Starting your own business can feel just as challenging as running a marathon without seeing where you’re going. In addition to focusing on cash flow, building a brand, recruiting people and keeping calm, founders take on many responsibilities each day. Still, what is the trick to being ahead while maintaining a healthy work life?
A lot of the time, your success depends on the right tools at your disposal.
However, with so many applications and services on the market, how do you choose what’s really useful? What are the real tools that save the time of founders, improve productivity, and keep everything running smoothly, even when chaos hits?
Let’s pick out key areas and useful tools that leading founders often depend on.
1. Project and Task Management Help You Control Chaos
Have you ever felt as though your to-do list breeds new tasks while you’re off sleeping? That’s when I turn to Trello, Asana or ClickUp. These services allow you to arrange your projects visually, distribute tasks between team members and watch their progress easily.
Think of them as your clean, digitally updated version of a whiteboard.
When employees are working virtually or when your team is growing rapidly, they’re of great help. Now, you won’t have to manage your work by text message; you can do it more wisely.
2. Finance & Budgeting: Know Where Your Money’s Going
How often do founders put off dealing with their company’s financial systems until it’s too late? Too many.
Don’t get into the habit of rushing to find your records when a big investor comes calling or when taxes are due. By using QuickBooks, Xero or Wave, you can check your costs, issue invoices, handle payroll and keep an eye on your finances as they happen.
And what if you’re using bootstrapping for your startup? Bulk of these tools supply plans that are either low-cost or free for new startups. You’ll appreciate your clean books once your child starts writing in them.
3. Always Keep in Touch & Teach One Another
The moment a few new people are added to your team; excellent communication becomes a must. Misunderstandings cause projects to take too long, deadlines to be missed or even the same work to be done more than once.
Across the startup world, Slack, Teams and Zoom are important technology tools now. No matter if your team is together or apart, these apps can keep discussions happening regularly or at any moment. Has anyone ever tried to organize a product launch using emails alone? It’s really not fun.
4. Work On Your Marketing While Saving Your Energy
A fabulous product won’t mean anything unless people are aware of it. Because of this, you can’t do without marketing tools.
With Buffer, Canva and HubSpot, managing posts, automating emails and making attractive visuals is made easier. If you’re working on social media or pitch decks, these resources will save you both time and effort.
Pro tip? Prepare your automation as soon as you begin your project.You’ll get back a lot of hours each week.
All of this happens in between other steps as well? You’ll find the need for bold tools for founders, apps that actually speak to startup life, with features that scale as you grow.
5. Make Sure to Happy Your Users by Responding to Them
Your first group of 100 buyers matters most since they’ll change your product and promote it.
Thanks to Intercom, Zendesk or Freshdesk, you are able to easily respond to users, answer fast and provide a delightful support experience.
Incredibly, in many cases you’ll realize: People keep in mind the way they are handled when something doesn’t go as planned. If users get fast, friendly support, they often become your most loyal fans.
6. Get More Done with Easy Tools
So, why would you still do things by hand if there’s a chance to automate it? Many founders have to repeat the same work, firing off the same emails, entering details over and over, updating documents again and again.
So that’s why Zapier, Notion and Airtable are useful. Organizing your company wiki and linking apps with tools can make your team’s life easier and more routine.
Practically speaking, who wouldn’t like to focus more on planning marketing tactics than managing social posting?
Final Thoughts
Running a business as a founder is both exciting, intimidating and very tiring. A good set of tools takes the burden away and helps you pay attention to the important part: doing good work.
You might see some tools as unnecessary early stages, but believe us, as your company expands, you’ll regret not having them ready. If you want to improve how you work, improve your team’s communication or just manage the craziness, there’s the right tool for you.
So, which tools are you already using, and which ones do you need to explore next? Start small. Determine which design and colors fit how you want to dress. After all, you want the device that gets the most use. To your success, let’s choose to focus on better methods instead of more effort.
Read more: Harnessing the Power of Personalized Gifts: A Guide to Meaningful Connections