch.
Sure, starting your business on Facebook or Instagram will bring you a wide reach. But, having Shopify will let you manage your business operations from start to finish.
4. ShipStation
One of the most exciting things when starting your business is when you finally ship out an order. However, it’s also one of the most taxing and stressful tasks when the deliveries begin to pile up.
It’s a good thing that several excellent and reliable eCommerce shipping apps are filling up the market. And, ShipStation is the one that stands out. With the help of this app, you can print out shipping labels in bulk, and find the best rates for your package.
Aside from that, Ship Station also offers branded shipping. If you wish to leave a lasting impression on your customers, this is one way of doing it. Personalize your packages. Despite having the entire transaction online, having personalized packages is one of the ways to establish a personal relationship with your buyers.
5. Slack
As your business starts to scale, it will be necessary to hire more people. As more businesses are transitioning online, remote workers and freelance professionals are also growing in number in these businesses. As such, a safe and efficient communication platform is necessary. Slack is one of the best and most preferred business communication platforms today.
A great thing about this cloud-based platform is that it stores all shared documents immediately. There’s a quick search option that’s readily available if you wish to revisit old shared documents, images, or videos.
For starting small businesses, you might want to stick with the platform’s free version at the start. However, a downside to the free version is that it disposes of old messages and files once your account fills up the specific storage space.
You can upgrade to its pro version once you find the need to keep all your messages and have copies of the shared files in Slack alone.
6. QuickBooks
Accounting is an integral part of any business, much more so for small businesses. But, hiring an accountant or opting for professional services can be a tad too expensive for smaller enterprises. This is where QuickBooks, an online cloud-based accounting platform, comes in.
As a full-featured accounting platform, Quickbooks is equipped with the necessary tools needed for accounting, invoicing, expense management, budgeting, and payroll. It even has the tools needed for tax filing. It’s an all-in-one platform that’s ideal for small businesses with little to no experience in handling business capital.
But, don’t expect this app to be the easiest to learn. It deals with money, so it comes with a degree of difficulty. But, once you get the hang of it, you get to enjoy the best deal on your money. Instead of hiring a professional to do your business’ taxes or balance your books, you can channel that budget to other operating expenses.
7. SurveyMonkey
Lastly, honest input and constructive criticism are essential for any business to grow. Most of the time, face-to-face conversations never bring out the needed input. So, conducting surveys is the way to go.
SurveyMonkey is an online experience management platform. It simplifies the process of creating surveys and collecting and organizing retrieved data. On top of that, this platform can also analyze the results of the surveys. This added feature is already leagues ahead of other survey platforms that end their services with just data collection.
Manage Your Small Business
You don’t need to stop living your life just to manage your small business. There are countless tools and online platforms today that will help make your business life less stressful.
Online platforms, particularly cloud-based apps, ensure that every bit of data that goes in and out of your business is accounted for. This is one of the many reasons why investing in any or all of these platforms is necessary for scaling your business.
