4 Free Tools to Make Running Your Business Easier
Check out these must-have tools that will reduce the stress of running a small business
Managing a small firm takes time and energy – you’ve probably got plenty of the latter and not enough of the former, so that’s where technology comes in. There are plenty of useful and free online tools that can help with all aspects of running a business. We’ve highlighted a few that will increase your productivity and free up time to concentrate on those jobs you do best.
Tidy your inbox with Boomerang for Gmail
If you want to stay on top of your full-to-bursting email inbox, Boomerang is the ideal free tool for you. You can use it in a number of ways to help you clear your inbox while still remembering to respond to pending messages.
Use the scheduling tool to write an email now and send it later so that it reaches the recipient at the ideal time, or remove messages from your inbox and set a reminder to read them again on a specific day. You can even programme a reminder to follow up on emails that you haven’t received a response to yet.
If you want to stay on top of your full-to-bursting email inbox, Boomerang is the ideal free tool for you. You can use it in a number of ways to help you clear your inbox while still remembering to respond to pending messages.
Use the scheduling tool to write an email now and send it later so that it reaches the recipient at the ideal time, or remove messages from your inbox and set a reminder to read them again on a specific day. You can even programme a reminder to follow up on emails that you haven’t received a response to yet.
Work as a team with Trello
When you’re working collaboratively on a big project, it can be hard to keep on top of what everyone is doing. Trello offers a great free solution to help you and your team work together efficiently.
The tool consists of a board for each project – within each board is a series of cards on which you can write notes, comments, to-do lists and any other information related to the job. You can invite as many people as you like to collaborate on each board, and notifications and a shared calendar will ensure everyone knows what’s going on with the project in real time.
When you’re working collaboratively on a big project, it can be hard to keep on top of what everyone is doing. Trello offers a great free solution to help you and your team work together efficiently.
The tool consists of a board for each project – within each board is a series of cards on which you can write notes, comments, to-do lists and any other information related to the job. You can invite as many people as you like to collaborate on each board, and notifications and a shared calendar will ensure everyone knows what’s going on with the project in real time.
Build your website with Houzz Site Designer
Save time when you’re building your website by getting a tool to do it for you. Home-renovation professionals can benefit from Houzz’s Site Designer, which uses information from your Houzz profile to quickly build you a beautiful and informative website. Johanna MacMinn from My Verandah praises Site Designer as “an absolute saviour!”
It’s easy to customise the site yourself, so you can update elements whenever you want. The tool is free, but Houzz users can upgrade to a Pro+ package to get even more support with their business, particularly in reaching their local market.
Save time when you’re building your website by getting a tool to do it for you. Home-renovation professionals can benefit from Houzz’s Site Designer, which uses information from your Houzz profile to quickly build you a beautiful and informative website. Johanna MacMinn from My Verandah praises Site Designer as “an absolute saviour!”
It’s easy to customise the site yourself, so you can update elements whenever you want. The tool is free, but Houzz users can upgrade to a Pro+ package to get even more support with their business, particularly in reaching their local market.
Feeling overwhelmed by those fiddly daily tasks your business has to do online? IFTTT is a nifty tool that lets you automate your online day-to-day tasks by connecting apps. The acronym stands for If This, Then That, and the idea is that when one app does one thing, it triggers the other app to do something else.
For instance, to save you having to search for online receipts you can create a ‘recipe’ that prompts Gmail to scan your inbox for invoices and receipts, which will in turn trigger Google Drive to record the data in a spreadsheet.